The Vatican is hosting a three-day symposium on the Catholic priesthood amid renewed public attention on clergy sex abuse scandals involving both children and adults and fresh research into the abuses of priestly power.

Italy’s Catholic military chaplain has pushed back strongly against calls by a former Vatican ambassador to resist Covid-19 vaccine mandates, saying the ambassador’s “conspiracy theories” were a source of confusion and disinformation.

Taxation “must favor the redistribution of wealth, looking out for the dignity of the poorest who risk always ending up crushed by the powerful,” the pope said in a meeting with members of Italy’s tax collection agency.

“We can hardly fail to see that these days, in addition to the pandemic, an ‘infodemic’ is spreading: a distortion of reality based on fear,” Pope Francis said Friday.

The lone cardinal indicted in the Vatican’s big fraud and embezzlement trial has issued a formal protest to the court claiming the pope’s prosecutors had offended his dignity by suggesting he was having sex with a co-defendant.

In a previously scheduled speech to the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, Pope Francis did not refer to the findings of a long-awaited report into how the Munich archdiocese handled abuse cases.

The Vatican has included a group that advocates for women’s ordination on a website promoting the 2023 synod, indicating that Pope Francis wants to hear from all Catholics during the process.

Pope Francis took the first step to reorganize the Vatican’s doctrine office, removing the No. 2 official widely believed responsible for a controversial document barring blessings for same-sex couples.

For the first time, a layman and a nun provided the English and Spanish translations of Francis’ weekly catechism lesson rather than a cloaked monsignor, a small but revolutionary change for the Vatican.

Pope Francis is facing a sustained campaign of opposition from some Catholics. He has responded with the papal equivalent of “no more Mr. Nice Guy.”