Clear messages

The church is becoming increasingly involved in politics

(Bild: APA/dpa/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand, AP, APA/Georg Hochmuth, krone.at-Grafik)

Current developments are increasingly prompting the Church to speak out politically. On Sunday, the Bishop of Graz, Wilhelm Krautwaschl, read the riot act to Austrian and European politicians regarding migration policy. Pope Francis had already criticized the hypocritical anti-migration course on Friday. However, the Church has also been increasingly vocal on other political issues recently.

At the mass in the border region between Austria and Slovenia, Bishop Krautwaschl warned with clear words: "Dead people in the Mediterranean and elsewhere are being accepted almost unchallenged." According to the Bishop of Graz, politicians are "making big speeches about helping people on the ground, but it seems to be all about sealing off and closing down".

Bishop Krautwaschl at a Holy Mass

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Term "asylum" degenerates into a "scary word"
Krautwaschl addressed the question directly to Austrian and European politicians: "Where has the often talked-about Christian West gone?" The bishop also said that he was concerned that "the term asylum has almost degenerated into a scare word". The current law on the humanitarian right to stay is "apparently no longer lived".

Refugees continue to knock on our door
Pope Francis had previously criticized the recent disputes over the treatment of refugees. It is a "useless hypocrisy" of those people who do not help migrants. At a mass in St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope said that "walls are currently being built instead of bridges". And that refugees are the victims of a throwaway culture. But the refugees would "continue to knock on the doors of countries with great prosperity".

Caritas President Michael Landau referred to the Pope's words on Friday via the short message service Twitter. "In view of the challenges posed by migration today, the only reasonable response is solidarity and mercy," Landau quoted the Pope as saying.

Landau also responded to subsequent criticism that the Church should then also "open the gates of the Vatican to the many homeless Africans in this city". He said that "the Church does not need to hide with its help on the ground, but also in Rome and other places in the world".

"Populism and fear-mongering"
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn was also harshly critical of the public discourse on migration issues in his "Heute" column. Among other things, the cardinal criticized "populism and fear-mongering" in the debate. He also lamented the fact that "you hardly make yourself popular today if you say a good word about refugees".

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn

(Bild: Zwefo)

Concern about Austria's democratic policy
However, migration is not the only topic on which the Church has recently taken a conspicuously clear stance. Just recently, the Bishops' Conference was unusually clear about the changes to working time legislation initiated by the ÖVP and FPÖ. Among other things, it said that the government's approach was also "questionable in terms of democratic policy".

In the highest church circles, there are fears that the law on the flexibilization of working hours, which has become known as the "12-hour day" rule, will lead to a dam breaking in the restriction of store opening hours on Sundays and public holidays. The bishops are not only concerned with religious issues, but also with the "indispensable value of family and relationship days" as well as "the necessary leisure and recreation" and the cohesion of society.

Claus Pándi, Kronen Zeitung