„We are Pope“! – The Germans and their difficult relationship with the Catholic Church and its leader

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Germany´s biggest popular newspaper enthusiastically titled: We are Pope! Like: We are World Champion! It was an irritating show of German national self-confidence that had nothing to do with a particular liking of Ratzinger (which didn´t exist back then) nor with the fact that being the Pope´s home country was actually a dream we always wanted to fulfill (like becoming soccer champion). In fact, there had been a longer story of criticism, yes even resentment for the man that from now on would at least represent the German Catholics for the next, say, decade. ´
Germany´s Christian population is basically divided into 50 percent Protestants and 50 percent Catholics. Germany´s Protestants have a long tradition of being progressive, worldly and politically somewhere at the left wing. Ratzinger, old enough to be a living legacy of the Third Reich (it is known now that he was member of the Hitlerjugend) represents Germany´s Bavarian south, the politically and socially most conservative part of the country and its people. Hence, Ratzinger was never really “our” Pope from day one, since his and his followers´ opinions on many subjects, like abortion, the role of females in society, homosexuality, early childhood education etc. were some thirty years behind of what the majority of people believe in.
The Catholic Church in Germany has a long tradition of getting involved (or involving herself) in to politics and the public debate, especially when it comes to matters of law, moral, gender and education. In the 1970s, when the government decided to make major changes on the abortion law and the marriage law, the Catholic Church became a loud and back then an influential opponent of the reform movement. Nowadays, German´s still pay the historical “Zehnten”, originally ten percent of the year´s harvest, nowadays around eight percent taxes on the monthly income that end up in the pockets of their church. If you don´t want to pay the Kirchensteuer (church tax) your only way around is to leave your church for good. If you are a devout Christian, but you maybe don´t agree on everything the Church does with this money, well, you have to suck it up. Stay and stay with it or leave.
This idea is crucial to the way Benedict XVI predicts the future of his church. In his books (for example: Salt of the Earth. The Church at the End of the Millennium) he made one point clear: his will to allow as less changes as necessary and to keep the Church as close to traditional doctrine as possible. Giving into the wishes and needs of many modern and more profane oriented followers is not on his agenda at all. Rosinenpickerei, cherry picking, is what he blames younger generations and the average people of our time for. If that means, that the Catholic Church will be a much smaller, but more cohesive community in the future, so be it. Such opinions are rightfully his, especially since they make some sense out of his perspective. It just shows a lot about his vision of Christianity and even more, about how he sees the Catholic Church as an institution. Modernity, this was proven by German author and publisher Alan Posener in his recent book on Pope Benedict, is as appealing to Benedict as to many (so-called) Muslim extremists in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Knowing this, it isn´t much of a surprise that the Catholic Church and Rome still put their INSTITUTION in front of the well being of their believers and in front of the basic idea of Christianity: altruism. Nothing else is the background of the latest scandal in Germany: not of the ongoing and widespread abuse of children through Christian clergymen but of the cover-up trough said clergymen. It is the believe that the Catholic Church as an institution should be an insular “brotherhood” of powerful priests that lead the mass of obedient believers instead of being a transparent, integral part of a democratic community. The Church still deals with its affairs like a secret society would do.
Knowing Benedict XVI., his believes and that of other important Bishops, like Walter Mixa, Bishop of Augsburg, the recent revelations might be shocking but not surprising, at least not the way the Church had handled the situation in the past. When the Pope´s brother admitted, that he had slapped his choir pupils a decade ago, when he was the leader of the famous Regensburger choir, this admission added only to the overall picture that Germans have of their Pope. Did we really expect anything different? This whole controversy only drives further apart what has been estranged for a long time. The ultra-conservative voices of the Joseph Ratzingers and Walter Mixas of this world might still be heard a bit longer, however, the last years have, especially compared to the Sixties and Seventies, already shown the diminishing influence of Christianity on public debate and politics. This might leave some people happy, nevertheless, Christianity is one on the fundaments of European Culture. This should not be neglected.
The unveiling of abuse and terror over decades, which started in the United States of America and in Ireland has now finally reached the rest of Europe. And it is spreading, from Germany to Austria, Switzerland to the one Catholic mansion since the famous Reyes Católicos, the Spanish Kings: Spain. The consequences are yet to be seen, but there is no doubt that the Institution of the Church and the Vatican will be shaken up badly. Behind the turmoil might be the future shape of the Church: a small group of “true believers” under the leadership of an unworldly sect or a modernized version of one of the world´s oldest institutions, were the European Clique has less influence and the progressive forces in Latin America, Asia and Africa a bit more.