Rome

The synod process underway around the world and at the Vatican is inflicting "evident and grave harm" on the Catholic Church, retired U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke wrote in a letter published as the foreword to a book.

Pope Francis will make a two-day trip to Marseille, France, in late September, adding to a flurry of trips the 86-year-old pontiff will soon be making only weeks after leaving hospital following abdominal surgery.

The top priority for Pope Francis' peace envoy in his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden was the repatriation of children forcibly deported from Ukraine to Russia, the papal nuncio to the United States said.

Pope Francis’ peace envoy was traveling to Washington on July 17 as part of the Holy See's peace initiatives for Ukraine, hoping to support humanitarian operations especially concerning children, the Vatican said July 17.

Pope Francis gave in July 15 to China’s unilateral appointment of a new bishop in Shanghai, formally recognizing Beijing’s installation of Bishop Shen Bin three months after the fact.

 Italy’s Parliament is poised to open a bicameral commission of inquiry into the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee, the third new investigation launched in the four decades since Emanuela Orlandi vanished on the streets of Rome.

The Catholic Church has made great strides in drafting norms to protect children and other people at risk of abuse, but "we don't have a culture of accountability when it comes to the implementation of those norms," said Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, a leading expert in the field.

Exactly 40 years after the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared, the Vatican said June 22 that new leads "worthy of further investigation" had surfaced hopes of finally getting to the bottom of one of the Holy See’s enduring mysteries.