Germany borrows 'priests' from India

India might be the right place to 'outsource' – not just IT, but even borrowing its priests to maintain the dwindling parishes abroad.

Last week, a German Catholic diocese unveiled plans to "borrow" about 12 priests from India's Kerala state, because of lacking German men to lead the Churches.

Sources said, the German diocese has promised to bear all expenses, including the travel, accommodation and personal needs of the priests.

They are to spend 10 to 15 years ministering to German Christians before returning to their home diocese of Palai, it said.

Hildesheim, one of 27 Catholic dioceses in Germany, has 265 priests currently, but it has only ordained 33 men in the past decade and has only one ordination set this year.

Officials said the newcomers would work as curates for three years and would then be given parishes of their own.

Churches in Britain are also facing similar fate. Indians hailing from states like Mizoram, Kerala and Goa are being hired to help revive its congregations.

The 2001 census showed that fewer than one in 10 people in Wales regularly attended church or chapel. Furthermore, the comprehensive professional research in 2006 by Tearfund found that two thirds (66% – 32.2 million people) in the UK have no connection with any religion or church

Shockingly Churches in northern Europe are already being turned into mosques due to the decline of Christian congregations.