1 - 1999

The New German Goverment

Politicians No Longer Wish a Blessing

The New Federal Government and the Churches

by Astrid Prange

Observers think that the influence of the major German churches at the seat of government in Bonn and Berlin is rapidly diminishing. Does Chancellor Gerhard Schröder have no antennae for religious matters?

Friendship between men sometimes works like glue. Thus the personal attachment between former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Bishop Karl Lehmann, Chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, helped repair occasional cracks in the complex relationship between church and state.

The churches are given the feeling by the new government that as an institution they have lost social and political significance. Four months after having taken up office, there is still no date set for the first official meeting at the highest level. Hermann Gröhe, member of the Council of the Evangelical Church in German (EKD) and Conservative (CDU) member of the German parliament, is sure that "with Johannes Rau as chancellor the entry to the chancellor’s office would continue to be fabulous." But the Red-Green cabinet does not look good with regard to the proportion of politicians who are familiar with the church milieu.

Is the relationship between churches and the cabinet of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder truly characterized by "disinterest, ignorance and distance", as recently the Secretary of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Jesuit Hans Langendörfer, cuttingly commented?

Approval of Policy on Foreigners At any rate it is clear that Schröder’s answer to the carefully-worded congratulatory letter of both churches turned out to be merely "businesslike", and that since September 27, 1998, Protestant and Catholic clerics no longer go in and out of the chancellor’s office.

It is also clear that, in the future, staff of the chancellor’s office will probably no longer so easily move over into the Secretariat of the Bishops’ Conference. It is also true that there is at the moment no lack of substantial controversies as well as of organisational embarassments.

"It cannot be denied that the discussion about the abortion pill RU 486, the planned enhancement of the legal status of non-marital and homosexual partnerships, as well as a certain clumsiness in tone and irritations which lie more in the area of organisation cast a shadow on the relationship between the government and the church," according to Prelate Paul Bocklet of the Bonn Catholic Office. Yet neither on the Catholic side nor in the Protestant camp does anyone want to speak of a "strained climate" or even of a crisis.

At first pure sunshine even appeared to reign. After all, the new government had announced implementation of many of the impulses of the "Social Statement" of the churches and their "Joint Statement on Migration and Refugees", which the parties then in the Opposition had extravagantly praised when it was published in the autumn of 1997.

In it the churches unmistakably call for double citizenship "in order to noticeably improve the acceptance of children born in Germany of foreign parents." The churches, unions and opposition parties in those days also unanimously criticised the family policies of the Kohl government.

The chancellor has more time for "Emma"

But then everything changed. Precisely in the midst of the delicate inner-Catholic debate about remaining in the state system of pregnancy counseling, Chancellor Schröder wrote a letter to the women’s magazine "Emma", in which he welcomed the introduction of the abortion pill RU 486. The Social Democratic Family Minister, Christine Bergmann, explained to the Catholic Bishops quite plainly that she did not plan to speak with them about this subject. And the Green Party’s spokesperson on women’s issues, Irmingard Schewe-Gerigk, called upon the churches "to finally stop their old game of accusing women of being morally reprehensible when they cut short a pregnancy."

It seemed to have escaped the minister that such comments did not help the women involved, but in the end provided cover for those Catholics leaders who did not want to allow counseling certificates for a legal abortion to be issued. Today in the chancellor’s office it is admitted that the handling of the matter was unfortunate. Are these all heralds of an ice age, unknown to this point, between church and state? Is the gloomy foreboding of Axel Freiherr von Campenhausen, former director of the EKD’s institute for church law, that many politicians of the Red-Green spectrum no longer knew that the modern constitutional state has Christian roots which are to be nurtured, proving to be true?

The Protestant side also seeks contact more strongly. In February the head of the chancellor’s office, Bodo Hombach, and the representative of the EKD to the federal government, Bishop Hartmut Löwe, meet for a first exchange of opinions. Löwe is concerned about the elimination of the contact point in the chancellor’s office for the churches, the office for "Links to the Area of Art and Culture and also to the Churches". He said regretfully, "These are plans which do not please us at all, because we need a regular and highly-placed contact in the chancellor’s office."

Yet these organisational irritations are still manageable in comparison to the churches’ peevishness produced by the tax plans of the government. "The times seem to be past in which the government would on its own have taken into consideration the effects on the churches, for example in the case of the corporate tax reform or the plans for the elimination of the general tax on the 630-Mark-jobs," says Hermann Barth, Vice President of the EKD church office. Although the churches lose billions in income through the new rules, there was no official consultation. "A disagreeable action, but I do not, however, believe that it was a conscious decision," an EKD council member, who does not wish to be named, critically remarked."

Oddly quiet and subdued"

But there is also disappointment in the government camp. The Greens’ spokeswoman on church affairs in the German parliament, Christa Nickels, confirmed that churches support life with a variety of cultures and contribute to mutual respect and tolerance.

"Yet regarding the petition against double citizenship it is noticeable that the Catholic church - in comparison to the intensity of their interference on the issue of abortion - appears oddly quiet and subdued", the active Catholic criticized. She does not want to speak of a strained relationship. "It is my impression that it is not the new government which has a problem with the churches, but that the churches, especially the Catholic one, has not altogether digested the change of government."

Nickels’ impression is not altogether an impossiblity. In reality, the problem is not just the uncomfortable feeling of not being properly regarded by the new government, but the churches’ decreasing influence in the life of the society as a whole.

EKD Vice President Barth believes that "a change of generations is taking place. In the former government - not least by the chancellor himself - there was solid knowledge about the Christian churches and personal faith commitment which brought a trust bonus for the churches." In the new government it is different, "even to unheard-of, yes, impertinent tones.

" In view of this, the fact that eight of the fifteen ministers of the new government used the religious form of the oath, "so help me God", appears actually overproportional. Kohl’s Cabinet, in which in 1994 all the members asked for divine help, embodies for many looking back a kind of rampart against the growing secularisation pressure. The discussion about the position of the churches in a rapidly changing world, where Christian conviction must compete with material values and other religions, seems already to be in full progress.

"Just no retreat into the church tower"

The close personal friendship between former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Bishop Karl Lehmann managed for 16 years to mend the cracks between reality and what was politically desirable. "There was an almost symbiotic relationship between the chancellor and the Catholic church particularly", in Christa Nickels’ opinion. Both sides still have to get accustomed to the dissolution of such symbioses. But EKD Bishop Löwe thinks little of a retreat into the church tower. He believes: "We must make new contacts. There is no reason to be pessimistic." Vice President Barth sees the situation similarly. He demands: "The churches must accustom themselves to present their position unmistakeably and in clear language." In spite of "irritations and acclimatisation difficulties", both sides profit in the long run from the continuation of the partnership.

Unabridged translation of an article first appearing in Das Sonntagsblatt, February 5, 1999.