German Churches warmly welcomed the appointment of new president of the Republic Joachim Gauck. Evangelist theologian Gauck “owns good requisites for the high office and is much trusted by the population”, declared Nikolaus Scheider, president of the Council of the German Evangelic Church: it was written by Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress yesterday. Archbishop of Bamberg Msgr. Ludwig Schick pointed out the importance of the “acknowledged personality” of the new president for his Christian origins and his past of activist for civil rights in former East Germany, and joined the appeal of Gauck for moral and ethic renewal. President of the Central Committee of German Catholics Alois Glück also welcomed the appointment. As for the debate in progress in Germany about the private situation of Gauck – his current 14-year relationship with a journalist; separated without divorcing his wife he had four children with -, Glück said to be “much concerned about pitiless monitoring of his private life”, and that “private life should exist”.

22/02/2012 -