This leads us to the question of the German's idiosyncratic culture. Many have asked how such a modern, forward-thinking nation as 19th century Germany could turn into the war machine of the early 20th century -- and the purveyor of death and destruction of the Shoah. This is a troubling question, particularly for the generations who have come afterwards.
Modernizing the Germans
Since the last War, German social engineers have endeavored to instill anti-conformism in a culture with a several-thousand year history of strict conformity to authority. They have succeeded mainly in making Germany's young people conform in their enthusiasm for consumerism, internet-fueled trends and exotic vacationing.
One thing that most young Germans are not doing is getting married and having children. Despite government subsidies for each child, under the burden of mass derision for the traditional 'hausfrau' role, families are simply failing to form. Anecdotal evidence from a few German young families reveals strangers lecturing parents with more than two children about their 'anti-social' tendencies; having a family in Germany is decidedly not 'cool.'
Today, we see these cultural forces -- ideology, conformism and materialism -- at play once again in Germany's Catholics. According to the German bishops' own statistics, the Catholic Church is Germany is in imminent danger -- Catholics are leaving in droves and the vast majority of those who remain in the Church do not attend Mass. (For more about why people are leaving, see here.)
Mass-goers are inevitably over age seventy; they sit passively while gray-haired priests harangue them about politics. (Afterwards, when asked about the content of the homily, most will shrug merrily and admit they were not paying attention. At all.) Younger people will only darken the door of a Church for the rare family wedding, first Holy Communion or baptism.
Funerals in this aging country are so common, however, that priests in some dioceses can't be spared for them. Catholics are often cremated and interred -- or their ashes spread over forest floors -- without benefit of clergy. In many parishes, a once-a-month Requiem Mass is celebrated for anyone in the parish who has died; these are sparsely attended.
Fabulously Rich & Famously Liberal
What's going on? The Church in Germany is fabulously rich -- the beneficiary of a financial system which routes 9% of the income tax paid by Catholics into the Church's coffers.
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