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German bishop says ‘we do not have to evangelize’ the world since people can be ‘happy’ without GodGerman Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck has said that “we do not have to evangelize the whole world” and that people are “happy and content” without God.In a sermon on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, in the Essen Cathedral, Overbeck said that “we do not have to evangelize the whole world and win them over to a certain form of church life.”“God will find ways to lead those who cannot or do not want to believe in Him onto a good path,”...

In 2021, there were 141,929 baptisms in Germany and 12,280 priests.ESSEN, Germany (LifeSiteNews) — A German bishop commissioned 13 more female pastoral ministers to confer the sacrament of baptism. They were in the second group of lay ministers that Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of the Diocese of Essen has commissioned to confer baptisms. In March of 2022, the German prelate commissioned 18 lay pastoral ministers, including 17 women, to administer the sacrament of baptism in their respective parishes for a period of three years. Overbeck commissioned 16 additional lay pastoral ministers, including 13 women, on Sunday, October 23. The German bishop...

A German Catholic diocese has commissioned 17 women to administer baptisms, citing a shortfall in the number of priests. The Diocese of Essen, in Germany’s industrial Ruhr area, is the first diocese in the country to commission a group of women to administer the sacrament, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. Theresa Kohlmeyer, head of the department of faith, liturgy, and culture in the diocese, said that the step was necessary because there were “fewer priests than in the past.” She added there was “a great need on the part of baptismal families for the most individual accompaniment and...

German bishop involved in Amazon Synod will not suspend priests who bless homosexual couplesBishop Franz-Josef Overbeck said suspending priests who 'bless' homosexual couples in defiance of clear Church teaching and a recent Vatican directive is 'out of the question.'March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – German Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck, who played an important role in preparing for the controversial 2019 Amazon Synod in Rome, has stated that he will not suspend priests in his diocese who continue to bless homosexual couples, in defiance of the new Vatican document against such “blessings.”As the German Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost first reported, on March 28...

BERLIN — Churches in Germany criticized the attempt by demonstrators to “storm” the Reichstag building in Berlin, the seat of the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament. Bishop Georg Batzing, president of the German bishops’ conference, expressed his shock at the behavior of participants in an Aug. 29 demonstration against the government’s policies to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. “The basic rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly are beyond question. But the scenes in front of the German Bundestag are unacceptable,” said Batzing. Such “excesses” must not happen again, he added....