Another 400,000 people formally left the Catholic Church in Germany last 12 months, though the number was down from a record set in 2022 as church leaders struggle to place a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy behind them and tackle calls for reform, official figures showed Thursday.
The German Bishops’ Conference said that 402,694 people left the church in 2023. That was down from 522,821 the previous 12 months, but still the second-highest figure thus far. At the identical time, 1,559 people joined the church and one other 4,127 rejoined — in each cases, broadly much like the numbers from 2022.
In Germany, people who find themselves formally members of a church pay a so-called church tax that helps finance it along with the regular taxes the remainder of the population pays. If they register their departure with local authorities, they now not need to pay that. There are some exemptions for low earners, jobless, retirees, students and others.
The country’s Catholic Church had around 20.35 million members at the top of last 12 months. In an annual summary of statistics, the bishops’ conference didn’t detail reasons for the departures.
But many individuals have turned their backs on the church in recent times amid fallout from the scandal over abuse by clergy and others. In response to that crisis, German bishops and an influential lay organization led a three-year reform process, the “Synodal Path,” which was marked by tensions between liberalizers and conservatives and drew open opposition from the Vatican. Its final assembly last 12 months called for the church to approve blessings of same-sex unions.
A follow-up process also has been marked by tension with the Vatican, though it did get underway this 12 months after Rome initially insisted that German bishops scrap a vote on the statutes of a committee that’s alleged to pave the way in which for a future decision-making council bringing together bishops and laypeople.
Christians in Germany are roughly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants, and it isn’t just the Catholic Church that’s losing members. The Protestant Church said in May that it saw about 380,000 formal departures last 12 months, around the identical level as 2022, leaving its membership at 18.56 million. It also has grappled with past abuse cases.
