Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis has laicized two retired Chilean bishops, in what an Oct. 13 Vatican announcement said was "a consequence for demonstrated abuse of minors."

Vatican City: Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel, who is taking part in the Catholic Synod of Bishops on young people, says he hopes the gathering will address the stark realities of poverty, migration, and conflict being experienced by youth on his continent.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, ending a storied, five-decade career of one of the U.S. Catholic Church's most dedicated and powerful prelates after a Pennsylvania grand jury report sparked outcry over his handling of abusive priests in the early 1990s.

The second of the English groups to address the abuse crisis said the scandal "has undermined the work of the Church in practically every way, precisely because it has compromised our credibility."

VATICAN CITY -- "We need to put on the agenda not only the question of prevention, but also accountability," Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna said at an Oct. 8 press conference.

The head of the Vatican office for supervising Catholic bishops globally has issued a scathing response to a former ambassador who alleged a widespread cover-up of allegations against ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, calling the accusations nothing more than a "political frame job."

Pope Francis has ordered a "thorough study of the entire documentation" present in the Vatican's archives regarding now disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, in a move the Catholic Church's central command said is meant to "ascertain all the relevant facts."

Vatican City: South Korean Sr. Mina Kwon, one of the eight women religious allowed to attend the Oct. 3-28 Synod of Bishops in an advisory capacity, told the 267 prelates taking part Oct. 5 that "young people are sensitive to the issue of inequality and exclusion."

The German prelate who serves on Pope Francis' advisory body of cardinals has called for the Catholic Church to adopt "fundamental, systemic change" in order to address the continuing clergy sexual abuse crisis.

Archbishop Peter Comensoli, one of three Australians taking part in the Oct. 3-28 Synod of Bishops, said in an Oct. 3 interview that he thinks many young people are what he termed "horizon-hunters."

Pope Francis opened a month-long worldwide meeting of Catholic bishops Oct. 3 by exhorting the hundreds of prelates taking part to guard against "falling into moralistic or elitist postures" as they discuss the needs of young people today.

The cardinal organizing October's global meeting of Catholic bishops has criticized Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, in an unusual public rebuke of a local prelate by a Vatican official.

As the Vatican and the Catholic Church's leadership deal with a continuing crisis of accountability for clergy sexual abuse, Pope Francis is asking the faith's 1.3 billion members worldwide to pray the rosary each day in October to "protect the church from the Devil."

Originally sentenced to a life of prayer and penance for sexual abuse of minors, Karadima has now been defrocked, in what the Vatican said was an invocation of the pope's "supreme" power.

Pope Francis has asked the members of China's Catholic Church to have faith in the Vatican's judgment in signing an agreement with their government, telling them in a Sept. 26 letter to "place your trust ever more firmly ... in the Church's discernment."

ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM ESTONIA — Pope Francis said the Catholic Church has grown in its understanding of the "monstrous" problem and has "spared no effort" to protect children.

Tallinn, Estonia -- Pope Francis has acknowledged that some young people are angry with the leaders of the global Catholic Church, saying that a perceived lack of "clear condemnation" of clergy sexual abuse has resulted in youth becoming "outraged."

Catholics should stand with people who are being excluded from society, seeking to feel the wounds of those who are hurting, Pope Francis said at a Mass here Sept. 24.

Pope Francis warned Sept. 23 that society must guard against "any whiff" of a new rise in anti-Semitism, saying that young people who did not experience the barbaric killings of the Holocaust can be lost to its "siren song."

Vilnius, Lithuania -- Pope Francis began his four-day visit to the three Baltic States by praising Lithuania's history of accepting people of various backgrounds and ethnicities, calling on the country to "build bridges not walls and prefer mercy, not judgment."