The German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) announced last Wednesday (28) the alarming figure of half a million people leaving the Catholic Church in 2022
Newsroom (30/08/2023 12:45, Gaudium Press) According to data provided by the German Bishops’ Conference, the number of people who left the Catholic Church in 2022 exceeded half a million. In all, 522,821 people left the Catholic Church in Germany. In 2021, 359,338 people left the Catholic faith.
Georg Bätzing, Bishop of Limburg, said that the figures were alarming and that the increase in people leaving the Church should not be ignored. We must continue to act consistently and people need to know that we are on their side, we are here for them,” commented the Bishop of Limburg, who is also president of the German Bishops’ Conference.
People have lost confidence in the Church
Nevertheless, Bishop Bätzing encouraged parishes and Catholic institutions not to lose heart: “Stay engaged and allow the people you meet every day to discover the source of your dedication, joy and hope.”
In the diocese of Limburg, a total of 14,951 people left the Church, 3,265 more than in 2021. “Many people have lost confidence in and ties to the Church,” the diocese explained.
For the president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, Irme Stetter-Karp, the figures reveal a sad reality, but unfortunately it’s not surprising: “The Church has lost the trust of its faithful, above all because of the sexual abuse scandal,” she explained.
Crisis in the German Church
In fact, a 2018 university survey revealed that 3,667 children were sexually abused by members of the clergy between 1946 and 2014 in Germany. Recently, the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainer Maria Woelki, was ordered to pay compensation of 300,000 euros because a priest committed repeated acts of sexual violence against a victim in the 70s.
In addition to the massive abandonment of the faithful and cases of sexual abuse, the Church in Germany is facing another crisis with the “German Synodal Way”, a movement of Catholic Church members proposing modernizing reforms that are increasingly distant from Catholic doctrine. (FM)
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