Archdiocese of Cologne: 500 Parishes Will Become 50
The reason for this is that the Archdiocese keeps losing nominal members, partly because they die, partly because they leave the Church. Only a very small percentage of those paying the church-tax in Germany ever go to church.
Cologne is on paper, the diocese in Germany with the biggest number of nominal Catholics. In 1990 they were just under 2.5 million, currently they are 1.91 million, and in 2060 there will allegedly still be 1.03 million. Although the big majority of them are lapsed and never enter a church, for some reason they still pay church-tax. The bishops are careful not to upset them in order not to loose their cash.
In the past, Cologne was considered the richest diocese in the world. But for some years now it was overtaken by Munich and Paderborn, both in Germany.
The new parishes will be set up on a flexible basis, depending on the retirement of the present pastors.
Picture: Rainer Maria Woelki, Cologne Archdiocese, CC-BY-SA