Bonn, Germany, Jul 14, 2021 / 07:00 am
More than 220,000 people left Catholic Church in Germany in 2020, according to official figures released on Wednesday.
The statistics issued by the German bishops’ conference on July 14 showed that 221,390 people exited the Catholic Church last year.
The figure was almost 19% lower than that of 2019, when a record 272,771 people departed. But it was higher than the 2018 figure of 216,078, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.
In a July 14 statement, Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, said that while the Church had made strenuous efforts throughout the coronavirus pandemic, it was nevertheless experiencing “a profound shock.”