Christianity is dying in Germany while Islam rises
Demographics, lack of community cohesion and lack of belief have brought about a mass demoliton of churches.
Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter and of “J’Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel” published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.
In 2001, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told Peter Sewald: “The church will be reduced numerically. In a city like Magdeburg the percentage of Christians is only 8 percent of the total population, including – mind you – all Christian denominations. The statistical data show irrefutable tendencies”.
Since 2000, the Catholic church in Germany has desecrated, demolished and sold 540 churches and chapels. Of these, 80 were in Magdeburg. In the diocese of Essen, Bishop Franz Hengsbach saw the number of Catholics halved, so 57 churches were abandoned. In the diocese of Hildesheim, as many as 51 churches have been deconsecrated since 2008.
17 years have passed since that Ratzinger interview and the data has almost collapsed everywhere. From “irrefutable”, the numbers seem to have become irredeemable.
In a study commissioned by the Bishops’ Conference, researchers at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg are even more pessimistic than Ratzinger: the total of Christian denominations – adding up the Catholic and Protestant ones – will fall from the current 45 million to 34 million in 2035 and will halve to 22 million within 40 years. The number of Protestants in the next generation will fall from the current 21.5 million to 10.5 million, while that of Catholics from 23 million to 12.3 million.
This is due to demographic decline and dropouts. In the north and east of the country, Christians will be only a small minority with 3.8 and 1.5 million, respectively. The main Protestant churches already saw their percentage halved from 59 to 29 per cent. And today, as Erik Flügge explains in a new book, “90 percent of church members do not participate in community life”.
The demolitions will not stop at 540 churches. “We are just beginning this development”, said Albert Gerhards of the University of Bonn. “If there is no rethinking, a sharp increase in demolitions is foreseeable in the coming years”.
In Europe’s most important country, Andreas Püttmann, a researcher with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, wrote a book in which he called the situation Gesellschaft ohne Gott, the society without God.
But he is wrong.
Christianity is dying. but Islam is rising.
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