German Catholic and Protestant bishops stress faith in face of wars

Germany's Catholic and Protestant bishops emphasized the comforting and inspirational force of faith in Easter sermons to their congregations on Sunday.

The world was marked by "war, terror and cruel violence," Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki said in remarks released ahead of his sermon in the city's famous cathedral.

"Aside from Russia's illegal war against Ukraine on our doorstep, the land in which the risen Jesus greeted his disciples on Easter Sunday morning with the words: 'Peace be with you,' has also been affected," Woelki said.

Conflict could not be resolved through war, terrorism or violence, he added. Easter presented a challenge to act for a better, more just and more peaceful world.

Georg Bätzing, who heads the Catholic Bishops' Conference, said the message that love and non-violence would triumph in the end was difficult to believe given current events. Attaining this required a long path of learning, he said.

The head of the Protestant churches in the Rhineland, Thorsten Latzel, said that Easter was the right counter-story to the crises of the present. "We are currently living through one crisis after another, terrible violence in Ukraine, in Israel/Palestine and in terrorist attacks," he said.

Turning to Germany, Latzel said: "We are seeing how populists here are trying to divide society." The positive message of Jesus by contrast gave people the strength to resist this, he said.

"That is the deepest foundation of my hope: that I can stand up myself to contradict the hatred along with others," Latzel said.