ROME—Germany’s Catholic bishops, after decades of being out of favor at the Vatican, have regained influence at the church’s highest levels as they find themselves largely in line with the liberal stance of the first Latin American pope.
Progressive approaches to Catholic teaching that most German bishops have long advocated—on ecumenism, moral teaching and decentralized church governance—now enjoy the support of Pope Francis. Those approaches were largely spurned by his predecessor, Pope Benedict, a German whose conservative...