Pope Discusses Church Challenges in Germany

Question in English. Um,

today we were in Metz, very close to the German

border.

But so far you have not come to Germany yet.

Um, so my basic question is, when can we expect you

on the other side of the border?

And on the background of two developments which are

maybe worrying you as well,

the steady decline of Catholic Church in Germany,

and the astonishing rise of extremist parties

in Germany who threaten to tear up the consensus

for Europe, which you spoke about today in Metz.

Um, thank you for the question. Uh, with all humility, I'll say

it's only been about, uh, 15 months that I've been pope.

There's many places I have not yet visited. I do have an invitation.

I do hope to go again. Uh, I, I mean, I've been there before, but not as pope.

But I do hope to visit Germany,

uh, as I hope to visit many places. But I do not yet have

a schedule.

Uh, I'm still working on

next year and, and the only trip definitely planned

is World Youth Day in

Korea. Uh, so we're getting there.

But thank you for your patience and for the question.

Um, the, the phrase you said, the Church is dying in Germany, uh,

uh, or the diminishing numbers,

people have said that about France in the past,

and yet we saw what happened over the past four days.

Um, I believe that

if we find the true missionary spirit and the w- right way to go

about it, there are still many, many people in Germany who

want to live and celebrate their Christian and Catholic faith.

And, and so I'm optimistic about that, although I recognize the problems.

I recognize the different causes that have

hit the Church very hard, but it's hit the, if you will,

the Evangelical or

Protestant Church very hard as well.

Uh, and it has, has hit society

in the much the same way.

But I do hope to reach out. I do hope to continue to work

with leaders in the Church in Germany to find ways to respond to that.

It would be interesting to

study, analyze if and how there may be a

relationship, for example, to the growth of, uh,

these groups on the far right,

and even the far right is being splintered now, as you see one

particular group is becoming even much more extreme with

other so-called far-right groups.

At the same time with

some

expression of a combination of these far-right

points of view with a certain kind of religion,

which,

uh, in not only my view, but, uh, both the leaders of the Catholic

Church and the Protestant Church in Germany have spoken out about

that's not an authentic expression of Christianity.

And again, we can go back to the values of the

Gospel, which are not about

hatred and division, but they're about understanding and

compassion and accompanying.

I hope deeply, uh, and, and hopefully the Church can also

be a part of this, that we can find ways of, if you will,

reaching out to

a majority of people of goodwill who will understand how

important that their commitment, even

in terms of participating in political processes, will

enable them to make clear choices for the common good

and not for extremist ideas that

perhaps will do much more damage, uh, than, than we are even

aware of right now. So

I think we will all be encouraging in that sense, uh, again, on

our part as a church,

social doctrine of the church,

talking about, teaching about, preaching about what we believe are

these life-giving values and not destruction,

division and hatred.

Grazie, Santita. Grazie per le sue parole, per la sua disponibilita e grazie molte

per questi giorni di viaggio insieme.

Okay. Thank you all again for your service.

And I wanna take the opportunity to thank so many people

who are in the background that don't get the applause that the Pope

gets when he goes by, but were very much a part of putting this

trip together, both people in the Holy See,

the people in France, the bishops in

France, many, many laypeople who worked on the different

activities,

organizing them. So to say a special word of gratitude

to all of them and to you. Thank you very much.