Living Catholic with Father Don Wolf
Father Don Wolf, a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, offers a Catholic perspective on the issues confronting each person today.
Living Catholic with Father Don Wolf
Empty Churches and Pride Flags | August 17, 2025
What happens when magnificent churches become beautiful but empty shells? In this episode, Father Wolf takes us on a personal journey through Germany, weaving together family history, cultural observations, and spiritual reflections that resonate far beyond European borders.
Father Wolf recently took a vacation to Germany and shares his thoughts and experiences in a changing country.
The heart of Father Wolf's reflection emerges during his visit to St. Michael's Church, a stunning baroque masterpiece built by Jesuits. Despite its architectural splendor and perfect acoustics, the church feels spiritually hollow - "cold and dead," attracting tourists but offering little to inspire genuine faith. This observation becomes a powerful metaphor for European Christianity's modern crisis, where magnificent churches stand as historical monuments rather than vibrant centers of worship.
His observations extend beyond religion to cultural symbolism, noting how Munich's town hall now displays pride flags where Nazi banners once hung, and how sunbathing habits along the river have dramatically changed since his visit forty years ago. These observations challenge simplistic narratives about cultural evolution, suggesting that social norms can reverse course in unexpected ways.
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Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.
This is Living Catholic with Father Don Wolfe. This show deals with living the Catholic faith in our time, discovering God's presence in our lives and finding hope in His Word. And now your host, father Don Wolfe.
Speaker 2:Welcome Oklahoma to Living Catholic. I'm Father Don Wolfe, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and rector of the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother in Oklahoma City. We're all gearing up for the summer to be over. I know that's no big surprise All of life has its seasons. But here we are rocketing toward the end of summer in the great avalanche of planning and preparing that benefits the time. Here at Sacred Heart, we've just begun our school resuming classes just this week. The public schools, at least some of them, are a week behind us. Some of them are in fact ahead of us, but what's left of the days of freedom and ease are rapidly disappearing. We'll be back to our regular schedules, if we're not already in no time at all. I hope everybody had a chance to spend some of the time over the last months enjoying vacation.
Speaker 2:For my time away, I had a chance to go to Germany with two of my sisters. It was a good trip, a chance to rest up a little from the regular pressures of parish life and, as in any time away from home, it was an opportunity to see things I don't normally see. What good would travel be if there wasn't the chance to see something new? It certainly worked that way. For me, for my sisters, it was their first time in their fatherland. The four sides of my grandparents were all from the German-speaking lands, which makes me pretty much all German. We had a chance to visit a portion of the lands of our forebears, especially the land of my father's father's father's father, that's Andrew Wolfe, who came to the US from Bavaria in about 1855 in the company of his brother. He married in Missouri and raised a family. He was a soldier in the Civil War, part of the Missouri Home Guard, a division of soldiers raised among the German-speaking residents of northern Missouri and commanded exclusively by German-speaking officers. Now, just for a moment, can you imagine what we would think in our day and time if the army raised a regiment of men and officers who spoke a language other than English as part of the official armed forces of the United States? Things were different then, or at least they saw things differently then.
Speaker 2:His son, andrew's son, my great-grandfather Peter, is the one who came to Oklahoma. He established a farm and raised a family. His farm was next to the Immaculate Conception Cemetery, which is the small cemetery you see on the east side of Meridian Avenue when you're on the road driving to the airport here in Oklahoma City, which is to say my roots go back a long way, but we wanted to see his native land, especially the city of Munich, where he was born. It was an eye-opening experience, and not because I ran into any long-lost relatives or made a connection to a forgotten past, but because it was a lesson in the intricacies of history and a reminder of the situation in which we find ourselves in during our day and time. The first thing I noticed about Munich, indeed all through Germany, was the growing population of migrants. That's been a notable contemporary concern throughout all of Europe, but Germany has been the leading participant in this obvious change to the native population there.
Speaker 2:After World War II, the Germans invited a large number of migrants from Turkey to come and work in the reviving economy of Central Europe. The country was suffering from a crisis in manpower, caused of course, by the casualties that had occurred during the war, and was in dire need of workers. There were jobs to be had. There were people from another part of the world who were willing to come and work. Bringing those facts together in the 1960s helped to produce the Wirtschaftswunder, the economic miracle of the revival of the German economy, but it also produced a problem of a minority notable for their differences in skin color, religion, social customs, living standards and national history. Virtually from the first years of the arrival of those immigrants, the Germans were concerned whether this newly arrived people would ever integrate into the population or whether they would remain a permanent and separate minority, compounding this generational concern.
Speaker 2:Over the last decade there's been a wide-scale migration from all over the Middle East and Africa, and other parts of the world as well, to Germany, and it's left its mark everywhere. As an example of the changes involved in this great ingress, on the first night we arrived in Berlin, the clerk at the hotel directed us to the nearest restaurant. It was one that served Vietnamese food. To her puzzlement, I laughed at her suggestion. Of course, such an option is old news for us here in Oklahoma. It's new news for them, and it's become newly popular and newly available because of the influx of new migrants, and that's simply a symbol of the changes there. The next most notable aspect of German life is the large number of veiled women on the sidewalks and in the stores. What had previously been foreign to German society and culture is now part of the everyday vision of life there.
Speaker 2:I've been following some of the news reports about the anxieties that this migration has prompted and the fear among the native Germans of simply being swallowed up by the contemporary immigrants. In fact, there's a growing political voice very much opposed to this new influx and its impact, a voice that sounds a little too strident to be comfortable to the delicate ears there, attuned to uncomfortable German memories. Now, without a doubt, these new arrivals and the politics that brought them there are part of the tensions stressing the country at this time. There are concerning trends. Without a doubt, the most common seems to be the experience among families in small towns. It's been reported over and over again that when the immigrants arrive with their families, they immediately demand changes to standards and practices in the schools, demanding, for example, separate gyms for boys and girls and refusing to conform to the established dress code. Those are small-scale examples, but they provoke some of the greatest resentments. They themselves become symbols of the stresses placed on those who are watching their country change around them, often without their full consent or their willing participation, and how it will sort itself out is yet to be determined.
Speaker 2:Certainly, this variety and contrast is visible throughout the whole country and, just as a side note about immigration, I remember an article written by the Mexican journalist Enrique Krause in the New Republic magazine more than 30 years ago about the immigration concerns of the United States. In that article he wrote that the Mexicans who come to the US want to quote get a job, buy a house and go to church, unquote. Western Europe, he said, would love to have that kind of immigration problem. The European concerns about new arrivals are somewhat different than our own and those differences prompt some of the greatest anxieties there. But to be honest, with all of the reports and articles I'd read, I'd expected the contrast to be much greater than what I saw.
Speaker 2:Certainly, in the major German cities the crowds were varied and mixed, but it wasn't much more than I've become used to here in Oklahoma and in the rest of the US, with the exception of the frequency of the women On the sidewalks who were veiled. I didn't find Germany To be particularly overwhelmed With foreign faces, at least not any more Than many of the other places I'm used to. I was frankly surprised At how much everything looked like home when it came to looking over a crowd of people Gathered. The only real surprise was the product of my narrow-mindedness, and by that I mean that I was surprised when, say, an abuelita from the Philippines spoke to her grandchildren in German rather than in English. Of course she'd speak German to them what else? But in my experience I reflectively expected to hear English. It was the same when running into someone from Africa or Indonesia they speak the lingua franca there. Of course, for me it was just a matter of adjusting my compass and entering more fully into the environment there.
Speaker 2:Germany is, after all, the most densely populated country in Europe, with the largest, most thriving economy. It's a dynamic and vibrant place, with a developed educational system and a vigorous and attractive culture. The power of it to engage and involve people is notable, especially by way of language. Hearing everyone speak German is a reminder of just how powerful a culture it is. It's a lesson as I walked into the heart of the city.
Speaker 2:There were two sites that captured my attention when we first arrived to Munich. The first was the Great Parish Church. That's just around the corner from the town hall. It's a Jesuit church, a great monument to the Baroque style in which it was built during the prosperous 16th century there. It's a testament to the combination of Jesuit energy for evangelization and the city's commitment to support the art and decoration available at that time. Putting these together resulted in the great St Michael's Church, which is still enormously impressive today.
Speaker 2:The Jesuit insight was that the combination of art, architecture and an awakened human spirit would create the context of a renewed opportunity to move the souls of men to the Catholic Church. If a person could only become alive to the potential of what it meant to be a human being, it was a clear path from there to the encounter with the one God and the true faith. This approach wasn't just Jesuit, but it certainly reached a high point with them. To see a modern version of their approach, just read the opening chapters of Mere Christianity by CS Lewis. He's a Protestant who never much cared for Catholicism, but he knew that to reach a modern audience you have to begin talking about what it means to be a human being, which is how he begins the conversation in his book. The Jesuits made it into a powerful program.
Speaker 2:Walking into St Michael's Church, your eyes are raised to the decoration and beauty there. It's well-proportioned and beautifully appointed. Every part of the church, from pulpit and baptismal font to altar and statues, are gilded, decorated, accented and highlighted. The Baroque style emphasized the potential for beauty and the contribution of the gift of art to every part of every element of structure and place. And in that church they succeeded For centuries. It stood as a reminder of what beauty can be and what humanity can become. It's a monument to the glory of God. Come alive in human dignity and human striving. Not only in art and sculpture. The acoustics are also tremendous. This detail was no doubt planned in the design of the space.
Speaker 2:The church was constructed to be a venue for something more than mere decorative beauty. There was a small orchestra group practicing while we were visiting, and they sounded sublime. They were playing a short piece that involved both instrumental and voice, and every part of the church was filled with the mellow richness of the sound. The concert they were preparing was still days off, but they already sounded flawless. The German aptitude for music was on full display.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, in the church, architecture is only a tool, not a means of evangelization. A person can come into the space and find his heart moved and his mind inspired, but a tool is only as good as the one who wants to use it. If a tool is not used, it's no more than a piece of steel or a lump of wood notable only as a curiosity or maybe just for its bulk. A tuning fork can be converted into a paperweight and a dynamometer can be turned into a doorstop. Tools are only as good as their use, and it was that way.
Speaker 2:Inside the church there, it was empty of any invitation to pray or to participate. They threw the doors open and invited us to come inside to note the beauty of the past, but there was nothing to capture the interest of the person there in the present. Listening to the orchestra warm up, it seemed clear to me the church has become a concert venue, not a place where the light of faith warms the hearts of many. It felt cold and dead. On the inside it was like a mausoleum, which is the great complaint about the Catholic Church and indeed all the churches in Germany. There is great art and stunning beauty, but no soul.
Speaker 2:My first thought was that this space visited by tens of thousands of people every day from all over the world. There something should have been available to inspire someone into something, but I saw nothing there to leverage the movement of the artistic toward the articulate. It was as if everyone simply presumed that the power of art and the beauty of history would be enough to spark our awareness of Christ, and it may have done so, but a spark that has no kindling to catch fire, simply arcs and then dies. There was nothing there in the church to help bridge beauty to beatitude. It was a great disappointment to me and a reminder.
Speaker 2:Of course, all of the energy and opportunity invested in a great church is no substitute for lively faith and powerful commitment. In fact, as at St Michael's Church, there all of the beauty and sublimity of great architecture can serve as a kind of grave marker of the incredible glories of what used to be, rather than a beacon to guide anyone to what could be than a beacon to guide anyone to what could be. In the worst case, it simply highlights the sadness of what is, rather than inspiring the future of all that might be. It doesn't have to be sad, of course, but in all the gilded decoration there I felt coldness and distance and nothing else. It reminded me of the scene in the movie Dr Zhivago, if you remember, as Dr Zhivago and his beloved are escaping from the ravages of the revolution. They come to his family's summer house all frozen over in the depths of winter. They make their way through the icicles and snow piled up in the hallway to the reading room. It would have been heavenly to sit there in the summer and enjoy the days of sun and warmth, reading and writing Instead. For Dr Zhivago, it's a contest with the powers of cold and isolation in order simply to survive. That's what I felt at St Michael's Church there in Munich.
Speaker 2:Not only that, nobody seemed to be trying. There wasn't much available in the church besides a few bulletins and flyers on a shelf in the back. The most colorful was a small booklet of articles describing the work of the Jesuits in Germany. This edition was entitled Loben that's praise in German, and the articles were fine enough but hardly inviting or exciting when it comes to the life of the faith. Or exciting when it comes to the life of the faith. And besides the anodyne reporting concerning what the Jesuit presence in Germany is about these days, one other thing bothered me. In the pictures of the clergy no one was dressed in the clerical dress of a priest. They all looked like university professors if they didn't look like university students.
Speaker 2:I know the peculiarities of the church are different in every place, but I couldn't get over the notion that the body of Christ in Deutschland seemed to be on life support. Things felt grim there, as if everyone were watching the patient from the bedside waiting for the inevitable flatline from the machinery. The challenge for all of us is to note that a church, no matter how spectacular, is only a building if there are no people to fill it, and it's only a concert hall or a lecture room if it's just the space where people gather only to listen. Unless it's filled with those who come to pray, to praise, to encounter God, it's mostly a great empty barn. That's what I felt in my bones in all my time inside this incomparably beautiful space off the plaza in Munich. I wonder what my great-great-grandfather would have thought had he been there.
Speaker 2:Of course, the object of interest for everyone in Munich, besides the great technology museum advertised as the largest in the world, is the town hall. It's from the late medieval period and has survived the wars and upsets of the times to remain the center of attention for everyone. Its most salient feature is the great automatic, life-size clock figures that, at 5 pm, rotate at the ringing of the hour. The movement includes two knights jousting, six men dancing squires, princesses, kings and pages, all as part of the procession of characters across the front of the clock face as the bells sounded the hour. I'd forgotten all about it, but just before 5 pm the entire square filled with everyone looking toward the hall. It didn't take long before we got the message and because it is the center of attention and because it was June, the entire square was also blazoned with pride flags, just about everywhere. They included four large ones that were hung from the fifth floor and dangled all the way to the ground on the city. They were affixed to the city hall.
Speaker 2:We also visited the concentration camp at the small town of Dachau, just a few miles from Munich camp at the small town of Dachau, just a few miles from Munich, when coming off the train, you can follow a designated pathway toward the camp, the same ones followed by those who had been interned there beginning in 1934. Along the way are signs commemorating the experience of those who were imprisoned there. It explains what you're seeing and where the various parts of the camp were located, including where the guards lived, etc. Etc. As part of the explanation, there's a timeline of political change and of the various aspects of life at the time that brought the Nazis to power, and it's startling to see just as you arrive at the camp, a picture of the same Munich town hall that you leave to go out there to visit, with swastika banners fluttering in the identical places where the pride banners are now. It gave me chills. It was all a bit bizarre.
Speaker 2:The officials at that time weren't concerned that the people there didn't like their politics. They also didn't care that most of the citizens in the most Catholic part of Germany weren't anti-Semitic and didn't want to get rid of the Jews or support the Nazi policies. They were also not concerned that they received the fewest votes there of all of the states in Germany. What they were concerned about was to announce to everyone and to demonstrate to everyone that they were in charge. They wanted to proclaim that to question anything about their conquest of the everyday was fruitless. Hoisting flags from rooftop to ground floor was always to declare that the Nazis were in control, they were running everything and there was to be no opposition. The pride flags reminded me of the same message. At least in Germany, and not just there, the conquest of the politics of the moment by the pride agenda is complete and without meaningful opposition. William Dalrymple says the purpose of propaganda isn't really to convince anyone, it's to humiliate them so that the exercise of power becomes all that much more pleasurable. It felt just like that to me. Now.
Speaker 2:I did laugh a bit the following day when I came out from visiting the Science Museum. I'd visited the museum 40 years ago when I was there for the first time. When I exited the main doors on a warm day all those years ago, I stood on the bridge over the river and looked down to the sandy shoreline. I could see young people gathered there, relaxing and enjoying themselves. Many of them were lying on the low banks and on the sandy spit in the middle of the river and, like all of the places in Germany at the time, as long as there was a bit of sun and 10 feet of sand, the women sunbathed topless. Sun and ten feet of sand, the women sunbathed topless. I noted the view, since I had not quite gotten used to seeing just how the gals there chose to be the blasé embodiment of European weltschmerz so publicly. But that's not the case these days.
Speaker 2:There were young people on the shore and they were relaxing in the shade on this warm, sunny day and they were obviously enjoying their free time. But they were all clothed tops and bottoms, men and women. I wondered how the young women around me there would respond if asked if they wanted to imitate their grandmothers and lie there on a summer afternoon with their tops off, like they had done 40 years ago. Nobody seemed to be interested or even tempted to do what everyone did all those decades ago. It seemed as unthinkable to imagine topless teens there as it would be to imagine them along the banks of the Oklahoma River or along the walking paths at Lake Hefner.
Speaker 2:I don't know what's changed about the common life of the folks there, other than to imagine the immigrant presence. If that's the case, it's a lesson to all those who maintain it's foolish to press against the spirit of the age, since it's powerful and unconquerable. What was common just about everywhere as a rebellion against the norms and expectations of the time 40 years ago. None of that is acceptable any longer. I can just imagine the outcry, were it still the case that young women were topless when there are so many on the streets and sidewalks who are veiled from their crown to their ankles. Or perhaps it's the German Frauleins themselves and their families who, upon looking at those who are carefully covered, want nothing to do with public nudity anymore. Whatever the cause, it's no more bare tops on city sandbars. Perhaps the girls of today will just have to face the fact that they'll never be as risque as their grandmas were, or that the times have changed so much they can't imagine the risk being worth it. I wonder which it is.
Speaker 2:Vacation is the time when we're able to see what we don't see every day, and in the seeing it's a chance to reflect on a world that's wider and deeper than we normally think. I hope you had the opportunity for some time away. It is a way to see the world differently. Back in just a minute. Welcome back to our final segment Faith. In Verse.
Speaker 2:We have a poem today called In Anticipation, in anticipation of the powers of creation. We stood and waited with all patience, since we know, as the time flows, our expectations grew because the days flew such that at last, the future became past. So we now enter history loud, our interests proud and our lives sure. Sure, we were attractively lured into lives free as far as we can see, amid all that can be. This is our proclamation, our perfect integration of faith and creation. That's, in anticipation, seeing the world and coming to understand what lies there, especially what lies below the surface is the opportunity that we have, of course, every day, and every day we have the opportunity to do that as we are a living Catholic. So I hope, in the weeks to come, that you can continue to join us and that we can, together continue to explore what it means to be living Catholic. So I hope, in the weeks to come, that you can continue to join us and that we can, together continue to explore what it means to be Living Catholic.
Speaker 1:Living Catholic is a production of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City for Oklahoma Catholic Radio. To learn more, visit okcrorg.