Passau, Germany - The Catholic church sees the faithful leaving the church in droves after the controversial lifting of the excommunication of a group of rightist bishops, a German Vatican expert said Saturday.
Father Eberhard von Gemmingen, the head of Radio Vatican's German service, said in an interview with the Passauer Neuen Presse newspaper that a new "wave of exits" had already set in after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four leaders of the St Pius X Society, one of whom denies the Holocaust.