Dear Lord, save Christianity from the cardinals:

The enactment of a decision to hang crosses in all public buildings in Bavaria has triggered “Division, stirred up trouble and played people off against one another”, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, the president of the German bishops’ conference told the ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ on 30 April.

Bavaria last week ordered all government buildings to display a cross at their entrance. “The cross is a fundamental symbol of our Bavarian identity and way of life,” said Bavaria’s new leader, Markus Söder, as he hung a cross in the lobby of the state government’s headquarters in Munich, directly after the rule was passed. The action comes into effect on 1 June.

“If the cross is just seen as a cultural symbol, then it has not been understood”, Marx said. The cross was a sign of opposition to violence, injustice, sin and death but not a sign against other people.

The debate that had ensued about the cross was important as it had brought to light the need to discuss what it meant to live in a country moulded by Christianity. “The cross means including everyone, Christians, Muslims, Jews and non-believers,” Marx said.

Um, okay, Your Eminence, then why do you oppose its manifestation?

There’s an argument to be made against what Bavaria is doing, but it’s not Marx’s, and it’s not Marx’s to make. What a disaster this guy is. And do you know whose fault it is that he is Cardinal Archbishop of Munich and Freising, a post once held by Joseph Ratzinger? Joseph Ratzinger’s.

This item caused me to check and see when the German translation of the book would be released. Lo, I discovered that “Die Benedikt-Option” went on sale last week in Germany. Translation by Tobias Klein. With leadership like Cardinal Marx’s, my friends, you’ll need it.