Could Germany have a Muslim-majority society in the future?? Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg believes this is possible. However, he sees the reason less in Islam, but in the “lukewarmness of Christians”.
“Anyone who looks at developments with alert senses will not be able to rule out the possibility that a Muslim majority society will come,” Voderholzer said Tuesday in an interview with the Austrian Internet portal kath.net.
One cause of the Islamization feared by some, however, is not so much the attractiveness of Islam, the bishop continues – the underlying cause is rather “the lukewarmness of Christians. They are the ones who “forget their origins and no longer take their faith seriously”.
Christmas a mulled wine festival
This can be observed, for example, during Advent: "For many Muslims, Christmas markets are the epitome of Christian culture par excellence, and they perceive Christmas as a festival of mulled wine. This is what they learn when they experience our society."The "essence" of Christmas would then remain completely hidden.
The Christian faith must be taken seriously "in all its richness, in all its beauty" and lived "joyfully," Voderholzer recommended. Then it would also have an integrative effect and could convince other people. "As long as we give the impression that we ourselves do not believe at all what we believe, we will not be allowed to be surprised that another more vital faith will sometime take our place."
The bishop went on to emphasize that "Islam is not about any customs, pro headscarf and contra pork, but it is about the image of God."The Christian faith is the faith in the triune God. "That is why, in my opinion, a comprehensive cultural coexistence of Christians and Muslims is not possible. There is a cultural coexistence."
For abuse in church "only abysmally ashamed"
With regard to abuse in the Catholic Church, Voderholzer continued to speak of "terrible things". "One can only be abysmally ashamed of this," says Voderholzer. "We will not be able to prevent it from remaining topical."Child abuse is a problem for society as a whole: the crime statistics in Germany will again show up to 15 cases of child abuse this year.000 known cases report.
In the Catholic Church, since 2002 and 2010, "a great deal has been done in terms of prevention and also in terms of coming to terms with it," the bishop continued: "It is also a fact that the Catholic Church, 'led by old celibate men,' is the first and so far the only major institution of civil society in Germany to face up to this ie openly and relentlessly, also with the involvement of outside expertise, and to address it comprehensively."
For the Catholic Church, researchers had presented the "Study on sexual abuse of minors by clergy in the area of the German Bishops' Conference" at the end of September in Fulda at the bishops' autumn plenary meeting. In the church files from 1946 to 2014, the research team had found evidence of 3.677 victims of sexual assault and to about 1.670 accused priests, deacons and members of religious orders found. The experts also ame that there are more cases that are not recorded in the files.
Church must make further efforts
The study must now be further studied scientifically and also examined for "its strengths and weaknesses," said Voderholzer: "We should not be satisfied with our efforts by any means yet."
But positive developments should not be badmouthed either, the bishop added: "I can't help feeling that some – including inner-church circles – are abusing the cases of sexual violence to once again promote their recipes, which were already useless the day before yesterday, and to twist the crimes as an opportunity to finally create their 'other church,'" Voderholzer said: "That is what I call abuse of the abuse."