Pell's return follows Francis last week firing one of the cardinal's most powerful opponents, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, over a financial scandal.

Cardinal Becciu held a press conference in what was clearly just the beginning of his battle to prove his innocence.

The powerful head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, resigned Thursday from the post and renounced his rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal that has reportedly implicated him indirectly.

The C.D.F. said today: ‘We did everything possible to dialogue with Father Flannery. It wasn’t always easy.’

“The church is convinced of the necessity to reaffirm as definitive teaching that euthanasia is a crime against human life because, in this act, one chooses directly to cause the death of another innocent human being."

About 10 days before he was expected in Rome, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that the Vatican "endangers its moral authority" by considering an extension of its 2018 agreement with China on the nomination of bishops.