Bonn (KNA) For the first time in its almost 70-year history, Germany's Catholic News Agency (KNA - Katholische Nachrichten-Agentur GmbH) offers English-language coverage of the Catholic Church in Germany. The service called "KNA international" consists of translated versions of some of KNA's German articles.

"We provide objective, journalistic coverage of internal church debates and the role of the church in Germany for an international audience," said Dr. Andrea Rübenacker, Managing Director of KNA in Bonn, where KNA's editorial head office is located.

KNA Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Ring-Eifel said: "We want this to fill a gap because until now, coverage of the debates underway in the Catholic Church in Germany by English-language media, blogs and social media has often been polemical and rarely objective." Ring-Eifel said there was strong media interest especially in North America and Asia but also in other European countries regarding the ongoing church reform debate among German Catholics.

In particular, there is intense interest within the Catholic Church around the world in the so-called Synodal Path, the project for reforms in the Catholic Church in Germany starting at the end of January with a three day synodal plenary assembly in Frankfurt.

The KNA articles are translated by a team at the dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency in Hamburg, which has amassed international expertise running its own English-language service for many years. KNA Managing Director Dr. Andrea Rübenacker said: "We attach great importance to the quality of the translations and are confident that this is guaranteed by the cooperation with market leader dpa."

KNA was founded in 1952 and is a firmly established player among German media. It runs a network of six international and 11 domestic bureaus and more than 200 freelance contributors. In Germany, it supplies news to around two thirds of daily newspapers, almost all public radio and television broadcasters as well as many news sites. Outside Germany, it cooperates with the kathpress agency in Vienna and the kath.ch news site in Zurich. It runs a joint bureau with both organisations in Rome.