Lay Catholicism: Former ZdK President Meyer is dead

The former president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) is dead. According to the ZdK, Hans Joachim Meyer died at the age of 87. Meyer was at the head of the lay representation of Catholics in Germany from 1997 to 2009. The CDU politician was previously Saxon State Minister for Science and Art. After reunification, Meyer was Minister for Education and Science in the only freely elected government in the GDR under Lothar de Maizière from April to October 1990. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” previously reported.

“As president with an East German background, Hans Joachim Meyer was a stroke of luck for the ZdK,” said acting president Irme Stetter-Karp, according to the statement. “He had a significant influence on the growing together of Catholics in East and West, knew how to bring different worlds together and promote mutual understanding with brilliant analyzes of German-German reality.”

“With the death of Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Meyer, a committed Catholic and sincere politician is leaving us. In addition to his political commitment, his commitment to the Catholic Church was just as important to him,” said the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, to Deutsche Press agency on Meyer’s death. He was a courageous and committed member of the Pastoral Synod of the Catholic Church in the GDR. His time as President of the ZdK will not be forgotten.

Bätzing continued: “For him it was always important to seek dialogue between church and politics. He accompanied the German Bishops’ Conference in a critical and constructive manner. We will not forget him and will pray for him in this hour of farewell.”