The Public Display of the Cross is a "Sign of Contradiction" according to Bishops
The Minister-President of Bavaria, Markus Söder, installs a cross
The directive from the Land of Bavaria requiring crosses in all public places will become effective on June 1, 2018. While it was welcomed with open arms by the bishop of Regensburg, Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer, the initiative has been strongly criticized by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising and president of the Episcopal Conference of Germany.
This is not the first time Cardinal Reinhard Marx has contradicted himself: the prelate who declared in 2015 that the cross should be exposed in classrooms and court rooms is now opposed to the decision of the Minister-President of Bavaria. On April 24, 2018, Markus Söder decided that by June 1, a crucifix must decorate the public entry of all public buildings in the Land.
In an interview with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on April 29, 2018, the archbishop of Munich declared that the cross is “a sign of opposition to violence, injustice, sin and death, but not a sign [of exclusion] against other people.” Exhibiting crosses could “be misunderstood as purely a cultural symbol,” he sputtered. The cardinal went on to explain that “it is not up to the state to explain what a cross means,” and that Bavaria's government has triggered “division, unrest and adversity" with the move.
Unlike Cardinal Marx, Bishop Voderholzer of Regensburg sees this government initiative as a good thing:
The cross is the epitome of Western culture. It is the expression of a culture of love, compassion and affirmation of life. Its public presence - which in traditionally Catholic Bavaria is near ubiquitous - should be seen as such, welcomed and appreciated.
This is the reason, Voderholzer said, Christians have placed crosses atop the peaks of Bavarian mountains: "Not the national flag or other symbols of human rule, as others might have liked to see at other times, but the cross. It should be widely visible, the cross, the sign of salvation.”
On May 1, the Apostolic Nuncio to Austria, Archbishop Peter Zurbriggen, publicly decried Cardinal Marx’s declarations during a speech at the Pontifical University of Heiligenkreuz, to the southwest of Vienna:
As a representative of the Holy Father, I am saddened and ashamed, that when in a neighboring country crosses are erected, it is bishops and priests of all people who think they have to criticize the decision. That is a disgrace! That is unacceptable.
Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis. – The Cross remains steady while the world is turning.
Sources: Catholic News Agency / Crux / FSSPX.News – 5/7/2018
