PRIORITIES: Bishop Silences German Priest For Speaking At PEGIDA Rally.

The Bishop of Münster, Felix Genn, has banned Father Paul Spätling from preaching in a Catholic church after Spätling addressed a PEGIDA rally in Duisburg earlier this week. The Bishop said he “cannot and will not tolerate” such talk.

Invoking Canon 764 of Catholic Canon Law, the Bishop has stripped the 67-year-old priest of his preaching authority, forbidding him from speaking inside or outside of houses of worship. The PEGIDA movement—Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West—was founded in Dresden in October 2014.

Meanwhile, German bishops’ head defends Communion plan for divorced. “The leader of the German bishops’ conference has defended a plan by the prelates to offer Communion to divorced Catholics, saying he feels ‘strengthened’ by Pope Francis on the matter despite opposition from the Vatican’s highest doctrinal official.”