Bishops were engaged in damage control this week after a study commissioned by the German bishops’ conference provoked uproar among the nation’s farmers — with many saying they would leave the Church over the controversy.
Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer told farming representatives Oct. 15 that the study was published by an expert group without the bishops’ knowledge and did not express his views.
“Enough with the ‘farmer bashing,’” the bishop said, according to the Diocese of Regensburg.
The 76-page text, “Food security, climate protection, and biodiversity: perspectives for global land use,” was published Sept. 11 on the bishops’ conference website.
Now the bishops are seeing one of Germany’s otherwise most loyally Catholic demographics threatening defections from the faith over the affair.
What did it say? Why are farmers up in arms? And how are bishops responding?
What did the study say?
A bishops’ conference press release announcing the study’s publication said it highlighted “the importance of a change in land use that is oriented towards the common good.”
The press release noted the study was commissioned by the bishops’ conference’s world Church commission and presented at a conference in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Germany’s agricultural heartland.
The text, produced by the conference’s expert group on the global economy and social ethics, called for a new “regulatory policy oriented towards the common good that ends unsustainable subsidies.”
It said: “It is especially urgent and expedient to end subsidies that are not beneficial to the common good or to phase them out with appropriate transitional periods.”
Referring to the common agricultural policy (CAP) of the European Union’s 27 member states, it added: “The end of the current CAP funding period in 2027 is a good time to do this.”
Why are farmers up in arms?
On Sept. 26, the Bayerisches Landwirtschaftliches Wochenblatt, a weekly specialist agricultural magazine, reported that the study was “making farmers angry” and “some even want to leave the Church.”
It quoted Veit Hartsperger, the managing director of a Bavarian farmers’ association, as saying: “Farmers are extremely disappointed and angry. Many want to know how they can leave the Church as quickly as possible because they do not want to be denigrated by an institution that, in contrast to the rest of society, has always had very strong support, especially among farming families.”
In an op-ed published the same day, the magazine’s Gerd Kreibich suggested the Church was pandering to an urban prejudice that “agriculture is to blame for everything.”
“If you want people not to go hungry, you need farmers,” he wrote. “It’s as simple as that. Offending them in this way doesn't make their work in the barns and fields any easier.”
Christine Singer, of the Bavarian Farmers’ Association (BBV), summed up objections to the text.
“The study questions the property rights of agricultural land, criticizes farmers for basing their farming on purely economic criteria, and argues for greater state intervention and a different redistribution of income,” she said. “We do not consider this criticism to be justified or comprehensible.”
How are bishops responding?
In an Oct. 4 message, the Diocese of Regensburg, which covers parts of Bavaria, pointedly expressed gratitude to farmers, highlighting their contribution to parish life as sacristans, church administrators, and parish council members.
In an Oct. 12 Instagram post, Christine Singer said she hoped that dialogue with the Church would help to overcome “blanket judgments.”
