Over half a million German Roman Catholics left the church last year alone. Why do people break with the institution? DW's Christoph Strack caught up with one of those who have done so.
It's hard to keep folks in an organization built around morality when the organization doesn't share the same moral ideals of the folks who are in it. Hiding the sexual abuse of minors and the atrocious treatment of "sinners" (e.g. LGTBQ+ people) are very well known. The article touches on another large one that gets less press and that is the role of women in the church. Despite women's suffrage in the US being passed over 100 years ago. The Catholic church is not organized in a way to be flexible. On the contrary, they are dealing with over 2,000 years of institutional tradition. The "faithful who are waiting for reforms" have waited long enough and are moving elsewhere. Either the church learns how to change or they will continue to whither.
source: one of the faithful who stopped waiting over 10 years ago.
Don’t you have to pay a tax every year to the church in Germany if you are a member? I guess tougher economic times may also motivate many people deregister.
That was the motivation for me to leave. The first time i saw "Kirchensteuer" on a pay slip, i said "right, that's it". That was almost 40 years ago, though.
The protestant church has similarly sharp declines, but not as high absolute numbers of people leaving afaik. I also left church last year. No church tax for me. And they fuck kids
You misunderstand. Church tax in Germany means that the state is the tax collector for the church. Every individual registered as either catholic or protestant has to pay.
The church itself gets a certain tax exemption and so on. The only theoretical advantage is that the churches are a part of Bureaucracy and somewhat accountable. But as I said theoretically.
yeah but if a politician says they are catholic or protestant they have to pay the tax. If we had this system here and there was an evangelical tax you bet way less politicians would say they were that. unless they allowed it paid out of campaign funds.
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