Reinhard Marx

His Eminence Reinhard Marx
Cardinal Archbishop of Munich and Freising
Marx in 2010
Appointed	30 November 2007
Installed	2 February 2008
Predecessor	Friedrich Wetter
Other posts	Cardinal-Priest of S. Corbiniano President of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community President of German Bishops' Conference Coordinator of Council for the Economy Member of the Council of Cardinals
Orders
Ordination	2 June 1979 by Johannes Joachim Degenhardt
Consecration	21 September 1996 by Johannes Joachim Degenhardt
Created Cardinal	20 November 2010 by Benedict XVI
Rank	Cardinal-Priest
Personal details
Birth name	Reinhard Marx
Born	(1953-09-21) 21 September 1953 Geseke, Germany
Nationality	German
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post	Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn (1996–2001) Titular Bishop of Petina (1996–2001) Bishop of Trier (2001–2007)
Motto	Ubi Spiritus Domini Ibi Libertas Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom
Coat of arms

Reinhard Marx (born 21 September 1953) is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church and chairman of the German Bishops' Conference. He serves as the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. Pope Benedict XVI elevated Marx to the cardinalate in a consistory on 20 November 2010. At the time of his elevation, Marx became the youngest member of the College of Cardinals, succeeding Péter Erdő, the Cardinal Archbishop of Budapest, who was elevated in 2003. He is eligible to vote in all papal conclaves which begin on or before 21 September 2033, his 80th birthday.

Biography

Born in Geseke, North Rhine-Westphalia, Cardinal Marx was ordained to the priesthood, for the Archdiocese of Paderborn, by Archbishop Johannes Joachim Degenhardt on 2 June 1979. He obtained a doctorate in theology, from the University of Bochum,^[1] in 1989.

On 23 July 1996, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn and Titular Bishop of Petina by Pope John Paul II. Marx was conscrated on 21 September (his forty-third birthday) by Archbishop Degenhardt, with Bishops Hans Drewes and Paul Consbruch serving as co-consecrators.

On 20 December 2001 he was named Bishop of Trier (the oldest diocese in Germany), succeeding Hermann Josef Spital nearly a year after the latter's retirement. Marx is considered to be rather conservative in matters of Church discipline, but also a "social scientist ... and whiz with the media".^[2] Moreover, in 2003, he suspended a theologian for extending to Protestants an invitation to the Eucharist.^[3]

Styles of Reinhard Marx
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal

On 30 November 2007 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Reinhard Marx as Metropolitan Archbishop of Munich and Freising, a position that Benedict himself held from 1977 to 1981. Rumours surrounding this were circulated before Pope Benedict's formal announcement, but Marx responded to these by saying, "The Pope names bishops, not the press".^[3] On 2 February 2008, Marx was installed as Archbishop of Munich and Freising in the Munich Frauenkirche. He became first-ever Cardinal-Priest of San Corbiniano on 20 November 2010.^[4] Cardinal Marx's title is that of Saint Corbinian, who was the first bishop of Freising and of whom Cardinal Marx is the apostolic successor.

Cardinal Marx currently serves as head of the committee for social issues at the German Bishops' Conference. In addition to his duties as archbishop of Munich on 11 December 2010, Cardinal Marx was named by Pope Benedict as a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education for a five-year renewable term.^[5] On 29 December 2010 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

On 7 March 2012, he was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.^[6]

On 22 March 2012, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community elected him its president.

He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

On 13 April 2013 he was appointed to a group of cardinals established by Pope Francis, exactly a month after his election to advise him and to study a plan for revising the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, 'Pastor Bonus'. The other cardinals are Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican City State governorate; Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa from Chile; Oswald Gracias from India; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Seán Patrick O'Malley OFM Cap from the United States of America; George Pell from Australia; and Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga from Honduras. Bishop Marcello Semeraro, will act as secretary for the group. The group's first meeting has been scheduled for 1–3 October 2013. His Holiness is, however, currently in contact with the aforementioned cardinals.^[7]

On the question whether the Church should allow remarried divorcees to Communion, it came to disagreements with Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the head of the Congregation of the Faith at the Vatican, in November 2013. Cardinal Marx called for a wide debate on the treatment of the Catholic Church with divorced and remarried.

When the Vatican suspended Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst in 2013 over his alleged lavish spending also Cardinal Reinhard Marx was criticized as he spent around $11 million renovating the archbishop’s residence and another $13 million for a guesthouse in Rome.^[8]

On 19 February 2014 he was confirmed as a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches until the end of his current five-year term.^[9]

On 8 March 2014, he was named by Pope Francis as the Cardinal-Coordinator of the Council for Economic Affairs, which will oversee the Secretariat for the Economy, a new financial regulatory department of the Roman Curia.^[10]

On 12 March 2014 Cardinal Marx was also elected chairman of the German Bishops' Conference as successor of Robert Zollitsch. He was elected in Münster by the German bishops and auxiliary bishops only in the fifth round of voting in which a simple majority is sufficient.

President of the Bishops' Conference of the European Community

He was elected as President of the Bishops' Conference on the European Community on March 22, 2012.

In this role, Cardinal Marx received a letter in 2014 about Gozo's bishop Mario Grech for reprehensible behaviour on the part of the bishop, including giving a retirement home for priests to his mother, a love of money, allowing his family to interfere with the running of the diocese and not defrocking a priest alleged to have committed sexual abuse. Cardinal Marx received the letter and said that the apostolic nuncio for Malta should be informed of the contents of the letter. The bishop in question remained in place.^[11]

Contribution to global Synod of Bishops

Marx has been active in recent years at meetings of the Synod of Bishops in Rome. The synod was one of two called by Pope Francis for 2014 and 2015 on family life issues. The interim working document, known as the relatio post disceptationem, summarized the first week of discussions, calling on the church to listen more and to apply mercy more widely.^[12] In 2014, addressing a question raised on the family, he argued that church doctrine can change over time, and "doesn't depend on the spirit of time but can develop over time." "Saying that the doctrine will never change is a restrictive view of things," Marx later clarified at a Vatican press conference. "The core of the Catholic Church remains the Gospel, but have we discovered everything? This is what I doubt."^[12]

Marx also indicated support for Cardinal Walter Kasper's proposal to give the sacrament of Holy Communion in certain circumstances to people who had divorced and remarried. He has stated his position that no sacramental second marriage was possible within Catholic teaching, but he wanted it to be possible that people whose marriages had failed could still be accepted within the church.^[13]

While previously suggesting that the German church might go in a different direction than the Synod, Cardinal Marx insisted at the 2015 Synod that he would abide by whatever the Pope decided. He said "the Church is the only institution in the world that can reach unanimous agreement. Thank God we have the pope. We bishops do not have to decide. Church unity is not in danger. And once the pope has decided, we will abide by his decision" ^[14]

Homosexuality and the church

In 2011, Marx was reported as saying that the Catholic Church “has not always adopted the right tone” toward LGBT people. He went on to add that, while he cannot officially bless a union between two people of the same sex, he can (and implicitly will) pray for their relationship if asked.^[15]

In 2014, Marx responded in an interview to the issues under consideration at the Synod of Bishops concerning the Church's treatment of people that are gay: "I have the impression that we have a lot of work to do in the theological field, not only related to the question of divorce, but also the theology of marriage. I am astonished that some can say, “Everything is clear” on this topic. Things are not clear. It is not about church doctrine being determined by modern times. It is a question of aggiornamento, to say it in a way that the people can understand, and to always adapt our doctrine to the Gospel, to theology, in order to find in a new way the sense of what Jesus said, the meaning of the tradition of the church and of theology and so on. There is a lot to do".^[16] He went on to say, "Take the case of two homosexuals who have been living together for 35 years and taking care of each other, even in the last phases of their lives. How can I say that this has no value?" ^[17]

At the 2015 Synod in Rome, Marx urged his fellow bishops that, " We must make it clear that we do not only judge people according to their sexual orientation...If a same-sex couple are faithful, care for one another and intend to stay together for life God won't say 'All that doesn't interest me, I'm only interested in your sexual orientation.'" ^[14]

However, Marx - while voicing support for people gay people within the Church - remains opposed to the introduction of legislation permitting civil same-sex marriage in a number of countries around the world. On 9 September 2015, he held the traditional St Michael reception in Berlin with Chancellor Merkel in attendance in which he spoke against such legislative actions. He stated: "Human dignity is not state-made, it’s not made by the constitution, which is why neither the constitution nor the state can pass judgment on it... And this also applies to the topic of marriage and the family".^[18]

Anti-Abortion and euthanasia

Marx is an active opponent of abortion in Germany and has also spoken against physician-assisted suicide as well as embryonic stem cell research. On the occasion of the 2015 pro-life march in Germany, he publicly stated： “as Christians we share the conviction that the inviolable dignity of every human being has its origin in God, the Creator of all life.” ^[19]

However, he has been criticized by some anti-abortion groups for signalling his approval to issue the 'morning-after pill' in German Catholic hospitals, which could potentially destroy a viable embryo.

Migrant Issue

Cardinal Marx has consistently criticized European policies towards asylum seekers, claiming that they keep away people who need help. On the occasion of the tragic sinking of a migrant boat near Lampedusa in 2013, he said

For years, we have followed a policy which has prevented those in need reaching our shores. This is not the kind of Europe we want. To claim asylum is a fundamental human right which we must respect. Refugees and asylum seekers deserve to be treated humanely.^[20]

On September 5, 2015, Cardinal Marx along with Lutheran bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, members of the clergy and crowds of Germans enthusiastically welcomed Syrian refugees coming to Germany at the Munich train station.^[21]

He has also spoken out against xenophobia and violence done against migrants in Germany. He claimed that Catholics are not allowed to be xenophobic.^[22]

In September 2015, he chaired a meeting of COMECE joined by the Conference of European Churches, which had been convened to discuss the Syrian migrant crisis in Europe. Marx made clear that, "Those who enter Europe, must not be afraid to drown or suffocate. And they must get a fair asylum process. These are minimum standards which must apply throughout Europe."^[23]

Following the 2015-2016 new years eve attacks on women in Germany and the discovery that most of the violence was carried out by people from the Middle East or North Africa who entered Germany as refugees, Cardinal Marx condemned the violence: “these new forms of violence and especially the inhumane treatment of women cannot be tolerated” and he demanded that “all the different forces in society must work together to prevent this type of incidents and guarantee safety.” ^[24]

On January 31st 2016, in the face of growing backlash against the open-door policies for refugees, Cardinal Marx spoke at a forum in Berlin urging Europe to remain open to Muslim migrants, urging Chancellor Merkel's coalition to stand firm in their resolve to allow the migrants in and at the same time calling on other nations in Europe to take on their quota of refugees ^[25]

On February 6th 2016, he remarked that Germany cannot take in all of the world's refugees and that there needs to be a reduction in the number coming in. There had already been 1.1 million migrants entering Germany in the past year up to that point, and a unknown number yet to come. He said that in order to help refugees, it needed not only "charity but also reason". At the same time, Marx also criticized the anti-foreigner sentiments growing in Germany that had been spreading in society. ^[26]

Environment

Cardinal Marx has asserted that climate change and the refugee crisis are the two biggest problems facing Europe. He has repeated Pope Francis' words in asserting the existence of an 'ecological debt' of richer more developed nations to poorer less developed nations. He has said that the church can learn from the world in 'recognizing the signs of the times'.^[27]

Foreign Relations

Cardinal Marx has served as the representative of the church in Germany in other parts of the world.

In 2015, he visited the United States, including the US-Mexican border. He spoke about this experience in 2016, by saying, 'When I visited the U.S.-Mexican border last year and saw the Mexico-United States barrier with its series of walls, I thought to myself that cannot be the future of European borders' ^[28]

In January 2016, he visited Viet Nam and had a meeting with the chief of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, a communist party umbrella-organization that has control of all social organizations within Viet Nam. The President of the Front stated that relations between Viet Nam and the Holy See had greatly improved, and that the church in Viet Nam was engaging in many activities that benefited Vietnamese society. Cardinal Marx expressed his hope that the Front would assist in developing Catholicism in Viet Nam and facilitating humanitarian activities among the Catholic community. ^[29]

During the same visit, Cardinal Marx was refused permission to travel to Vinh diocese, without any stated reason from official sources. It may have been related to the cases of religious persecution that had occurred in Vinh against the clergy and laity of the diocese. Cardinal Marx said that "no political and economic organizations can injure religious freedom". ^[30]

Reconciliation

On Christ the King Sunday 2015, marking the 50th anniversary of the exchange of letters between German and Polish bishops in 1965, German and Polish bishops met at the famous monstery of Jasna Góra in Poland. Cardinal Marx gave the homily at the mass and the presider was Polish Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki.

They signed a document calling to together build a Europe based on Christianity and that Europe still had not fully recovered from the wounds of its past, and they declared their willingness to do more work for reconciliation. They also noted with grief about the situation in the Ukraine, where its territorial integrity had been breached by separatists backed by Russia. They also praised the work of Polish bishops 50 years ago, who had been the first to reach out to German bishops, even though their nation had been the victim of the war. They also called for Christian to reach out to the refugees from other parts of the world and to protect all human life from conception until natural death.^[31]

Church Reform

Cardinal Marx has taught that Catholic doctrine remains the same, but the church's understanding of it changes over time. He has claimed that theology and doctrine are not the same, and that theology can change, but doctrine can't. He has said that 'truth does not change but we gain greater understanding of the truth as we grow... We don't own the truth, the truth owns us, since it is a person we encounter, not something we possess.'^[32]

While at the 2015 Synod of the family, he contrasted Pius IX's encyclical Casti Connubi and John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation 'Familiaris Consortio' as evidence of the church's living tradition.^[32]

On December 6–8, 2015, Cardinal Marx hosted a conference in Munich composed of around 200 theologians as well as Cardial Karl Lehmann, that was entitled: "To Open Up the Council – Theology and Church in Light of the Second Vatican Council". The resolutions at the council called for church reform, including greater participation of the laity, more de-centralization within the church, 'full freedom' for theology and upholding the freedom of conscience and expression among laity. It claimed that the church had abandoned its former position of claiming to be exclusivesly-correct, and that ecumenism had made great advances, such that it was now recognized that confessional differences among different churches were no longer important and that ecumenism was about building unity while preserving the separation. It also condemned 'fundamentalism' or 'religious self-isolation'. At the conference Cardinal Marx said, "When we look back at the council texts, at the spirit of the council and the theological debates that took place, we must of course be deeply grateful but we must not stop there. … The council gave us the gift of new departures which we can and must take up in a new way today...The church is not only a teaching but a learning church. It is open to history and to the signs of the times".^[33]

Cardinal Marx has frequently supported Pope Francis' call for a more de-centralized church and a conversion of the Papacy to give more doctrinal authority to local bishops. In relation to the Synod on the Family, he previously stated, "We are not just a subsidiary of Rome...Each episcopal conference is responsible for the pastoral care in their culture and has to proclaim the Gospel in its own unique way. We cannot wait until a synod states something, as we have to carry out marriage and family ministry here.”^[34]

Opposition

Retired archbishop Jan Paul Lenga of Karaganda, Kazakhstan said of him "There was Marx, Karl Marx. And if present Marx says similar things, then there is no real difference.”^[35]

During the 2015 Synod on the family, Marx faced opposition from other bishops for supporting Cardinal Kasper's proposal that the rules be relaxed to allow divorced and remarried couples to receive Holy Communion. Divisions were particularly arose acute between the group of bishops from Germany (notably Marx), and conservatives such as Cardinal George Pell of Sydney. Marx accused Pell of trying to foster division by making it seem as if there were two camps within the Church, one around Pope Benedict XVI and the other around Cardinal Kasper. A spokesman for Pell welcomed the suggestion that Marx saw no differences between the two groups.^[36]

Books

Cardinal Marx launched in October 2008 a book ("Das Kapital: A Plea for Man"), named after the work by Karl Marx, that critiques capitalism. Reinhard Marx said the current worldwide financial crisis required a "fundamental social debate" and raised questions about the capacity of contemporary economies to "ensure the welfare of the world."

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reinhard Marx.

• Catholic-Hierarchy
• Archdiocese of Munich and Freising (German)
• Diocese of Trier (German)