In Germany, where compulsory church tax allows the numbers leaving the Church to be counted, because they sign forms to halt the tax, 359,338 Catholics officially left in 2021. The figure represents a dramatic increase of 86,338 on 2019 when 272,000 left. The statistics, which omitted the “Covid” year of 2020, were published by the German bishops’ conference on 27 June.
The bishops’ conference president claimed that the figures were to be explained by the fact that the changes recommended in the synodal pathway on which the German Church was embarked had not “filtered through”. “This is nothing to gloss over. I am deeply shattered at the extremely high number of Catholics who have left. We are, moreover, getting more and more feedback that Catholics who were committedly engaged in their parishes are leaving. The new departure which the German synodal path has set out on has obviously not yet filtered through to the faithful”, Bätzing told the press.
However, he admitted that the Catholic Church in Germany faced a “deep crisis” caused by the inner-church scandals which “to a great extent” the Church itself was responsible for.
“We must say goodbye to the hope that the number of faithful will go up or the churches fill again. We must re-explain ourselves in terms of what we do and why we do so,” Batzing said.
However, deputy conference president Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück told the Bistumspresse that the German Church was “tilting at windmills”. To better understand what was happening, it was vital where possible to remain in personal contact with those who had left, he emphasised.
Bishop Franz Jung of Würzburg also spoke out plainly in a statement published by his diocese. He was exasperated and deeply disappointed at “the problem-ridden image that we as the Catholic Church in Germany, in the Vatican and in the world Church are sending out”, he lamented. “No one should be surprised that people are withdrawing their trust and withholding their consent even to the good works we are continuing to do.”
Catholics who reside in Germany have to pay a compulsory church tax of 8-9 per cent of their net income tax. If they are not prepared to pay the tax, they have to officially sign out of the Church. This means signing a form at their local registry office which states that they no longer wish to be a member of the Catholic Church. This is then noted on the back of their baptism certificates.
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