Is freedom of expression in Germany endangered?? © Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley (shutterstock)
The "Forum of German Catholics" sees the rule of law and personal freedom in Germany at risk. This emerges from a resolution adopted at the "Joy of Faith" congress.
In a resolution passed almost unanimously at the "Joy of Faith" congress in Ingolstadt this weekend, it says with regard to freedom of expression that there is a "cudgel of 'political correctness'". "Anyone who deviates from what the government pretends, is defamed and sanctioned." It goes on to say, "The coercively financed state radio and numerous members of the press comment as if they belonged to the paid court of the government."
"Abandoned national sovereignty"
Multiple corrections were made to the resolution on freedom of expression. In the initially published catches, there was an alleged sentence by Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth (Bundnis90/Grune), who was supposed to have called Germany "a lousy piece of shit". This false statement, spread by right-wing populist blogs, is no longer found in the second correction of the resolution.
In the resolution, the congress participants also take a hard line on refugee policy. The government had "knowingly and willingly abandoned its own national sovereignty and replaced the term 'legal security' with 'welcome culture'". Government officials would have changed the constitutional word "German people" to "population".
"Marriage and family" had been reinterpreted by the Bundestag as a community of responsibility. In other ies, the parliament would not be involved, if, for example, "the ideology of 'gender mainstreaming' is declared to be the 'guiding principle and the cross-sectional task of politics' of the federal government". In the protection of life, the freedom of the woman is placed above the right to life of an unborn child. The compromise on paragraph 219 de facto lifts the ban on advertising abortions.
"Correcting erroneous developments"
According to a second resolution, which was also passed by an overwhelming majority, there can only be a new beginning in the faith if "the undesirable developments that have moved God out of the center of thought and action and put people in his place" are corrected. The majority of the bishops do not want to pursue these causes.
Instead, he said, there is a "synodal way" in which ies such as celibacy, women's priesthood, sexual morality and homosexuality will be addressed. But these, he said, were universal ecclesiastical in nature and delayed steps in the renewal of the faith. "We strictly reject a German special path that leads away from the universal church!"
No "kowtowing to the spirit of the times"
Already at the start on Friday, the spokesman for the forum, Hubert Gindert, had declared: "Kowtowing to the spirit of the times will not get us anywhere."God must be put in the center, not structures.
The patron of the congress, the former Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, Werner Munch, added: "We are happy to do without preachers of the faith who misunderstand themselves as political leaders." Voderholzer spoke out against the ordination of women, welcomed at the same time the latest document of the Vatican on the subject of gender.
"Without God – no future!"
The conference took place from Friday to Sunday under the motto "Without God – no future"!" held in Ingolstadt. The three-day congress of the forum, based in Kaufering, Bavaria, was attended by 1.300 visitors announced. Regensburg Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer celebrated the opening service; former Augsburg Bishop Walter Mixa also participated. Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstatt attended the closing service on Sunday.
The organizing forum sees itself as a loose association of Catholics "loyal to the pope and the church". The Forum was founded in 2000 in Fulda; its headquarters are in Kaufering, Upper Bavaria.