THE CHURCH IN GERMANY

New Zealand Tablet, 7 September 1911, Page 1763

THE CHURCH IN GERMANY

From the advance bulletins of the population statistics of the German Empire the growth and progress of Catholicity in the Kaiser’s vast domain make a splendid showing (says the Indiana Catholic). Newspapers of all views in Germany are making comment on the figures. Mr. Robert Berry, an American journalist and magazine writer, has been analysing the figures of the religious, denominations in Germany coming down to the latest information at hand. He has been' right on the scene. He is not a Catholic, but a Protestant. Treating what he calls ‘ the battlefield of the creeds in Germany,’ Mr. Berry writes:— ‘The progress made by the Catholic Church in Germany in the last four decades is Unparalleled in the Annals of Christianity.’ The increase in the number of Catholics in the German State since 1870 he places at 77 per cent. Ever since the Reformation, Germany, he says, has been divided into two great camps Protestant and Catholic. By the Imperial Constitution, complete freedom of conscience and absolute toleration are assured to all Germans ; but in the carrying out of that condition, a considerable difference is made between the sects, Jews and Dissenters being made to suffer many disadvantages. For the rank of officer in the active army or navy, for example, Hebrews are not eligible. In the case of sects not in union with the Lutheran Church, only civil marriage is recognised as valid; their baptismal rite is not officially recognised, and they are deprived of burial in consecrated ground. Religion has undoubtedly exercised an immense influence on the life and development of the Empire. After the French war, in all probability, in consequence of the general mourning, Germany for a period seemed to be overflowing with religious fervor. The movement for Sunday observance became powerful, and, helped by the demands of the workers, a weekly day of rest is now compulsory. Nevertheless (says Mr. Berry),

there has developed a feeling of indifference and a wholesale desertion of the State Church and the sects, especially by the working classes. The religion of the State is Lutheran, or evangehcal, which numbers about 50 per cent. j then comes the Catholic, _ numbering about 36 per cent, of the nation. Remarkable evidence of the activity of the Catholics in the States now forming the German Federation is shown by the fact that during 40 years it has increased 77 per cent. The number of establishments belonging to Catholic brotherhoods and sisterhoods increased in the same period , from about 1000 to 5200 ; the number of persons residing in these places rose from less than 10,000 to nearly 60,000. To judge by the increase in numbers the Catholic Church appeals more to the sympathies of the people than does the Protestant. At any rate, the priest is nearly always J More Popular than the State Pastor. , -E >er^a P s the thrifty manner of life of the Catholic priest appeals directly to the peasants, for the Catholic Crunch finds the majority of its adherents in the agricultural districts. The priest lives among them very modestly on _ his small guaranteed stipend, and takes an interest in everything that happens in his parish. In many cases, he is himself a son"of the soil. He has to pass through a training that is probably more severe than that of the Protestant pastor, and is always under a stricter discipline. His education is obtained at one of the universities that possess a Catholic theological faculty, of which there are eight, namely—Munich, Strasburg, Bonn, Breslau, Munster, Tubingen, wurtzberg, and Freiburg. When he concludes he is usually dispensed from active military service, and begins his cure with about 400 dollars annually ; after five years, about 500 dollars, and by different gradations to 800 dollars after twenty-five years’ service. This is raised by collection if possible; in the case ot poor parishes it is raised by means of a Church Tax raised pro rata on the income-tax of Catholic parishloners. , The Prussian Governments grants nearly JOO ,000 dollars yearly to the Catholic Church to assist in the payment of stipends. , Indifferentism, concludes Mr. Berry, is by long odds far more rife in the Protestant than in the Catholic Ghurch, and defections from church attendance are more frequent.