As he went on about his reflection on religiousness, the President of the German Bishops added that “even within the Church, you can see the effects of a changed scenario. Just when they face catastrophes in which science and politics turn out to be helpless (September 11th, tsunami etc.), people flock to church often for just a short time”. Lehmann mentioned that over the last few years “the number of people going back to Church has remarkably increased”. Many of these situations, he stated, have laid “promising grounds” for such a comeback, even if “we know how conflicting such phenomena are, and how short lived and contradictory such events can be”. As a consequence, he stated, “the path towards the Church can be more hindered than before. So we will not follow these trends to be fashionable, but we will carefully monitor them, leading people along in their quest”.
