Church officials at a German cathedral have filed charges against three masked activists who disrupted a Sunday mass in support of the Russian rock group Pussy Riot, the officials confirmed to NBC News.

Two days after the Pussy Riot verdict in Moscow, the copycats stormed into the mass at Cologne cathedral and shouted “Free Pussy Riot,” while throwing leaflets into the crowd.

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After less than a minute, the activists were escorted out by church wardens.

Prosecutors told NBC News that under German law, the two men and one woman could be prosecuted for the disruption of free practice of religion.

Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to 2 years in prison

If convicted, they could face up to three years in prison – compared to the two-year sentence given to their heroines in Russia.

Russian clerics forgive Pussy Riot, ask for mercy

In an interview with Cathedral Radio, the dean of the Cologne Cathedral, Monsignore Robert Kleine, said: "It is legitimate and certainly appropriate to protest the verdict ... in public [in Germany], for example in squares. But there are borders, especially when the rights of others are impaired."

"The right to demonstration cannot be set above the right to religious freedom and above the religious feelings of the congregation," Kleine added.

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand's Anglican church will build a temporary cathedral made of cardboard in earthquake-devastated Christchurch as it works toward a permanent replacement for its 131-year old landmark destroyed last year.

The Victorian-era, Gothic-style cathedral, which dominated the city's central square, was badly damaged in the February 2011 quake, and is being demolished.

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The replacement, an A-frame structure designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, will be built on the site of another historic church, which was also destroyed in the 6.3 magnitude quake.

PhotoBlog: New Zealand's quake-hit cathedral to be demolished

"The Transitional Cathedral is a symbol of hope for the future of this city as well as being sustainable and affordable," spokesman Richard Gray said Monday.

The cathedral's marketing and development manager Reverand Craig Dixon said the temporary cathedral would "excite people," the New Zealand Herald reported.

"As the cathedral walls are lowered, and it becomes a prayer space, a place of beauty and reflection, people can quite easily walk from [the site of the destroyed cathedral] to the transitional cathedral," Bishop Victoria Matthews said according to the Herald.

"Because that sense of pilgrimage is what we are all involved in here in Christchurch and Canterbury -- understanding that there has been loss but that a great new thing is happening ... we're invited to be part of that," she said.

City center still off limits
The temporary cathedral will be made of cardboard tubes, timber beams, structural steel and a concrete pad, and is intended to last more than 20 years. It is expected to be finished in time for Christmas services in December. 

The cost of the new cathedral has reportedly been estimated at around NZ$5 million ($4.1 million).

Ban is known for his reinforced paper and cardboard structures and designed a similar "paper church" after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan.

Christchurch's landmark cathedral was a favorite meeting place and tourist attraction, but any chance of saving it was ended by several strong aftershocks that caused more damage.

New Zealand faces a NZ$20 billion ($16.5 billion) bill to rebuild its second largest city, the center of which remains off limits more than a year after the quake. Whole blocks have been reduced to bare land.

However, thousands of tremors, some with magnitudes of up to 6, have delayed any concerted rebuilding.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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LONDON - A British court on Wednesday approved the eviction of anti-capitalist Occupy protesters from outside London's St. Paul's Cathedral.

Judge Keith Lindblom backed local authorities trying to remove the encampment, which has been outside the 300-year-old church since mid-October.

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The Occupy London protest against capitalist excess was inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street movement.

 

Local authority the City of London Corporation has argued that the right to protest does not justify a semi-permanent campsite affecting the rights of worshippers.

The cathedral is also a popular tourist site.

• Rev. Jesse Jackson to London protesters: 'Jesus was an Occupier'

Occupy responds
Supporters of the anti-capitalist movement quickly responded to the ruling.

FromTheSham tweeted: Saddened by the judgement. Waiting outside Royal Courts #occupylsx have announced they will appeal.

Dorian Smith was less-than-complimentary: #occupylsx "You can't evict an idea" - helps if you could decide on an idea first though.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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