For the Catholic bishops it is clear: ethnic-nationalist ideas do not suit their church. The communities themselves have to explore what this means for dealing with volunteers in practice.
Gerd Möller appears calm. But the decision of the Catholic priest from Weil am Rhein in Baden-Württemberg made headlines. It’s about a volunteer, Edith Tucci, who occasionally came to local Catholic kindergartens to do puppet shows.
The priest and the daycare management no longer want this. The reason: Tucci is running for the local council on the AfD electoral list.
Christian view of humanity as orientation
Möller considers this to be incompatible with the values of the Catholic Church – for him the Christian view of humanity and the commitment to human dignity are the “model”. The AfD with its “ethnic-nationalist tendencies” and an “exclusionary view of humanity” would stand against this.
The priest is guided by the German bishops’ explanation on the topic. In February, the Bishops’ Conference – the central body of Catholic bishops in Germany – made it clear: “Ethnic nationalism and Christianity are incompatible.” And named the AfD as a central example.
The core business is pastoral care and not politics
Edith Tucci is very disappointed about the exclusion from volunteer work, “because I worked in one kindergarten for over 20 years, know the colleagues very well and would have expected a little more backbone.” The pensioner says this in an interview with SWR shortly before Easter.
But she is particularly angry with Pastor Möller. For her, the “core business” of churches is pastoral care and preaching the Gospel: “I find it difficult when a church gets involved in political stories.”
Gospel in danger?
Möller sees it differently: “If you position yourself, you become vulnerable. But it would be wrong not to take a position when the gospel is in danger.” The clergyman sees the efforts of parties like the AfD as such a danger. Parts of the party are classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
If someone publicly stands for such a party, it doesn’t suit his church, says the pastor. Therefore, the collaboration with Tucci is “suspended”.
AfD candidacy is a problem even without membership
Edith Tucci is not a member of the AfD. But her candidacy for the AfD electoral list is “a clear commitment to the values and concerns” of the party, says Pastor Möller. Tucci says she is fundamentally skeptical about political parties, but the “traditional family” is very important to her and she feels that the AfD understands her best. She finds the government’s climate and transport policy to be “unsteady”, as have the Corona measures of recent years.
Above all, she is concerned with the issue of immigration. The former educator emphasizes that she has provided language support for children with a migrant background for many years, but it is “a problem when a country becomes increasingly foreign. Then integration, assimilation is no longer possible at all – and we are already there in Germany the point.”
She sees “sensible approaches” in the case of the Austrian right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, and she describes Correctiv’s research into the meeting in Potsdam, at which plans for mass expulsion were said to have been discussed, as a “huge spectacle and farce.” She no longer wants to talk to public broadcasters.
Examination of a case in Saarland
The case in Weil am Rhein is not the only one that has sparked discussions. Christoph Schaufert is in the AfD and on the church council of the parish of St. Marien in Neunkirchen. At least so far.
Because of his party membership, the local council no longer wants the Saarland member of the state parliament there and also refers to the statement from the bishops’ conference.
Exclusion from volunteer work is difficult
The examination is currently underway at the responsible diocese of Trier. Unlike the Tucci case, which no longer formally belongs to a church, this is about a Catholic voluntary position into which Schaufert was elected.
Excluding people from volunteering in the church is a difficult process, says Thomas Schüller. The canon lawyer from the University of Münster explains that a lot of things have not yet been regulated – unlike when dealing with full-time employees.
Legal basis demanded by bishops
The statement by the bishops’ conference was initially just a political positioning. That was important, but there must now be clear statements about how the communities should deal with it.
Schüller sees the bishops as having a duty to draw up appropriate rules instead of passing such decisions on to the individual parishes. Currently, most dioceses lack a “clean legal basis”. Only the dioceses of Würzburg and Berlin have regulations on this in their statutes.
The canon lawyer doesn’t think much of explicitly naming a party. Rather, the question of who to exclude should be about verifiable statements or behavior. If someone is racist, anti-Semitic or contemptuous of democracy, their party affiliation doesn’t matter.
However, someone who accepts a candidacy or a mandate for a certain party also represents an “identification with the party as a whole” and its contents and cannot then excuse themselves if these are problematic.
There are no specific regulations
The church can set conditions for those who work on a voluntary basis, emphasizes Schüller. If you exclude someone from a committee, it is important that those affected have a legal recourse to be able to defend themselves against a decision. He criticizes the fact that many bishops avoided making more concrete regulations because they shied away from conflict.
In the case of the Saarland AfD MP, the diocese of Trier wants to announce the results of the examination today. In Weil am Rhein, Pastor Möller says he stands by his decision, but his door is not locked.