An oasis in the desert

“Like an oasis in the desert”: this is how the Catholic Church lived the period of the DDR, when Germany was divided. Forty years of coexistence, marked by the silent acknowledgement of Catholics’ commitment in social structures like hospitals, retirement homes and schools. Figures relating to that period are astonishing. The Catholic world ran 32 hospitals with sleeping accommodation for 5000 people, 102 retirement homes that hosted 3500 people, 97 in-home care services, 5 obstetrics ambulatories, 17 institutes that could host 900 disabled. “These structures were funded not only by the Catholic Church but also by the German Democratic Republic”. Father Gerhard Lange, historian, diocesan representative for relations with the Communist regime for many years, recalled these figure today, in 2009 Berlin, twenty years after the fall of the Wall. We met him in the diocese’ offices of ‘re-united’ Berlin, a special occasion to delve into the life of the Church at the time, that under certain aspects could be described as paradoxical. How could the DDR regime tolerate that the life of the parishes continued for as long as 40 years? Why didn’t the regime undertake an ideological and repressive struggle against Catholic and Protestant Church institutions? In fact, the latter helped mount the protest until it reached the point of the Wende, the turning point of reunification. Starting in 1989, there would no longer be only ein Wolk, one people, but also, on the part of the Catholics, a single Church, from the West to the East. Father Lange, what were the major differences between the Eastern and Western Church in divided Germany? “It can be said that while in the Eastern part there was a more familiar kind of organization, in the West it was more structured. Some of these differences continue to exist, even though there has been a single administration for 20 years now. The example of religious education can best explain the differences existing at the time. In Eastern Europe religious education was performed by priests and by lay faithful within the parish. In the West it was carried out at school, with a more structured program, which after the unification was imported to the East. There were may recreational and prayer activities here, like the recreational week held each year before the beginning of school, similar to school camps that are held in Italy”.How was the life of the Christian community under the regime? And what was the position of the Church to this regard? “As it can be imagined, authority and power were very strong in Eastern Germany. For this reason the bishops acted as the guarantors of the population’s freedom inside the community. The bishops were strongly bound to the life of each faithful. While in Western Germany, also because of the 1968 riots, they had taken on a governing role of the diocese”. How were these different models reconciled once the Country had been reunited?“For the elderly, who had been raised in one of the two systems, it was very hard to adapt to the change. While the youth tended towards a single model. It must also be said that today vocations primarily come from the East”.Soon after the unification, the press, even the Italian press, suggested that the Stasi infiltrated also in the Catholic Church. Are these theories true or groundless? “If the Catholic Church wished to remain within the context of the Communist regime she had to be aware of what was going on and be ready to react. For this reason the Bishops’ Conference had appointed a bishop in charge of relations with the Stasi, so that if a Catholic was arrested he would be able to help him. We were under a dictatorship and in a certain sense it was normal that the State exerted this control. If it failed to do it officially it would have sought illegal ways to do it”.How was freedom of action possible within such a strongly State – controlled context? “We weren’t passive. We sought to involve in our initiatives as many as we could. We strived to make people’s lives more human despite the regime, marked by rules and control structures. If it had been fully implemented it would have been fiercely inhuman. Nonetheless Western critics said that the Church of the East was like an oven that kept itself warm. Whereas we say that the Church was like an oasis in the desert of atheism where the faithful could refresh once a week to endure the remaining six. In 1987, two years before the fall of the Wall, we held a great concert attended by three thousand faithful from the different parishes. It was a positive omen of what was to happen soon after”.