Religion: The Youngest Cardinal

As the Communists increased their pressure on beleaguered Berlin last week (see FOREIGN NEWS), German Catholics —and Protestants too—rejoiced in Pope John’s elevation of Berlin Bishop Julius Doepfner to the rank of cardinal. At 45, Doepfner is the youngest cardinal by eight years. Early advancement is nothing new for square-jawed Julius Doepfner. who looks like Dick Nixon with rimless glasses. When he became Bishop of Würzburg at 35, he was the youngest bishop in Europe; he is still the youngest in Germany.

The son of a small farmer in Franconia, Julius Doepfner early earned a reputation as a godly activist—as likely to show up in a refugee camp or a coal mine as in his pulpit. At Würzburg he gave special attention to refugees and young people, salted church dogma with sport talk, made church land available for housing projects, started a Catholic daily.

When he was appointed Bishop of Berlin last year, Doepfner had only seen the city once. Short, muscular, and an enthusiastic mountain climber, he was shocked at first by Berlin’s flatness, but he soon found his east (60%)-west (40%) diocese as stimulating as a spur of the Alps. He has battled incessantly against the “youth dedication” ceremonies the Communists have been trying to substitute for Christian confirmation, and against the growing antichurch pressure of the East German regime. Last summer he played host at an all-German Katholikentag, which brought some 150,000 Catholics from both sides of the barrier together in West Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. At the closing ceremonies he shouted his farewell message: “We will stay together!”