Mercy to all but not to traditionalists or right-wingers. The Ecclesiastical Commissar takes it on herself to decide who should be active Catholics

Whoever is in the AfD must not get any power in the Church

Stetter-Karp: In the church, extreme right-wing tones are becoming shriller

Church bodies have a duty to ask potential employees about their political views, the ZdK president says. She also says how the next Catholic Gathering will deal with AfD mandate holders.

The president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Irme Stetter-Karp, believes church bodies have a duty to ask potential employees about their political views. "So it is always those who represent the order for the respective body who are asked. My position is clear: Whoever is in the AfD must not be given power in the church," Stetter-Karp told the "Zeit" supplement "Christ & Welt" (Thursday). With that, she renewed her most recent demand, which had drawn debate.

In the interview, she also announced that no AfD mandate holders would be invited to podiums for the 2024 Catholic Gathering in Erfurt. "The AfD's attitude is one of destruction."  (Cathcon, says the abortion enabler)

Stetter-Karp referred to 695,000 full-time employees who worked in Germany with and for people with disabilities or migrants, for example. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of volunteers. "The minimum would be to ask people in advance whether they, as applicants, are committed to a Christian image of man and whether they stand on the ground of the free democratic basic order. So that one has a handle to get rid of them again if they have already been elected and do not follow this agenda."

Increasingly restorationist viewpoints in church

Bodies such as parish councils would have to agree on whether and how to re-sharpen statutes and rules of procedure, Stetter-Karp advised. It should be self-evident that all candidates for church bodies should resolutely oppose racism, xenophobia and discrimination. The employer must ensure that positions that contradict the Christian image of man have "no place in church institutions," not even in honorary office.

Asked whether an examination by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution would suffice, Stetter-Karp said that such a thing would "certainly be an important authority. But anyone who wants to be active in a church body, she said, must commit to standing up for people whom the AfD wants to exclude.

The ZdK president emphasized, "In the Catholic Church, right-wing extremist tones are becoming louder and shriller. Even members of our church increasingly represent restorative points of view, want to emphasize the traditional and are susceptible to agitation from the right." That's where the church is a reflection of society, he said. Many people, he said, do not feel up to "complex challenges of a rapidly changing life." Populist narratives fall on open ears. 

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