To mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Catholic Church and the Evangelic Church in Germany will celebrate 8 May with an ecumenical service in Berlin officiated by the president of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the president of the Council of the Evangelic Church, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, the archbishop of Berlin, Cardinal Georg Sterzinsky and a representative of the Community of work of the Christian Churches (ACK). To mark the anniversary, the Christian Churches have also issued a joint statement that appeals for remembrance. “We remember the history of Germany’s tragedy and guilt not to remain eternally fettered to it but to liberate ourselves from it. As Christians we know that faith in the goodness of God also liberates us from the dark pages of our own life and of the history of guilt of our own people”, says the statement. “We remember, so that the terrors of the Second World War and the National-Socialist dictatorship retain their admonitory force”. We remember to keep alive the exhortation “to do everything in our power to make the repetition of such atrocities impossible”. “We remember” the statement continues – “so as not to deceive ourselves about man’s capacity to be misguided and to commit inhuman acts, or about his lack of courage”. The document urges remembrance since “it remains an obligation to keep alive the memory of these victims and as far as possible give them a name. The injustice that deprived them of their life must not have the further belated triumph of seeing also their memory wiped out”. “We remember so as to remain aware”, declare the Churches, so that “the memory may eliminate the false appearance of situations taken for granted, make us conscious of what we have obtained and at the same time guard us against compromising the blessings we have received”. The document also reaffirms the “fundamental” task of “safeguarding, fostering and renewing peace. We know that there can be no lasting peace without justice, without the defence of human rights, without freedom and without respect for the rule of law”.
