VATICAN (CNS): The Vatican hosed a fast-paced gathering of students, developers and entrepreneurs from around the world from March 8 to 11 looking to find high-tech solutions for complex global issues.
 
The conference, VHacks: A hackathon at the Vatican, examined issues such as the migrant and refugee crisis, and focused on viewing matters from a different perspective, said Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, undersecretary of the Migrants and Refugee Section of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
 

VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis has named nine new members to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and reappointed seven, including abuse survivors or the parents of survivors, the Vatican announced on February 17.
 
However, in respecting “the right of each person to disclose their experiences of abuse publicly or not to do so the members appointed today have chosen not do so publicly, but solely within the commission.” the commission said.
 

ROME (CNS): Even though the Catholic Church has all the necessary norms and laws in place to safeguard minors from abuse by clergy, the problem continues to be a lack in understanding or caring about those rules and guidelines and applying them effectively, said one Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, head of the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Center for Child Protection.
 
What must change are Church procedures for handling accusations of abuse, he said.
 

VATICAN (Agencies): In a first, the Vatican has been invited to attend the February 5 to 7 annual general meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as an official observer, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, L’Osservatore Romano reported on February 2. 
 
The delegation, led by Monsignor Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture and head of its Culture and Sport section, will also be present at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games which run from February 9 to 25. 

VATICAN (SE): The hairline crack in the Vatican glass ceiling crept a bit when Pope Francis appointed two women as undersecretaries in the new dicastery for Laity, Family and Life on November 7.
 
Gabriella Gambino, a professor from the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute, will be the undersecretary for the section on life and Linda Ghisoni, who is now a judge on the marriage tribunal for the Rome archdiocese, will be undersecretary for the section on the laity.
 

VATICAN (SE): The Vatican is putting its stamp on the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, or at least putting the two historical events with significant anniversaries being marked this year on a stamp.
 
The Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Bureau is releasing two postage stamps on November 23, one for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the other for the 450th anniversary of the birth of St. Francis de Sales (1567 to 1622).
 

VATICAN (CNS): Several young people attending a Vatican-sponsored seminar on the upcoming Synod of Bishops urged the Vatican and the bishops themselves to be opening to listening to young people talk and ask questions about love, sex and sexuality.
 
Twenty people under the age of 35, along with 70 theologians, priests and academics met from September 11 to 15 as part of the preparatory process for the 2018 Synod of Bishops on “young people, faith and vocational discernment.”