Katholikentag in Würzburg: Church demands more political weight – Union disagrees

At the 104th Katholikentag in Würzburg, a debate comes openly to light that has accompanied the Catholic Church for years: How far may it position itself politically – and when does moral guidance become party-political interference? At the opening, bishops and Catholic laypeople explicitly defended the claim to intervene in public conflicts. Of all people, it is the Union, traditionally close to the church, that is once again voicing clear opposition. The dispute is more than a miniature culture war: it touches on the question of what role major religious communities can claim in a pluralistic democracy when their social influence is visibly waning at the same time.

At the opening, the Church emphasizes its political claim

The organizers make no secret of the fact that the Katholikentag does not want to remain within the church space. Host Bishop Franz Jung classified the meeting as a politically relevant forum right from the start: The Katholikentag has "always had a strong political dimension." In the opening communication in Würzburg, this idea was explicitly linked to an internal church claim: Politics is not seen as a foreign body, but as a consequence of what the church wants to bring into society "from its spiritual center."

Jung combined the political tone with a rejection of national isolation. The major questions of the future can only be solved together, not "through national isolation and inward-looking narrow-mindedness."

The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) also pushed for a presence in public disputes. ZdK President Irme Stetter-Karp put it in a nutshell: "We have to get involved." Those who invoke human dignity, solidarity, and responsibility, in her view, cannot remain silent in times of crisis and on fundamental political issues.

According to the organizers, the program includes around 900 events; high-ranking political guests are expected at the opening on the Residenzplatz, including:

• Federal President
• Bavarian Minister President
• Representatives of the city
• Representatives of the ZdK

The criticism from the Union hits a sensitive point

The sharper skepticism does not come from declared opponents of the churches, but from parts of the Union – and thus from the political milieu that has long been considered a natural partner of church circles. This is precisely what makes the conflict so delicate: If even within the Union the impression grows that the church is moving too close to day-to-day political disputes, this calls into question the previous division of labor – church as a moral authority, politics as the decision-making power.

In this dispute, criticism repeatedly ignites on concrete examples: Do churches have to comment on detailed questions of current politics – or do they risk being perceived as just another interest group? Union politicians have recently repeatedly demanded this boundary.

Shortly before the Katholikentag, Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder added: "Church is not an NGO." According to accounts from the debate, Söder also warned that overly confrontational church criticism of politics could also have financial consequences for the church – a remark that further fuels the dispute because it sounds like a sanction, not an argument.

The sensitivity also stems from the fact that, despite still having a large reach, the Catholic Church no longer automatically appears as a majority institution. With around 19 million believers, it is still one of the largest membership organizations in Germany, but the numbers are falling. This shifts the balance: Moral claims alone carry less weight when attachment and trust are dwindling. For church actors, this is precisely a reason to take a stand in public debates. Critics in the Union, on the other hand, see the risk that the church will get entangled in political camps – and thus lose the role that gave it authority across party lines.

The distinction from the AfD makes the conflict particularly clear

The political claim of the Catholic representatives is most clearly seen in their stance towards the AfD. The party is not involved in the Katholikentag. The reason given is that key positions of the AfD are not compatible with the Christian faith.

This distinction is related to a line taken by the Catholic bishops: In 2024, the German Bishops' Conference declared that "ethnic nationalism" and Christianity are incompatible and warned against right-wing extremist ideologies as a threat to the liberal order. In the context of the Katholikentag, the shift to the right in society is described by Catholic representatives as a central democratic danger – and thus as a topic on which the church takes a stand not only pastorally, but also politically and culturally.

At the same time, Catholic officials are striving for a dividing line that does not break off dialogue: The clear distance from the party should not mean fundamentally refusing to talk to its supporters. This contains a double claim – distancing from positions, openness towards people – which easily fails in polarized times, because both sides expect the opposite: some maximum severity, others maximum restraint.

This role of the churches as a social place of debate is also emphasized beyond the Catholic Church. In a joint statement, Kirsten Fehrs and Heiner Wilmer wrote that churches are "places where people listen to each other, endure differences, and seek solutions together." In practice, this means: Churches claim not only moral interpretation, but also a moderating function in a climate of dispute in which political camps are increasingly rarely talking to each other.

The Katholikentag is historically closely linked to political disputes

The fact that the Katholikentag does not avoid politics is rooted in history. Its origin lies in 1848: In Mainz, the first "General Assembly of Catholic Associations of Germany" met, from which the tradition of the Katholikentag developed. Later, during the Kulturkampf, the meetings became a rallying point for Catholic self-assertion – religiously motivated, but unmistakably political.

This history also includes breaks. During the Nazi dictatorship, the Katholikentag was paused for several years. In 1933, the National Socialists demanded a "declaration of loyalty to the Führer and the Reich"; those responsible then canceled the meeting. This memory still shapes the argumentation of many church actors today: Political restraint is not automatically understood as a virtue, but can – read historically – also appear as dangerous adaptation.

The Katholikentag in Würzburg thus shows not only a major church event, but also a fundamental conflict of the present: The church claims public participation, while its social support is eroding and its statements are more quickly perceived as partisan than before. Whether this claim remains viable depends less on grand opening images than on credibility in detail: on whether the church can plausibly distinguish between moral guidance and day-to-day politics – and whether its interventions are perceived as a contribution to democratic debate, not as a substitute for it.