Priests and layfolk alike in most parishes are loath to be quoted, too. This is because some Germans pay close -- and vocal -- attention to Church matters, odd for a people who are such professed agnostics. In a notorious recent case, the Bishop of Limburg was publicly humiliated, ostensibly for lavish spending. In a astounding display of group-think, this scion of a famous noble family was painfully crucified in the media, and forced to step down. More than a few priests have privately confided that the Bishop's crime did not involve money at all, but rather his efforts to instill orthodoxy in a diocese out of control.
German Church Slaps a Stigma on the Latin Mass
Clown Masses, 'masses' presided over by women, masses with liturgies made up on the fly -- according to many Catholics, the Latin Mass is the one innovation that the power structure of the German Church is loath to permit. For a country that is avowedly uninterested in ecclesiastical matters, online articles about the Latin Mass draw an astonishing amount of ire from commenters who assert that they are 'normal' Catholics. Unsurprisingly, Catholics who attend the Latin Mass will often not discuss this with their family or neighbors for fear of being ostracized.
Outsiders can be forgiven if they observe that this strange social stigma is redolent of an earlier, nastier era when opposition to Nazi ideology was similarly dealt with. (For more about what happened to those who resisted the zeitgeist during Nazi times, see here.) Fascinatingly, this smear on the Mass of Ages seems to stem from an apparently invented connection with Nazism.
Who made this odd connection? What is its nature? Diligent investigations for any proven historical evidence for this have led us precisely nowhere.The most we've been able to uncover is a distaste for tradition and an almost complete lack of historical perspective rooted in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s, which period in Germany has now assumed a halo of righteousness.
The greying '68-er' generation here -- university students in the pivotal year of 1968 -- continue to be revered for their 'brave' stance in opposing their parents' Nazi past. Their tastes and ideas dominate everything in Germany; it may or may not be merely coincidental that their children are failing to form families. One thing is certain: the imminent passing of this 68-er generation will go unmarked by Last Rites, and they will not be mourned at Requiem Masses.
But it is possible that the stigma surrounding the Latin Mass is merely evidence of the Arian power structure's terror of being supplanted. After all, there are only two forces which such a thoroughly modern Church has to fear: secularization (when the State grabs the Church's assets) or the influence of the Faith, itself.
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