Pope Francis instructed the Vatican to remove Archbishop Luigi Ventura’s diplomatic immunity in July 2019. The archbishop will now have to respond to his accusers at a trial in November.
Cardinal Angelo Scola, the runner-up in the last papal conclave, has come out strongly against those, especially within the church, who frequently and increasingly attack Pope Francis.
Pope Francis' brief words at the Sunday Angelus are the Vatican's first public response to the Turkish president's move to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque.
The Unesco World Heritage site in Istanbul, founded as a Christian church in the 6th century, transformed into a mosque in the 15th century and then into a museum in 1934, will reopen as a mosque on July 24 with Friday prayers.