What a person tells a priest or pastor in confession or pastoral care is protected by German law, even against the state. Section 138 of the Criminal Code obliges everyone to report certain planned serious crimes. Section 139 makes an exception: Ein Geistlicher ist nicht verpflichtet anzuzeigen, was ihm in seiner Eigenschaft als Seelsorger anvertraut worden ist. “A clergyman is not obliged to report what was entrusted to him in his role as pastor.” Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, clergy may also refuse to testify about it in court.
theology
The Cologne Declaration
In January 1989, 163 Catholic theologians signed the Kölner Erklärung, the Cologne Declaration. Its title was Wider die Entmündigung – für eine offene Katholizität, against being treated as minors, for an open catholicity. The signers criticized what they saw as the authoritarian style of the church leadership under Pope John Paul II. They asked that local churches have a stronger part in appointing bishops. One occasion was the appointment of Cardinal Joachim Meisner as Archbishop of Cologne. The signers said they wanted to contribute to a serious theological conversation. In all, more than 700 theologians worldwide supported it.
Subsidiarity
Subsidiarität, subsidiarity, means that what a smaller unit can do by itself should not be taken over by a larger one. A common short form is so niedrig wie möglich, so hoch wie nötig, as low as possible, as high as necessary. The classic formulation is in the papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno of 1931, which the Jesuit Oswald von Nell-Breuning and Gustav Gundlach drafted. The larger community may support the smaller one, but it darf sie aber niemals zerschlagen oder aufsaugen, may never smash or absorb it. Under Article 23 of the Basic Law, Germany takes part in building a European Union that is committed to the principle. German youth welfare law gives recognized independent providers priority over public ones.
Christ-Person and Office-Person
In 1523 Martin Luther wrote Von weltlicher Obrigkeit (On Secular Authority). In it he separated what a Christian does for himself from what he does for others. An dir und an dem Deinen hältst du dich nach dem Evangelium und leidest Unrecht für deinen Nächsten. In your own affairs, you keep to the Gospel and suffer injustice. An dem andern und an dem Seinen hältst du dich nach der Liebe und leidest kein Unrecht für deinen Nächsten. In the affairs of others, you keep to love and do not let injustice be done to your neighbor. This became known as the Lutheran distinction between the Christ-person and the world- or office-person, the Amtsperson.
Days of Rest and Spiritual Uplift
Article 139 of the Weimar Constitution of 11 August 1919 says: Der Sonntag und die staatlich anerkannten Feiertage bleiben als Tage der Arbeitsruhe und der seelischen Erhebung gesetzlich geschützt. Sundays and the public holidays recognized by the state remain protected by law as days of rest from work and of spiritual uplift. Through its Article 140, the Basic Law made this article part of today’s constitution.
The Luther Bible, Checked Verse by Verse
In 2006 the German Bible Society asked the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany to review the Luther Bible of 1984. About 70 theologians worked on the revision. They changed many more passages than had been expected. In the New Testament, almost half of all verses were changed. In some places, such as Psalm 42, they restored wording that the 1984 revision had changed, bringing the text closer to Luther’s language. The new edition went on sale on 19 October 2016, the first day of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The Leipzig Disputation
From 27 June to 16 July 1519, the theologian Johann Eck of Ingolstadt debated Andreas Karlstadt and Martin Luther of Wittenberg in the ducal palace in Leipzig. The question was the authority of the pope and the church. Every word, spoken in Latin, was taken down by recorders. Eck had himself celebrated as the winner. The church historian Armin Kohnle sees no clear winner. In the debate, Luther conceded that not all the teachings of Jan Hus, who had been burned as a heretic, were heretical.
The Book of Concord
After Luther’s death, his followers fell into theological disputes. On 25 June 1580, the fiftieth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the Konkordienbuch, the Book of Concord, appeared in Dresden in German. It already carried many signatures. As a body of doctrine, it was to give the Lutheran church a binding basis of faith. An earlier collection by Melanchthon from 1558 had not won general acceptance. Today, some Lutheran churches in Germany still name these writings as binding, and their pastors must commit to them at their ordination.
Bishops and Laity at One Table
In 2018, a study on sexual abuse in the German Catholic Church was published. In March 2019, the bishops responded with a unanimous decision for a verbindlichen Synodalen Weg, a binding synodal path. The bishops’ conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics, the lay organization, shared responsibility for it. In its assembly of more than 200 members, lay members voted with full rights alongside the bishops. A decision also needed a two-thirds majority of the bishops. It met five times in Frankfurt between 2020 and 2023. Rome objected. In July 2022, the Holy See declared that the Synodal Path was nicht befugt, not authorized, to oblige bishops and the faithful to accept new forms of church government.
We Reject the False Doctrine
On 31 May 1934, the Confessing Synod of the Protestant Church met in Wuppertal-Barmen and adopted a declaration written mainly by the theologian Karl Barth. It rejected the attempt by the pro-Nazi Deutsche Christen to subordinate the church to Nazi ideology and to build a centralized Reich Church. It has six theses. Each states a teaching and then names what it rejects, beginning with the words Wir verwerfen die falsche Lehre, we reject the false doctrine. Today the Barmen Declaration is printed in the Protestant hymnal. In many Reformed and United churches, pastors commit to it at their ordination.