“Only a free church is a credible church,” Pope Francis declared in his homily on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Vatican sources said that during the meeting they “touched on all the hot button issues, including the situation in the Middle East, the Holy Land and China.”

On the eve of the Outreach 2021 L.G.B.T. conference, Father Martin received a handwritten personal letter in Spanish from Francis, expressing his support.

“The Holy See fears the collapse of the country,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, stated frankly.

As archbishop of Chicago since 2014, Cardinal Cupich has shown considerable organizational talent. The visits will reportedly begin next week.

Pope Francis has appointed Andrew Small, O.M.I., a 53-year-old English priest, as the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The appointment of Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik as the new prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy is another major surprise in the Francis papacy.

Francis, who knows the 67-year-old cardinal well, took less than three weeks to reach his clear-cut decision.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s offer to resign as archbishop of Munich and Freising hit the church in Germany and Rome like an earthquake. And while survivors welcomed the move, not everyone agrees with the cardinal’s analysis of the abuse crisis.

Pope Francis has asked Bishop Egidio Miragoli, to carry out a visitation of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, which has oversight of the more than 410,000 Catholic priests around the world. He did not reveal why the pope chose him to do this work.