Status: 11/01/2022 11:51 am
The chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference in Bätzing is concerned about the high number of people leaving the church. There are enough reasons for him to stay in the church. But he also showed understanding.
The chairman of the Catholic German Bishops’ Conference, Georg Bätzing, is burdened by the record number of people leaving the church last year. 360,000 people personally voted out the church as an institution: “It hurts and weighs heavily on me inside,” said Bätzing in his sermon on the All Saints’ Day holiday in Limburg.
Good reasons for church
Despite all the justified criticism, the Limburg bishop sees good reasons to remain in the Catholic Church and to work for reforms. He referred to two special initiatives: “1,000 good reasons” in the Archdiocese of Paderborn and “Caritas shows its face” in the Diocese of Limburg.
Both showed that there are many people who are committed to church and society out of faith. They made it clear “how livable and diverse being a Catholic is today”.
Lost contact with the church
At the same time, he acknowledged that there are certainly good reasons for many people to say goodbye to the church. Some had lost touch a long time ago, while others deliberately wanted to take a stand against cases of abuse in the church and their cover-up.
According to Bätzing, the number of those who have been committed to the church for years and decades has increased significantly, “but who are now leaving because they are disappointed, because they cannot see that the church is really moving on important issues.” Bätzing also regretted that the involvement in the synodal path reform dialogue had so far not been able to lead to “greater forbearance and patience” among these people.
Too few entries
For him, All Saints’ Day is a festival that encourages and invites people to talk about the reasons that keep them faithful to their faith and to the Church, said the Bishop of Limburg. In view of the high number of people leaving the church, this is not easy, but the reason for the courageous view lies in the testimony of the many people who, touched by their faith, have placed themselves in the footsteps of Jesus.
The evangelical and catholic churches each lost around half a million members in 2021. Aside from deaths, the number of people leaving the church is the main reason, since not enough people are joining or being baptized to make up for the losses. In 2021, for the first time, less than half of Germans were members of the Protestant or Catholic Church.