Prelates in Germany and Austria have united to support Pope Francis in response to a former papal nuncio's demand for his resignation.

“If the church shows itself to be incapable of responding with all its heart...all our other activities of evangelization will feel it.”

A top official from the Vatican Secretariat of State acknowledged allegations made by a New York priest in 2000 concerning Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, according to a letter obtained by Catholic News Service.

Some Catholics would like to exploit the crisis to promote anti-L.G.B.T. agendas. We cannot stand for it.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law did not anticipate crimes being committed by bishops that could result in their laicization, according to a canon law professor at The Catholic University of America.

A police official in Buenos Aires province said officers seized documents from the archives of the Antonio Provolo Institute in the city of La Plata dating back more than 30 years.