PARIS (Reuters) – Roman Catholic bishops and conservative politicians are stepping their campaign against French President Francois Hollande’s plan to legalize gay marriage days before his government presents its draft law in cabinet.

Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois is expected to call for a broad mobilization against the law when Catholic bishops meet in the southwestern pilgrimage town of Lourdes for their annual plenary on Saturday.

PARIS (Reuters) – It’s rare to be invited to an event five years off and even rarer to bicker about its details, but Germany’s Catholic Church finds itself in that delicate situation thanks to an overture from its Protestant neighbors.

German Protestants are planning jubilee celebrations in 2017 to mark the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s launching of the Reformation, a major event in the history of Christianity, of Europe and of the German nation, language and culture.

PARIS (Reuters) – A drive to rekindle Roman Catholicism’s missionary zeal is struggling to counter the challenge of Islam, a religion with an arguably more direct message and a greater institutional hold on its faithful.

Bishops who have been meeting for three weeks to plot a way forward for a Church whose membership is dwindling in Europe are concerned by Islam’s growth and worried about Christian minorities in Muslim countries, according to participants’ comments released by the Vatican.

PARIS, Oct 24 (Reuters)- A rebel Catholic traditionalist
group has expelled British-born Bishop Richard Williamson who
deeply embarrassed the Vatican by denying the Holocaust shortly
before he was readmitted to the Church three years ago.

The Swiss-based Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), whose four
bishops were excommunicated from 1988 to 2009, said on Wednesday
it took the step because Williamson had disobeyed his superiors.

PARIS (Reuters) – Plans by France’s Socialist government to legalize same-sex marriage are proving harder to enact than first thought after faith leaders and conservatives mobilized against it even as left-wing deputies try to expand it.

With a solid majority it won last spring, the government originally only planned short parliamentary hearings and a debate early next year before voting on one of President Francois Hollande’s most divisive campaign promises and something he has framed as a trademark reform.