At the weekend, the executive committee of the Humanist Association of Germany sent an open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the letter, the Chancellor is called upon to represent the position of “an open, democratic society and to clearly address the deficits of the Catholic Church in recognizing and implementing the principles laid down in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights” at the meeting planned with Benedict XVI in September. The letter also addresses the historical state contributions to the Catholic Church in Germany, discrimination against non-denominational, non-religious people and people employed by the Church, the urgent need for reform in the area of sexual and reproductive ethics and the association’s position on Benedict XVI’s role as head of state and status at the United Nations. The letter also calls on the Federal Chancellor to maintain a protocol in line with the secular form of government of the Federal Republic of Germany when meeting with the head of the Catholic Church and to “unequivocally demand the complete clarification of the offenses committed by Catholic priests and religious against children in homes and boarding schools.” The Humanist Association of Germany thus endorsed the tenor of a letter sent to the Federal Chancellor last week by the Giordano Bruno Foundation, which formulated similar demands. However, the association’s executive committee did not agree with the appeal to the Chancellor to convince Benedict XVI to turn away from the planned beatification of Pius XII. Beatifications were judged to be a procedure in which the Church should act sovereignly. “We have turned to the Federal Chancellor to formulate our expectations of Angela Merkel in terms of criticizing the actual deficits in the Church’s policies for which Benedict XVI is responsible, which are the most pressing from a humanitarian perspective today,” explained Association President Frieder Otto Wolf. In doing so, the association is not only fulfilling its role as a worldview community within the meaning of the Basic Law and representing the interests of non-denominational and non-religious people in Germany. “The Open Letter is also intended to provide support and backing for critical voices within the Catholic and Protestant churches. We saw this as a personal obligation that can be justified in the self-image of humanists,” Wolf continued. He referred to the Freedom Memorandum published in the spring, the theses formulated in May by the Association of Catholic Youth on the further development of the Church and the reform movements at the base of the church community. The association hopes that, as a result, Chancellor Angela Merkel will not only broaden her view of the opinions of the large number of non-denominational people in Germany, but also take note of the many critical voices of Christians who do not seem to be able to make themselves sufficiently heard on these issues. After all, Angela Merkel has repeatedly emphasized in the past that she wants to be the chancellor of all citizens in Germany.
Finally, the letter states the following with regard to the calls for the Federal Chancellor to criticize the abuses in the church led by Benedict XVI: “As the head of our country’s government, you have the opportunity and therefore the humanitarian duty to work towards change here.” The association expects Chancellor Angela Merkel to “assert indivisible human rights even where they run counter to church traditions” and to give the primacy of the precepts of genuine humanity the necessary validity in the meeting with Benedict XVI.
