The number of people leaving the church has exploded

Created: 06/28/2022, 15:50

By: Victoria Strachwitz

More and more people in Würmtal are turning their backs on the church, especially the Catholic Church.

(Archive photo) © Dagmar Rutt

It had become apparent, now it's official: the number of people leaving the church in Würmtal is exploding.

The Catholic Church is particularly affected.

Würmtal

– The consequences of the abuse report by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising in January of this year are like a landslide.

In the first week after the document was published, a large number of people in the Würm Valley turned their backs on the church.

After half a year it becomes clear: That was just the beginning.

The number of resignations explodes.

627 people from Würmtal left the two major Christian denominations in the first half of this year.

That is almost as many as in the whole of 2021 (673).

In some Würmtal communities there are already more than in the entire past year.

The number of people leaving the church in the Würmtal is increasing

Things got off to a slow start in Neuried at the beginning of the year – unlike in the other Würmtal communities.

But the wave of exits soon picked up speed in Neuried: "It can be assumed that by April 2022 at the latest we will have registered as many exits from the church as in the whole of 2021," said the spokeswoman for the community, Inke Franzen, in March.

And indeed, this threshold has long been exceeded.

100 Neurieder left the church in the first half of 2022, compared to 56 in the first half of 2021 – and 81 in the whole of last year.

Increasingly fewer Neurieder profess Christianity.

Less than half of the community's citizens are currently members of the Catholic or Protestant Church.

“In Neuried, 1083 people with a Protestant religion and 2994 citizens with a Catholic religion are registered;

we currently have 8,686 citizens with their main residence in our community,” says Inke Franzen.

In the first half of 2022, 627 people from Würmtal left the two major Christian denominations

In Krailling, less than half also belong to one of the two large churches.

And the difference is getting bigger.

Of the 7,982 citizens who were registered in the community as of December 31, 2021, 2,580 were Catholic and 1,347 were Protestant.

Since the beginning of the year, a further 72 people have left the Catholic Church and 13 from the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

For comparison: A total of 104 Kraillingers said goodbye to the church last year.

In Planegg, the current numbers are even more dramatic.

In the first half of 2021, 30 Planeggers left, this year there were 104 in the same period. As in Neuried, the balance of the entire past year (86) has already been significantly exceeded in this municipality.

According to registrar Manuela Fischer-Blache in March, 100 to 120 departures per year would be normal in Planegg.

Only if not much is added now does it stay within limits in Planegg over the year.

The Catholic Church is particularly hard hit everywhere in the Würmtal

This opportunity also exists in Gauting.

246 people left the Church in 2021.

So far there are 212. But this number is also high.

For comparison: In the first half of 2021, 123 people from Gautingen left the church.

In Graefelfing, too, there is the possibility of staying within limits, the increase in the number of people leaving is not quite as dramatic as in other communities.

There were 79 exits in the first half of 2021, in the same period in 2022 there were 126. A total of 156 Gräfelfinger said goodbye to the church last year.

also read

Triplets start the world with high school

Würm water has good bathing quality

The Catholic Church is particularly hard hit everywhere - not just in Krailling, as described above.

For example, the number of people leaving the Protestant Church in Gräfelfing and Neuried remained almost unchanged, but the number of people leaving the Catholic Church rose in Gräfelfing from 55 in the first half of 2021 to 104 this year and in Neuried from 44 to 85. It now remains to be seen whether the wave of exits flattens out, as in Neuried in the second half of last year, or whether the numbers continue to rise.