Catholics all over Germany are marking Benedict XVI's last day as pope with an outpouring of national pride, including some vowing that “Bavaria is still the pope.” Meanwhile, the country's clergy has rallied behind the outgoing pontiff.
Germany's leading Catholic said on Monday he expected Church guidelines for the morning-after pill to be relaxed so Catholic institutions nationwide can give the pill to rape victims.
The surprise decision by Pope Benedict XVI to step down as head of the Catholic Church has been greeted by tears and sadness in the pontiff's Bavarian hometown. AFP's Ralf Isermann reports from Marktl am Inn.
The shock resignation by Pope Benedict XVI drew critical appraisals of his papacy from Germany's press. The Local's media roundup looks at the legacy of the first German pontiff in nearly 500 years.
Germany's first pope in nearly 500 years, Benedict XVI, announced on Monday he would step down as head of the Catholic Church at the end of February due to his advanced age.
Cologne’s Archbishop Joachim Meisner has complained of a growing “Catholic-phobia” in Germany in the wake of two negative incidents involving the Church.
Clergy across North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) on Monday backed the Archbishop of Cologne's controversial decision to allow doctors in Catholic-run clinics in the western German state to prescribe rape victims the morning-after pill.
President Joachim Gauck has called for more solidarity in society, saying in his Christmas speech that Germany must become more caring and generous if it is to prosper.
Had he been alive today, Jesus would have spread his fishing net for souls across the internet, using social media such as Facebook and Twitter to find people, the head of Germany's Catholic Church said on Monday.
People working for religious institutions have the right to go on strike - but only under certain conditions, the German federal labour court said on Tuesday, in a ruling that affects nearly 1.3 million people.
German police arrested the husband of a Catholic verger after she was found dead in the cellar of the church she worked in on Saturday morning. Some reports suggest the couple, who were separated, had ten children.
Hamburg has become the first German state to strike an historic agreement with Muslim community groups, but the deal has riled some members of the political establishment, who claim it undermines the separation of religion and state.
German politicians have said they are preparing to allow Christian Syrian refugees to seek asylum in Germany, ahead of a worldwide day of prayer for oppressed Christians.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has for the first time publicly spoken about her Christian faith, which she has always held to be a personal, private matter, despite being leader of the Christian Democratic Union.
Plans by the German town where Martin Luther sparked the Reformation to award a free speech prize to feminist punk band Pussy Riot have sparked charges of blasphemy from religious leaders.
A fairytale wedding in southern Bavaria at the weekend turned into a nightmare when the pastor dropped dead in front of the happy couple before they could say “I do.”
The Catholic Church in Germany is urging its followers to put their money where their faith is. Under a new rule, anyone who doesn’t pay church tax will no longer be considered a member of the flock.
A Catholic bishop has called for a blasphemy law in Germany, saying all religions deserved legal protection from attack in order to preserve human dignity.
Pope Benedict XVI on Monday appointed German archbishop Ludwig MĂĽller, a conservative theologian with liberal leanings, to head up the Vatican's powerful orthodoxy watchdog.
Cologne City Council has pardoned 38 women nearly 400 years after they were sentenced to death for suspected witchcraft, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
The German Catholic Church can fire the head of a kindergarten for being a lesbian – but not until she has finished her maternity leave, a court ruled on Tuesday.
Some sex abusers should continue to work for the Catholic church, a bishop said on Thursday, while a cardinal argued for some homosexual relationships to be treated like heterosexual ones.
