A prominent Russian Catholic urged his nation's bishops to condemn the mass arrest and beating of protesters, but the Moscow archdiocesan chancellor said the church could not comment on “political matters.”

Germany’s Catholic bishops will resume discussions this week to plan the Synodal Path, a set of conferences slated to address controversial questions such as women’s roles and LGBT acceptance, even as the country faces yet another scandal of sexual abuse by clergy.

Archbishop Gadecki, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, called for protestors and lawmakers to have further talks “on how to protect the right to life and women’s rights.”

The disclosure by the Spanish Jesuits comes as Pope Francis, the church’s first Jesuit pope, has tried to sensitize the church around the globe to the problem of clergy abuse.

A new law threatens the viability of government-supported Catholic schools in Spain.

The head of the German bishops’ conference called for far-reaching changes to the Catholic Church and criticized the Vatican’s treatment of the church in his country.