European Politics

VATICAN – The holiness of God is a power that is constantly expanding and will defeat all evil once and for all, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN – When the Vatican Congregation for Clergy developed guidelines a decade ago for handling cases of priests who father children, the first objective was to make it easier for those men to leave the priesthood to care for their children and be real dads, said the prefect of the congregation.

VATICAN – The day Australian Cardinal George Pell was jailed in Melbourne after being found guilty of child sexual abuse, the Vatican announced his case would be investigated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

QUEBEC – The apostolic nunciature in Ottawa, Ontario, confirmed Feb. 26 that it received a first complaint of sexual misconduct concerning Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the Vatican's ambassador to Canada from 2001 to 2009.

VATICAN CITY – The issue of married priests is something for the universal Catholic Church to discuss and is not the focus of the upcoming Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, said Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo.

WASHINGTON – The Senate in an evening vote Feb. 25 failed to pass a measure sponsored by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, to require that babies born alive after an abortion be given medical attention and "the same protection of law as any newborn."

VATICAN – Pope Francis will travel to Morocco March 30-31 as a "servant of hope" to encourage the country's small Catholic community, the migrants hosted there and all people of goodwill, said Archbishop Cristobal Lopez Romero of Rabat, the nation's capital.

MELBOURNE, Australia – An Australian court found Cardinal George Pell guilty on five charges related to the sexual abuse of two 13-year-old boys; sentencing is expected in early March, but the cardinal's lawyer already has announced plans to appeal the conviction.

ROME – The Catholic sisters who took part in Pope Francis' summit on clergy sexual abuse say they hope the presence of a dozen women at the gathering sets a standard for a growing presence of women at Vatican meetings of bishops.

Accepting "full responsibility" for failure to credit his sources in several published articles and lectures, Fr. Thomas Rosica has resigned from the collegium of the University of St. Michael’s College.