German bishops' news agency launches English edition

A news agency owned by the Catholic Church in Germany has launched an English language service, which it says will provide objective news and information on the Catholic Church in Germany.

The new service, KNA International, will consist of translated versions of stories written by the German-language agency, KNA.

KNA is owned by medienhaus, a subsidiarity of the Verband der Diözesen Deutschlands, which is the corporate and operations arm of the German bishops' conference. The agency says it is positioned to give objective information about the German Church to the English-speaking world.

The agency's Jan. 7 press release noted that "there is intense interest within the Catholic Church around the world in the so-called Synodal Path, the project for reforms in the Catholic Church in Germany starting at the end of January with a three day synodal plenary assembly in Frankfurt."

"Until now, coverage of the debates underway in the Catholic Church in Germany by English-language media, blogs and social media has often been polemical and rarely objective," Lugwig Ring-Eifel, editor-in-chief of Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur, or KNA, said in the press release.

At the center of coverage surrounding the German Church has been Cardinal Reinhard Marx, the head of the German bishops' conference, which owns KNA.

Marx has made headlines for controversial remarks regarding sexual morality, ministry to homosexual persons, and the possibility of changing Catholic doctrine.

The agency says it especially aims to provide accurate translations, ensure that readers will have a more objective and clear account of the activities of Marx, along with other members of the German bishops' conference.

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