Abuse in the church: exit wave in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - "It's crazy"

Created: 01/29/2022, 06:05

Many people are turning their backs on the church after the abuse scandal.

The registry offices in the district also recorded numerous resignations.

© Ingo Wagner/DPA

According to the new report, many people are leaving the church.

Many Catholics who have thought about it have had enough now.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – The report published a week ago on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is already having consequences: the number of people leaving the church in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district has increased significantly.

Abuse in the church: exit wave in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen - "It's crazy"

"Our appointments for deregistering from the church tax are all fully booked," reports Thomas Loibl, spokesman for the city of Geretsried. In order to leave the church, you have to register at the registry office in your place of residence and then appear in person.

The withdrawal costs 25 euros plus 10 euros for a written certificate and takes effect immediately.

From last Friday, the first day after the report became known, the city recorded 16 resignations of Geretsried residents from the Roman Catholic Church until Wednesday.

In the communities overseen by the Geretsried registry office, four people from Icking, two from Münsing and two from Dietramszell left.

The registrars didn't ask for the reasons, they shouldn't, says Loibl.

"But this time, many of them called the abuse scandal themselves." There have been resignations throughout the year, but the current accumulation is "remarkable".

Bad Tölz: Many more exits from the Catholic Church - "madness" in Wolfratshausen

In Bad Tölz, too, some people are turning away from the Catholic Church. According to Falko Wiesenhütter, manager in the town hall, their number was 13 on Tuesday. Among them are not only residents of the city of Bad Tölz, but also citizens of the municipalities of Wackersberg, Bichl, Benediktbeuern and Bad Heilbrunn, which belong to the registry office district. Since the beginning of January there have been 31 resignations from the Tölz registry office compared to 19 resignations in the same period of the previous year.

In the Wolfratshausen town hall, registrar Petra Konrad makes appointments for people leaving the church every day.

"It's insane," she says.

By Tuesday she had registered 18 resignations from the Catholic Church.

She knows waves like this: "People are always queuing up after negative headlines." Many have told her in the past few days that they have been thinking about the step for a long time.

But now the barrel is full, now they would go through with it.

In the Loisachstadt registry office there was already a significant increase in church exits last year, namely 200 instead of the usual 100 to 150. This may be due to the fact that people in the pandemic might want to save on taxes.

Despite abuse reports and scandals in the church: many believers remain faithful

In Lenggries, however, “the number of people leaving the church is trickling away, but there aren’t that many,” summarizes the head of the registry office there, Helmut Potstada.

"So far we have had six church exits in January," he reports when asked by our newspaper.

In 2021, a total of 101 citizens from Lenggries and the Jachenau community they looked after left the church, 80 of them from the Roman Catholic Church.

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According to the registry office, four citizens in the administrative community of Reichersbeuern, Sachsenkam and Greiling have left the church within the past six days.

The registry office in Kochel am See has recorded 13 new departures since last Thursday, according to Head of Administration Nicole Lutterer.

"In 2021 there were a total of 57 resignations."