According to a study from Munster, more than 21% of Catholics are even "at risk of leaving the church". What can church do? our site editor-in-chief Ingo Bruggenjurgen recommends that "heavenly ground personnel" look to Rome.
Right at the beginning of the year, a representative Forsa study confirmed that the Catholic Church hardly enjoys any trust anymore. Only 26% of Germans surveyed still trust the Catholic Church. The church thus ranks far below in the Stern-financed study – on par with banks and insurance companies.
Now the diocese of Munster has followed up with a "satisfaction study" – with equally depressing data: Catholics are dissatisfied with their own store to a very high degree. More than 21% of Catholics are even "at risk of leaving," according to the study. If the situation is so bleak even in the well-Catholic diocese of Munster, you don't have to be a prophet to note: Munster is probably everywhere, if it does not hit other dioceses even worse ..
As the main reason for dissatisfaction and a possible departure, more than half of the faithful formulate not the church tax, but "the church is too backward for me". It's a shame more specific questions weren't asked here. Whether the Christians interviewed find the Good News itself backward? Presumably, after all, it is rather the heavenly ground staff or the concrete appearance of the church on the ground that are perceived as not very contemporary. If I identify myself as a "Catholic" to my fellow passengers on the train or at a birthday party, it doesn't take long before I have to explain why condoms are not distributed for AIDS in Africa and why women in my club are only allowed to clean the church. The treatment of homosexuals and remarried, sexual morality, priests who are not allowed to marry … – all the charges that have been known for years. I am hardly ever asked about my faith or my Christian hope. I suspect that my Catholic sisters and brothers often feel the same way. Such conversations with often completely incomprehensible contemporaries then usually end with the remark, "You're actually quite normal – I don't understand how you can take part in such a backward place."Perhaps this basic mood will eat into you at some point and take hold.
"The situation for the Catholic Church in the diocese of Munster is serious. But it is by no means hopeless," sums up one of the study's authors, the marketing pope revered Prof. Dr. Dr. Heribert Meffert, the situation and recommends: "Integrity, interaction and integration". The real Pope in Rome even demonstrates how it can be done and how lost trust can be regained. Francis, who prefers to speak of himself as "Bishop of Rome," enjoys more than twice as much trust in Germany as the Catholic Church as a whole. He apparently gives the impression that he is close to the people, that he knows their worries and needs and takes them seriously. Especially important: He radiates hope and joy. If you no longer want to feel like the last foot-sick people in society who simply can't keep up with the pace of modernity, Catholics – not only in the diocese of Munster – should take the Pope as an example.