Renardo Schlegelmilch

U.S. Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire, is scheduled to receive the Josef Pieper Prize in Münster on July 27. Some groups have announced protests, but other Catholics say the award is deserved.

Many in Germany, including Catholic leaders, have spoken up against the rise of the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD. The party recently won around 30% of votes in three German state elections.

It's not just conflict with Rome that is making life hard for German reformers right now. Conservatives as well as reformers have taken a critical stance toward the ongoing Synodal Path, for very different reasons.

Time will tell if rumors about Archbishop Georg Gänswein getting a new job as a Vatican ambassador are true, writes Renardo Schlegelmilch. For now the former secretary to Pope Benedict XVI remains in Germany, and unemployed.

After months of tension between the Vatican and leaders in the German Catholic Church, both sides seem to have reached a compromise about the Synodal Path — for now. 

Holy Week in Jerusalem this year "will be very quiet," says Benedictine Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel, whose monastery is in financial peril in a Christian community that also faces increasing attacks by religious extremists.

It's no secret that the German Catholic Church's reform project is a thorn in Pope Francis' side, writes commentator Renardo Schlegelmilch. But Francis' latest letter on the subject came as a surprise for just about everyone.

Why do so many German bishops want to leave office? The story goes deeper than you might think.

Same-sex blessings and other reforms won't start immediately in German parishes. But the decisions of the country's Catholic bishops will have consequences far beyond Germany.

Commentary: A statement published through official Holy See channels warned Germany's "Synodal Path" reform project against breaking with the universal church. Tensions are rising: Is the threat of schism real?

Commentary: The Synodal Path, established unanimously by the German bishops' conference, cannot provide binding resolutions, neither on Catholic teaching for Germany (as some fear) nor on anything at all, as every decision must be ratified by each bishop for his own diocese.