"Love is our strength," Pope Francis said in his homily, "the source of strength for those of our brothers and sisters who here too have suffered prejudice and indignities, mistreatment and persecutions for the name of Jesus."

The core of Pope Francis's message was one of universal fraternity and universal respect for human life and dignity as the only sure foundations for society and the only true guides to responsible stewardship of the created order, with which God has entrusted us.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was speaking to Italy's La Stampa newspaper. Guterres also said a security review of the incident is underway.

A Vatican City criminal court heard two days of frequently gruesome testimony last week, in the trial of two clerics: 28-year-old Fr. Gabriele Martinelli and 71-year-old Fr. Enrico Radice. Martinelli, a former student at the St. Pius X minor seminary in the Vatican, is charged with sexual abuse of a junior boy when Martinelli was

Significant other risks also attend the visit, long desired by Pope Francis and highly anticipated by the sorely tried people of the country. — Rome — The Apostolic Nuncio to Iraq, Archbishop Mitja Leskovar, has tested positive for coronavirus and is in isolation at a site removed from the nunciature — the Vatican embassy —

The trial is underway in Vatican City’s criminal court, where two priests face charges: Fr. Gabriele Martinelli, 28, and Fr. Enrico Radice, 71. Martinelli, a former pupil at the Vatican’s Saint Pius X (Preseminario San Pio X) minor seminary ordained in 2017, is accused of abusing a junior pupil while he was a senior boy at the school. Radice, former rector of the institution, is accused of covering up and enabling Martinelli’s abusive behavior.

Most of the changes are technical and procedural, and – as my friend, John Allen Jr, rightly noted – are designed to dispel or at least mitigate the impression, general among Vatican insiders, that “Vatican Justice” is heavily weighted against defendants, who are typically laymen and laywomen or clergy of the lower ranks.

Pope Francis made some high profile appointments heading into last weekend, naming Sr. Nathalie Becquart and Fr. Luis Marín de San Martín as undersecretaries to the Synod of Bishops. Only, what does the appointment of a woman with full voting rights in the Synod really tell us about how Pope Francis governs the Church?

In Rome, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has authorized a preliminary inquiry. Pope Francis has named Bishop Gerald L. Vincke of Salina, Kansas, as Apostolic Administrator of Dodge City during the investigation.

Pope Francis has appealed for universal healthcare before – the social doctrine of the Catholic Church considers access to basic care a right – but the venue in which he renewed his appeal on Monday was a high profile one: the corps of diplomats accredited to the Holy See.

Nobel peace laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who currently serves as State Counsellor, is among the elected officials detained, reportedly under house arrest. Soldiers took Suu Kyi into custody along with Myanmar’s president, Win Myint, and other leaders the National League for Democracy party (NLD), who won a landslide victory in elections last November. Official military channels allege election fraud as their reason for seizing power, now in the hands of Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the army’s senior commander, who has declared a one-year state of emergency.

“I ask myself if it is necessary to go so far as [to make] a law,” said Cardinal Parolin in response to a direct question from his interviewer.