Various exponents of German Catholic life have made recent pronouncements on the need to protect the “culture of Sunday”, in other words the need to abstain from work on Sundays and preserve it as a day of rest. “In recognition of the culture of Sunday, indispensable both for the individual and for society at large”, the league of Catholic families has rejected the proposal of the Schröder government to prolong the opening hours of shops to 8.00 pm on Saturdays. “With the prolongation of hours of work also on Saturdays, families will have still less time to spend together”, declared Elisabeth Bußmann, president of the association, who considers the proposal “a further example of the structural lack of respect for families”. According to the organization, the liberalization of the opening hours of shops raises “the fundamental question of the orientation of common social values” and raises fears that the provision may eventually be extended to Sundays too. “What families need is not still more frenzied shopping, but the acquisition of a greater sense of life”, said Bußmann. The need to “save the culture of Sunday” was also underlined by the German bishops and theologians meeting together in Mainz on 9 December for the 27th “Mainzer Gespräch”, a meeting annually held by the diocese of Mainz and chaired by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, archbishop of the city and president of the Episcopal Conference.
