Lithuania's cardinal-designate Sigitas Tamkevicius, a Jesuit and a veteran of Soviet prisons and labor camps, will receive the red hat from Pope Francis Oct. 5 at the Vatican.

The first of 250,000 folios of letters and photographs preserved at the oratory were published for the first time, under a digitization program co-organized by the National Institute for Newman Studies in Pittsburgh.

Pope Francis' appointment of Luxembourg's first-ever cardinal is a man with wide experience, including 20 years diplomatic service in Japan.

His comments followed an assault July 28 on Father Aleksander Ziejewski in the sacristy of the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in the northern city of Szczecin during an attempted robbery.

For years, there had been reports and knowledge of abuse at the schools, but in 2010, the incidents became more publicly known.

A senior Dutch priest criticized media reports on the death of a teenager experiencing depression, accusing foreign media of "sensationalizing euthanasia" in his country.

The Polish bishops' administrative council met in emergency session May 22 and later admitted the church failed to act against clerical sexual abuse.

A top Polish Catholic leader, named the first bishops' conference delegate for child protection, welcomed a church report on sexual abuse by clergy in his country and vowed efforts to combat it.

The Brussels-based Conference of European Justice and Peace, which is a network of 31 justice and peace commissions established by Catholic bishops' conferences, have voiced concerns about the EU and the need to be vigilant about issues concerning food waste arms exports and other abuses.

The Holy See's chief delegate at the United Nations climate talks in Katowice, Poland, urged the development of stronger links among nongovernmental organizations in the drive for a final agreement as the two-week conference near its end.