Religion Basel regional churches in the black despite membership decline
The Roman Catholic Church of Basel-Stadt (RKK) has recorded a 3.7 percent decline in membership for 2023. This is above the average of recent years. Nevertheless, the annual accounts closed with a surplus of CHF 425,000, as the church wrote on Wednesday in its statement on the synod the previous day.
26.06.2024, 12:44
26.06.2024, 14:46
SDA
This means that the decline in membership has not had a significant impact on the annual result. "However, this will change significantly in the coming years," Church Council President Christian Griss is quoted as saying in the press release.
As expected, the publication of the pilot study on the historical processing of cases of child sexual abuse in the context of the Roman Catholic Church was "reflected in the membership statistics" last year, writes Griss in the administrative report.
While in 1973 over 40 percent of the canton's inhabitants belonged to the RCC, in 2023 it was only 10 percent. In absolute figures, this is a decline from 96,000 to 21,000 members. Last year, around 1,000 people left the church - around 300 more than in 2022, according to the report.
At the same time, the RCC gained 144 new members last year. 1565 moved in, 1439 moved out. The influx of Catholics from abroad, mostly younger people, has somewhat mitigated the decline, writes Griss.
Reformed with a surplus of 4.77 million francs
The Protestant Reformed Church of Basel-Stadt is also in the black. It reported a profit of 4.77 million francs for 2023, as the church announced on Wednesday.
The church had originally expected a loss in the millions, but collected significantly more taxes than budgeted. Expenditure was also lower. The synod agreed to set aside the surplus as a deficit reserve in view of the declining membership figures. The Basel Reformed Church had just under 22,600 members last year. This is around 700 fewer than in the previous year, according to the annual report.
