The income the German Church receives from the ‘Church tax’ has hit a new high despite the record drop recently recorded in Catholic membership.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has said he dreams of Hagia Sophia becoming a “centre for the encounter of religions”.
The number of Spaniards self-identifying as Catholics and attending Mass regularly has fallen to a new low, as the Church in the country is also being forced to close convents and monasteries due to a decline in the ranks of active and contemplative religious and a lack of new vocations.
The vice-provincial of the Pallottine German-Austrian province has called for women’s ordination and part-time married priests, reasoning that “something must change” in the Church as a response to a new call from God and to stop the hemorrhage of faithful.
The head of Germany’s highest lay body has urged the ordination of married male and female priests to halt what he has called the “catastrophe” of the slide in vocations to the priesthood.
A German bishop has blamed the mass Church desertions in his country on what he described as the tired parish-centred pastoral model.
The German Bishops are pledging “courageous changes” in the Church to stem the hemorrhage of Catholics.
The Irish Church is under a data protection investigation for not erasing the personal information of former Catholics who renounce the religion.
The dramatic drop in Catholics in the Netherlands is bringing with it big changes for the Church in the country.
“Catholic Spain” is no more. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the country’s Centre of Sociological Investigations (CIS).