No man can serve two masters

Cathcon translation of Nach Jahrzehnten wieder ein Priester in einem Landtag- After decades, a priest again in a German regional parliament

Hesse: The former city Dean, Ernst-Ewald Roth directly elected SPD deputy.

Wiesbaden (idea) - For the first time since the post-war years, a Catholic priest has obtained a seat in a regional Parliament. Ernst-Ewald Roth, former dean of Catholic city of Wiesbaden, was elected in the Hesse state election on 27 Jan for the SPD (the Socialists).

The 54-year-old has been for over a year a social democrat. The party had nominated him in 2006 - at that time he was still without party - as a candidate for the election of the Mayor in the regional capital. The SPD failed, however, to mee the deadline for registering the candidacy with the Returning Officer. After Roth agreed to be candidate for the Lord Mayor's election, the then Limburg Bishop Franz Kamphaus dismissed him from his posts as Dean of the City of Wiesbaden and pastor of the parish of St. Boniface. According to Catholic church law, clergy may not hold public office , "that means the participation in the exercise of secular power ". According to the Commission for Contemporary History (Bonn), in the post-war years, there have only been sporadic cases of priests belonging to a parliament, as in Bavaria.



The last Catholic priest in political high office was Father Ludwig Kaas (1881-1952), who was head of the German Catholic Centre Party between 1928 and 1933.