Cardinal Koch: Christianity in Europe in a critical situation

Rome - In Europe, many people are turning their backs on the big churches. The Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch also sees a lack of evangelisation in the churches as a reason for this. He views the consequences of declining faith with great concern.

Published on 25.01.2024 at 10:54 –

According to the Swiss Cardinal of the Curia, Kurt Koch, Christianity in Europe is in a very critical situation. The reason for this is "the difficult situation of the churches themselves, when I think of the painful problem of abuse. But I think that those leaving the Church also have to do with other, deeper causes," the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity told the Swiss weekly "Weltwoche" on Wednesday. All Christian churches are affected by this, not just the Catholic Church.

The greatest danger for the Church is that it "is no longer sufficiently convinced of its Christian message and can no longer pass on this message". Faith means that God reveals himself and that faith is the answer to this.

Just as faith is on the decline, superstition is on the rise in society, Koch claimed. "Wherever people do not believe in the transcendence of God, they are tempted to declare worldly, finite things to be of the highest value - ideology. The death of God ultimately results in the death of man." He sees current discussions on the legal handling of abortions and euthanasia as an example of this. "The fact that we have major problems today at the beginning and end of life is also linked to the loss of faith." (cph)