150 nations
are represented in the Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich. Most Catholic foreign nationals come from Italy (40,526 people), Portugal (23,737), and Germany (19,759). Smaller groups come from Croatia (3,651), Brazil (2,012) or Hungary (1,931), for example. One member each comes from Gabon, Israel, and North Korea. Members with a foreign nationality pay church tax like everybody else, and, depending on their status, have a say in the Church’s affairs.
125’432 church members who are foreign nationals
have found a new home with the Catholic Church in the Canton of Zurich, which, because Zurich was historically so strongly oriented towards the Reformed Church, is a migrant’s church anyway. Migration has an impact on the whole of society, and the pastoral care for migrants is a task that never ends. The Cantonal Catholic Church alone spends more than 8 million Swiss francs on pastoral care for migrants each year.
22 missions
support and look after Catholic migrants. Together with the parishes, the missions take care of liturgical life; they also provide religious education, perform welfare and social work, support communal life, and facilitate cooperation with the German-speaking clergy, pastoral workers and church administrators. Pastoral care for migrants thus plays an important role in integrating a third of all Catholics into our community.
A multilingual church (German-language)