What is going on in the Catholic Church in Germany? Wracked by sexual abuse scandals, it has now decided to get into an ugly row with disgraced Bishop Walter Mixa. Paul Kreiner of Der Tagesspiegel doubts the pope can usher in a new era of reform.
Secret documents contain serious allegations of alcoholism and sexual abuse against controversial former Augsburg bishop Walter Mixa, media reports said on Monday.
Controversial former Augsburg bishop Walter Mixa, who resigned over allegations of child abuse and misusing Catholic Church funds, said Wednesday he was forced out and plans to have his case investigated by the Vatican.
Prosecutors said Wednesday they were investigating Germany's top archbishop on suspicion of abetting child abuse, in the case of a man who said he was molested in the 1960s with the clergyman's knowledge.
At least 205 children suffered sexual or physical abuse at Jesuit-run German institutions in recent decades, often with those in charge aware, according to a study released Thursday.
German prosecutors said on Friday they were discontinuing an investigation into charges of sexual abuse by former Catholic Bishop Walter Mixa, who resigned last month amid claims he had beaten children and misused Church funds.
Former Protestant leader Margot Käßmann caused a stir at Munich’s interfaith gathering Thursday night by describing the birth control pill as “God’s gift” – in a Catholic cathedral.
With appeals for peace and greater social justice, hundreds of thousands of Christians joined together in Munich on Thursday for Germany's biggest interfaith meeting since the recent Catholic child abuse scandal came to light.
The Catholic Church needs to reconsider its sexual policies and end mandatory celibacy for priests in the wake of a massive child abuse scandal, the head of Germany's leading Catholic group said on Wednesday.
Controversial Catholic Bishop Walter Mixa, who resigned last month amid claims he had beaten children and misused Church funds, is being investigated now for sexual abuse, prosecutors announced Friday.
A bishop accused of not treating claims that he beat children in his care seriously, has admitted to giving what he called clips round the ear – and has now been accused of misusing orphanage funds on wine, art and jewellery.
Some 10 weeks after the first abuse cases at Jesuit education institutions came to light, the number of victims continues to climb. Around 170 people are now believed to have been abused in Germany.
New research shows that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler may have tried to steal the famous Shroud of Turin, but was thwarted by the Vatican, an Italian media report said this week.
Comparing criticism of the pope in the child sex scandals engulfing the Catholic Church to anti-Semitism is insulting and impertinent, the Central Council of Jews in Germany said Saturday.
The head of Germany's Catholics has admitted in a Good Friday message that victims of child abuse had been inadequately cared for because of the Church's effort to protect its reputation.
As the sex abuse scandal within Germany’s Catholic Church continues to unfold, former charges at East German children’s homes have come forward to allege there was also widespread abuse in the communist country's state-run institutions.
Five people have accused Germany's controversial Catholic Bishop Walter Mixa of physically abusing them while they were at a children’s home north of Munich in the 1970s and 1980s.
Trier's Roman Catholic diocese said Monday that 20 of its current and former priests had been accused "in recent weeks" of sexual abuse as part of an ever widening scandal embroiling the Church in Germany.
The Vatican on Friday dismissed a fresh allegation by The New York Times that Pope Benedict XVI failed to bar the transfer of a known paedophile priest while he was the archbishop of Munich.
Trust in the Catholic Church has taken a heavy blow, a poll released Wednesday revealed, with barely one in six Germans saying they had confidence in the Church in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal.
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger praised Bavaria’s Catholic conference of bishops on Monday for their commitment to work with law enforcement to clarify accusations of child sex abuse at Church institutions.
Archbishop Robert Zollitsch on Saturday said Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Irish Catholics expressing remorse for child sex abuse by priests was also a warning to Germany's clergy.
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said that sexual abuse of children was not solely a problem facing the Catholic Church in Germany, amid a snowballing scandal over paedophile priests.
The Catholic priest at the centre of a paedophilia scandal that has embroiled Pope Benedict XVI was suspended from duty late Monday amid revelations he was still working with children 25 years after he was convicted of sexual abuse.
A Roman Catholic dormitory near Frankfurt closed in 1981 on Wednesday became the latest religious institution enmeshed in a child abuse scandal now involving over two-thirds of Germany's dioceses.
