German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, 67, has submitted his resignation to Pope Francis, saying that bishops must begin to accept responsibility for the institutional failures of the church in handling the clerical sexual abuse crisis.
Cardinal Marx released a statement
Pope Francis has ordered an apostolic visitation "to obtain a comprehensive picture of the complex pastoral situation" in the Archdiocese of Cologne and to investigate how accusations of clerical sexual abuse were handled, the Vatican nuncio to Germany announced.
The pope asked Swedish
Bishop Georg Batzing, president of the German bishops' conference, defended the plan for "ecumenically mindful" reception of Communion in Catholic and Protestant services during Germany's ecumenical congress May 13-16.
The bishop told KNA, Germany's Catholic news agency, May 11 that the services planned
In the latest editorial, the Our Sunday Visitor Editorial Board raises concerns about the Church in Germany. They write: “Of increasing concern to the unity of the universal Church has been the Church in Germany, which has, over the past two years,
A much-anticipated report on the handling of abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Cologne exonerates Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki but incriminates Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse and Cologne Auxiliary Bishop Dominik Schwaderlapp.
The report by the law firm Gercke Wollschläger accuses Cardinal Woelki's predecessors,
Contributing editor Russell Shaw explores the ongoing Synodal Path being undertaken by Church authorities in Germany. Shaw writes: “As in several other churches, synods have existed in the Catholic Church for a long time. … But the Germans’ Synodal Path is something
The German bishops' conference elected a woman as general secretary during a virtual assembly that turned into a crisis meeting focused on the church's handling of sex abuse.
Beate Gilles, a 50-year-old theologian, became the first noncleric and woman to head the bishops'
In other years, the glitter of Nuremberg's Christmas market during Advent attracts around 2 million visitors from all over the world. This year, because of COVID19, everything is different, and the city estimates the economic damage caused by the cancellation of the
People gathered in Trier's cathedral the evening of Dec. 1 to pray for the victims of a lone attacker who plowed his SUV into Christmas shoppers, killing five people and seriously injuring about a dozen others.
A 9-week-old baby and her father were
Lutheran and Catholic churches in Switzerland and Germany are planning for people to celebrate religious Christmas services at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Germany, Matthias Kopp, spokesman for the Catholic bishops' conference, said Catholic and Lutheran churches will publish a mini