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{"id":4812,"date":"2016-07-18T06:08:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T12:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2016-07-17T21:50:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T03:50:50","slug":"cardinal-marx-is-a-ded-fool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/07\/cardinal-marx-is-a-ded-fool.html","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Marx is a d***ed fool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"IMG_1340\"$ <\/p>\n

The latest stats are in \u2014 that is, those for the church withdrawals in Germany in 2015. \u00a0This was reported at the Catholic News Agency\u00a0yesterday<\/a>, as linked to by Deacon Greg Kandra<\/a>. \u00a0This was also reported in the Muenchner Merkur<\/a> that I read on the plane this morning (Lufthansa has free newspapers and, to be honest, I chose the Merkur over the Suendeutsche Zeitung because it\u2019s easier to read).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the context:<\/p>\n

in Germany, one registers as a given religion not simply by going to the church of your choice, but by telling the government, so that they can tax you, and forward the taxes onto the relevant church. \u00a0If you decide that you don\u2019t believe in that religion any longer, or, at any rate, don\u2019t wish to continue paying taxes, you formally withdraw, and hold on to a little more of your money. \u00a0In that sense, Germany has more concrete numbers on religious affiliation than does the U.S., where it\u2019s more a matter of what the latest Pew survey has to say.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d written about this before, back in the context of the Synod on the Family, in which Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich (and head of the bishops\u2019 conference of Germany) was proposing allowing divorced\/remarrieds and other now-ineligibles to start receiving communion, and prohibiting non-church-tax-payers from receiving the sacraments, as his twin methods of combatting the problem of people leaving the church (and ceasing to pay church tax).<\/p>\n

Now the stats for 2015 are out, and the departures are somewhat reduced from 2014 \u2014 but, then again, 2014 was a record-high year. \u00a0In areas like Munich which are seeing population growth not just from Arab migrants but from Catholic countries, the decrease has been somewhat mitigated by new Catholic residents from Croatia, Poland, Italy and Hungary. \u00a0And among Archdiocese of Munich Catholics (this is a large diocese and includes a lot of rural Bavaria), only 10% attend church on a typical Sunday (the number is given precisely so this appears to be a count rather than a poll response) \u2014 and, in my experience, the average age of those in attendance is roughly the same as the average age of\u00a0your typical Senior Center in the U.S.<\/p>\n

So what does Marx have to say?<\/p>\n

First, he points to the fact that the percentage of Christians in Germany is still (however slightly) above the 50% mark (56%, in fact) as proof that \u201cThe statistics show that the Church in Germany continues to be a strong force, whose message is heard and accepted.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s the Catholic News Agency translation; the actual German is \u201cdie Kirche in Deutschland nach wie vor eine starke Kraft ist,\u201d which suggests to me a lack of recognition and acknowledgement that however strong a force it may be, the church\u2019s influence among the German people is tremendously diminished.<\/p>\n

And second, here\u2019s his solution: \u00a0\u201cWe need a \u2018sophisticated pastoral practice\u2019 that does justice to the diverse lifeworlds of people and convincingly passes on the hope of the Faith\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s the CNA quote; the German article says: \u00a0\u201cEine anspruchsvolle Pastoral, die den unterschiedlichen Lebenswelten der Menschen gerecht werde und die Hoffnung des Glaubens \u00fcberzeugend weitergebe.\u201d \u00a0So what the heck does it mean to \u201cdo justice to the diverse lifeworlds of people\u201d? \u00a0One would like to believe that this refers to reaching out to young urban hipsters, such as in the stayandpray.de<\/a> outreach for which I saw flyers, to immigrants as in the Ulrichswoche<\/a> service in the image, and especially to families (who are right now generally unwelcome at Sunday mass),\u00a0rather than merely the faithful elderly. \u00a0The reality? \u00a0Based on what I\u2019ve seen, one suspects he refers again simply to his plan to open communion to all (so long as they pay church tax).<\/p>\n

Image: St. Ulrich und Afra, Gottesdienst der Nationen<\/em>, July 10, own photograph.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"