The German Bishops’ Conference convenes its plenary assembly on September 25, setting the stage for what promises to be a pivotal gathering amid a period of unprecedented tension within the Church in Germany – and with the wider Catholic Church.
On the official agenda for the gathering from Sept. 25–28 in the town of Wiesbaden are topics ranging from handling spiritual abuse to preparations for the upcoming Synod on Synodality in Rome.
However, overshadowing discussions are the profoundly divisive issues brought to the surface by the controversial German Synodal Way, particularly the blessing of same-sex unions – an issue that has seen acts of open defiance across Germany against clarifications from the Vatican.
At the centre of this maelstrom is Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, who faces mounting pressure from multiple fronts, including local media – and some clergy: In open defiance, several priests conducted an event blessing same-sex couples outside the iconic Cologne Cathedral September 21.

Thousands of Armenian Christians have fled their ancestral homeland in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh over the weekend and more are expected, the government of Armenia confirmed on September 25. “The mass exodus has begun,” Siobhan Nash-Marshall, a U.S. – based human rights advocate who has been speaking to witnesses on the ground, told CNA.
Nash-Marshall founded the Christians in Need Foundation (CINF) in 2011 to help Armenian Christians in the region, and in 2020 she started a school for children and adults in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Now, Nash-Marshall has received word from her school in Nagorno-Karabakh that “all is over” and that “people from all regions, all villages, are home-less” and without shelter, food, and water.
Hundreds of ethnic Armenians are sleeping in the streets and cannot even drink water because they claim it has been “poisoned by Azeris,” according to Nash-Marshall’s contacts.
Both former soviet territories, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. With the backing of Turkey, Azerbaijan asserted its military dominance over Armenia in the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, which ended in November 2020.
Though Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh, is inter-nationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the region is almost entirely made up of ethnic Armenian Christians.
Until last week, Armenians in the region claimed self-sovereignty under the auspices of the “Republic of Artsakh.”
On Sept. 19, Azerbaijan launched a short but intense military offensive that included rocket and mortar fire. The offensive, labeled “antiterror measures” by the Azeri government, resulted in the deaths of more than 200 ethnic Armenians and over 10,000 dis-placed civilians, according to the Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference admits mistakes in dealing with abuse cases in the Catholic Church and advocates for the abolition of celibacy and the admission of women to the priesthood.
In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) am Sonntag External link, Bishop Felix Gmür also said that the Catholic Church has been active in the topic of abuse cases for a long time. The prevailing conditions must be questioned, the Swiss Bishops’ Conference president explains. In his view, the time is ripe to abolish celibacy and to allow women access to the priesthood.
In general, power in the Church must be better distributed, Gmür said. “I will lobby in Rome for the Church to decentralise.” A new sexual morality is needed, together with the possibility to make regulations regionally. Part of coming to terms with the situation is questioning the prevailing conditions. “Celibacy means that I am available to God. But I believe that this sign is no longer understood by society today,” says Gmür. “The time is ripe to abolish celibacy. I have no problem at all imagining married priests.”
The exclusion of women from priestly ordination should also fall, he says. “The subordination of women in the Catholic Church is incomprehensible to me. Changes are needed there,” Gmür said.

On September 15th, at least 11 Christians were massacred by terrorists loyal to ISIS in northern Mozambique.
According to Friar Boaventura, a missionary in the region, the killings took place in the village of Naquitengue, in the province of Cabo Delgado.
Since 2017, the area has been under regular attack from Islamic fundamentalists.
Friar Boaventura told Aid to the Church in Need that a local terrorist group that claims allegiance to ISIS arrived in Naquitengue in the early afternoon and summoned everyone in the village. They then separated the Christians from the Muslims, based on names and ethnicity.
And then, the missionary says, “[they] opened fire on the Christians.” The terrorists’ statement claimed that they had killed 11 people in the operation, but there may be more victims, and others are seriously wounded.
The attack occurred as “many people were returning to their communities,” so there is now a great feeling of insecurity.
“We must pray for our brothers, who are in so much pain,” the friar says. This call is echoed by Sister Aparecida Ramos Queiroz, who works for the Diocese of Pemba, and who told ACN that “only prayer can sustain us, because there is no end in sight for this conflict.”

On the heights of Marseille, in the south of France, the sea stretches as far as the eye can see. The memorial dedicated to sailors and migrants lost at sea is there, at the foot of Notre-Dame de la Garde. The memorial stone is surmounted by a large Camargue cross – combining the traditional cross and an anchor.
It was in this striking landscape that Pope Francis came to launch another powerful appeal on the first day of his trip to Marseille on September 22, in front of the sun-soaked Mediterranean Sea in which migrants still drown every day.
“Too many people, fleeing conflict, poverty and environmental disasters in their search for a better future, find in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea the ultimate rejection,” lamented Francis, whose white robe was blown by the Mistral wind. “
“We are at a crossroads,” he said, “On the one hand, there is fraternity (…) on the other, indifference, which bloodies the Mediterranean.” He emphasized, “It’s either the culture of humanity and fraternity, or the culture of indifference – every man for himself.” And so this beautiful sea has become a huge cemetery.”
In the midst of religious leaders from Marseille of all religions and denominations, the Pope forcefully denounced both the “cruel trafficking” and the “fanaticism of indifference” towards those trying to reach Europe. “People who are at risk of drowning when abandoned on the waves must be rescued,” he thundered after a moment of silent reflection, visibly moved.
In this speech, the Pope echoed the feelings expressed at the very beginning of his pontificate. It was as if he wanted to renew the call made in Lampedusa in the summer of 2013. On the small island of Sicily, the newly elected Pope had criticized the world’s indifference to migrants. But this appeal, renewed twice in another Greek refugee camp on Lesbos in 2016 and 2021, has never really been heard.

Christianity’s growth in China has stalled since 2010.
That’s according to a new Pew Research Centre report measuring religion in China published today. In 2010, approximately 23.2 million adults in China self-identified as Christian. In 2018, 19.9 million adults did so, which Pew researchers say is not a “statistically significant gap.”
Among Chinese Christians, the percentages of zongjiao (Mandarin for “organized religion”) activity have also stagnated. Nearly 40 percent (38%) of Christians said they engaged in such activities once a week in 2010, but that figure dipped slightly to 35 percent in 2018.
“Some scholars have relied on a mix of fieldwork studies, claims by religious organizations, journalists’ observations and government statistics to suggest that China is experiencing a surge of religion and is perhaps even on a path to having a Christian majority by 2050,” the Pew report stated.

Cardinal Anders Arborelius, who has led the small Catholic community in Sweden since 1998, came to Washington, D.C., alongside Bishop Karin Johannesson, an assistant bishop in the Lutheran Archdiocese of Uppsala.
The two prelates, who share a devotion to Carmelite spirituality, took part in an ecumenical dialogue on the 19th-century St. Thérèse of Lisieux, held at the St. John Paul II National Shrine.
In separate NCR interviews after the event, Arborelius and Johannesson expressed hope that their collaboration might be a sign for how Christians of different denominations can work together. They also spoke about their expectations for Pope Francis’ upcoming Synod of Bishops, which will hold its first assembly in Rome next month.
“The synodal process is very exciting and an important development for the Catholic Church,” said Johannesson. Arborelius said he hoped the assembly would “help people to a more profound encounter with Christ and to follow him more faithfully and serve those in need.”
Following are NCR’s interviews with Arborelius and Johannesson, presented together and lightly edited for length and context.
Many Catholics are anticipating the first session of the Synod of Bishops in Rome this October. Cardinal, can you describe a bit what it has been like for the Swedish Catholic Church to prepare for the synod? Bishop, how has the Lutheran community in Sweden experienced the synod?
Are there items that either of you personally hope the synod might discuss?
Card. Arborelius: Evangelization in a post-Christian world is a most urgent subject. To help people to a more profound encounter with Christ and to follow him more faithfully and serve those in need.
Bp Johannesson: The synodal process is very exciting and an important development for the Catholic Church. The synod’s working document is very interesting, and I can recognize many issues that are common for all our churches. I really hope that the synod will take time to discuss how a synodal church can fulfill her mission through a renewed ecumenical commitment. We have so much in common and we have to cooperate for the mission of the church today. I also hope that the theology about “the priesthood of all believers” that is not unknown in Catholic theology but very dear for us Lutherans can be used in the synodal process.

In the latest expression of Ukrainian irritation with Pope Francis’s efforts to be even-handed with regard to Russia’s ongoing invasion, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has accused the pontiff of trafficking in “imperialist propaganda” during a recent video address to Russian youth.
The Vatican fired back , insisting that the pope “certainly did not intend to exalt imperalistic logic.”
The pope spoke to a gathering of Catholic youth in St. Petersburg on Aug. 25. When the Vatican released a transcript of his comments the next day, they focused on his call to the Russian youth to be “artisans of peace.”
There was, however, a section not included in the transcript and largely ignored in most news reports, including the Vatican’s own official media platforms. The comments were released later by the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow and in a video from a church-run television agency.
In that section of his talk, Francis called on the youth not to “forget your identity.”
“You are heirs of the great Russia, the great Russia of the saints, of kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, of Catherine II, that great, enlightened Russian empire, of so much culture, so much humanity,” the pope said.