Half a Million a Year Leave German Catholic Church


Data on religion in most of Europe is different than that in the U.S. because it involves tax records.  People can check if they want a bit of their tax money to go to a denomination. In the U.S. a lot of church numbers are provided voluntarily by denominations. In the case of Catholics in Germany, those choosing for the government to take their donation and turn it over to the church is declining at a million people every two years. Protestants are losing about 400,000 per year. 

There are about 20 million Catholics in Germany and a similar number of Protestants.  All of Germany has about 85 million people. Loses of 5% every two years is slower than the loses in the U.S. of Southern Baptists which is 10% per year. Perhaps the Southern Baptist losses are not all loses to the faith because some churches merely vote to no longer affiliate. The actual losses may be 2 1/2 to 5%.  

I recall watching Pat Robertson years ago when a listener asked, "Why do you have revivals in Africa and not in Europe?" Robertson chuckled and said there was no hope for a revival of the faith in Europe.

Pundits in the link attribute the drop in faith numbers in Europe to clergy sexual scandals. Others say the church has become too liberal so they have given up. There can be no doubt the opposite is also true, those who think the church is too conservative leave as well. This is in keeping with a theme I like to return to. Way back when there were just three TV channels. Now there are 3,000. People want their own in everything, from TV to religion. The Pagans had thousands of gods. We, like humans since the beginning of time, want thousands also. Why buy into the god the preacher/preach is selling when I can have one perfect for me?

In the case of Germany there is a side narrative that certainly must play at least a small role in the decline. It is Catholic priests who want to perform gay marriages. Apparently there are some doing it. The Pope has asked to German church head to stop this. The German keeps promising to think about it. He thinking no doubt is, "Why should I stop harmless gay marriage ceremonies if it reduces my revenue?" 

This decline in Christian numbers in the West is slow but steady. Really, it is quite a dramatic development. It is drying up the most powerful political voice and moral authority in modern times. Some of us find it both amusing and wonderful.


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