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Once north korea - and back

Willibert Pauels: Faith … © Michael Schopps (private)

Once north korea - and back

… and humor © screenshot (DR)

He is one of the most popular artists in the carnival and probably the best known deacon in Germany: Willibert Pauels, our site has been closely associated with the city for a long time. In an interview now he talks about his faith and laughter in times of terror.

Willibert Pauels, a native of Wipperfurth, Germany, is a cabaret artist, a deacon, a diaclown, a humorist and someone who has learned to tame the "black dog" of depression. In an interview with the independent weekly newspaper "Neues Ruhr-Wort," the 61-year-old now spoke about his faith, laughter in times of terror, his conservative views and an unusual wish. our site publishes a specially created catch of the interview:

Christina Cherry

The Vatican's ban on blessings for homosexual couples is meeting with massive resistance in some church circles. Wurzburg university pastor Burkhard Hose is active on the front line. Unity with Rome does not justify everything for him.

Sky Clear: They stand up for the rights of homosexuals in the church and clearly criticize the Vatican's ban on blessings. But there is also the other side of the debate. For example, it is argued that the Church can value, recognize, respect homosexual people without changing Catholic teaching. Is there not something to it?

Christina Cherry
Beings with severe behavioral disorders?

Christiane Florin © private

Christiane Florin, born. 1968, head of the cultural department of the weekly newspaper "Rheinischer Merkur" and lecturer in political science at the University of Bonn. Awarded the Ernst Robert Curtius Prize for Essay Writing.

Everywhere at present about the church and its external effect one speaks. TV viewers must think Catholics are beings with severe behavioral disorders – this is what Christiane Florin, editorial director of the ZEIT supplement "Christ und Welt," writes.

Christina Cherry
Expectations, impatience and anger are great

Churches, which as employers employ more than 1.2 million people throughout Germany, are increasingly faced with questions about church labor law. We present the most frequent questions and answers.

Why is there a separate church labor law in Germany??

The conditions under labor law for the more than 1.2 million employees of the churches and their welfare associations differ considerably from the provisions applicable to other employees. The basis for this is the Basic Law, which grants the religious and ideological communities a far-reaching right to self-administration and self-determination with regard to freedom of religion.

Christina Cherry
Without cross and bible

Pedro Sanchez © Francisco Seco

After the change of government, Spain's bishops fear that the new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will take an anti-clerical course. The has already signaled that it will pay little heed to church concerns.

The letter with which the Spanish Episcopal Conference congratulated the new Spanish Minsiterprasident Pedro Sanchez on Monday on the beginning of his term read rather dryly. Politically correct, but more detached than usual. The message is at the same time an unpromising omen for the future state-church relationship in the southern European country. For the appointment of the 46-year-old Socialist as head of government holds considerable potential for conflict with regard to the concerns of the Catholic Church.

Christina Cherry

With Volker Beck as the spokesman for religious policy in the Green parliamentary group, the churches lose a reliable, albeit disputatious, contact person. This is what the head of the Catholic Office in Berlin, Prelate Justen, says on our site interview.

Interviewer: How did you react when you heard that Volker Beck was resigning his posts?

Prelate Karl Justen (head of the Catholic Office in Berlin): I was shocked at first. I have always found Mr. Beck to be a very contentious, but also very reliable interlocutor. After all, he will remain in the German Bundestag – so I will certainly continue to work with him. That was not always easy, because Mr. Beck is also a very argumentative person, and he has also fought out one or two disputes with the two churches – especially with the Catholic Church. But always constructive. We also worked together very cooperatively on many ies. In the area of palliative medicine, hospice medicine, when it came to assisted suicide or the protection of life in general, Mr. Beck was always on our side – and will hopefully continue to be so.

Christina Cherry

Many Christian refugees in Germany are afraid of religiously motivated attacks. There is no separation by religion and origin in refugee accommodations so far. This must change, emphasizes Dr. Andreas Thiermeyer.

Interviewer: What do they think the church can and must do??

Dr. Andreas Thiermeyer (Refugee Commissioner of the Eichstatt Diocese): In any case, she should no longer remain silent. I now find this course very good, which is timidly taken after the New Year's Eve in Cologne. We simply have to stop displaying verbal balance, equidistance and political correctness at all costs. Injustice as injustice is to be named. There is no false equidistance here. Life and limb at stake.

Christina Cherry
Ban on headscarves for children?

Schoolgirl with headscarf © Wolfram Kastl

Girls under 14 should not be allowed to wear headscarves in NRW – that's the NRW state government's plan. At that age, it has nothing to do with religion, argues Minister President Laschet. He faces opposition from educators and lawyers in particular.

NRW Minister President Armin Laschet (CDU) has called on Muslim communities to support his state government's plans to ban headscarves for girls under 14 years of age. "The mosque communities could help here by having every imam explain to families during Friday prayers that girls wearing headscarves has nothing to do with religion," Laschet told the Evangelical Press Service (epd) in Dusseldorf.

Christina Cherry
Afd and christianity - (un)compatible?

Who is behind the AfD? What does the AfD want? Is she an electable alternative for Christians? The two major churches in Germany are concerned about the debate on this ie, especially after the predicted entry of the AfD into the Bundestag.

"We want to permanently preserve human dignity, the family with children, our occidental Christian culture, our language and tradition in a peaceful, democratic and sovereign nation-state of the German people," it already says in the preamble of the AfD party program. Without a doubt, the AfD attaches importance to a closeness to Christianity and its values.

Christina Cherry
White, christian, authoritarian

Among no voter group does U.S. President Trump have more support than among conservative white Christians. Why do they elect a man for whom faith is apparently only lip service? Sociologist of religion Philip Gorski has investigated.

Interviewer: Recently, a Catholic priest from Wisconsin threatened his faithful that whoever supported the Democrats would go to hell. He was backed up by the Texas bishop Joseph Strickland. Are these isolated cases or do they stand for a part of the Catholics in the USA?

Christina Cherry
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