Religious
leaders across Germany used their New Year's speeches to voice opposition to
xenophobia. The anti-Islamization movement PEGIDA has been gathering steam
throughout the nation in recent weeks.
Deutsche Welle, 1 Jan 2015
With an eye
to the increasing number of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the
Islamization of the West) demonstrations across Germany, church leaders have
called for solidarity and community spirit in 2015.
Cologne's
Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki said in his New Year's Eve sermon that "it
is not us in wealthy Europe who have a refugee problem, but the poor
neighboring countries of the crisis regions."
"This
is a truth we declare too little, too timidly, and too quietly," he added,
referring to the fact that of the 45 million displaced people in the world, 86
percent are sheltered in countries directly neighboring their homelands.
The
Archbishop of Aachen echoed Woelki's words, saying "we must show the
refugees that we take their suffering seriously and that they are welcome among
us."
Protestant
leader Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Bishop of Bavaria, also called for an end to
the exclusion of migrants. Despite a wave of anti-refugee feeling,
Bedford-Strohm called on the faithful to "stop with the division and let
everyone participate in the community."
"Open
yourselves up to the weak," he said, addressing his statement to the one
million Protestants in the mainly Catholic southern German state, before urging
them to partake in community service projects to help refugees. Engagement,
Bedford-Strohm said, is necessary for a free and happy society.
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel also criticized the movement in her pre-recorded New
Year's address, warning Germans not to follow PEGIDA because "their hearts
are cold and often full of prejudice."
es/pfd (KNA, dpa)
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