Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, has said that the coronavirus pandemic may justify the use of general absolution, in extraordinary circumstances, for Catholics unable to go to individual confession.
Top officials from China and the Vatican held a bilateral meeting in Germany, in what is believed to be the highest-level official encounter between the two sides in decades.
The appointment of Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila to a top post in the Vatican has offered hope to church leaders in Asia that the challenges they face will be given more attention.
