The Catholic church in Germany revealed it’s been losing followers like never before. More than half a million people decided to renounce their membership in 2022.
According to the German Bishops’ Conference in Bonn, 522,821 people left the church last year.
The number was way more than the forecasts made by the institution. In 2021, the number of people who left was under 360,000.
Thoman Schuller, a canon lawyer, told the German media the church was “dying a painful death” and would grapple to recover from the fallout.
According to the 2022 figures, the church has 21 million members, 24.8 per cent of the entire population. The departures happened after a series of child abuse scandals and accusations of a widespread cover-up.