“What about the glow in your eyes?”

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Wim Wenders and Pope Francis © Focus Features/AP

Director Wim Wenders is disappointed with Pope Francis. "There is not much left of the energy with which Pope Francis set out to make the Church a Church for the poor," he said in an interview with "Time".

He said it was noticeable that the pope was being captured by conservative forces. "When I hear now that he wants to deny his blessing to homosexual marriages, it makes me sad. That no longer sounds like the man who said, 'Who am I to judge this?!'" said Wenders, who released a documentary about Pope Francis in 2018.

Today, he would ask the pope, "What happened to the mischievousness and the gleam in your eye, Holy Father?", said the filmmaker. "It seems to me that this man has worn himself out in his great struggle, and one senses that he now lacks strength and time."

2018: "Portrait of a courageous man"

It will take the next pope and the one after that to implement Francis' ideas. Wenders stressed that he had made a portrait of a "courageous man" in 2018 with the Pope documentary, for whom he had great respect.

"If I had made a film about the institution he represents, I'm sure it would have been very critical," said the director, who joined the Protestant Church years after leaving it. On this, Wenders explained, ""I first had to make a big detour, even via atheism, to find my way back to the faith and join the church. But then the Protestant."

Norbert Blum camped out in the Idomeni camp © Kay Nietfeld

Trying to cheer up a refugee child © Kay Nietfeld

Blue igloo tent, black anorak, blue sleeping bag. Norbert Blum, TV images show, spent a night in Idomeni refugee camp. The 80-year-old demonstrates solidarity with the refugees.

He still wants to make a difference. And he is angry. Although Norbert Blum retired from the Bundestag in 2002, the 80-year-old CDU politician continues to get involved. This weekend, the former federal labor minister spent a rainy night in a tent in the Greek refugee camp of Idomeni.

"Attack on humanity"

In solidarity with the more than 10.000 refugees who live there in mud and cold because Europe refuses them entry. And as a sign against the indifference of European politicians who close the borders and look the other way, the CDU politician inveighs. "What kind of Europe is this??" Already after his arrival on Saturday, Blum had condemned the conditions in Idomeni as an "attack on humanity". This is not his Europe.

Several times in recent months, Blum, who is considered the "social conscience of the CDU," has advocated a hospitable welcome for refugees. Together with Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and other prominent figures, he was one of the signatories of a "Rhenish Message" warning against a division of society after the New Year's Eve events in Cologne: sexual violence and crime must not be tolerated. At the same time, Germany must remain an open country that welcomes people in need.

CDU should reflect on the "C", they said

In the fall, Blum – "although I was never in danger of becoming a member of the Angela Merkel fan club" – defended the chancellor's refugee policy. "I am proud of Angela Merkel," he wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. He appealed to his party to remember its Christian roots, reminding them of the parable of the Good Samaritan. "For the CDU, the refugee question is – whether intentionally or not – its question of conscience: What do you think about the C in the party name??"

Blum also intervenes again and again as a book author. These days, his title "Outcry. Against the merciless money society" on the market. In it he castigates the worst excesses of the capitalist economy. Greed for money leads to increasing poverty elsewhere and drives people worldwide into homelessness, violence and fanaticism, the CDU politician draws a connection between Western exports, the arms trade and the refugee crisis.

In spring 2015, Blum traveled to Qatar, disguised as a tourist, to denounce inhumane working conditions of guest workers at the World Cup stadiums. "I wish that Mr. Blatter would live here for a fortnight. Then perhaps he will no longer award world championships to countries where such conditions prevail," he said afterwards.

Student with Joseph Ratzinger

Blum is influenced by the Catholic social teaching of one Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890-1991). In the 1960s, the trained toolmaker studied philosophy, German language and literature, history and theology – among others with Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI.

For more than 30 years, the grandfather of six was a member of the Bundestag, and for 16 years he was Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in Kohl's government.

As minister, Blum pushed through a health reform and two major pension reforms. But probably most associated with his name is the introduction of long-term care insurance in 1995. He insisted early on that there is also a life outside politics: "Politicians who get up with politics, organize lunch as a working lunch, and dream politically at night, I think are dangerous." Nevertheless, he can't resist getting involved.

Christiane Florin, editor-in-chief of Christ und Welt, sees her new interview book as an "exchange of ideas about God and the world. And accordingly, the conversation with Bishops' Conference Chairman Robert Zollitsch and ZdK President Alois Gluck addresses a wide range of topics and ies.

What has church in the 21. The twenty-first century? How does it want to shape society? Why are many young people turning away and how does the church intend to reverse this trend?? What follows from the abuse crisis or the Pope's visit to Germany?? What reforms and departures do Catholics strive for in their church?? An overview, then, of current Catholic debates, problems and hopes on 160 pages of interviews.

Gluck and Zollitsch often complement and confirm each other in their analyses, for example, when both church representatives criticize what they see as disoriented modernity, unrestrained commercialization or blind growth ideology. Within the church, it is sometimes clear that many Catholics (and thus also the Central Committee of German Catholics represented by Gluck) hope for bolder reforms than the church leadership is currently prepared to tackle. Example: women in the church, introduction of a deaconess office, sexual morality, dealing with remarried divorcees or exclusion of employees of the pregnancy counseling Donum Vitae, which is not tolerated by the church hierarchy.

Zollitsch argues that in many of these areas of conflict, which have been smoldering for years, there has been some movement. In many places, for example, a new constructive togetherness of women and men, of laity and clergy, has succeeded, Zollitsch said, referring to the Archdiocese of Freiburg. At the same time, however, he resolutely upholds the current exclusion of remarried persons from the sacraments: "There is still much to be clarified in this regard. There is also the case, for example, that a woman says: My husband has left me and the children for another woman, and now he wants to marry the other woman. In such a case, a one-sidedly understood mercy is perceived as injustice."

No energetic follow-up
As a thread running through the interview volume, Florin repeatedly raises the question of "awakening" in the church, as the motto of the 98th Rio Congress suggests. German Catholic Congress ("Dare a new departure") promises. In concrete terms, for example, it is about how the church wants to regain lost trust after the abuse scandals. Or how church and religion can remain alive locally despite ever larger pastoral units. "We don't want to retreat to the small herd and say: let the others run away!", Zollitsch confesses. But what exactly follows from this for the current situation remains open.

It is a deficiency of the interview volume that can be observed several times that energetic follow-up or questions about concrete conclusions are omitted. Only rarely do the two experienced interview partners leave the roles and positions they have rehearsed in numerous public appearances and are thus largely familiar with. For example, when Zollitsch and Gluck talk about their biographical origins and their personal paths to faith.

Note: Vitamin K: Why we need the Catholic Church. Christiane Florin in conversation with Alois Gluck and Robert Zollitsch; 160 pages, 12,99 Euro, Verlag Herder, Freiburg 2012, 160 pages, 12,99 Euro.

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