Italy’s Catholic military chaplain has pushed back strongly against calls by a former Vatican ambassador to resist Covid-19 vaccine mandates, saying the ambassador’s “conspiracy theories” were a source of confusion and disinformation.

“I am not clinging to my office,” Cardinal Marx said on Thursday. “The offer to resign last year was meant very seriously. Pope Francis decided otherwise and asked me to continue my ministry responsibly.”

The annual audit tracks not only new charges of abuse but also how well U.S. dioceses and eparchies are observing child protection protocols established in 2002 by the U.S.C.C.B. in accordance with its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

In the first testimony ever given by a German Catholic bishop in a court case on abuse, Archbishop Stefan Hesse admitted having made mistakes in the case of an offending priest on trial.

Have the “nones” consciously rejected religion, or have religious institutions failed to involve them and respond to their needs? The only way to find out is by asking.

Catholics uncomfortable with a synodal model of the church, Cardinal Tobin said, may be put off by the messiness dialogue often unearths. But, he said, refusing to live with tension can be a form of heresy.