The blessing of same-sex couples on Wednesday was the latest sign of rebellion of believers in Germany’s most populous diocese with about 1.8 million members.

German Catholics will bless same-sex unions at about 100 different services all over the country this week.

A report commissioned by Germany’s Cologne archdiocese on church officials’ handling of past cases of sexual abuse found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials neglected their duties.

One prominent Jewish student group accused the anti-migrant party on Wednesday as being “one of the biggest threats to Jewish ... life in Germany.”

The apology came on the same day that Pope Francis acknowledged that the sex abuse scandal rocking the Catholic Church was driving people away.

A report on sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Germany says 3,677 people were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014, two leading German media outlets said Wednesday.

"For our community this is very sad and I personally find it horrendous that these death threats have succeeded in pushing our priest out."