Report: despite drop in membership, more German Catholics going to church

Pray Tell has the scoop:

This is interesting. While the numbers officially leaving the church in Germany are increasing, those remaining seem to be increasing their attendance and church participation, at least in some places.

It has been widely reported that the number of people officially leaving the German Catholic Church (and Protestant churches too, for that matter), increased markedly in 2014. The Catholic Church reported a 22% spike in losses compared to the previous year; in the diocese of Munster the increase was 17%.

And since for some people everything is about the upcoming synod, and for these people the synod is pretty much only about communion for the divorced and remarried, and either you’re for Cardinal Kasper or you’re against him – and he’s the guy who doesn’t really believe in Catholic marriage and wants to abandon the teachings of Christ, or something like that – it is politically expedient to discredit the German Catholic Church in any way possible. And for some folks, the bad news from Germany has been good news, because it helps discredit Pope Francis and show that the “Francis Effect” is non-existent or even a negative.

But note this: there is a report from Munster that church attendance is up in the diocese, and that participation in pilgrimages is up too, with noticeably more youth involved.

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