Francis in June had ordered Janiak to leave Kalisz and forbade him from having any influence on how the diocese is run pending the investigation.

In his remarks, Pompeo echoed the Trump administration's harsh criticism of Beijing, which increased after the coronavirus was first detected in China, and as the U.S. Nov. 3 presidential election neared.

During the virus crisis, Francis has become a 21st century “prisoner of the Vatican,” as one of his predecessors was once known, robbed of the crowds, foreign travel and visits to the peripheries that so defined and popularized his papacy.

It was the first time that Francis had skipped giving the blessing and reading an address from the window since his election in 2013, apart from times he was traveling outside Rome.

The Vatican said that on Sunday the pontiff will not address crowds from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, and will also not hold his general audience from there this Wednesday.

One Vatican official was put into a protective quarantine after a priest from France’s Catholic church in Rome tested positive for the virus.

Pope Francis cancelled official engagements for the third day in a row Saturday as he battled an apparent cold.

The religious orders will investigate the botched handling of a priest who sexually abused girls as young as six-years-old and suffered no punishment.

In his impromptu remarks Wednesday, Francis said “so many times we lose patience. Me, too.” He then added “I say ‘excuse me’ for the bad example” he gave in the incident Tuesday.

She could be Toronto's first-ever saint, but the process can take years - even centuries - to complete.