Word: dibeliuses
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Last week the East German government formally banned the Junge Gemeinde as a sabotage organization directed by the Western powers. Evangelical Bishop Otto Dibelius promptly hit back with a proclamation that "the battle against the Junge Gemeinde is a battle against the church." Berlin's Catholic Bishop Wilhelm Weskamm accused the government of going "over into open infringement of the rights of the church." Protestant and Catholic churchmen all over Germany launched outspoken counterattacks...
...Your April 6 article [on Bishop Otto Dibelius is a fair appraisal of one of the outstanding men and church leaders in our time. Personally, I would see Bishop Dibelius in a somewhat different perspective. In my opinion, his greatness consists in the fact that he rightly assessed the problem of Communism. To most of the intellectuals of the U.S., it is a problem of the right political and social theory, and so it is to the anti-intellectuals of the McCarthy type. To most of our statesmen, it is a military problem...
...Bishop Dibelius . . . has seen clearly that Communism is a new religion, and that its spread will depend on its ability to overcome the existing religions . . . [He] realizes that the only way Christianity can prove its superiority will consist in its ability to oppose Communism by means of an organized religious fellowship...
...Your delineation of the character and worth of Bishop Otto Dibelius accords so fully with the information and insights which we have gained through a variety of contacts with him and his writings . . . There is something exhilarating about standing up to external foes of the sort Bishop Dibelius has been meeting head on in more recent years. In 1945 he dared to confront the wasting, undramatic and wearying-to-the-marrowbone enemies: insensibility, indifference and malice toward any expression of hope. To the bled-white spirits of his countrymen he dared to cry, "Lift up your hearts in prayer...
...believe that you will receive the hearty commendation of almost all Americans, and probably of most Christians, whether Protestant or Catholic, all over the world. Dibelius is evidently a man of real integrity. In our time, when there is so much uncertainty about moral and spiritual values, it is helpful and reassuring to all of us to read about such...