Die Pressing

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Aug 20, 2004

The Austrian daily Die Presse reports on the aftershocks of the St. Poelten poofter porn scandal:

The figures, which have not yet been published but have been seen by "Die Presse," reveal that the number of people leaving the Church has surpassed religious leaders'’ greatest fears, with an increase of 185.7 per cent recorded in the affected diocese St. Poelten. ... The number is also particularly high in Krems, which recorded a 322.2 per cent increase in the number of people handing back their baptism certificates.

Lacking raw numbers, it's hard to gauge just how great the meltdown is. Lacking data on who's leaving and why, it's hard to know whether the Church is losing active members, or (as the odd expression "handing back their baptism certificates" suggests) dead leaves are dropping from the tree.

No doubt senior churchmen are concerned about a backlash. As Cardinal Hans Herman "Soapy" Groer said so well, "What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for monophysites."