"Church membership decline creates a gap that right-wing populists are pushing into. This is a poison for the Common Good"

Laschet: Christians should keep the idea of the common good present in politics

Former Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia was the keynote speaker at the conclusion of the "Salzburg University Weeks" - Church membership decline creates a gap that populists are pushing into - Topic for 2026: "Who we are and want to be. Identity: Superpower and problem area"

Christians should not hide their light under the Scheffel and confidently introduce the idea of the common good into politics. CDU politician and former Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet made this call in Salzburg on Sunday. Social and security policy breakthroughs of the post-war period were often developed out of Christian motivation and along the principles of Catholic social teaching, Laschet pointed out. Therefore, the ongoing loss of members in the major Christian churches is a real concern for him, as it makes the practice of forms of socialization that build community less likely or even interrupts it. This leaves a gap that populists are stepping into. "This is poison for the common good," Laschet said.

The politician spoke at a ceremony marking the conclusion of this year's "Salzburg University Weeks." These took place from August 4th to 10th and focused on the general theme "What keeps us alive... and what (perhaps) poisons us." Around 1,000 participants took part in the lectures, discussions, and workshops at this oldest German-language summer university.

Christians "still have a lot to offer today," Laschet said, recalling the relevance of Catholic social teaching as developed in the church's social encyclicals. The principle of solidarity, for example, is a Catholic principle that has made its way into the European treaties and remains as relevant today in a modern federal state. Christians also played a significant role in the peaceful upheavals in Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall, recalled Laschet, who himself participated in the university weeks as a speaker in 2007 and previously as a student in 1982.

In light of all this, it is regrettable that the churches so rarely raise their voices and instead become lost in internal reform and structural issues. Yet society faces major challenges and, not least of all, needs comfort in this situation. Laschet concluded by identifying the loneliness of many people as an emerging problem and a challenge for the churches as well.

The ceremony, which was preceded by a service in Salzburg Cathedral, was attended by, among others, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Salzburg Archbishop Franz Lackner, St. Pölten Bishop Alois Schwarz, Münster Auxiliary Bishop Rolf Lohmann, and Beate Gilles, Secretary General of the German Bishops' Conference. Representing the religious orders, among others, were the President of the Austrian Benedictine Congregation, Abbot Johannes Perkmann, the Chairman of the Salzburg Abbots' Conference, Abbot Theodor Hausmann, the new Archabbot of St. Peter's, Jakob Auer, Senior Abbot Korbinian Birnbacher, the festival preacher and Abbot of Kremsmünster, Bernhard Eckerstorfer, and the Rector of the Anima in Rome, Michael Max.

At the end, Archbishop Lackner announced the theme of the University Week next year. It will take place from August 3rd to 9th, 2026, under the general theme "Who we are and want to be. Identity: Superpower and Problem Area."

Questions of identity are, after all, "key discourses in a world that is reorganizing itself between crisis and innovation," states the brochure introducing the topic. "The more turbulent and disruptive the times, the more pressing the question becomes: Who are we? What values guide us? What is truly important to us?" Knowing who one is and who one wants to be is a resource and provides orientation – but at the same time, identity also marks a "problem area": "Because what defines us, what values sustain us, who or what belongs to 'us,' indeed what defines us: all of this is anything but clear."

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