Bishop George L. Thomas said he would not ask priests to police the Communion line but asked pro-choice politicians to voluntarily “refrain from the reception of Holy Communion while holding public office.”

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said it was time for a fundamental revision of church teaching, and the way Pope Francis had spoken about homosexuality in the past could lead to a change in doctrine.

Italy’s Catholic military chaplain has pushed back strongly against calls by a former Vatican ambassador to resist Covid-19 vaccine mandates, saying the ambassador’s “conspiracy theories” were a source of confusion and disinformation.

“I am not clinging to my office,” Cardinal Marx said on Thursday. “The offer to resign last year was meant very seriously. Pope Francis decided otherwise and asked me to continue my ministry responsibly.”

The annual audit tracks not only new charges of abuse but also how well U.S. dioceses and eparchies are observing child protection protocols established in 2002 by the U.S.C.C.B. in accordance with its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

In the first testimony ever given by a German Catholic bishop in a court case on abuse, Archbishop Stefan Hesse admitted having made mistakes in the case of an offending priest on trial.