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...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
