The future Archbishop of Bamberg Herwig Gössl has taken an oath of loyalty to the constitution. This is stipulated for new bishops in the state church agreement between Bavaria and the Vatican. Gössl is already an auxiliary bishop in Bamberg and will officially take up the office of archbishop on March 2nd. He took the oath on Monday in front of Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
According to a statement at the ceremony in Munich, Gössl said that he sees it as the task of church and state to work together “so that the hope of salvation prevails in people’s hearts, so that the people-catchers and populists do not gain ground and peace on earth can grow”. The church is repeatedly asked to stay out of politics and focus on the faith. It is true that it is not the church’s job to intervene in detail in daily politics or to express party politics. However, it is not possible to separate the area of faith from the questions of people’s lives.
“People of faith will hopefully continue to be politically and socially active in the future and, in their decisions, stand up for values that they do not have of their own accord and that they do not subordinate to the – supposed – majority opinion,” said Gössl. The oath formula states, among other things: “Before God and on the Holy Gospels, as befits a bishop, I swear and promise loyalty to Germany and Bavaria. I swear and promise to respect the constitutionally formed government and to respect my clergy let.”