400,000 German Catholics left Church in 2023
June 27, 2024
» Continue to this story on AP
CWN Editor's Note: Another 402,694 Germans officially dropped their affiliation with the Catholic Church in 2023, escaping the “church tax” surcharge that is paid by registered religious believers.
The number leaving the Church was down from the previous year, when a record 522,281 had formally left. More than 2 million Catholics have left the Church in the past decade; under 1 million continue to attend Mass regularly.
The AP story suggests that the losses are attributable to the sex-abuse scandal. In fact the exodus began long before that scandal exploded.
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