But a National Catholic Register article stated that this remains a hypothesis among others currently under consideration.

In a note to journalists on July 4, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said "in recent days rumours have been circulating about the possible appointment of an apostolic administrator for the Medjugorje shrine".

Such an administrator would "report directly to the Holy See".

Such a possibility is a "hypothetical subject for study among others", Fr Lombardi said.

He added "there has still been no decision" about it.

"And so it is premature to speak of it as a direction already taken, or as an imminent decision."

Over the past few days, reports in Croatian media have claimed that Pope Francis would soon appoint a special administrator of the Holy See for Medjugorje, possibly taking over in the next few months.

The establishment of a special shrine at Medjugorje would appear to signal Vatican approval for the authenticity of the many reported apparitions there.

This would also theoretically remove the site of the reported Marian apparitions from the control of both the Franciscans who administer the local parish and the bishops who have cautioned strongly against the "Medjugorje phenomenon".

The friars would lose their autonomy in decision-making over the shrine.

But they would not have to continue battling the local bishop, as they have done for 35 years.

More than a year ago, a special commission created by the Vatican to investigate the Medjugorje phenomenon delivered its report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Last June, Fr Lombardi told reporters that he expected an announcement on the subject from the CDF within "a few months."

Sources

• National Catholic Register
• Catholic World News
• Image: Croatia Experience

Francesca Chaouqui said this during testimony at the trial of five defendants, including herself, at the Vatican.

Ms Chaouqui, a public relations expert who used to work at the Vatican, wrote further about the matter on her Facebook page.

She was writing about Italian Archbishop Angelo Giovanni Becciu, the number two official at the Vatican's Secretariat of State.

Ms Chaouqui wrote that the archbishop has staked his credibility on her going to prison, so she'll be "condemned without evidence".

She also wrote that she's "not afraid of four feet of pure evil", in reference to Archbishop Becciu's diminutive height, and that she stands by her accusations.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, stated in response: "It has become necessary — without desiring in any way to condition the action of the Court — to deny, in a most absolute way, such accusations and to state that, since they are calumnious affirmations, they are absolutely unacceptable, and subject to legal action".

Ms Chauoqui responded on Facebook that "the calumny and unacceptable thing is what the Vatican, in the figure of the substitute, is doing against me".

Archbishop Becciu's post is referred to as the "substitute" because he acts on behalf of the Cardinal Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Ms Chaouqui wrote of a "dossier of lies" about her which, she stated, Archbishop Becciu received when she was hired by the Vatican three years ago.

She claimed the dossier was leaked to the press by the archbishop.

She also claimed Archbishop Becciu repeatedly called investigators during the questioning of her after her initial arrest nine months ago.

Last week, a police witness told the Vatican tribunal that, during questioning, Ms Chaouqui had admitted leaking confidential documents.

Ms Chaouqui, who is nine months pregnant, subsequently insisted she was not involved in leaking the documents.

Sources

• Crux
• Catholic World News
• Image: Crux

Veteran journalist Eugenio Scalfari wrote in La Repubblica that the Pope made the comment during a phone interview.

According to a translation by traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli, Pope Francis said: "The diverse opinion of the bishops is part of this modernity of the Church and of the diverse societies in which she operated, but the goal is the same, and for that which regards the admission of the divorced to the sacraments, [it] confirms that this principle has been accepted by the synod."

He added: "This is bottom line result, the de facto appraisals are entrusted to the confessors, but at the end of faster or slower paths, all the divorced who ask will be admitted."

However, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, told the National Catholic Register : "As has already occurred in the past, Scalfari refers in quotes [to]what the Pope supposedly told him, but many times it does not correspond to reality, since he does not record nor transcribe the exact words of the Pope, as he himself has said many times."

"So it is clear that what is being reported by him in the latest article about the divorced and remarried is in no way reliable and cannot be considered as the Pope's thinking."

Fr Lombardi added that those who have "followed the preceding events and work in Italy know the way Scalfari writes and knows these things well".

Since his election in 2013 Pope Francis has given a series of interviews to Scalfari, the 91-year-old who co-founded La Repubblica and was its editor from 1976 to 1996.

Previously Scalfari is said to have not used a tape recorder during his interviews with the Pope.

In 2014, Scalfari wrote that Pope Francis indicated that some cardinals have been guilty of sexually abusing children and that the Pope made a vow to "find solutions" to the "problem" of priestly celibacy.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Rorate Caeli
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Il Giornale

The Kentucky county clerk was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said Pope Francis briefly met several dozen people in the nunciature in Washington.

"The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects," Fr Lombardi said.

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The Pope has asked his so-called C9 international council of cardinals to do this.

He wants them to look particularly at the qualities needed in a bishop today.

The council met with the Pope from September 14-16.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said one of the primary roles of the C9 council is to advise the Pope on Church governance.

With more than 150 new bishops being named each year in the Latin-rite church, identifying suitable candidates is a normal part of the governance of the universal Church, the spokesman said.

"There is a long process" for naming bishops, Fr Lombardi said.

It includes "questionnaires that are sent out to people who may know the candidates and then the information is gathered, usually by the nunciature".

Then recommendations are forwarded either to the Congregation for Bishops or, in the case of the Church's mission lands, to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

The congregations make recommendations to the Pope.

Obviously, Fr Lombardi said, the key part of the process is formulating the questions and collecting information based on the characteristics essential for a bishop "in the world today, what might be the requirements and, therefore, what questions should one be attentive to in [developing] the questionnaires".

The need to review the questions and the process as a whole is constant, he said.

A statement issued after the meeting said, "naturally the theme will need to be explored further and developed in collaboration" with the Roman Curia offices assisting the Pope in identifying candidates.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Image: Catholic Herald

But the secretariat has strongly rejected the claims published in L'Espresso magazine.

Basing its reports on alleged leaked receipts from the secretariat, L'Espresso claimed the cardinal spent $A720,000 in setting up his new department.

It was suggested Cardinal Pell spent A$3600 on garments at the Gamarelli tailors in Rome, as well as A$6650 on kitchen sink fittings.

There were also alleged details of business class travel in planes.

Cardinal Pell also spent more than A$5100 a month to rent an office and apartment at an upmarket address, where he spent nearly A$87,000 on furniture, according to the allegations.

The leaks about Cardinal Pell's spending were widely suspected to be the work of Vatican prelates unhappy about his incursions on their authority.

This recalled the Vatileaks scandal, in which letters revealing the inner workings of the Holy See were leaked by the butler of Pope Benedict XVI.

Vatileaks apparently sprang from an attempt to settle scores in the Roman Curia.

Some commentators see the latest leaks as an effort to discredit Cardinal Pell as he carries out a papal mandate for financial transparency and reform at the Vatican.

Critics have charged Cardinal Pell with accumulating excessive power and with replicating the very cronyism and secrecy he was meant to dislodge.

A spokesperson for the secretariat strongly rejected the L'Espresso reports, especially a suggestion the Pope Francis had grilled Cardinal Pell about the spending.

The secretariat spokesman also rejected the idea that the cardinal had made excessive expense claims.

Operational costs, including some initial costs, were below the level budgeted for when the secretariat was set up, the secretariat spokesman said.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi denounced the leaks, stating that "passing confidential documents to the press for polemical ends or to foster conflict is not new, but is always to be strongly condemned, and is illegal".

He said in a few months the secretariat will publish the financial statements for 2014 and the estimated budgets for 2015 for all of the entities of the Holy See, including the secretariat itself.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Catholic Herald
• The Tablet
• Vatican Radio
• Crux
• Image: Channel News Asia

"This wish is eagerly shared by [all] the continents," Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras said in an interview with The Sunday Times, London.

Another London newspaper, The Telegraph, said the cardinal's comments were backed by Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. "It is a natural step — there is a move towards putting more women in key roles where they are qualified," he said.

The Sunday Times quoted a Vatican prelate as saying: "Francis's predecessor [Benedict XVI] started to promote women by appointing them to be the secretaries of some departments. But if there are cases where a woman can do a better job than a man as the head of a department, then why not?"

In his general audience on April 3, the Pope noted how women were the first witnesses of the Resurrection, adding that, "The apostles and disciples find it harder to believe in the risen Christ, not the women however!"

"This was a message about the importance of the role of women in the Church," said Carlo Marroni, a Vatican expert at the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore. "That said, the question still gets handled cautiously as it touches on the issue of ordination for women."

Women have taken on a number of key roles at the Vatican, including Sister Nicla Spezzati, the undersecretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Flaminia Giovanelli, the undersecretary at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

St Peter's Basilica is run by a woman, Maria Cristina Carlo-Stella, who is the head of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the Vatican office in charge of the church.

"But that is still very few," said Marco Politi, a Vatican watcher at the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano. "Look at Germany and the US, where women have many key positions in the dioceses."

Sources:

The Sunday Times

The Telegraph

Image: Rome Reports