How Christian is Germany? Judging by a sharp decline in church attendance, not very. But a look at tax revenue, board memberships and land holdings suggest that its two biggest churches still have a wealth of influence.

Tech-savvy Catholic priests in the Philippines are turning to Tiktok to connect with young believers, dancing to popular songs and sharing homilies in the video-sharing platform as the pandemic forced the Catholic-majority country’s faithful online.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx's decision to waive one of Germany's highest honors is a sign that "church aristocracy" is finally glancing at past harm done, say sexual abuse victims.

Well over 100 Catholic priests in Germany have offered blessings to same sex couples this week. It's a sensation, and a natural decision for many, though it goes against the Vatican and the German Church's rules.

China will allow couples to have three children after a census showed its population is rapidly ageing, further unwinding four decades of strict family planning controls in the world's most populous nation.

A few weeks ago, at the Vatican, the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published an official document reiterating that Catholic priests cannot give blessings to same-sex unions. The document was supposed to draw a definitive line under the issue, but instead it sparked controversy and further debate. Indeed, some priests reject the interpretation, judging it "hurtful" to gay couples and calling for more openness. Our correspondents report from northern Italy.

The Catholic Church is dragging its feet over apologizing and releasing key records on residential schools for Indigenous children, according to Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

After two years of parliamentary debate, France will widen access to medically assisted reproduction, which was previously reserved for infertile heterosexual couples.

The head of Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mohammed Buba Marwa, is proposing a mandatory drug test for persons intending to get married. In the opinion of the retired army general, compulsory drug tests for intending couples will reduce the prevalence of drug abuse in Nigeria. GuardianTV went to the Federal Marriage Registry, in Ikoyi, Lagos, to sample the opinion of Nigerians – including a few recently wed – on how they feel about Marwa’s proposal.

After a meeting with Pope Francis on a a farewell trip to Rome, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that the Catholic Church must let the truth come out it is to rebuild the trust of Christians the world over.

It is estimated that 216,000 children have been abused clerics in the French Catholic Church since the 1950s. The inquiry that unearthed the scale of the abuse could also lead the way to reforms within the church.

Thirteen couples competed in the North American Wife Carrying Championship on Sunday in Newry, Maine, in which husbands run a 278-yard (254 meters) obstacle-filled course carrying their wives, in hopes of winning the wife's weight in beer and five times her weight in cash. The winning couple, Jerome and Olivia Roehm, took home the prize for the third consecutive time. "This year it was a really tough. We went up, I think, higher than we've done in the past, so running up that hill was tough," said Jerome. In addition to the beer and cash, the two were entered into the world championship held in Finland next summer.