Organisations intimately linked with the German Catholic Church are plotting bans on so-called “right-wing extremists” amid an ongoing conflict with the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party.
Multiple organisations within the church have now backed banning any members of the party from taking even the most minor of lay-offices over claims the AfD operates in opposition to the church and its values.
Thomas Schüller, a senior canon-law expert in the country, has now urged a wider barring of all “right-wing extremists” from holding any form of authority within church organisations.
While many are pushing for a more specific prohibition on AfD members in particular from holding official offices, Schüller argued a blanket ban on all those deemed “xenophobic, racist and anti-Semitic” would prove more effective.
“It makes little sense to focus on specific party membership,” he said, adding that nothing was forcing individual German Catholics to reveal their party affiliations.
Such a ban, which Schüller said should apply to “all diocesan and parish committees”, has seemingly been backed by the country’s Central Committee of Catholics, a lay organisation closely tied to the church.
“As an organised representation of Catholic civil society in Germany, we are currently revising our own statutes,” a spokesman for the Committee said.
According to the representative, it is examining an “exclusion clause for dealing with members who represent views that fundamentally contradict the Christian view of humanity”.
“We are aware that similar strategies and statute revisions are being discussed everywhere,” the spokesman added.
Catholics in Germany are not permitted to vote for the populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party over its alleged “ethnic nationalist” views, the country’s association of bishops has said. https://t.co/Uhu1P4To8w
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) February 23, 2024
Efforts to tighten bans on “right-wing extremists” come amid the Catholic Church’s continued quest to marginalise pro-AfD factions within the religion.
Renewed discussions on an AfD bar follow a statement by German bishops on February 23 attacking the party as “extremist”.
The Catholic clergy argued it represented, in part, a push for “ethnic nationalist” views, something church chiefs described as being fundamentally incompatible with its teachings.
As such, they said, no true Catholic could in good conscience vote for or support the AfD.
That spurred retaliation from AfD politicians.
Maximilian Krah, the party’s lead candidate for the June European Parliament elections and himself a practising Catholic, attacked efforts by the clergy to “marginalise” the group within the church.
Speaking to Brussels Signal, he also denounced what he saw as a continued left-wing drift within the church, arguing that such a shift could only result in “failure”.
“Since the Catholic Church lost its faith, it now tries to substitute it with left-wing politics: climate, immigration and gender instead of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the new trinity,” he said.
“It will fail miserably. The current statement regarding the AfD is already part of that failure.”
High-ranking officials within the Catholic Church are reportedly some of the many employees who have been caught trying to access pornography on their work devices. https://t.co/af490ytKrG
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 18, 2023
