The number of Catholics quitting the church jumped 40 percent last year to 180,000 in the wake of persistent child sex abuse scandals, a media report said Thursday.

It means that for the first time in Germany, more Catholics abandoned their church than Protestants.

A survey by magazine Christ & Welt, a lift-out carried by weekly Die Zeit, revealed that 180,000 Catholics left the church in 2010, which was a rise of 40 percent on the previous year.

That compared with 150,000 leaving the country's Protestant Church (EKD).

Membership decline was concentrated in the first half of the year, when public anger over child abuse scandals was at its peak, the magazine reported.

http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110407-34247.html


I wonder if this is the case in other places as well