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Church man Marx: "He was a good bishop for ecumenism"
Photo: Matthias Balk / dpa
A small casserole has formed on the lawn in front of the brick church.
There are those who no longer fit into the fully occupied church space according to the Corona rules.
And also a few onlookers.
After all, there isn't a prominent churchman on call to watch every day.
The bells ring, then acolytes, pastors and cardinal line up to move in.
"Fight on," calls out one of the crowd to the cardinal.
"Yes, the struggle goes on," replies Reinhard Marx before entering the church.
The appointment in the parish church of St. Konrad in the Munich district of Haar has suddenly taken on a current meaning.
The Archbishop of Munich and Freising actually came to consecrate a new altar on Sunday afternoon.
But more than the future of the newly renovated house of God concerns the guests with the future of their bishop.
It has been two days since Marx announced that he had asked the Pope to withdraw as archbishop.
"In essence, for me," wrote Marx in a letter to the pontiff, "I share responsibility for the catastrophe of sexual abuse by church officials in recent decades."
The request causes a church quake, with officials as well as with the faithful.
A sign, but what for?
"Courageous, commendable" was the cardinal's move, says a woman in front of the St. Konrads Church in Haar.
"He was a good bishop for ecumenism." She would appreciate it if Marx continued.
Another waiting woman says: "He has set a sign." But she is not clear how this will be received by the church.
The voices from the grassroots reflect the situation within the church almost exactly: Whether Marx will trigger a dynamic, whether this dynamic will turn out in his favor, cannot yet be foreseen.
Even strategically, the plan would be difficult, if there is one behind it: How is a reformer's retreat to induce the forces of persistence to give in or to retreat as well?
One of Marx's opponents, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki from Cologne, signaled that he wanted to stay.
He will do everything to ensure, according to Woelki on Cologne Cathedral Radio, "that the process of coming to terms with it will continue and that I and we will do justice to Jesus' mission."
From this week Woelki will have to deal with two apostolic visitors whom the Pope sent to Cologne to investigate possible wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, there is growing concern among supporters of the Munich archbishop that the momentum will fizzle out.
Because first of all, liberal Catholics threaten to lose the leading figure.
In his diocese and beyond, Marx is seen as an actor who repeatedly interfered in political discussions.
Initially mentioned in the same breath as conservatives like Joachim Meisner or Walter Mixa, Marx increasingly distinguished himself as a left-wing social ethicist.
He headed a book critical of capitalism in the year of the financial crisis in 2008 with the title “Das Kapital”, based on the namesake Karl Marx.
Criticism of Söder's crucifixion
After the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Marx advocated a quick nuclear phase-out. In the 2015 migration crisis, he refused to use rhetoric of isolation from refugees. In 2019, to commemorate people who drowned in the Mediterranean, he had a wooden boat put up for a short time in the sanctuary of the Frauenkirche in Munich. Marx also criticized the CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder for his decree to have crosses hung in the entrance areas of state buildings.
Marx was less popular with the sensitive issue of dealing with sexualized violence by church members. It is true that he was the first bishop to initiate such an investigation. In the spring, however, Marx renounced the Federal Cross of Merit. Victim representatives from Cologne and Trier had criticized him for possible failures during his time as Bishop of Trier.
Now victim representatives reacted with respect: "With this decision, Reinhard Cardinal Marx made it clear that the previous processing process was insufficient and must be given a new quality," said the commission for processing sexual abuse cases in the Diocese of Munich-Freising.
The spokesman for the initiative »Eckiger Tisch« said: »Marx understood that those who dragged the cart in the dirt cannot pull it out again at the same time."
Many lay people and councilors in the Catholic Church expressed the wish that the archbishop should remain in office.
"The Catholic Church in Bavaria needs Cardinal Reinhard Marx," declared the state chairman of the Committee of Catholics in Bavaria, Joachim Unterländer.
How the personality will end is uncertain.
In the Haarer service on Sunday, Marx said: “I am not tired of my office.” And: “My service for the Church is unbroken and full of joy wherever it will happen.
That is the business of God and the Holy Father. "
An answer from Rome is still pending.