Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, has stated in an interview with Patrick Hudson published by The Tablet that “the great challenge we face in the next 20 years” is the threat to democracy posed by the rise of ethnic nationalism and far-right populist parties. The conversation, which the British weekly presents under the title “The Cardinal on the Money,” also focuses on corruption within the Church and the influence that, according to the magazine, certain wealthy interest groups exert.
According to The Tablet’s preview, Marx, who has led the reform of Vatican finances, addresses these issues candidly before turning to what he considers the main political danger for Europe. The cardinal frames it as a threat to the democratic system, not merely as a problem of specific parties or countries.
“The European Union and the Holy See”
In this context, Marx maintains that two powers with political influence remain steadfast in support of democracy, human rights, and multilateral ideas: the European Union and the Holy See. The cardinal adds to this list the “common home” and humanity as causes for which both institutions speak out, in a reference to Laudato si’, and then poses a rhetorical question: “Where are the others?” According to The Tablet, the prelate strikes the table and answers himself: “Nowhere.”
The interview has been published in this week’s edition of the weekly, whose October 22 newsletter presented it as one of the issue’s main features.
A discourse Marx had already expressed in 2024
This is not the first time the Archbishop of Munich links his teaching with European politics. In June 2024, following the European Parliament elections and the results of Alternative for Germany, Marx declared that “as a Church we must be clear against all nationalism,” as reported at the time by InfoVaticana.
More recently, the cardinal again defended the German Synodal Way and rejected the idea that the future Synodal Conference could act as a supervisory body over the dioceses, as this outlet reported on September 21. His words in The Tablet thus add to an ongoing public intervention on the relationship between the Church and the political debate in Germany and Europe.