If The Vines Could Talk
Germany’s Best Kept Catholic Secret
by Beverly Stevens
hey are everywhere. Vines, stretching for miles – on scalloped terraces
rising over the winding Moselle River, ranging across the wide-open spaces in Franconia and the Palatinate, enveloping the mighty Rhine. “How many of you were raised here?” I recently asked a class of German teens. Ninety percent of the 16 year-olds raised their hands. “Okay, so who created these vineyards?”
Stumping the German Students
I gestured out the window to the vines covering miles of gentle slopes down to the Rhine. The students exchanged glances, shrugging.
“The Romans?” ventured one brave boy whose family farms the vineyards here.
“Nope,” I said. “Let’s try this again. Who cut down the trees, hauled away the stumps and prepared all these kilometers of land to grow grapes? I’ll give you a hint. It happened way before electricity and the combustion engine…”
Forget the scandal of the bishops. Ignore the empty churches. Look, instead, at the land itself, and the story of the Catholic Church in Germany will reveal itself to you.
T
Photos by Beverly Stevens
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