LINK Germany’s Catholic Church lost more than 200,000 members in 2018 - Vatican News
FTA: Membership in the Catholic and Protestant Churches of Germany are falling and the trend tends to continue.
Germany's Catholic Church lost 216,078 members and Protestant churches lost some 220,000 in 2018, according to data published on Friday by the German Bishops' Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).
The losses have hit hard the two main Churches of the country, as members pay up to 9% of their taxable income as church taxes.
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The bloody churches couldn't be happier. Falling numbers, people to cater for while the income is on the rise. Double whammy. Priest get more nap time.
Despite sinking membership numbers , not even to mention attendance numbers of various religious services, the two principal German churches, catholic and protestant Lutheran, broke their income records with a staggering 12,4 billion Euro: 6,64 billion Euro went to the catholic church and the remaining 5,79 billion Euro flooded the coffers of the evangelical competitor. This was an increase of 3,3 % for the catholic outfit and 2.1% for the Lutheran mob compared to the previous year.
This increase in the result of higher incomes of the remaining members.
BTW the Kirchensteuer (church tax) is not the only source of income for these mega corporations.
Below a photo of the 285 m2 residence of a bishop that cost 6,000,000 Euro.
PontifexMarximus
Level 8
Aug 20, 2019
0
It is not a good news, because most of them are vulnerable to conversion to Islam.
Remember: there are death penalty for atheists and agnostics in the islamic countries.
Williamcristiano
Level 5
Aug 5, 2019
1
I remember I read an article by a Christian scientist (I don’t remember her name, but I could probably find it if anyone was interested) who pointed out the fact that older, more established scientists show significantly less religiosity than their younger, newer counterparts. She claimed that there are studies that show that this is more likely to be due to the younger generation being more religious than the older rather than a career in science diminishing the idea of god. She didn’t cite said studies (to be fair she was promoting a book) and all of the ones I’ve found show the younger generation being less religious than their older counterparts with this merely being one more example.
thezekroman
Level 5
Aug 2, 2019
3
Just like drump, anybody can say anything, anytime, and leave the rest of us going, "WTF!?"
Germany never had 200k Catholics. Martin Luther did a good job convincing me. They are too rational and scientific to be cadavers which is why the Church is loosing lots and lots and its been begging for years to come back but the show has played out and its time for them to come out of the closet and into the sunshine with the rest of us.
Nevermind345
Level 7
Aug 2, 2019
1
most Germans I know are Catholic...
@rsabbatini I was in Munich four years ago and it never made that impression. I went to Dachau, saw Fr. Ruppert's Church whom at the time I did not know of but have since read up on but it was in the reading of Martin Luther by Roland Bainton I believe that he and the German People changed the World views on Catholicism. I was Catholic and it surely convinced me. We have such outstanding scholars like Jimmy Swaggert and Joel Olsteen that I have to leave the country to get some sense of History as to what has happened and is still happening.
@Namaste well … you are wrong: Out of 82.2 million: Catholics 23,8 million (28.9%) 22,3 (27.1%) Lutherans: 22.3 million (27.1%) but over 36 million or 44% don't belong to any church. We are winning!
@Namaste, @Nevermind345 Did Roland Bainton mention that Martin Luther was a jew hater and that the Nazis used his ideas as a sort of guideline toward extermination?
[en.wikipedia.org]
The Nazi pogrom [en.wikipedia.org] happened on Luther's birthday
"On 10 November 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest anti-Semite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews."[68] Diarmaid MacCulloch argued that Luther's 1543 pamphlet, On the Jews and Their Lies was a "blueprint" for the Kristallnacht.[
It seems like the taxing system might have something to do with the decline. While a light tax probably wouldn’t deter a devout religious person it would weed out some of the casual church members.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
July 30, 2019
2
Meanwhile, thanks to Merkel's encouragement of refugees, the non-Christian sects have gained many, many thousands of followers.
Petter
Level 9
July 30, 2019
2
That's what I'm thinking
Do you have any real stats on that? In my experience immigrants seem more likely to lose their religious affiliation than if they stayed in their country of origin. Travel has a tendency to educate.
@Petter The 1500 or so Syrian refugees that settled in our area huddled together at first out of necessity and common bonding...it has been six years and things have changed drastically for them...many have started their own businesses or have moved into higher work positions...the young children I sponsored are now teens and want to be like their American counterparts...they have given up customs and their religion and the parents are not stopping it...some have converted to christianity as the church that sponsored them had hoped...but not all...travel does educate...
@thinktwice I'm glad to hear it. I wish more were like that, but the UK has pockets of change resistant immigrants.
@Petter We do as well, including the Hasidic Jews and the Amish in our area...they are worse than the Muslim immigrants in holding on to old customs and religions...
@thinktwice There's a group of them in Manchester, UK. (Hasidics)
@Petter I only use them as a point of reference that not all stubborn factions of religion are immigrants...some are home grown...
@thinktwice Exactly. These Hasidics have been there for centuries. Also in London, more recently.
[bbc.co.uk]
Could you give more specific details? Some statistics would be helpful.
[bpb.de]
These are official figures release by the bureau of political education.
Even if you don't read German you can understand the stats. The way asylum seekers are "distributed" amongst different settlement areas makes huddling in large numbers rather difficult.
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