German Cardinal Reinhard Marx
My latest article for National Catholic Register draws uncomfortable parallels between the comfy church-state relationship in England and that of the Catholic Church in Germany.
I’ll admit straight up that I am not an expert on the Catholic Church in Germany. I know Cardinal Walter Kasper and a good number of the German bishops are in favor of a more permissive approach to marriage discipline. I realize they have voted to change labor laws to approve of married same-sex couples.
I also know Germany has a famous “church tax” through which the Church is funded directly by the state. I realize many German Catholics are progressive in their attitudes toward Church discipline, family issues, liturgical questions and the Church’s relationship to the surrounding culture. I understand many are worried about the increasing submission of the German Catholic Church to the forces of secularization.
What I know about the Catholic Church in Germany makes me wonder: The parallels to the Church of England seem uncomfortably close.
Go here for the full article.
