The Catholic Church is losing members en masse, some finding refuge among the Old Catholics. All doors are open to women there and celibacy is irrelevant. Who are these believers who are anything but “old”? A visit to Regensburg.
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Deniz Aykanat, Regensburg
To get to the Regensburg Old Catholics, you first have to go to the car dealership. It’s in an industrial area near the Regensburg port. Inside, between shiny new cars, a path leads past a babbling indoor brook in which bright orange koi – Japanese carp – are swimming. It smells like new leather and rubber. A gray door leads to the stairwell, one floor up to a kind of granny flat with floral wallpaper: Welcome to the Altk—–atholics.