The German bishops’ conference announced today that last year over 400,000 people officially left the Roman Catholic Church in that country, which is less than in 2022, when there were the most departures, while the Church struggles with the consequences of the scandal of priest abuse of minors and the issue of internal reforms.
The German bishops’ conference announced that 402,694 people left the Church in 2023. That’s down from the previous year’s record 522,821, but last year’s number is the second highest ever. At the same time, 1,559 people joined the Church for the first time, while 4,127 rejoined.
In Germany, formal members of the Church pay a church tax that helps finance it in addition to regular taxes paid by the rest of the population. There are some exemptions for people with low incomes, the unemployed, pensioners, students and others. However, if they register leaving the Church with the local authorities, they no longer have to pay.
At the end of last year, the Catholic Church had about 20.35 million members. In a statement, the Bishops’ Conference did not detail the reasons for the departures, but many people have turned their backs on the church in recent years due to the consequences of the priest abuse scandal.
In response to the crisis, German bishops and an influential secular organization led a three-year reform process, the “Synodal Way,” which was marked by tensions between reformers and conservatives and drew open opposition from the Vatican. Its last assembly last year called on the Church to approve the blessings of same-sex unions.
Christians in Germany are roughly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants, and it’s not just the Catholic Church that is losing members. The Protestant Church announced in May that it recorded 380,000 formal departures last year, the same number as in 2022, bringing the number of its members down to 18.56 million. They also struggle with past cases of abuse, Beta writes.
Photo: illustration
