VATICAN CITY - While a juridical process is necessary for making accurate judgments, the Catholic Church’s marriage annulment process must be quicker, cheaper and much more of a pastoral ministry, Pope Francis said.

Bishops who attend the Synod on the Family in Rome next month should find a way for divorced and remarried Catholics to be forgiven and allowed back into the communion line, urges one of the most senior and respected canon lawyers in Canada.

Early in his papacy Pope Francis committed to continuing the work of Pope Benedict XVI to impose a zero-tolerance policy for abuser priests and see-no-evil bishops. So it was more than symbolic in late April when a Kansas City bishop was forced into retirement following a criminal conviction of failing to report suspected child abuse.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert W. Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, who was convicted in 2012 on one misdemeanour count of failing to report suspected child abuse.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis named 71-year-old Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture of the Economic Affairs of the Holy See since 2011, to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

ATHLONE, Ireland - The Catholic Church is "no longer a safe haven for child abusers," said a top priest psychologist who advises the U.S. bishops on child sexual abuse.

Scattering the ashes of the recently departed is a rising trend in Vancouver despite the practice breaking both civil and Canon Law.

VATICAN CITY - When Pope Francis celebrates the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in June, he will set aside an element that has been part of the Mass for the past 32 years; the Vatican confirmed he will not confer the pallium on new archbishops during the liturgy.

VATICAN CITY - Church law has procedures and penalties for effectively dealing with allegations of clerical sexual abuse, but the Vatican is working to revise a section of the Code of Canon Law to make those norms and procedures clearer and, therefore, more effective, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.