After Germany and France, where people’s dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church grew due to the disastrous handling of the sexual abuse crisis, Switzerland joined in, affected by the same phenomenon. And in this case, the fundamental cause is the lack of transparency demonstrated over the years: several cases related to pedophilia, with cover-ups by bishops and a general tendency not to defend the victims, often silenced and marginalized by church authorities. The president of the Swiss Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Felix Gmur, in light of the latest statistics on “debotez”, where people are subjected to bureaucratic procedures to leave the Church, admitted that it is a defeat. “The number of people leaving is really very high. Unfortunately, this was predictable after the publication of the pilot study on sexual abuse in the Church,” he told the Kath.ch portal. According to statistics, around 67,500 believers in Switzerland left the Catholic Church in 2023, almost double the previous year. The main reason is the shock caused by the publication of a study by the University of Zurich in September 2023, which triggered a wide and deep reaction wave. More than 1,000 sexual assaults have been recorded in recent decades, and according to experts, this is only the tip of the iceberg. ANALYSIS The Bishop of Basel, Gmur, analyzes the unfavorable picture and, along with the scourge of abuse, also indicates the trend towards secularization. In Swiss society, the Catholic faith is no longer at the center of people’s lives. Young couples no longer baptize their children, people no longer marry in church, and the parishes themselves are emptying. “The environment of the Catholic Church is changing rapidly, as if it is disintegrating. Attachment is waning, faith no longer plays a role in many people’s daily lives, and therefore faith is no longer passed down in the family. The church continues to shrink and, unfortunately, we have to admit, this is a trend that cannot be stopped.” In Belgium – where the Church is losing believers at a rapid rate – there has recently been a further spike in departures due to the Pope’s words about abortion (defined as a crime) and the doctors who perform it (defined as murderers). The protest did not take long to appear. More than 500 believers undertook the bureaucratic procedures to be baptized following his visit to Brussels. An immediate and unexpected reaction, at least in these proportions, which took even the local bishop by surprise. These days, in Germany, the Cardinal of Munich, Reinhard Marx – one of the main collaborators of Pope Francis – has publicly reflected on the difficulties facing the Church. The continuous and massive exodus of abbots (about 200,000 per year) has a direct impact on tax revenues, resulting in a decrease in resources available for social, humanitarian, charitable and pastoral purposes. The archbishop of Munich admitted that the loss process is not expected to stop in the coming years. ITALY And in Italy? Sociologists are now talking about a significant decline, a drastic decline, an accelerated decline. The negative trend has been going on for decades and the situation shows a point of no return. Luca Diotallevi, in a book entitled “La messa è sbiadita” (Rubettino, 117 pages, 13 euros) talks about the “fading of religious rites” because they involve “a smaller and smaller part of the Italian population. Belief “has a statistically detectable influence. which is very limited and weak (if not non-existent) on the declared behaviors of those who define themselves as regular practitioners”, i.e. those who attend the service with some regularity and rely on the sacraments, passing on faith to their children This is a complex phenomenon, with certainly not new, which has been consolidated over time and which, starting from the isolation – with the decision of those to broadcast the liturgies. not in presence, using social media – then stabilized In practice, legitimizing the masses on TV would have accelerated an ongoing process that, looking at statistics and expert perspectives, seems. irreversible.