Another 400,000 people left Germany’s Catholic Church last year, but the pace slowed from 2022

BERLIN (AP) — Another 400,000 people formally have left the Catholic Church in Germany last year. But the number was down from a record set in 2022 as church leaders struggle to put a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy behind them and tackle calls for reform. The German Bishops’ Conference said Thursday that 402,694 people left the church in 2023. That was down from 522,821 the previous year. But it’s still the second-highest figure so far. The country’s Catholic Church had around 20.35 million members at the end of last year. The bishops’ conference didn’t detail reasons for the departures in an annual summary of statistics.