The real thing, that is.
A Future for a Thoroughly Modern Church?
If the real Faith does not prevail in Germany, most Germans now accept that the State takeover of Church properties is inevitable, probably within two decades. This will be because the nearly 650,000 employees of the Church cannot be sustained by 9% of the income tax paid by dead Catholics. It's a demographic cliff that is looming.
Why is this country so important for Catholics outside Germany? In short, because its wealth makes it politically powerful; it remains the driving economic force of the European Union. Influence accompanies wealth, of course -- this is as true in the Vatican as it is in Congress, Parliament or the Bundestag.
But what of the future of Catholicism in a country with a declining population, no seminarians, disbelief in dogma -- which is openly antagonistic to the Faith?
Thanks be to God, it is not as bleak as it seems.
This is because -- unknown to most 'educated' Germans today - Catholicism formed their civilization, beginning with an English monk who found his way to Mainz in the 500s. And it continues today, with brave German Catholics risking ostracism from both their culture and their Church in order to pass the Faith on.
Our story begins with Boniface -- and "The Secret Catholic Insider Guide to Germany" goes on to show how St. Peter's Barque remains afloat in the stormiest of ideological seas.
Because even in Germany, the Faith will not die.
In Christ,
Beverly Stevens
Wiesbaden, Germany
March 2014
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