German bishops release new figures: fewer churchgoers, parishes, and priests
Munich, Germany, Jul 16, 2016 / 07:08 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Figures released Friday by the German bishops’ conference draw a bleak picture of the ongoing decline of Catholicism in Germany. However, the head of the conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, described the Church July 15 as a continuing “strong force, whose message is heard and accepted”. With more than 23.7 million members in Germany, Catholicism is the largest single religious group in country, comprising 29 percent of the population. Yet people are leaving the Church in droves: in 2015, a total of 181,925 people departed.