Cardinal Marx: Church services necessary for society as a whole

Cardinal Reinhard Marx from Munich believes that celebrating church services is important for society as a whole. "It is no longer utility that counts, other laws apply: the logic of God," said Marx on Corpus Christi in Munich's Cathedral of Our Lady on the subject of worship, according to his press office. He was recalling the function of liturgy and the Eucharist: "We don't give God something, he gives us everything: that's what we celebrate!" The fact that this space exists is "necessary for the whole of society", said the cardinal.

Marx added: "When we celebrate the Eucharist and Corpus Christi, it is a great celebration for us and we discover how great our faith is. And I would almost say it is also a place of resistant thinking against the primitive logic that sometimes prevails in society. We step into a different space, and that is important: the necessity of the useless. That's what we celebrate and that's what we want to celebrate: it's our gift to the world."

On the second Thursday after Pentecost, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi. On this day, Catholics publicly demonstrate their faith, such as at the current Catholic Day in Erfurt. They express their conviction that God is among them in bread and wine. As a visible sign, a consecrated host is solemnly carried through the streets in an ornate display vessel, a monstrance. The name Corpus Christi means "Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ". It is derived from Middle High German. The word "vron" means Lord and "licham" means body. (KNA)