The Bavarians won’t stop calling themselves Catholic any more than they will stop calling themselves Bavarian, and for the same reason: it is their honorable and historical identity. To be Bavarian is to be Catholic, and both qualities spring from the same soil.
The fierce independence of the Bavarian is connected to the cycles of his natural environment, and his Catholicism is a product and a reflection of that same environment. Although Europe’s postmodern secularism has infected Germany as a whole, it has not and will not gain the same ground in Bavaria.
Just as God allows the fallen-away Catholic to stray a bit before calling him back to that which he has forgotten, the Bavarian will always be summoned by a rediscovery of the natural beauty all around him. The patterns of life that have been built into that natural order form a rhythm that harkens to God.
In a land so reflective of God’s own beauty, one can only wander so far. All Bavarian paths wind their way back to their Creator -- and the wanderer joyfully discovers that He is good.
REGINA | 53