The worries in the pandemic also overshadow the “festival of love”. In their Christmas sermons, representatives of the churches talk about related needs, and the suffering of the refugees is also an issue.
Mainz / Limburg – Representatives of the churches focused on the difficulties of the corona pandemic and the fate of refugees at Christmas.
The Bishop of Mainz, Peter Kohlgraf, sees no end to the social debates in view of the pandemic. “We are celebrating Christmas in a time of many wounded souls,” said Kohlgraf after a text of his Christmas sermon on Saturday in Mainz Cathedral that had been disseminated in advance. Some have contracted the virus themselves, have lost concern about their professional and existential future, or have lost a person through death. Others felt violated by the Corona rules that they did not understand, they felt marginalized and degraded. The consequences can be heard loudly.
Address about self-doubt
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, spoke about self-doubt in his Christmas sermon. Many people, even in privileged societies such as Germany, suffered from it, said the Limburg bishop on Saturday in Limburg Cathedral. He asked himself how things would then have to go to those who were systematically deprived of their livelihoods. “They have to flee because desertification and drought, floods and other catastrophes destroy their living space or because they have only known war and fear since childhood – and are then used at the borders of Europe in the calculation of an autocratic ruler.”
With this, Bätzing alluded to the situation of the refugees stranded between Belarus and Poland. Bätzing further asked: “How do they get along with themselves who are chased just because they are impaired, have a different skin color, a different gender identity, because they believe differently or belong to a different cultural background?” Faith could help accept it myself, said Bätzing. Because according to Christian conviction, every person should feel as he is accepted by God.
The Fulda Bishop Michael Gerber renewed his vaccination call in his Christmas sermon. If you are out and about in the cold fog without appropriate clothing, you endanger your own health, and if you drive without headlights, you also endanger others, he emphasized. Preventive protective measures and especially vaccination can also be understood as an act of gratitude to God. “After all, he gave us the intelligence with which we can investigate causes and avert dangers,” stressed Gerber. “Trust in God does not just replace trust in medicine.” Dpa
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