Last Wednesday, Pope Benedict described his recent visit to Germany as “a great feast of faith”. It was quite naturally a feast with a difference. The Pope visited his homeland which is much more secularised that when he left it for the Vatican many years ago.
The real Church is a Church of saints and sinners- Fr Joe Borg
Over the past 35 years, the number of German Catholics has dropped from more than 30 million to fewer than 25 million. God and religion are emarginated today much more than ever before in Germany, so much so that some opposed this visit.
Pope Benedict was not surprised, saying such opposition was to be expected and should not worry one unduly so long as it is shown in a civil manner.
The Pope visited a Church which was shocked by the scandalous revelation of sex abuse by priests. While flying to Germany, the Pope said he understood the anger of the victims and their families and accepted that some left the Church because of these horrible crimes. Last year, approximately 180,000 Catholics formally left the Church, albeit not all did so because of these abuses. Besides, the number of dissident Catholics in Germany is quite strong and vociferous.
The Pope made it clear that he was in Germany not to condemn but to meet people and speak to them about God. He wanted to communicate to them God’s message for society and for the Church.
His speech before the Federal Parliament was one of the stronger and more erudite of the messages he proposed to society. The normally critical weekly Der Spiegel called the speech thought-provoking and courageous.
Pope Benedict proposed natural law as the foundation of political culture. He argued that “the culture of Europe arose from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome – from the encounter between Israel’s monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks, and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe.”
Benedict pushed the concept of natural law as the basis of political action in contrast to the positivistic or relativistic perspectives. He commented briefly on the role played by Christianity: “Unlike other great religions, Christianity has never proposed a revealed law to the State and to society, that is to say, a juridical order derived from revelation.
Instead, it has pointed to nature and reason as the true sources of law – and to the harmony of objective and subjective reason, which naturally presupposes that both spheres are rooted in the creative reason of God.”
When Benedict spoke to ‘Catholic’ audiences he exhorted them to understand the nature of the Church as a living community of believers in, and followers of, Jesus Christ. The real Church is a Church of saints and sinners. He criticised the superficial notions of a ‘dream Church’ that some dissenting Catholics propose.
The Pope courageously described the German Church as “superbly organised” but criticised it for lacking in spirit.
His model for the “new evangelisation” does not build on big Church structures and programmes but on small Catholic communities and individuals able to share their faith experiences with co-workers, family and friends.
It was a demanding visit. Benedict described it as a feast because it provided him “with an opportunity to meet the faithful of my own homeland, to confirm them in faith, hope and love, to share with them the joy of being Catholic”. It was a feast because the Pope constantly urged Catholics and non-Catholics to look to the future with trust as “it is certain that ‘where God is, there is a future’”.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt