Promoting religious freedom, providing humanitarian assistance and fighting human trafficking are three major issues the Vatican and the U.S. administration agree on and on which they will continue to coordinate efforts, panelists said at a joint symposium.

A Dallas bishop said that the public forgiveness offered by the brother of a murder victim toward the person who killed him was "an incredible example of Christian love."

Catholic church leaders in Peru have called for an end to political corruption in that country in the aftermath of President Martin Vizcarra's act to dissolve Congress, which subsequently led to a vote to have him removed from office.

In speaking at a press conference to launch a new book about the priesthood, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican's commission for Latin America, expressed doubts whether allowing married priests would be the solution for the clerical shortage in the Amazon.

Pope Francis has chosen Archbishop Bernardito Auza, currently the Vatican's representative to the United Nations, as nuncio to Spain.

Deacon Pereira will become the first priest from the Tikuna ethnic group, a tribe of about 60,000 people that live deep in the Amazon, along a stretch of the jungle shared by Colombia, Peru and Brazil.