The number of people leaving the Catholic Church in Germany rose sharply last year. The German bishops’ conference said 178,805 people left the Church in 2013, compared with 118,335 the previous year. In 2010, just short of 181,000 German people left the Church after a scandal about sexual abuse in the clergy. In March, Pope Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Germany’
Jesus does not hold copyright to book, German court rules
Friday, May 23rd, 2014A German court has ruled that Jesus Christ does not hold the copyright to a book by a dead American psychologist. Helen Schucman, who died in 1981, had claimed that Jesus dictated the contents of her book “A Course in Miracles” during “waking dreams”. A German Christian academy published extracts from the book last year, Read more
Germany’s Catholics want changes in sex teaching
Tuesday, February 11th, 2014
The Vatican last year sent out a survey to Catholics around the world focusing on attitudes to sex and sexuality. The responses are now in — and they show that the Church is badly in need of reform. Can Pope Francis meet such expectations? Adolescents find it embarrassing to talk about sex with adults. Even Read more
A sincere effort to heal the pain of divorce
Friday, December 20th, 2013
The German bishops are engaged in a dispute with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the Eucharist. The congregation’s prefect is repeating the well-trodden path of common Catholic practice – the only place for a married Catholic is in a sacramental marriage and the Read more
German bishops push reform to welcome divorced and remarried Catholics
Friday, November 29th, 2013Germany’s Roman Catholic bishops plan to push ahead with proposed reforms to reinstate divorced and remarried parishioners despite a warning from the Vatican’s top doctrinal official, according to a senior cleric. Stuttgart Bishop Gebhard Fuerst told a meeting of lay Catholics at the weekend that the bishops had already drafted reform guidelines and aimed to Read more
Divorce and Remarriage: Germany’s bishops not happy with status quo
Tuesday, November 12th, 2013
Germany’s bishops are distancing themselves from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith head, Archbishop Gerhard Muller’s defence of Catholic teaching on marriage. “We are going to see that the issue is completely discussed”, Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx told Germany Spiegal News. “The Prefect of the Congregation cannot end the discussion”, the Cardinal Archbishop Read more
Bishop Bling-Bling just tip of iceberg
Tuesday, October 29th, 2013
“Bishop Bling-Bling” – moniker of suspended bishop of LimburgFranz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, is just the tip of the iceberg according to Christian Weisner, spokesman for the German branch of “We Are Church”. “There is a real clash of cultures between Germany’s current cardinals and bishops, nominated under John Paul II or Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis,” Read more
Vatican looks into German “luxury bishop” charges
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013The Vatican launched a rare review of a German Catholic diocese on Monday following accusations its bishop spent lavishly on a new residence, putting him out of step with the new “church of the poor” promoted by Pope Francis. The inquiry is officially called a “fraternal visit” to Limburg diocese by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the Read more
Legalised prostitution fails in Germany
Friday, June 7th, 2013
When Germany legalised prostitution just over a decade ago, politicians hoped that it would create better conditions and more autonomy for sex workers. It hasn’t worked out that way, though. Exploitation and human trafficking remain significant problems. Sânandrei is a poor village in Romania with run-down houses and muddy paths. Some 80 percent of its Read more
The forgotten victims of Nazi euthanasia
Friday, May 3rd, 2013
German historian Götz Aly is an expert on euthanasia during the Nazi era. In a SPIEGEL interview, he discusses why many accepted the murder of the handicapped and mentally ill, and how his own daughter has shaped his views on how the disabled should be treated today. Some 200,000 people who were mentally ill or Read more