German Protestants grumble as Pope visit nears

Pope Benedict faces a tightrope walk with Protestants over pledges to improve relations when he returns to his German homeland this week for the first time since he became Pontiff.

As Roman Catholics prepare for the World Youth Day that Pope Benedict will attend in the Rhineland city of Cologne from tomorrow to Sunday and the media devotes increasing attention to the event, Germany's Protestant leaders have been grumbling.

Some Protestants, in the land where Martin Luther began the Reformation in 1517 by nailing his doctrinal objections to the door of a Catholic church, want to remind the world that half of Germany's Christians don't follow the Vatican. Others feel slighted by the event's organisers and by critical comments from some cardinals.

Finding the right tone is tricky for both sides, because Catholics and Protestants cooperate extensively in Germany and are natural allies in an ever more secularised society.

Protestants know that former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger understands and appreciates their views far more than any Pope before him. But they also see he is deeply "Roman" and keen to rekindle a strong Catholic identity among his flock.

"The differences are becoming clearly visible on important issues," said Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairman of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the Protestant umbrella group here.

"We're heading for an ecumenism of clear identities, not a relationship of undifferentiated sameness," he told the German Protestant news agency EPD last week.

When he was the Vatican's top doctrinal watchdog under the late Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict angered Protestants by declaring their denominations were "not churches in the real sense".

They applauded when he set Christian unity as a priority for his papacy, but some now feel he is not driving this forward.

"The motor is sputtering a bit," said Rev. Nikolaus Schneider, head of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland.

Cologne's Cardinal Joachim Meisner fuelled this impression by telling the Westdeutsche Zeitung that Pope Benedict would work more with Orthodox churches, whose dogmas are closer to Rome's.

"Some concrete gestures are due here," he said, adding this was "probably not possible with the Protestants".

Another German cardinal, Walter Kasper, told Focus magazine the Orthodox were "probably the most important partner for us".

So Protestants here were sensitive when it looked like they might not even get to meet the Pope during his visit.

"If we don't get an invitation, that would mean things have changed," Rev. Schneider said in July, before a meeting with Pope Benedict was finally arranged. "It's understandable that people ask whether they're welcome or not," Bishop Huber remarked.

Once the short meeting was arranged, they made clear they would use it to bring up some issues dividing the churches.

"We can't avoid the question of joint church services," Bishop Huber said. The Protestants want to worship with Catholics as equals, but the Catholics will not share communion with them.

"The ministry issue is unresolved," said theologian Eberhard Juengel, referring to the Vatican's long-standing refusal to recognise Protestant clergy as fully-fledged priests.

Happily for World Youth Day organisers, these differences are all but invisible at the grass-roots level where Protestants are readily helping out their Catholic neighbours.

Hundreds of Protestant families have offered spare beds in their homes to backpacking foreign pilgrims and some Protestant churches will be open for Catholics to use as meeting places.

"Cologne is far away. I'm not going to let anything ruin the good ecumenical cooperation we have here," said Rev. Volker Hendricks, head of a Protestant congregation in nearby Krefeld.