How to tackle the problem of disused churches? Pulling them down without repurposing them? The president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (Zdk), Thomas Sternberg, and the general vicar of the archdiocese of Cologne, mgr. Dominik Meiering, addressed the problem in a talk last night, “Recovery or desertion? Prospects of the modern church building”. According to Sternberg, one should oppose to have the churches, maybe built after the Second World War, demolished, since “the disappearance of places of worship can change the identity of a district or a village”, so selling or repurposing them could be a solution to preserve the architectural heritage. According to the president of Zdk, one “should have the courage to make unused buildings usable”. The problem is also due to the lack of funds for the upkeep of such buildings. This problem is extremely serious in the diocese of Essen, where 15 churches have been reported as disused with no option to reuse them. Ternberg asked that a foundation be created in Rhine-Westphalia to take care of the upkeep of the churches. The problem is often that there are too many churches, so “the local populations should be involved in the conservation of the historical heritage”.