Marx: ‘Reduce the number of refugees’

Berlin must impose limits on the number of refugees allowed to settle in Germany, according to the country’s most senior Catholic leader.

It is the first time that Cardinal Reinhard Marx (pictured), president of the German Bishops’ Conference and member of the Pope’s C9 group of advisers, has admitted that Germany, which has currently registered more than a million refugees, must now reduce the influx.

In a four-page interview for the German daily Passauer Neue Presse on 6 February, which was simultaneously published verbatim on the Bishops’ Conference website, the cardinal was asked how long he thought the country could keep up its compassionate refugee policy. In reply he said: “It is not only a question of compassion but also of common sense. Germany cannot take in all the world’s needy. As a Church we, too, say, ‘We need to reduce the number of refugees.’”

The interview marked a change of tone for the cardinal who has been strongly supportive of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of welcoming refugees.

However, Marx continued to stress that compassion knows no limits and asylum law must always be adhered to so that everyone who sets foot on European soil receives a fair legal hearing. Germany’s main concern must be to combat the root causes of flight, he said.

What had happened in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, when women were sexually abused by gangs that included migrants from North Africa, had exacerbated the refugee controversy and must not recur. “Immigrants who break the law must be punished or, where possible, deported,” he emphasised, but added blanket criticism of other cultures and religions could not be tolerated.

Sadly, there had always been “a certain potential for racism and right-wing extremism” in Germany, he said.