Czech Cardinal calls on German Synodal Path and German bishops to urgent examination of their consciences

Sacraments for German church-leavers in Central Europe

Cardinal Duka invites Germans who no longer want to pay church tax because of the Synodal Path to receive the sacraments in Central Europe. The Archbishop emeritus of Prague calls for an examination of conscience of German church representatives.

Sound and Dominican

According to Cardinal Duka, the high numbers of church departures in Germany and Bavaria could not be equated with actual church departures, but had to be understood as a refusal to pay church tax.

Church statistics 2022 for the Archdiocese of Cologne published

The new church statistics for the Archdiocese of Cologne have been published: at the end of 2022, 1,738,011 Catholics belonged to the Archdiocese of Cologne. That is 67,419 fewer than in the previous year. The decline is mainly made up of 51,345 people leaving the church (2021: 40,772) and the difference between the number of deaths (28,695 / 2021: 27,503) and baptisms (12,571/ 2021: 10,286). In 2022, 16,124 more Catholics died in the archdiocese than were received into the Church through baptism in the same period.

According to Cardinal Duka, the reason for the departures from the Church was not necessarily a loss of faith or a spiritual rejection, but the lack of Catholic attitude on the part of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) and the German Bishops' Conference, which was evident in the Synodal Path.

The ZdK and the German episcopate would thus create a situation of which Pope Francis has said: "Germany has a great Protestant Church, but I don't want another one."

German Catholics should receive sacraments in Central Europe 

Furthermore, Duka speaks in the context of inner-church slander and intrigue to which Pope Benedict XVI has fallen victim.

Among those people who refuse to pay the church tax, Duka admits, are also believers who are dissatisfied with the very fundamental attitude of Pope Francis and the Cardinals of the Curia towards the Synodal Path.

He invites German Catholics who no longer want to pay church tax to Central Europe: "In the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Poland, we can administer the sacraments to these people. They can go to confession and receive communion here."

Sharp criticism of Bätzing and Marx

Finally, Duka sharply criticises the leadership of the German Church, especially Bishop Georg Bätzing and Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

In their lamentations about the dying of the Church in Germany, he sees only the shedding of crocodile tears

"There must be an examination of conscience with regard to how a number of bishops, archbishops and cardinals deal with their duties and their oath of allegiance," Cardinal Duka continues

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