Germany’s Catholic Church lost 216,078 members and Protestant churches lost some 220,000 in 2018, according to data published by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Church in Germany.

Fr. Hans Langendörfer, secretary of the German Bishops’ Conference, said in a statement that the Church needs to be “more self-critical and constructive.”

“The current statistics are worrying,” he said.

“There is nothing to gloss over about the numbers, they confirm a trend that has shaped the Church in recent years.”

Church membership in Germany has been declining for years.

The number of people wanting to become priests is also in decline.

In 2005, 122 priests were ordained in the country and just ten years later, only 58 men were ordained priests.

Some 53 per cent of the country’s population remains either Catholic or Protestant, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

While both churches have more than 20 million members, the University of Freiburg has predicted that membership in both churches will be cut in half by 2060.

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Christian Ricardo Fernandez Izaguirre was arbitrarily detained by state authorities upon leaving the headquarters of opposition movement Ladies in White, who silently protest imprisonments by attending Sunday Mass in white garments.

The Cuban government has forcibly prevented members of the Ladies in White from attending church services and other religious activities, placing them in custody and often dropping them off in remote locations to find their own way home.

Mr Izaguirre documented a number of cases of religious persecution towards Christian groups in the region, including The Apostolic Movement, a network of charismatic protestant churches to which Ricardo is a member and which the government has refused to register.

Upon his release, Fernandez Izaguirre told freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW): “The experience has given me the opportunity to know a reality that I had no idea about. Many times I had to stand between the prisoners and police as the guards would often beat the prisoners and I refused to let this happen. Many were there due to unjust circumstances and because of arbitrary laws.”

His detention took place against a backdrop of increasing violations of freedom of religion or belief in Cuba.

Mr Fernandez Izaguirre described the circumstances under which he was detained on Friday 21 July, he said: “They kept me handcuffed all day…

Joy Morgan was 20 years old when she disappeared after attending a celebration at the Israel United in Christ churchin Ilford, east London, on Boxing Day last year.

Shohfah-El Israel, 40, from Cricklewood, North London, is on trial for her alleged murder at Reading Crown Court.

Ms Morgan, a midwifery student at the University of Hertfordshire, has not been seen or heard from in almost seven months, and a body has never been recovered, the jury has been told.

Her mother, Carol Morgan, reported her missing to the police on 7th February this year and Israel was arrested two days later.

On Monday, jurors were presented with facts relating to the trial that have been agreed between the prosecution and defence.

These detailed a number of “potential sightings” of Ms Morgan since her disappearance.

This included a report of a possible sighting of the student outside Golders Green Tube station in London on 28th January this year.

Jurors were informed that footage from cameras outside the station is only kept for 14 days, and cameras covering the station, for 30 days.

By the time police inquired about footage on 1st April there was none available, the agreed facts document stated.

When police scoped the New Cross Road area on 15th February, following a possible sighting of Ms Morgan at a bus stop four days before, no footage was obtained, the jury were told.

There was a report…