Dresden (dpa/sn) - The decline in the number of Catholics in Saxony continued in the second year of Corona. The dioceses of Dresden-Meißen, Görlitz and Magdeburg lost 2,267 members on the territory of the Free State, according to statistics published by the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) in Bonn on Monday. According to this, on December 31, 2021, a total of 148,095 Catholics lived in Saxony. Most of these (128,203) belonged to parishes of the Dresden-Meissen diocese, 15,304 to parishes of the Görlitz diocese and 4,588 to the Magdeburg diocese.
According to the DBK, the statistics are shaped by the corona pandemic, which has had many effects on church life. The chairman, Bishop Georg Bätzing, attributes the "extremely high" number of departures to problems within the church. There was increasing feedback that people who had previously been very involved in the parishes also took this step. He spoke of a "profound crisis" in the Catholic Church in Germany. This showed the "scandals that we have to lament within the church and for which we have to answer to a considerable extent".
The diocese of Dresden-Meissen, which stretches as far as East Thuringia, has lost a good 2,200 Christians. The third-smallest of the 27 dioceses in Germany has 137,067 members - a year earlier there were 139,269. According to statistics, 2,886 Catholics turned away from their church and resigned, only 27 were new or re-admitted. According to the Ordinariate in Dresden, the departures are still being mitigated by the influx of Catholic Christians. "This high number of people leaving the church hurts," said Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, and thanked everyone "who, despite all the questions, doubts and justified criticism, still stand by their church."
The proportion of people attending church services fell from 9.8 to 7.4 percent, also because of the corona pandemic. There was an increase in baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials: 571 baptisms (up 30), 750 confirmations (up 257), 173 marriages (up 53), 1144 burials (up 194). Only 151 fewer, 617 girls and boys, went to First Communion.
For the Diocese of Görlitz, 29,623 members are reported and thus a loss of 167 Catholics for the first time in years. Only every 10th member attended church services. 254 Christians left the church, 251 were buried and 7 were newly admitted or accepted.
"There are no longer things we take for granted as the Catholic Church," said Bätzing. You have to say goodbye to the idea that churches will fill up again or that the number of believers will increase again. For him, the balance sheet is also a task: "We have to explain ourselves anew, explain what we're doing and why we're doing it."
