The decision was made in response to the request of Emanuela Orlandi's family, he said, and their questioning "the possible concealment of her cadaver in the small cemetery located within Vatican City State."

Two archbishops spoke of the impact of clerical sexual abuse on the people of their dioceses and said survivors are the members of their flocks most in need of care.

The "note of the Apostolic Penitentiary on the importance of the internal forum and the inviolability of the sacramental seal" was approved by Pope Francis June 21 and published by the Vatican July 1.

The president of the Australian bishops' conference told his fellow bishops that it is "a time of humiliation" for Catholic Church leaders, but he is convinced that God is still at work.

"We must respond in a humane manner, a Christian manner, and we must try to help people, not harm them."

Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts has said that all members of the Catholic Church are obliged to act in accordance with local civil law on mandatory reporting of sex abuse cases.

Pope Benedict XVI had imposed restrictions on the public ministry of former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick in 2008, but they were not formal sanctions and were not followed strictly, even during the papacy of Pope Benedict himself, McCarrick's former secretary said.

"Human life is sacred and inviolable and the use of prenatal diagnosis for selective purposes must be strongly discouraged because it is the expression of an inhuman eugenic mentality, which deprives families of the possibility of welcoming, embracing and loving their weakest children," the pope said on May 25.

Pope Francis told the bishops of Italy that he was disappointed that so many of their dioceses had yet to implement the reforms he ordered to make the marriage annulment process quicker, more pastoral and less expensive.

Pope Francis has gone “to the peripheries,” creating cardinals from 50 different nations, but Europe still accounts for more than 40 percent of electors in the College of Cardinals.