{"id":62603,"date":"2026-04-10T20:29:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T18:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62603"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:29:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T18:29:32","slug":"germany-the-pope-appoints-a-guardian-of-orthodoxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2026\/04\/10\/germany-the-pope-appoints-a-guardian-of-orthodoxy\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany: The Pope Appoints a Guardian of Orthodoxy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-132889\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gar.webp\" alt=\"nuncio germany\" width=\"604\" height=\"317\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>Faithful to the Pope and <strong>not to the spirit of the world<\/strong>. Leo XIV\u2019s choice of Archbishop <strong>Hubertus van Megen<\/strong> as apostolic nuncio among Germany\u2019s progressive bishops.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The appointment of the new <strong>apostolic nuncio in Germany<\/strong> marks an important step.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This is a very delicate moment in relations between Rome and the German bishops. We discussed it <u><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/2026\/04\/09\/questo-non-e-cattolico-il-card-woelki-frena-la-deriva-ecclesiale-tedesca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">just yesterday<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/u>, highlighting the latest <strong>progressive drift<\/strong>\u2014the replacement of the Mass with the Liturgy of the Word.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A large part of the clergy in Germany is unfortunately deeply <strong>seduced by the spirit of the world<\/strong> and is gradually moving away from fidelity to the Church\u2019s Magisterium.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Stay updated by <strong>subscribing<\/strong> to our new channels:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VbBFa0m9hXF1g4wrUT0z\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-132039\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/whatsapp.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"74\" height=\"75\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/uccr_news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-132040\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/telegram.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"74\" height=\"73\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Faithful to the Pope, not to the spirit of the world<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Perhaps it is precisely for this reason that the Holy Father <u><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/press.vatican.va\/content\/salastampa\/it\/bollettino\/pubblico\/2026\/04\/09\/0271\/00579.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chose yesterday<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/u> the Dutch archbishop <mark><strong>Hubertus van Megen<\/strong><\/mark> as his representative in Berlin, succeeding Nikola Eterovi\u0107, who has reached the end of his mandate due to age limits.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Van Megen, born in 1961, comes from a long diplomatic career developed mainly in <strong>Africa<\/strong>, where he served for over a decade as nuncio in countries such as Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, and South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His background is significant, as it seems to have deeply shaped his <strong>view of the West<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 2024, for example, the new nuncio <b><u><em><a href=\"https:\/\/de.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/15857\/die-kirche-in-europa-verliert-ihren-inneren-kompass-warnt-botschafter-des-papstes-in-kenia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">openly criticized<\/a><\/em><\/u><\/b> certain <strong>Western cultural trends<\/strong>, also supported by several German bishops: <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>\u201cThe teachings of Western society on <strong>abortion<\/strong>, <strong>euthanasia<\/strong>, and <strong>gender theory<\/strong> are clear symptoms of a society that has <strong>lost its inner compass<\/strong> and is drifting helplessly on the stormy sea of human desires, tossed about and weakened in every respect.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Van Megen is strongly tied to his African experience. Not surprisingly, he supported the assessments of the Archbishop of Kinshasa (Congo), Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, when he described the <strong>Church in Europe<\/strong> as \u201cweakened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These positions suggest a <strong>far from accommodating<\/strong> approach toward the more progressive currents within the German Church.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The new nuncio and the German Synod<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The main issue awaiting the new papal representative concerns the so-called <strong>German \u201csynodal path\u201d<\/strong> and its future developments. This reform process, launched in 2019, has produced controversial proposals in an effort to remain aligned with the agenda of major Western media.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Van Megen will have to play a complex role: on the one hand <strong>to mediate<\/strong> between Rome and the local Church, and on the other <strong>to reaffirm<\/strong> the Pope\u2019s line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The archbishop himself acknowledged in <u><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/de\/welt\/news\/2025-06\/nuntius-in-kenia-megen-leo-xiv-schaetzt-unsere-arbeit-sehr.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an interview<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/u> with <i>&#8220;Vatican News&#8221;<\/i> that there is an inevitable tension between local dynamics and the universal authority of the Church, but he made the priority of his mission clear: <i>\u201cIn the end, it is about <strong>obedience to Peter<\/strong>, and this is my primary responsibility.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Words of hope for the many German Catholics who are more concerned with fidelity to the Magisterium than with <strong>ephemeral<\/strong> reformist pressures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faithful to the Pope and not to the spirit of the world. Leo XIV\u2019s choice of Archbishop Hubertus van Megen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":112,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[991,2178,2179],"class_list":["post-62603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-church-in-germany","tag-germany-nuncio","tag-hubertus-van-megen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Germany: The Pope Appoints a Guardian of Orthodoxy - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Faithful to the Pope, not to the spirit of the world. 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