(ZENIT News / Berlin, 06.28.2023).- The German Bishops’ Conference and the 27 dioceses of the Catholic Church in Germany published the church statistics for 2022. In Germany, Catholics make up 24.8 percent of the total population (20,937,590 church members).
After the Coronavirus pandemic, there is a slight increase in most sacraments: Worship attendance is 5.7 percent (2021: 4.3 percent). There have been 155,173 baptisms (2021: 141,992). The number of church weddings increased significantly to 35,467 (2021: 20,140). First Communion was celebrated by 162,506 children (2021: 156,574). A total of 110,942 young people were confirmed (2021: 125,818). Burials, at 240,144, are nearly the same as the previous year (2021: 240,040).
Ongoing structural measures in dioceses have reduced the number of parishes to 9,624 (2021: 9,790). There are a total of 11,987 priests (2021: 12,280), of whom 6,069 are parish chaplains (2021: 6,215). In other pastoral ministries, the 2022 statistics show a total of 3,184 permanent deacons (2021: 3,253), 3,117 pastoral assistants/referees (female: 1,509, male: 1,608) and 4,167 parish assistants/referees (female: 3,289, male: 878). The number of priestly ordinations in 2022 was 45 (including 33 secular and twelve religious priests).
In 2022, 1,447 people entered the Catholic Church (2021: 1,465), and 3,753 people were readmitted (2021: 4,116). There was another massive increase in the number of people leaving the Church in 2022, with 522,821 people leaving (2021: 359,338).
