More than 20,000 Cologne residents left the church in 2022
In Cologne, the number of people leaving the church continued to rise in 2022. A total of 20,331 Cologne residents left the church last year.
Last year, 20,331 people in Cologne left the church, according to the Cologne District Court. That’s 959 more rides than in 2021.
Cologne is thus in line with the nationwide trend. So far, 2021 has held the record with around 280,000 people who have left the Evangelical Church and 359,205 people who have left the Catholic Church. Even if the Germany-wide exit numbers for 2022 are not yet available, experts expect a further increase.
“This trend will probably be difficult to stop or even reverse,” said Christian Weisner from the reform movement “We are Church”. He sees a direct connection to what he sees as the inadequate processing of cases of abuse in the church – “because it took far too long for the bishops in Germany and the two previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, to recognize their responsibility.”
The nationwide numbers of people leaving the church are traditionally not published by the Evangelical and Catholic Church in Germany until a few months after the turn of the year