Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany

Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany
Classification	Catholic
Theology	Ultrajectine
Governance	Episcopal
Leader	Matthias Ring, Catholic Bishop of the Old Catholics in Germany
Associations	International Old Catholic Bishops' Conference
Region	Germany
Headquarters	Bonn
Branched from	Catholic Church
Congregations	55
Members	15,840
Ministers	100

The Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany is the German member body of the Union of Utrecht of Old Catholic Churches, which follow Ultrajectine theology. It is permitted to levy the German church tax on its members. Its episcopal see is in Bonn, as is its theological faculty. Its membership is concentrated around Cologne, Bonn, the Ruhr and southern Baden. The bishop of the diocese is Matthias Ring.

In Germany, the Old Catholic Church is a Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts or statutory corporation and is empowered as such to levy church tax in most federal states except some in northern and eastern Germany.

The oldest parish in Germany is on the North Frisian island of Nordstrand; its origins go back to the year 1654. It was established by Dutch Ultrajectine Catholics from the Archdiocese of Utrecht employed to build dykes.

Old Catholic parishes are most concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Baden-Württemberg. The parishes in southern Baden are very close to the parishes of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, with whom they share their heritage from the reform-friendly Roman Catholic Diocese of Constance, which was dissolved in 1821. In Bavaria, Old Catholic parishes are particularly concentrated in areas where German refugees from Bohemia and Moravia settled after World War II. In Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Hesse, Old Catholics are relatively evenly distributed. In the traditionally Protestant areas of northern and eastern Germany, by contrast, parish boundaries are far larger, reflecting the diaspora situation there.

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