Vatican News

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis approved new changes to the Vatican's financial watchdog agency concerning its internal governance, hiring procedures and its role as a "supervisory" body.

VATICAN CITY - Barring any obstacles caused by the global pandemic, Pope Francis is set to begin international travel again in 2021 by visiting Iraq in March, which would make him the first pope to visit this nation.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican confirmed that a bishop recently ordained in China is in full communion with the pope and that more Vatican-approved nominations would be coming.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although dogged for years by rumors of sexual impropriety, Theodore E. McCarrick was able to rise up the Catholic hierarchical structure based on personal contacts, protestations of his innocence and a lack of church officials reporting and investigating accusations, according to the Vatican report on the matter.

VATICAN CITY -- After the Vatican Secretariat of State missed a Nov. 1 deadline to hand over the management and monitoring of its own assets to two separate Vatican bodies, Pope Francis set up a commission to make the transfer and external oversight happen.

VATICAN CITY -- As COVID-19-related deaths in Italy reached their highest daily level since early May and Italy began enacting new restrictions to slow the spread, the Vatican decided it will once again close its museums to the public.

VATICAN CITY -- A lack of oversight and control over the Vatican Secretariat of State's investment activities may have facilitated some bad property deals, said Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

VATICAN CITY -- At a criminal trial involving alleged sexual abuse at a minor seminary located in the Vatican, the Vatican City State criminal court accepted a motion to allow the alleged victim to seek damages from the seminary and the religious institution that runs it.

VATICAN CITY -- Plenary or full indulgences traditionally obtained during the first week of November for the souls of the faithful in purgatory can now be gained throughout the entire month of November, the Vatican said.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican and the Chinese government will extend an agreement signed in 2018 regarding the appointment of bishops.