A top Vatican administrator is denying the Holy See risks default over its structural deficit, saying claims in a new book about possible financial ruin are overblown.

Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of a New Zealand bishop over what church officials said was his “completely unacceptable” sexual behavior with a young woman.

In speaking at a press conference to launch a new book about the priesthood, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican's commission for Latin America, expressed doubts whether allowing married priests would be the solution for the clerical shortage in the Amazon.

But taken in context, the correspondence penned by disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to the young men he is accused of sexually abusing or harassing is a window into the way a predator grooms his prey.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo has been accused of mishandling a case where his deputy allegedly manipulated a woman into a sexual relationship.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Monday defended his invocation of God at a political rally, after Italy's Catholic establishment criticized it as a cynical exploitation of faith ahead of European Parliament elections this weekend.

Given how the video of his refusing to extend his hand for his ring to be kissed by the faithful went viral on social media, Pope Francis gave a simple explanation: hygiene--he doesn 't want people to get ill from possible spreading of germs.

"We are throwing in the towel because we feel surrounded by a climate of distrust and progressive de-legitimization," founder Lucetta Scaraffia wrote in the open letter to Pope Francis.

The Vatican is greeting the visit to Italy of Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week with a new round of overtures and says the "door is always open" to dialogue.

The Vatican is pushing back against whistleblower reports about problematic work conditions at its U.N. mission in New York under its former ambassador.