The move followed the publication of the Cloyne Report on clerical sexual abuse and "denotes the seriousness of the situation," the Vatican said.

Archbishop Pietro Sambi was a career diplomat who also served as ambassador to Israel and Palestine.

On July 9, South Sudan officially broke free of the north and became the world’s newest independent state.

The report, The Changing Face of U.S. Catholic Parishes, tracks trends in U.S. Catholic parish life during the last decade.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster convened a conference in July aimed at supporting the beleaguered Christian community.

An investigation by a government panel suggests a continuing failure of the Irish church to implement its own child protection procedures.