The number of people leaving the church in Munich reached a sad record in 2021.
With 22,323 people - Catholics and Protestants - it was more than 60 percent more than the number of people leaving in 2020 (13,549), as our newspaper asked the district administration department in Munich.
Munich – The number of people leaving the church in Munich rose rapidly in 2021. As a query in our newspaper revealed, 22,323 people left the Catholic and Protestant churches last year. In 2020 the number was 13,549. In the district administration department, the numbers of people leaving churches subject to church tax are not broken down by denomination. The figures for those leaving the respective churches will not be available until the middle of the year.
Nevertheless, one can read from the data available to our newspaper that the number of people who are turning their backs on the Christian churches is increasing sharply.
Last year it was the highest number in the past 20 years.
In 2000 it was 8,934, in the year the abuse scandal became known there were 12,305 Christians who had declared their withdrawal.
Resignations are also increasing in Cologne
If you look at the individual months, well over 1,500 people resigned month after month last year - with the exception of January 2021, when 1,278 resignations were recorded. In June, when Cardinal Reinhard Marx's offer of resignation became known, which Pope Francis then rejected a little later, 2,054 Christians resigned; only in April was the number higher, with 2,196 resignations. Allegations against Marx in connection with the handling of cases of abuse in the Diocese of Trier were published again that month. According to the Munich Statistical Office, 454,547 people in Munich were still Roman Catholic at the end of 2020 (29.1 percent of the 1.562 million inhabitants). 162,861 (10.4 percent) belonged to the Protestant Church.
Also in the city of Cologne, where there is a heated debate about the church's treatment of abuse and where Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki is currently on sabbatical, the number of people leaving has increased significantly.
Diocesan Council Chairman Tim Kurzbach was shocked that the number of resignations in the city of Cologne had almost doubled compared to the record year 2019 from 19,340.
Many longtime volunteers turned their backs on the church.
Woelki had refused to resign and wants to resume his official duties on March 2nd.