Vatican (SE): The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has announced there will be new rules governing the role of medical boards investigating miracle cures in the beatification and canonisation processes.

They strengthen requirements for acceptance of authenticity and set stricter standards for the documentation of payment to experts.

HONG KONG (SE): A talk given by the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Cardinal Parolin, in the Italian town of Pordenone on August 27 was described by Francesco Sisci, from Renmin University in Beijing, as a hint to how much the Vatican is prepared to suffer in order to achieve peace and establish a more workable relationship with China.

VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis met privately at the Vatican with French president, Francois Hollande, who said he felt it necessary to thank the pope in person for his words after the slaying of a French priest and other terrorist attacks in France.

Hollande arrived in Rome on August 17 and went directly to the French national church, St. Louis, to visit a chapel which was set up as a place of prayer for the victims of terrorism.

VATICAN (SE): Although diplomatic in timing, Ankara was on the war path early on the day after Pope Francis returned to the Vatican from his visit to Armenia, saying that Turkey is disappointed with the language he used when describing the massacre of over one million people in Armenia.

MANILA (Agencies): Father Rolando de la Rosa has become the first Asian to be appointed rector of a pontifical university in Rome.

The Filipino Dominican will take on the top job at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum.

Father Dela Rosa will serve a four-year term from the beginning of the next academic year, September 1, through to 2020.

VATICAN (SE): From June 1 this year, dioceses must consult with the Vatican prior to the establishment of any religious institute of consecrated life in order for it to be valid.

A rescript, signed by the Vatican secretary of state, Pietro Cardinal Parolin, on May 11 and made public by the Holy See Press Office on May 20, says that in future, diocesan bishops will be required to consult with the Vatican.

UNITED NATIONS (CNS): The Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations (UN), Archbishop Bernardito Auza, called on the world to reaffirm its resolve to overcome violent extremism, terrorism, intolerance and religious hatred through encounter and dialogue.

VATICAN CITY (CNS): The Vatican is funding a job-creation programme for Iraqi refugees in Jordan, which is hosting close to 1.5 million refugees of whom but is struggling to provide work for them. Around 130,000 come from Iraq and 1.3 million from Syria.

With $1.16 million (US$150,000) donated by visitors to its pavilion at the World’s Fair in Milan in 2015, the Vatican will provide the funding that Caritas Jordan needs to launch the project.

VATICAN CITY (CNS): Italian authorities arrested six suspects who allegedly received orders from the Islamic State terrorist group to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome.

The arrests, made in Lombardy and Piedmont on April 28, were the result of a joint operation coordinated by the district attorney of Milan and the Italian anti-terrorism agency.

Vatican (CNA/EWTN News): Pope Francis has given the go ahead for the beatification Archbishop Nikollë Vinçenc Prennush, from Durrës, and his 37 companions, all of whom were killed by Albania’s communist regime between 1945 and 1974.

The pope officially acknowledged their martyrdom during an April 26 meeting with Angelo Cardinal Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.