The Vatican gendarmerie has sent an order to all personnel within the Vatican City State and the Swiss Guards that control the security and all access to the Vatican, saying the five have been “suspended from service as a precautionary measure.”

“A senior Vatican source said he believed the operation, which the statement said had been authorized by Vatican prosecutors, had to do with real estate transactions.”

The Vatican said the reason for the apostolic visitation in 2017 was due to “shortcomings concerning the style of government, the life of the members of the council, the pastoral care of vocations, the formation of new vocations, administration, the management of works and fundraising.”

During a conference held in the Vatican on Sept. 27 on "The Common Good in the Digital Age," Pope Francis told delegates that there is a need to search for ways for society to deal with the challenges of the digital age.

U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, former head of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation and retired archbishop of San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, died Sept. 26 in Rome. He was 83.

In an email sent Monday to the Brebeuf school community, William Verbryke, S.J., the school’s president, wrote, “We have just learned that the Congregation for Catholic Education has decided to suspend the Archbishop’s decree on an interim basis, pending its final resolution of our appeal.”