German bishops issue guidance on dismissing AfD members

The bishops have clarified criteria for dismissing supporters of “extremist” parties from Church positions

Germany’s bishops clarified Thursday their criteria for dismissing supporters of “extremist” parties from Church positions.

German bishops pictured during their Sept. 23-26, 2024, plenary meeting in Fulda. © Deutsche Bischofskonferenz/Marko Orlovic.

In a 36-page document published Sept. 26, the bishops said decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis, weighing the intensity of a person’s “extremist tendencies” and the prominence of the post he or she holds. 

“The basic idea is that no one should be excluded or stigmatized per se,” the text said. 

The bishops’ guidance, which is not binding on dioceses, comes seven months after they issued a landmark declaration condemning what they described as “racial (völkisch) nationalism.”

The declaration, prompted by the surging Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, ruled that “the dissemination of right-wing extremist slogans — including racism and anti-Semitism in particular — is incompatible with professional or voluntary service in the Church.”

The statement was notable because the Catholic Church is one of Germany’s biggest employers, with more than 700,000 people alone employed by Caritas. Germany also has an extensive network of Catholic associations, encompassing thousands of paid staff and volunteers.

Following the bishops’ declaration, AfD members began to be dismissed from Church positions. 

In April, the Diocese of Trier expelled a politician representing the AfD in a state parliament from a parish administrative council. 

In July, a 20-year-old AfD official was reportedly told he could no longer act as an altar server, lector, and occasional organist at a parish in Hamm, western Germany.

The new document offered advice on interpreting the German Church’s employment regulations, known as the Basic Order of Church Service, in light of the February declaration. 

The text said the regulations, which apply to volunteers as well as full-time employees, require those holding posts to identify with the Church’s goals and values. 

“These fundamental principles of the Catholic Church are not compatible with extremist positions or a racial [völkisch]-national ethos that aims at an unchanging cultural identity and a homogeneous community of descent and, as a result, systematically and regularly excludes people,” said the document, reportedly approved by the German bishops’ conference’s permanent council Aug. 26.

The text explained that because “not every member of the Church can be expected to have the same level of identification with the goals and values ​​of the Catholic institution,” it was necessary to distinguish between three different categories of people.

In the first category are those who lead Catholic institutions and associations. The document said that for leaders, membership in the AfD was “objectively capable of impairing the credibility of the Church.”

For people in the second category, who have pastoral, catechetical, or liturgical roles, or are employed in parish offices, “membership in a party or an extremist organization or advocacy for one alone is not sufficient to have direct legal consequences.” 

In the third category are people who “owe only the level of loyalty that is essential to carrying out their activities in Church service.” Violations can usually only be punished if they openly challenge the Church’s fundamental principles, the text said.

The new document mentioned the AfD 56 times. But it also cited the smaller Die Heimat (The Homeland) and Der III. Weg (Third Way) as examples of parties adopting right-wing extremist positions. It stressed that its principles applied to “all parties and organizations with a (right-wing or left-wing) extremist orientation.”

Explaining its focus on the AfD, the text said: “Members and representatives of the AfD often publicly advocate right-wing extremist positions that disregard human dignity and are diametrically opposed to the Christian view of humanity, the commandment to love one’s neighbor, and Catholic social doctrine, at least without sufficient distancing by official bodies of this party becoming known to the outside world, so that there is a contradiction to the Church’s order of values.” 

“While individual positions of other parties without an extremist stance may diverge from the Church’s teachings, their basic orientation does not contradict the Church’s values.”

“In the AfD, on the other hand, there are clear indications that a dominant part of the party aims to discriminate against people with a migrant background based on an ‘ethnocultural’ concept of ethnicity that is incompatible with human dignity.” 

The document added: “This concept of ethnicity is based on the idea of a culturally homogeneous population consisting exclusively of autochthonous Germans. It is characterized by the idea that peoples are distinguished from one another by an unchanging cultural identity and as a homogeneous community of descent.” 

In conclusion, the document said: “The basic idea is that an open and informative conversation with the member in Church service should always be held — regardless of the expected consequences.” 

“It can help to make clear to the person the incompatibility of right-wing extremist ideas with the fundamental principles of the Catholic Church and to encourage them to reorient themselves or change direction.” 

“This must regularly be distinguished from pastoral situations. The Catholic Church is a listening Church that is and remains always in open and respectful dialogue with people. Participation in community life itself, in church services, and in the sacraments is always expressly desired.”

The AfD performed strongly in September’s state elections, coming first in Thuringia, second in Saxony, and second in Brandenburg. 

Germans will vote in a federal election on Sept. 28, 2025. Opinion polls currently forecast the AfD will take second place, behind the Union parties (CDU/CSU).