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Imkamp was ordained as a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Aachen in 1976. He went back to the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1982 for a doctorate in theology, focusing on dogma and the historical work on the church by Pope Innocent III.[1] He worked as a research associate at the Department of Modern and Medieval Church History at the University of Augsburg.
A conservative, Imkamp is a staunch opponent of the ordination of women.[11] He also criticized German president Christian Wulff for his welcome speech to Pope Benedict XVI, which referenced the president's divorce. Imkamp protested affirming divorced Catholics and reiterated that divorce is a reason to be barred from receiving the Eucharist. Imkamp has accused the Catholic Church in Germany of not being loyal to the Vatican, stating that the church would become a "pathogen with high infection potential" if it did not submit to the Vatican.[12] He also accused church dignitaries of "clerical correctness", which he called a "piglet affair with political correctness".[13]
In an interview with the German newspaper Mittelschwäbische Nachrichten, Imkamp criticized leaders of the Catholic Church in Germany for campaigning for the human rights of non-Christians and LGBTQ people in the political discussions about refugees. He accused Heiner Koch, the Archbishop of Berlin, of providing more protection for homosexual people than Christian refugees and blamed the focus on LGBTQ people on political lobbying.[13]