Church in the World

Lehmann fears for relations with Poland

Germany

The president of the German bishops' conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann, has appealed to Poles and Germans to make greater efforts at reconciliation. At a press conference in Mainz, Cardinal Lehmann said the deterioration of relations between the two countries in recent years was deeply worrying. Both sides were at fault, he said. German politicians had shown too little sensitivity towards Poland. Whoever fostered close relations with Russia in Germany must never forget Poland's concern that it might once again become the puppet of its larger neighbours. The present Polish Government, on the other hand, had - "obviously for political reasons" - reverted to traditional clichés that did justice neither to Europe nor to today's Germany, he said.

An exhibition in Berlin in August about the deportation of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe after the Second World War aroused a strong reaction from Poles. Cardinal Lehmann emphasised that Germans who had been expelled had the right to recall their fate but it could not be forgotten that they were thrown out after Germany had taken eastern Europe by force and suppressed its peoples.