The opening of the Holy Door in St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve 2024 marked the beginning of a year that could hardly have been more moving and eventful for the Catholic Church.
On several occasions over the past twelve months, the world looked spellbound to the Vatican, where first one pope, Francis, died and then a new pope, Leo XIV, was elected just over two weeks later.
But there were also numerous important events in the Church in Germany. Katholisch.de provides an overview.
24 December: Start of the Holy Year 2025
The Holy Year 2025 officially begins a week before the start of the new calendar year: on Christmas Eve 2024, Pope Francis will open the Holy Door in St Peter's Basilica, thereby giving the starting signal for the jubilee year under the motto "Pilgrims of Hope".
Over the course of the year, millions of believers from all over the world will make a pilgrimage to Rome, with more than one million young people taking part in the "Jubilee of Youth" in the summer alone.
The official closing of the Holy Year will take place on 6 January 2026 with the closing of the Holy Door in St Peter's Basilica.
14 January: Pope Francis' autobiography "Hope"
Pope Francis' autobiography, which is entitled "Hope" in the German translation, will be published in more than 80 countries on 14 January.
In almost 400 pages, Francis not only describes his life story, but also explains the core political concerns of his pontificate in long passages: Peace, climate protection and social justice.
The book quickly becomes a bestseller: the initial print run of 50,000 copies of the German edition is sold out by the beginning of February, and in May the book also climbs to number one on the "Spiegel" non-fiction list.
14 February: Pope Francis in hospital
Pope Francis is admitted to the Gemelli Clinic in Rome on 14 February due to a bronchitis that is as persistent as it is severe.
The Vatican briefly announced that "some necessary examinations" would be carried out at the clinic.
What nobody realised at the time was that Francis would remain in hospital for over a month, suffering repeated, sometimes life-threatening health setbacks in between.
The long stay in hospital fuelled the already ongoing speculation about the 88-year-old's poor state of health and his remaining time as Pope.
And indeed, the Argentinian pontiff will only survive his hospitalisation for just under a month.
9 March: Resignation of Bishop Felix Genn
Early on, Münster's Bishop Felix Genn had expressed his wish in the Vatican and also publicly to be allowed to retire as soon as possible on his 75th birthday - the official age limit for Catholic bishops.
And indeed, on 9 March, just three days after his birthday, Pope Francis accepted the Eifel-born bishop's request to resign.
Genn had been Bishop of Münster for 16 years and had previously led the diocese of Essen for six years; in the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), he was most recently the longest-serving diocesan bishop.
One day after his resignation, the Münster cathedral chapter elects Antonius Hamers as diocesan administrator; since then, he has led the diocese with the largest number of members in Germany on an interim basis until a new bishop is inaugurated.
10 to 13 March: Plenary Assembly of Bishops in Steinfeld Monastery
In mid-March, the DBK meets for its spring plenary assembly in the remote Steinfeld Monastery in the Eifel region.
Topics at the meeting will include the situation of Christians in the Middle East, the results of the Synod on Synodality and the Synodal Path of the Church in Germany as well as the Church Membership Survey to be published in autumn 2023.
At a study day, the assembled diocesan and auxiliary bishops will also look back on the impact of Pope Francis' social and environmental encyclical "Laudato si'", published ten years earlier.
27 March: Church statistics 2024
On 27 March, and therefore earlier than in previous years, the DBK will publish the church statistics for the previous year.
These show that 321,611 people left the Catholic Church in Germany in 2024 - significantly fewer than a year earlier (402,694) and than in the record year of 2022, when more than 520,000 Catholics left their church.
With 19.8 million members in Germany, Catholic Christians still make up 23.7 per cent of the total population.
The statistics also show that the number of sacraments administered in 2024 also fell slightly: the number of baptisms, for example, fell by around 15,000 to 116,222, while the number of church weddings fell by around 5,000 to 22,504.
8 April: Abuse report for the diocese of Würzburg
51 perpetrators, 226 victims: these are probably the two most important figures published on 8 April in the abuse report for the diocese of Würzburg.
The fact that the number of perpetrators is so low compared to other studies can be attributed to the narrower definition of perpetrators that the Commission for the Reappraisal of Abuse decided on when commissioning the study, said lawyer Hendrik Schneider at the presentation of the report.
Only criminal offences against minors were recorded if there was sufficient suspicion.
According to the lawyer, until around the turn of the millennium, the protection of the institution took precedence in dealing with allegations of abuse in the diocese of Würzburg, and only a fraction of offenders were convicted.
It was only afterwards that a paradigm shift towards a culture of looking into the matter gradually set in.
At the presentation of the study, Bishop Franz Jung said that he now held "a document of the suffering of those affected and our failure as a church" in his hands.
21 April: Death of Pope Francis
Less than a month after spending several weeks in hospital, Pope Francis dies in the Vatican on the morning of 21 April - Easter Monday.
According to the Vatican, the pontiff, who was suffering from the effects of severe pneumonia and had last appeared in St Peter's Square on Easter Sunday, giving the Easter blessing to the world with a fragile voice, succumbed to a stroke and irreversible heart failure at 7.35 am.
In Rome and around the world, the news of the death of the Pope from Argentina is causing grief and consternation.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier declared that in Francis, the world had lost "a shining symbol of hope and a credible advocate of humanity" who had given many people support and guidance.
DBK Chairman Georg Bätzing described Francis as a "courageous innovator" whose reform initiatives were irreversible.
The death of the head of the Church marks the beginning of a period of vacancy in the Vatican, which will last until the election of Leo XIV as the new Pope on 8 May.
23 April: Handout for blessings
As a result of the Synodal Path, the DBK and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) will publish a handout on 23 April on the practice of blessing couples who are not married in church.
"The Church recognises couples who are united in love and offers them support," the paper states. For this reason, the practice already practised in many places of accompanying divorced and remarried couples, couples of all gender identities and sexual orientations, as well as couples who do not want to or cannot receive the sacrament of marriage for other reasons, with a blessing into their partnership should be strengthened.
However, the handout is not a real solution to the highly controversial issue within the Church: while the reform initiative "Out in Church" criticises it as being too non-binding and complains about a "second-class blessing", the paper goes rather too far for the Vatican.
In September, Pope Leo XIV said that the blessing rituals for "people who love each other" published in some countries "in northern Europe" clearly violated the "Fiducia supplicans" declaration approved by his predecessor Francis.
Bishop Georg Bätzing, Chairman of the DBK, then declared that he nevertheless wanted to stick to the reform course in dealing with homosexual couples.
In October, however, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Fernández, also distanced himself from the handout. In an interview, he said with regard to the paper:
"The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has not approved any of it. It reminded us in a letter some time ago that 'Fiducia supplicans' excludes any form of ritual celebration." This is unlikely to be the last chapter on this topic.
26 April: Funeral of Pope Francis
Hundreds of thousands of people and representatives from over 150 countries bid farewell to Pope Francis at a large funeral mass on 26 April.
In front of guests such as US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj, Cardinal Dean Giovanni Battista Re recalled Francis' unceasing appeals for peace and reason.
When he recalled the Pope's commitment to refugees and his warnings against wars, there was spontaneous applause on several occasions.
With "his strong personality", Francis quickly shaped the style of leadership of the Church: direct contact with individuals and peoples as well as closeness, especially to people in need and the marginalised, says Re.
After the requiem, the coffin with Francis' body will be transported through the streets of Rome to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where the Pope will be buried in a small circle, as he had intended during his lifetime.
8 May: "Habemus papam" - Election of Pope Leo XIV.
In the fourth ballot of the conclave - and therefore faster than many observers expected - the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel on the afternoon of 8 May elect the US Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new Pope.
The successor to the late Pope Francis takes the name Leo XIV. Just over an hour after the election, Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti announces the name of the new pontiff from the Benediction Loggia of St Peter's Basilica.
Shortly afterwards, Leo XIV himself appears on the loggia and - beginning with the greeting "Peace be with you all" - addresses his first words as Pope to the world.
The worldwide reaction to the election was overwhelmingly positive. Bishop Georg Bätzing, Chairman of the DBK, speaks of a "wonderful surprise".
Nobody really had Cardinal Prevost on their radar. "He is a friendly, approachable pope with a lot of experience," said the Limburg bishop.
9/10 May: Fourth meeting of the Synodal Committee
Amidst the hustle and bustle surrounding the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, the Synodal Committee meets for its fourth session in Magdeburg.
At the two-day meeting, initial decisions will be taken on the direction of a statute on the basis of which a permanent synodal body is to be established at federal level, in which the joint deliberation and decision-making of bishops and laity is to be stabilised.
However, it is still unclear at this point whether this will happen, as the Vatican has repeatedly expressed clear reservations about the project of a synodal body in Germany.
8 June: Resignation of Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke
A good four years before reaching the episcopal age limit, Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt resigned unexpectedly on 8 June.
After many challenges and crises, he feels an "inner fatigue", Hanke explains his resignation.
The conversations with victims of sexualised violence were particularly upsetting for him: "Some things in me have changed as a result."
Hanke, who belongs to the Benedictine order, was Bishop of Eichstätt for almost 19 years; in the DBK, he belonged to the conservative camp centred around his Bavarian confreres Stefan Oster and Rudolf Voderholzer and Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki from Cologne.
After his resignation, he wanted to return to pastoral care as "simply Father Gregor", said Hanke.
His resignation as bishop, "which was the result of a deep spiritual struggle, is fuelled by a longing to be there for people more directly again - as a priest and spiritual guide, no longer as a decision-maker in the foreground".
July: Debate about judge Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf
In the debate surrounding the SPD's nomination of Professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf for the Federal Constitutional Court, prominent church representatives also speak out in July to criticise the candidate.
The background to this is primarily the lawyer's stance on abortion regulations and the human dignity of unborn children.
Among other things, the criticism centres on a sentence by Brosius-Gersdorf in a commission report on abortion from last year. There she wrote: "There are good reasons why the guarantee of human dignity only applies from birth."
In a sermon, Bamberg Archbishop Herwig Gössl speaks of a "domestic political scandal" with regard to the lawyer's stance and urges her to withdraw from her candidature.
Brosius-Gersdorf, in turn, sharply rejects Gössl's criticism on ZDF.
A few days later, the two spoke on the phone, with Gössl admitting that she had been misinformed about the lawyer's position on the issue of protecting life.
After this confrontation, there are also supportive voices from the church in favour of Brosius-Gersdorf, and a debate breaks out on the question of whether and how the church should interfere in the election of constitutional judges.
At the beginning of August, however, Brosius-Gersdorf renounces her candidature.
22 to 25 September: General Assembly of Bishops in Fulda
At their autumn plenary assembly in Fulda, the bishops discuss, among other things, the results of the 6th Church Membership Survey, current aspects of dealing with and clarifying sexual abuse and the progress of the Synodal Path of the Church in Germany.
However, the handout published by the DBK in April on the practice of blessing couples who are not married in church and the criticism of such blessing rituals expressed by Pope Leo XIV shortly before the plenary assembly attracted the most attention.
At the start of the plenary assembly, Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the DBK, explained that he reacted calmly to the Pope's statements and saw no reason to retract the handout published jointly with the ZdK. Italian media then wrote that the German senior pastors were practising "episcopal disobedience".
At the end of the plenary assembly, Bätzing clearly refuted this: "I clearly reject the insinuation that we in Germany are practising episcopal disobedience towards Rome or are embarking on a course of confrontation with Rome."
9 October: First Apostolic Letter of Pope Leo XIV.
The first months of Pope Leo XIV's pontificate are naturally characterised by many premieres.
On 9 October, for example, the pontiff publishes his first apostolic exhortation. In the paper entitled "Dilexi te" ("I have loved you"), Leo XIV upholds his predecessor's criticism of capitalism - among other things, he adopts one of Francis' most provocative sentences, emphasising that it is necessary to continue denouncing the "dictatorship of an economy that kills".
Leo also explicitly adopts the "option for the poor" long called for by the Church in Latin America, and he rejects the idea that a completely free market economy can overcome the problems of poverty and injustice.
In Germany, "Dilexi te" is well received: Many bishops and lay representatives comment favourably on the paper.
30 October: Abuse studies for the dioceses of Augsburg and Trier
On 30 October, the two dioceses of Augsburg and Trier join the long line of church abuse reports.
The exciting thing is that, unlike in previous reports, the two studies also include four diocesan bishops who are still in office, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx.
With regard to Marx, who was Bishop of Trier from 2002 to 2008, and his successor Stephan Ackermann, the researchers state that both bishops did not do everything they could to investigate cases of abuse transparently.
It is also criticised that too little attention was paid to the victims. In the meantime, however, many things have become much better and more professional.
Bishop Georg Bätzing, Chairman of the DBK and Vicar General in Trier from 2012 to 2016, is also mentioned in the report: He had been involved in six cases - and "in the comparatively quieter phase of the reappraisal".
During Bätzing's time, "an initial, not yet institutionalised form of crisis team" was set up, which only met when necessary.
In Augsburg, the study comes to the conclusion that the diocese leadership has dealt with more than one in three cases of abuse since 1948 inappropriately.
However, progress has been made over the past 20 years and no more inappropriate behaviour has been identified since the current bishop Bertram Meier took office in 2020.
30 October: DBK document on sexual diversity in schools
In a separate document entitled "Created, redeemed and loved.
Visibility and recognition of the diversity of sexual identities in schools", the DBK's School Commission calls for the diversity of sexual orientations to be recognised in schools at the end of October.
An open and respectful approach is important, according to the paper. It takes stock of the situation of queer young people, teachers and parents and provides educational and pastoral guidelines for a respectful approach to sexual diversity.
The chairman of the commission, Bishop Heinrich Timmerevers, writes that schools must be a place "where children and young people find protection from discrimination and personal degradation, a place where they experience acceptance in their individual development and at the same time learn to accept others".
A few days after its publication, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau distanced himself from the document.
"Even if the cover of the brochure says: 'The German bishops', the text still does not speak in my name," writes Oster on his website. He considers central statements in the paper to be theologically inadequate.
Furthermore, "we should not be allowed to renounce our own, very fundamental positions on the image of man".
Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne and Bishop Emeritus Gregor Maria Hanke of Eichstätt soon join in this criticism.
21/22 November: Fifth meeting of the Synodal Committee
At the fifth and final meeting of the Synodal Committee , the delegates adopt a constitution for the planned Synodal Conference in Fulda at the end of November.
The conference, which was originally to be called the Synodal Council, is to take a position on significant developments in the state, society and church in future.
In addition, bishops and lay people in the new body want to pass resolutions on important issues of church life of nationwide significance.
Finally, the Synodal Conference is to be given a say in financial and budgetary matters of the Catholic Church in Germany "that are not decided at diocesan level".
The Chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, spoke of the adoption of the statutes as a great moment.
"We hope that the statutes will also be approved in Rome. It needs this so that we can work," continued Bätzing.
It is planned that the 27 local bishops will be members of the new body, as well as 27 other Catholics from all over Germany and representatives of the Central Committee.
One week after the meeting in Fulda, the ZdK plenary assembly will approve the statutes; the DBK will vote on them at its next plenary assembly.
27 November to 2 December: Pope Leo XIV's first trip abroad
Leo XIV's first trip abroad as Pope takes him to Turkey and Lebanon for almost a week at the end of November.
The reason for the trip is the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
In addition to meetings with Christians and representatives of other religions, the pontiff will also hold high-level talks with political leaders in both countries.
The main aim of the trip is to bring a message of peace, hope and unity to the region, Leo said in advance.