Ecclesial greetings and congratulations to the new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who was sworn in at the Bundestag yesterday. In a letter, the president of the German Bishops’ Conference (Dbk), mgr. Georg Bätzing, wishes Chancellor Scholz and his governmental team “all the best, good luck and God’s blessings”. When he took his oath, the leader of the Spd left out the sentence, “May God help me”, as he has left the evangelical Church. 7 of the 16 ministers of the Social Democrat, Green, Liberal Democrat coalition left the sentence out too. Mgr. Bätzing expressed his praise for the attention given to Churches in the governmental programme. In reminding the newly elected Chancellor Scholz that he will have to deal with lots of socially relevant issues very soon, Bätzing pointed out that “the common goal will be taking care of the people in the forthcoming challenges and shaping the living conditions in our country on the basis of values, in a farsighted way. As a Church, we feel bound to do it with our ecclesial institutions and with our efforts, and we would like to make our contribution to that”.
The Central Committee of German Catholics (Zdk) too made its wishes to Scholz: the president, Irme Stetter-Karp, reported to the “RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland” that she is confident she will work in agreement with the new federal government and sees no problems in Scholz and a few ministers being non-confessional, as many members of the Bundestag no longer belong to any church either.