Bishop Overbeck: Consequences for right-wing extremists in the Church
From daycare centers to hospitals: Supporters of extremist views should not be allowed to work in the Diocese of Essen. Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck threatens graduated employment law consequences, but also relies on dialogue.
According to Essen Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, right-wing extremist and nationalist ideology are incompatible with service in the Catholic Church. This applies to both full-time and volunteer staff, he said at a meeting with employee representatives in the Diocese.
Extract
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen
Dear Employee representatives,
I am delighted to be able to speak to you today at the Employee Representation Day.
Our topic - "Christian values and employee rights - dealing with extremist positions in the positions in church service" - could hardly be more topical. We are experiencing a polarisation in our polarisation in our society, in which extremist slogans and populist tendencies are becoming are becoming louder. These developments do not stop at our church organisations either. As a bishop and employer, it is important to me to offer guidance here:
What do Christian values mean in this context? How do we protect the rights of all employees? And how do we deal with extremist attitudes should they arise in the should they occur in church service
I
Firstly, we need to remind ourselves of our fundamental Christian values. At the centre is the inviolable dignity of every human being. Every human being is made in the image of God and inalienable dignity. As bishops, we recently emphasised this in our declaration "Ethnic nationalism and Christianity are incompatible" "Human dignity is the ember of the Christian view of man and the anchor of our constitutional order". I will return to this statement more often in the course of my remarks, because a free and just coexistence - as provided for in our Basic Law - is based precisely on this understanding of human dignity. For us as Christians, this means that there is no one who is worth less than another. From this conviction gives rise to central commandments of our faith - above all the commandment of love of neighbour. Christian values such as mercy, justice, respect and peacefulness are derived from this love of God and man. They are the guiding principles for our actions, especially in our working environment. Every employee - regardless of origin, religion or social status - should experience this in a church organisation: Here a culture of respect and humanity prevails.
II.
However, these values cannot be taken for granted; they are being challenged today. In particular, the growth of right-wing extremism and a new rise in ethnic nationalism nationalism pose a serious problem. In the aforementioned declaration statement, we have therefore unequivocally stated that an ideology based on a supposedly homogeneous "people" and systematically marginalises others is not compatible with the Christian faith. What's more, we have labelled right-wing extremism as
"currently the most pressing threat to the liberal order". In other words, not about marginal political views, but about a fundamental threat to our democracy democracy and our peaceful coexistence. As a Church, we cannot and must not not remain neutral on this issue. We expressly call on you not to support parties and groups with such an orientation. Anyone who sows hatred and despises people on the basis of despise people on the basis of their origin or skin colour is the opposite of what we as a church believe and teach.
III.
Allow me to concretise what is meant by völkisch nationalism and why it contradicts our values. Ethnic nationalism is an extremist ideology that is based on the idea that a nation must be an "unchanging cultural identity and homogeneous community of descent", as it says in the the explanatory notes of the German Bishops' Conference on the declaration. These explanatory notes deal with the question of what consequences or activity in or for parties or organisations with extremist positions can have/. They serve as an aid to the interpretation of Article 6 of the basic order of the Church's ministry and are therefore in principle applicable to all parties and organisations with (right-wing or left-wing) extremist orientation.
IV.
The consequence of a way of thinking that is based on cultural and ethnic uniformity is that people who do not fit into this narrow mould are inevitably seen as a threat and marginalised. Such a mindset usually goes hand in hand with racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. It constructs an "us versus them"and denies certain groups fundamental rights or membership of the community. This contradicts the Christian view of humanity, because every person - regardless of whatever origin or culture - is wanted by God and equally valuable. We believe in the absolute equality of all people as creatures of God. That is why it is unthinkable for us to treat people as inferior or undesirable. The fundamental commandment to love our neighbour knows no exceptions based on skin colour or passport. On the contrary, it commands us to welcome the stranger and help the weak. Ethnic thinking perverts this Christian message into its opposite. That is why we also speak very clearly of incompatibility. As a church, we emphatically reject any form of racism and contempt for humanity. And it is precisely against this background, we bishops have made it unmistakably clear that "the spread of right-wing extremist slogans - including in particular racism and anti-Semitism - [...] is incompatible with a full-time or voluntary ministry in the church "
V.
Anyone who publicly propagates such views is leaving the ground on which church ministry can stand. Extremism - and here I explicitly mean all forms, including religious fanaticism or extreme left-wing violence - jeopardises coexistence. Our focus today is on right-wing extremism because it is currently the biggest threat of this kind in Germany. But as a matter of principle, the Church strongly rejects all forms of extremism.: they are irresponsible threats to the common good and the liberal order. A look at history shows where it leads such ideologies spread - marginalisation, discord, and ultimately violence and destruction. But a look at the existing autocracies of this world is also a warning and to caution. Democracy cannot be taken for granted. That is why we must counter such tendencies, in our society and in our own institutions. What does does "countering" mean in concrete terms? Firstly, it means taking a stand and defending our values.. When people's dignity or rights are attacked, we must not stand by and watch. The declaration states urgently: "Let us all resist when human dignity and human rights are jeopardised! Let us work together actively for liberal democracy!".
VI.
In my message for the New Year 2023, I spoke of resistant humanity – at the time, especially with regard to the terrible war of aggression against Ukraine, which is still ongoing. Resistant humanity – that is a powerful term that seems equally appropriate to me for our stance against extremism and group-focused misanthropy. For humanity means compassion, respect for one another, and charity. It connects with resistance when human dignity is trampled upon. Then a truth emerges that can be felt almost physically: This cannot be allowed to happen and is not justifiable under any circumstances.
It requires action and resistance – and a clear no. This is a call to each and every one of us. Resist – it doesn't have to be loud or shrill, but it must be clear. Commitment means being positive: actively standing up for our democratic values, for respectful coexistence. As a church, we have long been working on precisely this in many areas – in integration projects, in helping refugees, in educational initiatives. Let us stay on this course and strengthen all those who are committed to tolerance, diversity, and justice. Our Christian convictions are fully aligned with the principles of our liberal democracy. It is important to note: When we oppose extremism, we do so not as representatives of a political party, but rather out of our fundamental Christian understanding and conscience. But this conscience finds its counterpart, in the best sense, in our Basic Law, which guarantees human dignity and the equality of all before the law. In this respect, we as Christians are always also advocates of the democratic common good.
Cathcon: The Bishop would do well to read the proceedings of a conference in Rome held at the Görres Society on the link between the secular völkisch ideas so prevalent in pre-War Nazi Germany and the liturgical movement which gave us the new Mass. It is no coincidence that the three leading liturgists were all sympathetic in some way with the Nazis.
Odo Casel: His Paschal Mystery theology insists the Mass was derived from Greek mysteries rather than the service of the Temple. There was probably an anti-semitic basis for this given that his monastery of Maria-Laach was the one never raided by the Gestapo and who has replaced a picture of the Kaiser with Hitler.
Lambert Beauduin: He died with a picture of Petain hanging in his cell....in 1965.
Pius Parsch: Wrote to Cardinal Innitzer begging him to be kinder to Hitler.....
This is the conference programme which speaks for itself.
November 24-27, 2021: Cult of the People. The Idea of the People in Liturgical Movements and Reforms. An Ecumenical Revision
Chairs: Markus Schmidt (Bethel), Stefan Heid (Rome)
Lectures:
Sven Conrad (Bettbrunn): "Cultus publicus" as a fundamental idea of Christian Worship
Dieter Böhler (Frankfurt): The People of God from the Altar. The Constitution of the People of Israel as a Cultic Community
Harm Klueting (Cologne): Between Herder's concept of the people and the "populus Dei": The influence of Romanticism on the idea of the people in the Catholic liturgical renewal of the 20th Century
Andreas Bieringer (Frankfurt am Main): Catholic hymnal history in the context of national developments
Dominik Burkard (Würzburg): The ideologies of the people and the liturgy in Catholic modernism
Konrad Klek (Erlangen): People and popularity in the older Protestant liturgical movement
Michael Meyer-Blanck (Bonn): "People" in Wilhelm Stählin and in the newer Protestant liturgical movement
Martin Wallraff (Munich / Rome): Friedrich Heiler, the 'High Church' and the völkisch movement
Sandra Bornemann-Quecke (Darmstadt): Cult and popular concepts of community in the theatre of Modernism
Stefan Heid (Rome): Did the Catholic liturgical movement of the 20th Century remain distant from the nationalistic Zeitgeist?
Stefan K. Langenbahn (Maria Laach): "The most beautiful thing however was the people." People and elite in the early period of the liturgical movement, exemplified at the extremes of R. Guardini and I. Herwegen
Markus Schmidt (Bethel): Cult and community in Otto Bartning's work. Bartning's church architecture of the interwar period
Uwe Michael Lang (London): Perception of the people's alienation from the liturgy in the Middle Ages
Cornelia Brinkmann (Hanover): "Führer, Volk, und Vaterland." Protestant hymns in National Socialism
Johannes Nebel (Bregenz): The position of the people in the Ordo Missae of the Missal of Paul VI from a Comparative Perspective
Helmut Hoping (Freiburg im Breisgau): "A People of Priests." The universal and particular priesthood in the Catholic liturgical movement
Dorothea Haspelmath-Finatti (Vienna): Who are the People of Grace? Contributions from International liturgical theology on the relationship between local congregation and worshipful assembly
Alexander Deeg (Leipzig): The people and the peoples in the Protestant worship book of 1999/2020
Benjamin Leven (Würzburg): No Liturgical reform without a microphone: liturgy and the mass eedia
Domenico Palermo (Teramo): The "German Youth Movement" and the Romantic idea of the people: The precursor to cultural and ideological religious movements of contemporary environmentalism
Peter Zimmerling (Leipzig): A "Liturgical Liberation Movement"? The significance of the People-of-God odea in (Pentecostal) charismatic movements
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