Features

The vicar general of the Catholic bishop of Limburg, Wolfgang Roesch (63), has resigned over mistakes he made in handling allegations of abusive behaviour levelled against a priest.

After the serious allegations of abuse cover-up against his predecessors Robert Zollitsch and Oskar Saier, the current Archbishop of Freiburg, Stephan Burger, had their bishop portraits in the diocese headquarters taken down on Thursday.

The report on abuse in the archdiocese of Freiburg has led to calls for church legal action against Archbishop Robert Zollitsch as the investigation revealed latent criminal behaviour by the former president of the German Bishops’ Conference, also towards state authorities.

Archbishop Georg Gaenswein has warned that the Synodal Path in Germany could divide the Catholic Church.

The Catholic reform group Maria 2.0 has called for greater independence for the Catholic Church in Germany in the light of Vatican objections to Church reforms.

The papal nuncio in Berlin informed the cathedral chapter of the archdiocese of Paderborn that it may not involve lay people in its forthcoming election of a new archbishop.

The German Synodal Path reform project wants the Catholic Church to offer blessing ceremonies for couples who cannot have a Church marriage.

“‘Well ultimately the Holy Spirit will decide’. Really? How does that work? We don’t have a Mystic Meg who acts as a channel, in fact we are the channel, the people of God,” writes Garry O’Sullivan.

Asian Church leaders concluded their continental-level preparations for making the Church more participatory by discussing key questions that have not been sufficiently discussed during lower-level gatherings.

“The Synodal Continental Assembly has confirmed the Church’s way of doing things in Africa. The family of God in Africa is firmly rooted in the synodal dynamic. Synodality is no longer a remote desire, a faint hope or a distant future objective.”