CV NEWS FEED // The Catholic Church in Germany is being forced to close or demolish massive numbers of churches throughout the country due to financial difficulties and increasingly large numbers of fallen-away Catholics.
German news outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) reported that in Kiel, a city with a population of over 240,000, five churches were forced to close over the past few years. Local Rüdiger Kirkskothen told DW that despite the best efforts of the parishioners to save their church, it was closed and deconsecrated against their will in 2022.
“All our protests failed. We even wrote to the Vatican. That didn’t help either,” he told DW, adding that for many families in the area, the church was “home.”
Kirkskothen said that after a church was forced to close in the nearby town of Schönberg, the community “almost completely fell apart.” Several people also left the Church entirely.
DW reported that the Diocese of Essen currently plans to close more than two thirds of its 270 churches by 2030, and is currently drawing up plans to make the closing process easier for parishioners.
“The diocese proposes offering “tokens of remembrance” to the faithful, for example, postcards, puzzles, mugs, choir concerts, or even a sleepover for children and young people in the old church,” DW reported.
The secretariat of the German Bishops’ Conference told DW that the Archdiocese of Hamburg, which includes Kiel and Schönberg, has been among the hardest hit by church closures. Since 2005, over 650 Catholic churches have “ceased to be used for worship” due to a “veritable wave of secularization,” according to the secretariat.
DW additionally reported that between 2019 and 2023, an average of 28 German churches were closed or destroyed every year.
The majority of Catholic churches are designated as historical buildings, which makes demolishing them much more difficult. According to Catholic theologian Matthias Sellmann, however, many churches that are fewer than 150 years old or built after World War II are demolished.
If they’re not destroyed, the churches are deconsecrated and turned into normal buildings, such as climbing gyms, pubs, galleries, or burial halls.
Sellmann said closing churches has negative effects on the faith lives of locals.
“People are losing the place where they come into contact with God, where they light candles, walk past the statue of the Virgin Mary or simply sit in the pews, where they know that God also comes into contact with people,” he said.
“You may have read a thousand times in the newspaper that the role of the church is dwindling or that the number of church members is falling rapidly,” he continued. “But when your own church is demolished, it becomes a reality, it hits home.”
