Migration debate divides German bishops

Lay groups are also at odds over a push to tighten immigration laws.

A push to tighten Germany’s immigration laws has exposed divisions among the country’s Catholics — including within the episcopal conference itself.

The Bundestag, the German federal parliament, in Berlin. CC BY-SA 3.0, A. Delesse (Prométhée).

On the eve of a major debate in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, the Catholic Office in Berlin, which lobbies on behalf of the German bishops’ conference, and the Protestant Germany in Germany (EKD) issued a joint appeal to lawmakers, ahead of a snap federal election Feb. 23.

The Jan. 28 statement criticized the Influx Limitation Act, proposed by Germany’s conservative Union parties (CDU/CSU), ahead of a debate on a motion presenting a five-point plan for restricting migration.

An accompanying letter, signed by Catholic Office head Msgr. Karl Jüsten and EKD representative Anne Gidion, expressed fears that German democracy would “suffer massive damage” if the Union parties cooperated with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is widely described as far-right but rejects the term.

But the German bishops’ conference unexpectedly distanced itself from the joint intervention in a Jan. 29 email to diocesan bishops.

The email, signed by general secretary Beate Gilles, said the joint appeal was sent to politicians and the press without coordinating with the bishops’ conference secretariat.

Gilles said the majority opinion within the bishops’ conference permanent council was that “in the current situation it does not make sense to intervene publicly in the debate and thus in the election campaign.”

“I therefore recommend that we refrain from making any further statements,” she advised the bishops.

The email surprised observers because the Catholic Office in Berlin liaises with Germany’s federal institutions on behalf of the bishops’ conference. According to its website, it “works directly with the chairman of the German bishops’ conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing.”

Two bishops have criticized the joint statement publicly, while one has defended it.

Regensburg’s Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer told Communio: “I distance myself formally from it. Unfortunately, the German bishops’ conference can no longer speak with one voice, as the statement claims.”

Eichstätt’s Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke said he was “surprised and very irritated by the announcement, as it did not come from the bishops’ conference, but it gives this impression.”

But Speyer’s Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann said he supported the intervention.

“We are very concerned to see how positions are once again becoming socially acceptable and terms are once again being used, and parties that question the fundamental values of our social coexistence and our democracy are gaining popularity,” he commented.

Beate Gilles, general secretary of the German bishops' conference. Schnelle/Deutsche Bischofskonferenz.

The non-binding motion on restricting immigration passed narrowly in the Bundestag Jan. 29 thanks to AfD support.

The vote sent shockwaves through Germany — the most populous and influential country in the European Union, a political and economic union of 27 member states — because it shattered a taboo among established parties against cooperating with the AfD.

Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor from 2005 to 2021, said Jan. 30 that it was wrong for her party, the CDU, to abandon the convention.

The vote came days before the federal election in which the AfD is expected to come second, behind the Union parties. This would mark a significant change in the German political world.

After World War II, two parties dominated German politics, the center-left Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the center-right CDU, with a tacit agreement that there should be no significant political force further to the right of the CDU.

But following the AfD’s creation in 2013, the arrival of a record 1.1 million asylum seekers in 2015, the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukraine war, and a cost of living crisis, Germany’s political landscape was transformed.

Amid what commentators call a “Rechtsruck,” or rightward shift, in Germany and other European countries, the AfD won its first state election in September 2024.

If the AfD achieves unprecedented success in the federal election, as pollsters predict, it will pose a dilemma for the German bishops, who have discouraged Catholics from voting for the party and indicated that AfD members should not hold posts in the Church.

The German bishops’ conference unanimously approved a statement in February condemning what they called “racial (völkisch) nationalism.”

“After several waves of radicalization, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in particular is now dominated by a racial-nationalist attitude,” the bishops said.

The bishops added 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.”

Several AfD members were removed from Church posts following the bishops’ statement.

Meanwhile, at the start of 2025, a priest in the southern town of Erding was reported to police for a New Year’s Eve homily in which he strongly criticized the AfD’s leadership.

The German Church news website katholisch.de reported Jan. 30 that the public prosecutor had closed an investigation against the priest, concluding that the homily did not “constitute a criminal offense.”

Bundestag members are expected to vote on the Influx Limitation Act Jan. 31.

The drive to restrict immigration gained momentum following a Dec. 20 car attack at a Christmas market in the central German city of Magdeburg that killed six people and injured almost 300 others. Police at the scene arrested the Saudi Arabian psychiatrist Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, who gained political asylum in Germany in 2016.

The debate was further intensified by the Jan. 22 stabbing of a 41-year-old man and a two-year-old boy in the southern city of Aschaffenburg. Police said the suspect was from Afghanistan.

The Influx Limitation Act has highlighted divisions not only within the bishops’ conference apparatus, but also among lay groups.

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der katholischen Studentenverbände (AGV), which describes itself as Germany’s largest association of Catholic students, clashed this week with the Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend (BDKJ), an umbrella body for Catholic youth organizations.

In a Jan. 28 open letter, the AGV criticized an Instagram post by the BDKJ apparently directed at the Union parties.

The post said: “‘If you can only realize your plans with the help of enemies of democracy and humanity, then perhaps your plans are simply anti-democratic and anti-human.”

It added: “Anyone who wants to make common cause with the AfD to pursue nationalist policies that only bring more division instead of security cannot be a choice for the Now Generation.”

The “Now Generation” refers to a campaign launched by the BDKJ promoting “a democratic society that is fair to all generations.”

The AGV accused the BDKJ of overstepping its remit by effectively issuing “an election recommendation against a party that is undisputedly part of the democratic center.”

It said: “The BDKJ’s statement implies that the Union parties’ migration policy is fundamentally ‘anti-democratic and anti-human.’ Such a generalization is not acceptable in a democratic debate and is alarmingly simplistic, even for a youth association.”

“On the other hand, it is itself anti-democratic to deny a parliamentary majority the right to legislate together. Democratic processes must be respected, even if they lead to personally unpleasant political results.”

The AGV added: “Catholic social teaching allows for different views on migration policy issues. The BDKJ completely ignores this diversity of theological perspectives in its statement.”

“Instead of a differentiated discussion of the challenges of migration and integration, the BDKJ resorts to simple catchphrases that are clearly aimed at seeking applause from a particular political side.”

Meanwhile, Eva Maria Welskop-Deffaa, president of Caritas Germany, a body with more than 700,000 employees, described the Jan. 29 vote on the motion seeking to restrict migration as a “dark day in German parliamentary history.”

“Step by step, the right-wing populists are getting closer to their goal of driving the democratic parties into a corner and against each other,” she said, calling for the Jan. 31 vote to be postponed.