Pagans' Progress

The press of Communist East Germany was cheering what it considered a victory last week. Berlin's Lutheran Bishop Otto Dibelius, gloated a Neues Deutschland editorial, "has blown the retreat" on the issue of permitting Protestant boys and girls to participate in the secular "Youth Dedications" with which the Communists have been trying for the past four years to supplant church confirmations.

Actually, Bishop Dibelius is merely rolling with the punch of stepped-up anti-church activity. The Evangelical Church still regards Youth Dedication to the state as at least lip service to atheism, and hence a sin. But hardheaded Otto Dibelius and other church leaders in East Germany decided they must henceforth emphasize the church's readiness to forgive; youngsters who submit to the Red ceremonies but repent of their action will be admitted to confirmation at the discretion of the local minister.

To a friendly reporter, tough, cigar-smoking Bishop Dibelius, 78, pointed Up the gravity of the situation by citing one East German town of 20,000 in which only three of the 200 eligible children were confirmed--all the others participated in Youth Dedication ceremonies. "Obviously," said Dibelius, "the church is not simply going to write off these young people."

Red pressure on parents is strongest in industrial areas, where workers are sometimes reminded that they might lose their jobs or apartments if their children do not go through the dedication ritual (and the six-month indoctrination leading up to it). Usually, it is enough for the Reds to make clear that few students not so dedicated have much chance of going on to secondary schools and universities. The Communists claim that 72.5% of all eligible schoolchildren in East Germany are now registered for Youth Dedication, as compared to only 25% last year.

There are notable and heroic exceptions. One pastor and his wife, both university graduates, abandoned hope of further academic schooling for their five children rather than submit them to Youth Dedication. All five backed up their parents, are learning manual trades instead. One bishop's son renounced higher education on his own. rather than undergo the pagan ceremony, is now working as an unskilled laborer in a cement plant.

But no church can expect such sacrifice on a large scale, and Roman Catholics are following the same line as the Protestants. "We don't expect all Catholics to be saints and martyrs," said one priest last week. "The church is not a society of the elect. If a Catholic wavers under the pressure of a dictatorial state, sins and repents, the door is open."

A good Communist can still go to church in East Germany--provided his reasons are purely esthetic. A worried young comrade had asked the Communist youth paper, Junge Welt, whether a "true materialist" was doing right in listening to concerts and classical music in church. Replied Propagandist Gerhart Eisler in the manner of a Red Emily Post:

"Never in my whole life have I believed in God nor do I intend to start. I consider myself a true materialist. That never stopped me from visiting churches . . . splendid monuments of the past ... I have heard some very good concerts in various churches and still like to attend them . . . Handel, Bach and Beethoven are among the greatest composers. They will surely be played and loved even after nobody on earth believes in God any more ... A true materialist can certainly hear a good concert of classical music in a church without losing his materialist virginity."

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