Almost 50,000 people from the Archdiocese of Munich left the church last year – more than ever before. Hiltrud Beauty, the chairwoman of the Catholic Council, explains why even committed believers are giving up – and what problems those responsible have to solve.
Last year, 49,029 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising left the church – 13,706 more than in 2021. It is the highest number since the in-house statistics were introduced in the 1970s. Christoph Klingan, vicar general of the archdiocese, describes the development as worrying. “Quite a few cite the cases of sexual abuse in recent decades and the inadequate handling of it as the reason,” he said on Wednesday after the German Bishops’ Conference had published the current statistics. Hiltrud Beauty, 63, is chairwoman of the Catholic Council of the city and region of Munich and thus the highest lay body on the Isar. She says that even those who are committed in the parishes are now turning their backs on the institution.