Good News•Local Church

The world’s largest Orthodox cathedral is inaugurated: one of its most important benefactors was Saint John Paul II

When Pope John Paul II visited Romania in 1999 — the first papal visit to an Orthodox-majority country since the Great Schism — he donated $200,000 to support the construction of the future national cathedral. The funds were later used to help purchase the cathedral’s bells, manufactured in Austria and blessed in 2018

Oct 31, 2025 18:02

Joachin Meisner Hertz

Dicasteries•Homosexuality•Local Church

Vatican contradicts German bishops: text for blessing same-sex couples was not approved

Bishop Georg Bätzing, head of the DBK, has repeatedly defended the initiative. At the September assembly, he told journalists the document had been produced “in transparent consultation with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith” (DDF), portraying it as a contextual application of the Vatican’s 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans

Oct 10, 2025 13:05

Joachin Meisner Hertz

Local Church

A Pause or a Turning Point? Catholic Exits Decline Across the German-Speaking World

On the optimistic side, analysts note that 2024 marks the second consecutive year of falling exit rates in Germany and Austria, suggesting a trajectory rather than a fluke

Oct 03, 2025 10:05

Joachin Meisner Hertz

Gender Ideology

Slovakia legally protects its Constitution against gender ideology: there are only two genders

The reform goes beyond gender definitions. It bars the use of surrogates to carry children, codifies wage equality between men and women, and requires parental consent for any sexual education in schools

Sep 30, 2025 11:58

Joachin Meisner Hertz

Local Church•Vocations

Poland 2025: European leader in number of vocations

This year’s class is made up of 141 diocesan priests and 67 men from religious orders. Tarnów again leads the nation, with 13 ordinations, a figure that in most European dioceses would be unthinkable

Sep 28, 2025 19:42

Joachin Meisner Hertz