When a Catholic priest preaches and the AfD speaks of a “hate tirade”.

A parish priest in Rheine used his most recent Sunday sermon to take a stand against the AfD. This caused dissatisfaction among one of the churchgoers and an argument at Mass. The party complains about a "hate speech", but the Diocese of Münster shows solidarity with the clergyman.

Mindfulness, charity and a human community - when Father Thomas Hüwe preached about these concepts last Sunday, the congregation in the church of St. Johannes Baptist in Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia, listened in silence - as usual. But suddenly it gets loud in the church: Shortly after Hüwe mentioned “the AfD and other right-wing parties” as an antithesis and spoke about his horror at the possible imminent election of an AfD politician to a mayoral office “in the east of the republic,” it was over in the church room to hear displeasure at the priest's words.

The scene can be seen and partially heard in a video days later, as the service was streamed live and uploaded to the parish's YouTube channel. The video has now been deleted there, but the crucial excerpt from the sermon can be found on the Münster AfD website.

"How can something like this happen?"

After Hüwe rhetorically asked "How can something like this happen?" with a view to the mayoral election. and added as an explanation that "we have forgotten to look at our neighbors", a church attendee apparently expresses his anger at the statements. However, what exactly the person is saying cannot be understood in the excerpt because - unlike the priest - he is not speaking into a microphone and cannot be seen.

“Go with God’s blessing.” — Quote: Father Thomas Hüwe at the end of the argument with the worshiper

In the following 30 seconds, however, a verbal argument obviously breaks out, in which Hüwe expresses his regret that the person feels attacked, but at the same time makes it clear that "we as Christians" cannot support the AfD. The dispute ends with the priest saying goodbye to the person who has apparently decided to leave with the words "Go with God's blessing."

The Münster AfD is now trying to exploit the case for its party political purposes. In a press release, the party, which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified as a right-wing extremist "suspected case", complains about Hüwe's "inflammatory tirade". “How can it be that this pastor completely forgets what his pastoral duties are and instead acts as a political henchman?!?” the party continues to ask in the statement.

Since the party was founded, there have been conflicts between the church and the AfD

It is not the first time that the AfD has taken action against statements from the Catholic Church. Since its founding in spring 2013, representatives of the party have repeatedly taken a position against the church and used harsh words to distance themselves from it. When, for example, the then chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, declared soon after the launch of the then mainly Euro-critical party that he hoped "that it is just a few nostalgics who will not enter the Bundestag" and himself Clearly committed to the European integration process, the current deputy chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group, Beatrix von Storch, expressed her outrage in an open letter to Zollitsch: "You are abusing your office to warn against us."

The responsible diocese of Münster positions itself clearly on the side of the Rhine pastor.

The differences between the church and the AfD also became extremely clear in connection with the refugee crisis from autumn 2015. While both churches were strongly committed to the refugees arriving in Germany with reference to Christian charity, the AfD positioned itself with right-wing populist slogans and sharp criticism of them Churches against the welcoming culture. The then deputy party leader Albrecht Glaser accused the churches of being inspired by a “naive humanitarianism” when it came to the issue of refugees. And the then Bavarian AfD state chairman Petr Bystron even claimed that the churches were making billions in business with refugee aid - a statement that the press spokesman for the bishops' conference immediately rejected as "nonsense".

In the current case in Rheine, too, the church, specifically the responsible diocese of Münster, is clearly positioning itself - on the side of the pastor. "In his sermon, Pastor Hüwe particularly advocates that we should treat each other with care. He advocates 'taking our neighbors into account' and advocates for a humane society. This is about questions that are important for cohesion and the character of our society are of fundamental importance," explained the diocese's press spokesman, Stephan Kronenburg, when asked by katholisch.de.

The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Münster and worldwide has certain basic tasks such as church celebrations, the proclamation of the Good News, service to fellow human beings and the promotion of the community of believers, Kronenburg continued. "These basic mandates are completely contradicted by the attitude of people who have a xenophobic, ethnic, racist and anti-Semitic worldview in which ethnicity is overrated and the democratic constitutional state is rejected. The priest rightly identified this contradiction."

“The Christian message is not neutral, but rather it is a message of charity, tolerance and care.”

— Quote: Press spokesman Stephan Kronenburg

Of course, the Good News of Jesus Christ also has political implications that could also be expressed in the proclamation, emphasized the press spokesman. "The Christian message is not neutral, but rather it is a message of charity, tolerance and care." In following Jesus, Christians are called to work for people to live together in word and deed. “And they are called upon to contradict themselves when these attitudes and values are massively questioned. The pastor did that and nothing else,” said Kronenburg.

Criticism “recognizably attributable to the right-wing edge of the political spectrum”

Father Hüwe and the parish of St. John the Baptist did not want to comment to katholisch.de on Friday. It is therefore not clear whether and to what extent the priest and the congregation received criticism or even threats after the sermon. However, the deleted YouTube video and the announcement that was apparently added to the parish homepage at short notice that the online transmission of services from the parish church "unfortunately cannot take place at the moment" indicate that the incident did not leave the community unscathed .

After all: Diocese spokesman Kronenburg emphasized that he was not aware of any threats. And further: "Criticism comes particularly from people who are clearly on the right-wing edge of the political spectrum." At the same time, he explained that, to his knowledge, there was, on the contrary, a lot of response to the sermon. Parish council chairman Jürgen Kösters expressed support for the clergyman. He was sure that “all committees are behind our pastor,” he told the “Emsdettener Volkszeitung”. Although he doesn't know who deleted the video of the church service, he thinks the decision was right: "There was obviously a scandal, you don't have to show it off," said Kösters. The diocese also stated that it “of course” did not cause the video to be deleted.

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