“The cross isn’t a piece of furniture in the courtroom”, said Bishop Reinhard Marx of Trier, commenting on 22 November on the recent decision of the judicial authorities of the Land to remove crucifixes from courtrooms. Marx, recalling the intervention of the Pope on the situation of the Church in Germany during the bishops’ ‘ad limina’ visit, deplored the decision. The bishop recalled that “over the last 1700 years and up to yesterday, the history of the city and region of Trier was in large part forged by Christianity. The diocese of Trier is the oldest in Germany. Trier is also the site of the oldest Christian cathedral north of the Alps”. From this point of view, Marx called the provision an act of “historical censorship” and an “attempt to eliminate our tradition and our origins. The cross in public buildings, especially in schools and in courtrooms, underlines the fact that our community holds itself “responsible before God”, as enunciated in our Constitution”, said Marx. “The Constitutional Court has not requested the removal of all crosses from public buildings. So, other ways exist, also in Trier, to guarantee the ideological neutrality of the State on the one hand and the Christian tradition and the present of our country on the other”. “What especially irritated me is the fact that crosses should vanish in silence. But the cross is not any old piece of furniture in the courtroom”, he declared. “After the publication of the ruling of the president of the court of Trier, many Christians publicly expressed their incomprehension and their criticism. This demonstrates that the Christian faith is not just an historical dimension but a living and powerful reality”, he concluded.
