The number of people leaving the Catholic Church in Germany rose sharply last year.
The German bishops’ conference said 178,805 people left the Church in 2013, compared with 118,335 the previous year.
In 2010, just short of 181,000 German people left the Church after a scandal about sexual abuse in the clergy.
In March, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-vanElst as Limburg bishop, after an outcry about his lavish residence.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the German bishops’ conference, said “the second half of 2013 evidently led to a loss of confidence and credibility”.
Germany’s Catholic Church had nearly 24.2 million members last year.