Leaving Church not grounds for dismissal, ECJ rules in German Caritas case

According to the bishops’ conference’s statistics published last week, 23 per cent of Germany’s population are members of the Catholic Church, totalling 19,219,601 people.  

The European Court of Justice ruled on the case of a former Caritas employee in Germany who was dismissed when she cancelled her membership of the Church, deciding that this was not grounds for automatic dismissal.

However, the ruling on 17 March stated that “loyalty requirements towards employees can be essential, lawful and justified in a specific individual case”, thus upholding the ethos of church institutions and their right to autonomy.

Beate Gilles, general secretary of the German bishops’ conference, welcomed the decision as clarification of the relationship between European anti-discrimination laws and the autonomy of the churches protected by the German constitution.

“We will evaluate the decision carefully and test further steps to be taken,” she said.

According to the bishops’ conference’s statistics published last week, 23 per cent of Germany’s population are members of the Catholic Church, totalling 19,219,601 people.  

During 2025, more than 300,000 members left the Church, a slight decrease on the number that left the previous year. Church attendance, however, has increased from 6.6 to 6.8 per cent, while 2,269 persons joined the Catholic Church and 5,443 rejoined having previously cancelled their church membership.

Following diocesan restructuring, the overall number of parishes shrank to 8,997. While numbers of baptisms, church weddings and funerals continue to decline, those for first Holy Communion and confirmations remained steady.  There were 25 ordinations to the priesthood in 2025.

The conference president Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Hildesheim said that it hurts every time someone leaves the Church, but insisted: “We are becoming fewer Christians in Germany, which does not stop us … to bear witness to our faith with a which level of personal commitment.”

The Church in Germany should look forward and “in ecumenical solidarity look for ways in which being a Christian can lead to greater acceptance in society today”, he said.

According to the statistics published by the German Conference of Religious Superiors, the number of professed Religious continues to decline from 12,628 in 2024 to 11,979 in 2025, of which 8,770 are women and 3,027 men.

Of the female Religious 81 per cent are aged 65 and above, compared to 48 per cent of brothers and monks. The overall number of female Religious in Germany has declined by 70 per cent since 2002.

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