Germany’s under-fire Catholic Church seeks new leader

BERLIN (GERMANY)
Agence France Presse via France 24

March 2, 2020

German bishops gather for key talks from Monday where they will choose a new leader to help steer the country’s Catholic Church through a controversial reforms process and settle compensation demands from sexual abuse victims.

The four-day episcopal gathering in the western city of Mainz comes at a time of fierce debate about how to modernise Germany’s Catholic Church, pitting conservative bishops against more progressive ones.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a driving force behind efforts to renew the under-fire Church, last month unexpectedly announced he would not seek another six-year term as head of the German Bishops’ Conference, saying he was too old at 66.

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