A group of Flemish first-graders standing in front of the main panel of the Ghent altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, one of the most important works of art of the middle ages. “What is that?”, the teacher asks. “A Sacrificial Lamb!”, is the prompt reply. “And what the lamb stands for?”, the teacher asks further. “For our Lord Jesus!” – “And why is Jesus portrayed as a lamb?” A particularly bright voice replied without Hesitation: “Because he died for our sins!”
This randomly watched a scene from the end of last year from the Museum of fine arts in Ghent proves that It still exists, the Christian – in this case, the Catholic Milieu. However, in Germany. There last year are more than half a Million people out of the Church. Among the Catholics there were so many as never before: 272 771, 26 percent more than in 2018. In the case of the Protestants, returned with around 270 000 to about 22 per cent more people of the departures from the Church to the back than in the previous year.
“In the 50s was still over half of Evangelical,”
“The decline in membership is fairly continuous and is relatively independent of current events”, analyses of the religious sociologist Detlef Pollack. “In the 50s, for example, more than half of the citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany was a Protestant.” According to released on Friday the latest Figures there are now in total only 25 percent. Catholics make up 27 percent of the population.
there are fewer people in their Childhood and youth, even the same Religion in contact. “Of the over 65-Year-olds in West Germany, 70 percent say that they are religious were brought up,” explains Pollack. “In the 16 – to 25-Year-olds, and less than 30 percent. A landslide-like collapse of the religious education. In the East this is even more dramatic. The transmission of the faith from one Generation to the next is almost collapsed.”
Church used to be “party Central in the village”
it is noticeable in addition, the passivity of the majority of the members. In the case of the Catholics about Church attendance declined in the past year, according to data of the German bishops ‘ conference to nine percent. In the case of the Protestants, 70 percent of the members participate according to Pollack, in any way, more the life of the Church.
Largely resolved, has baptized in the traditional Catholic or Protestant Milieu, such as, for example, Harald Schmidt (62) still has experienced: “There was, there was only communicates, there was gefirmt,” said the former Late-Night-Talker and a practicing Catholic, even in the Cologne Domforum. The Church was at that time but also the “party headquarters in the village”, everything was there.
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, In East Germany only 30 per cent of the citizen is a member of a Church
In East Germany, one could observe where the journey could go, says Pollack: There is only 30 per cent of the population are member of a Church. The empowering force of a religiously influenced environment have been resolved there, to a large extent.
The EKD Council chair Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, unable to accept such a perspective, however. He fights against it, to compare today’s Numbers with those of time, as it has not yet been looked at wrong, when a man went to Church on Sunday. “I don’t miss those times”, he assured the German press Agency.
“Today people from the freedom to join communities or organizations.” For the Church the challenge is to make it clear why among the many options just of the Christian Faith is the right Basis for one’s own life.
Corona could cause the break: Faith as an opportunity,
Corona could aggravate the Situation of the churches this year, however, once again. The Evangelical Church is expected due to the pandemic, a reduction of the Church tax revenue in the amount of ten to 25 percent.
The Catholic Church feared for the Corona-2020, a record number of resignations. The Chairman of the German bishops ‘ conference, Georg Bätzing, said this month in the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, many people asked themselves whether the Church was worth you gave your month-to-month money. “This will be exacerbated by the economic pressure in the Wake of the Corona-crisis with safety, especially in the middle Generation.”
Bedford-Strohm wants to understand the Corona but also as an opportunity: “Many people now experience is that the sudden interruption of the previous life and the uncertainty of how it will go is hard to bear. The Belief is power.” Plenty of sunshine and about 30 degrees from Friday – however, in some regions of Thunderstorms PCP sun threaten tired and about 30 degrees from Friday – however, in some regions of Thunderstorms
sca/dpa threaten
