116 Facts About Reinhard Marx

Reinhard Marx was born on 21 September 1953 and is a German cardinal of the Catholic Church.

Reinhard Marx serves as the Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Reinhard Marx had studied in Paris alongside future fellow Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.

Reinhard Marx obtained a doctorate in theology from the University of Bochum in 1989.

On 2 February 2008, Reinhard Marx was installed as Archbishop of Munich and Freising in the Munich Frauenkirche.

Reinhard Marx became first Cardinal-Priest of San Corbiniano on 20 November 2010.

Reinhard Marx's title is that of Saint Corbinian, who was the first bishop of Freising and of whom Reinhard Marx is the successor.

Reinhard Marx currently serves as head of the committee for social issues at the German Bishops' Conference.

Reinhard Marx was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

Reinhard Marx called for a wide debate on the treatment of the Catholic Church with those who have attempted remarriage.

On 12 March 2014 Reinhard Marx was elected chairman of the German Bishops' Conference as successor of Robert Zollitsch.

Reinhard Marx was elected in Munster by the German bishops and auxiliary bishops only in the fifth round of voting in which a simple majority is sufficient.

Reinhard Marx served in this capacity until his replacement Georg Batzing was elected on 3 March 2020.

Reinhard Marx accepted Marx's description of clerical abuse as a "catastrophe" that requires every bishop to engage with it personally, to "put their own flesh on the line".

In March 2023, Cardinal Reinhard Marx was removed from Pope Francis's council of cardinals.

On 20 May 2023, Reinhard Marx presided over the marriage of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach and his bride Sophie-Alexandra Evekink in Munich.

On January 19,2024, Reinhard Marx gave the prayer during the memorial for late German football star Franz Beckenbauer.

Reinhard Marx was elected as President of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community on 22 March 2012.

Reinhard Marx said: "Given today's huge social and environmental challenges, I won't have a good feeling if Europe pulls out of shaping globalization and leaves the issues and actions to others".

On 2 December 2018, Reinhard Marx attended the "Pulse of Europe" meeting in Munich and made statements in favour of greater European unity.

Reinhard Marx said he did not understand why no one was speaking of United States of Europe any longer.

Reinhard Marx participated in the Synod of Bishops on the Family in 2014 and 2015.

Reinhard Marx said that the exhortation was not ambiguous as some said, and that it did in fact allow for people to receive the Eucharist after attempted remarriage under certain circumstances.

Reinhard Marx commented on this situation at the time that the deficit could be resolved within a year or two.

In February 2020, cardinal Reinhard Marx announced he would not have accepted a new six-year mandate as head of the German Bishops' Conference, due to his age of 66.

Two months later, Father Juan Antonio Guerrero, the head of the Vatican's Dicastery for Finances, and Reinhard Marx sent a letter to Vatican offices to get them to drastically cut costs and revise their budgets for 2020.

Reinhard Marx has been critical of some aspects of capitalism and he has promoted some economic reform ideas.

In 2011, Reinhard Marx was reported as saying that the Catholic Church "has not always adopted the right tone" toward LGBT people.

In June 2016, on a visit to Ireland, Reinhard Marx argued that the church and society had harmed gay people in the past and should publicly apologise.

In July 2017, in an interview with the Augsburger Allgemeine in Germany, Reinhard Marx commented on the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Germany and said that it was not a concern for the church.

Reinhard Marx said that church teaching cannot be moulded into the laws of a secular state and he said: "In a secular society, the state must make laws that are valid for everyone".

Reinhard Marx lamented that the Catholic church in Germany had not done more in the past to fight against laws that criminalized homosexual activity in Germany.

On 13 March 2022, Cardinal Reinhard Marx celebrated a mass marking '20 years of queer worship and pastoral care' at St Paul's parish church in Munich.

Reinhard Marx said on the occasion that he was shocked by the ongoing discrimination against the homosexual community by Christians.

Reinhard Marx admitted to blessing two same-sex couples several years prior in Los Angeles.

Reinhard Marx expressed an openness to blessing same-sex couples but reiterated that the Church cannot offer them the sacrament of matrimony.

Reinhard Marx was going to give out this award as part of his role as chairman of the journalistic commission of the German bishops' conference.

In December 2023, when the Vatican announced the possibility of blessing same-sex relationships, Reinhard Marx expressed surprise that the decision came so quickly.

Reinhard Marx commented about this decision: "for some in the Universal Church, it is huge to hear that this should be possible".

Reinhard Marx is an active opponent of abortion in Germany and has spoken against physician-assisted suicide as well as embryonic stem cell research.

German Catholic and Protestant leaders, including Reinhard Marx, began an anti-suicide campaign in 2019.

Reinhard Marx quoted the speech by Ratzinger in Paris in 2000, when Ratzinger said that Christianity was not a faith that dealt with 'magic things' but with the real world.

Reinhard Marx said that Christianity had a role in making the world a better place.

Reinhard Marx said that in past times there were occasions when the church was on 'the wrong side' of various issues, but that in the future it must rely on its own social doctrine and Christian anthropology as a source from which to help make a new and better society, which embraced the marginalized.

Reinhard Marx praised Kohl's work for German reunification, work for democracy and human rights, work for European integration, and his work to create a social market economy in Germany based on church teaching.

Reinhard Marx wanted and knew how to show his Christian convictions in Europe.

On 1 September 2018 the anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, Reinhard Marx visited the Polish city of Gdansk and paid tribute to the Polish Solidarity movement supported by the church that had fought against communism in the 1980s.

Reinhard Marx reiterated his call for women to be given real participation in the church's decision-making process and his view that the church would be foolish not to make use of their potential.

In July 2023, Reinhard Marx expressed concern over a report about masses of people leaving the Catholic church in Germany.

Reinhard Marx celebrated the funeral mass for Bavarian politician Alois Gluck in March 2024.

Reinhard Marx said that without hope, victory was being conceded to those who create conflict.

Reinhard Marx has consistently criticized European policies towards asylum seekers, saying that they keep away people who need help.

Reinhard Marx has spoken out against xenophobia and violence done against migrants in Germany.

Reinhard Marx said that Catholics are not allowed to be xenophobic.

Reinhard Marx said that in order to help refugees, it needed not only "charity but reason".

Reinhard Marx criticized the remarks and said that politicians should by finding ways to integrate them, rather than get rid of them.

At the 2016 St Michael's reception in Berlin, Reinhard Marx addressed a crowd of 800, including Chancellor Merkel, and praised Germany's policy of welcoming in refugees.

In November 2023, Cardinal Reinhard Marx criticized the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party and said that its positions were incompatible with the Catholic faith.

Reinhard Marx questioned whether AfD supporters should be allowed to hold office in the church.

Reinhard Marx has asserted that climate change and the refugee crisis are the two biggest problems facing Europe.

Reinhard Marx has repeated Pope Francis' words in asserting the existence of an 'ecological debt' of richer more developed nations to poorer less developed nations.

Reinhard Marx has said that the Church can learn from the world in 'recognizing the signs of the times'.

Reinhard Marx has served as the representative of the church in Germany in other parts of the world.

Reinhard Marx expressed his hope that the Front would assist in developing Catholicism in Viet Nam and facilitating humanitarian activities among the Catholic community.

Reinhard Marx said that "no political and economic organizations can injure religious freedom".

In February 2017, Reinhard Marx attended an ecumenical meeting of Catholics and Lutherans in Stuttgart to release revised versions of German translations of the Catholic and Lutheran bibles.

Reinhard Marx was praised for his commitment to ecumenical dialogue and cooperation between the two churches that had long been divided for the past 500 years.

Reinhard Marx supported the proposal, saying that plans were "already far advanced" and that "the ball is in the Vatican's court".

In July 2023, Reinhard Marx met with a delegation from the Italian village of Filetto di Camarda and apologized on behalf of the diocese to them on account of the wartime atrocity committed there by Matthias Defregger, former auxiliary bishop of Munich.

Reinhard Marx has taught that Catholic doctrine remains the same, but the church's understanding of it changes over time.

Reinhard Marx has said that theology and doctrine are not the same, and that theology can change, but doctrine can't.

In relation to the 2001 Congregation for Divine Worship's document Liturgiam Authenticam, which called for literal translations of the Latin into the vernacular, Reinhard Marx commented that it was too 'narrow in view' and a 'dead end'.

In June 2017, Reinhard Marx called for the global church to admit more women into top leadership positions.

In September 2019, Reinhard Marx gave his support to the idea of having married priests within certain regions and under certain conditions.

Reinhard Marx criticized the way that the document was issued from the Vatican without consultation at the local level.

However, Reinhard Marx welcomed Pope Francis' drive for a more synodal church.

Reinhard Marx spoke in favour of the text that was passed that discussed power and checks and balances, he said: "I think the text is good because it is realistic and does not say that we want to change canon law but that we can move forward step by step".

At the 102nd German Katholikentag in 2022, Cardinal Reinhard Marx criticized the church's "speechlessness" in relation to the clerical abuse scandal.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx had supported the document and said after the vote that he was 'very disappointed.

Reinhard Marx said that he felt some in Rome and other places were looking at the German synodal path with apprehension and that it was therefore important to present theological texts that were well argued.

The Synodal Way was criticized by some Vatican cardinals during the visit and Cardinal Reinhard Marx responded that he viewed this criticism as an opinion rather than a papal decision.

In December 2022, Cardinal Reinhard Marx had an interview in which he commented on the Pope's view on the Synodal Way.

In February 2023, prior to the opening of the German bishops' spring plenary meeting, Cardinal Reinhard Marx spoke in favour of the Synodal process and said it was only the beginning of the beginning while comparing it with the changes brought by the Second Vatican Council.

In November 2024, following the conclusion of the 'Synod on Synodality' in Rome, Reinhard Marx said that the final document left questions open.

In January 2025, during an ecumenical gathering for the week of prayer for Christian unity, Reinhard Marx spoke against using religion to portray populist politicians as 'saviours'.

In June 2017, during an interview Reinhard Marx said that religious leaders needed to be on guard to make sure that they did not provide a kind of pious framework from which religious extremists could perform violence.

Reinhard Marx indicated that both Catholics and Muslims needed to think about this.

In September 2022, Cardinal Reinhard Marx criticized the Russian Orthodox church for supporting Russia's war in Ukraine.

In September 2020, Reinhard Marx spoke out against an attempt in the Danish parliament to ban non-medical circumcision.

Reinhard Marx made a direct appeal to Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church to use his influence to put an end to the war.

In June 2023, Reinhard Marx awarded the Catholic Fritz Gerlich Prize to the Danish film Unruly about a woman in 1933 consigned to an institution for disobeying social norms.

Reinhard Marx accused Pell of trying to foster division by making it seem as if there were two camps within the Church, one around Pope Benedict XVI and the other around Kasper.

Reinhard Marx was indirectly criticized by retired Pope Benedict in a 2016 book of interviews.

The occasion was related to how, shortly before Benedict's resignation in 2013, Reinhard Marx had criticized him by saying he had turned the Roman curia into his own court.

Muller, who has himself been severely criticized for his handling of abuse accusations, claimed that the Cologne abuse crisis was not about abuse but was an attempt by Reinhard Marx to discredit Cardinal Woelki, who was opposed to the German 'synodal path' being supported by Reinhard Marx.

Muller alleged that the synodal path Reinhard Marx was initiating was an "attempt to react to the abuse crisis with a heretical and schismatic agenda".

In November 2022, in another interview, Muller criticized Cardinal Reinhard Marx for putting away his pectoral cross when he visited the city of Jerusalem out of respect for other faiths.

In February 2022, Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka accused Cardinal Reinhard Marx of "defaming and tarnishing" the reputation of former Pope Benedict XVI.

Reinhard Marx expressed grief over the findings of the report and said that the church needed to change he did not make any public statement about the findings as it related to Pope Benedict.

Reinhard Marx claimed in the same interview that they should either renounce their position or be removed from their offices as bishops.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx's spokesperson claimed that Reinhard Marx had acted with the relevant guidelines in place at the time.

In February 2019 Reinhard Marx spoke at a conference on paedophilia in the Catholic church summoned by Pope Francis, saying that procedures to prosecute offenders "were deliberately not complied with", and files were destroyed, or not created, allowing abuse to continue.

In February 2021, Reinhard Marx was accused in a report published by Deutschlandfunk of mishandling a case in the Diocese of Trier that said he had investigated a priest who had gotten a parish employee pregnant around 2000 but not a second priest who, in the confessional, had advised her to have an abortion.

Reinhard Marx confessed this error to the Congregation for Clergy in 2007.

Reinhard Marx alleged that Marx was trying to protect Pope Benedict, himself as well as other German church leaders.

In May 2021 Reinhard Marx sent a letter to Pope Francis offering to resign as archbishop.

In July 2021, Reinhard Marx visited a parish in Garching an der Alz in his diocese where a priest accused of abuse of minors had been stationed prior to Reinhard Marx's becoming Archbishop.

Reinhard Marx suggested in July 2021 that he might offer a second resignation.

An ecclesiastical document cited by German media in January 2022 criticized Cardinal Reinhard Marx for failing to remove a Chaplain cited as 'Peter H' from the priesthood in the late 2000s.

Marion Westpfahl one of the founding partners of the law firm, lamented that Cardinal Reinhard Marx was absent for the presentation of the report.

Reinhard Marx pointed at the report and said that what they saw in it was a disaster, and he repeated calls that the church needed deep reform, including the 'synodal path' that would open up debate within the church about issues the church faced including homosexuality, priestly celibacy and the role of women.

Reinhard Marx said, 'Anyone who still denies systemic causes and opposes a necessary reform of the church in its stances and structures hasn't understood the challenge.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx held a meeting on 21 March 2022, in Munich with abuse victims.

Reinhard Marx mentioned on the occasion that the issues regarding the abuse related to systemic and deep issues within the church that needed to be addressed.

In July 2024, it was reported that at the annual reception for the Archbishopric in Munich, Reinhard Marx emphasized the church's need to uncover and handling past abuse cases was necessary for rebuilding trust in the church.

In October 2008 Reinhard Marx published Das Kapital: A Plea for the Human Being.