Pope Francis accepted the resignation of West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield amid accusations the bishop sexually harassed adults, Vatican officials said Thursday morning. Francis also authorized the diocese’s new temporary administrator, Baltimore Bishop William Lori, to conduct an investigation into the accusations. Lori set up a hotline for potential victims to call and said he would conduct a thorough investigation. Bransfield has denied the accusations.

Imagine this scenario. You’re an officer in an evangelical church. The congregation has been thriving and the spirit is good.

Pope Francis has called on the presidents of every global bishops conference to attend a February summit to deliberate on how to prevent clergy sex abuse and ensure children are protected, the Vatican announced Wednesday.

A Pennsylvania Catholic Church diocese on Wednesday named 71 priests and other members of the church accused of child sex abuse. Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer held church leadership responsible for failing to adequately respond to accusations over the years. The diocese said it would strip the names of the bishops who led the church for the past 70 years from all church properties.

Pope Francis in a new policy published Thursday changed the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on the death penalty, saying it is always “inadmissible” because it “attacks” the inherent dignity of all humans. The Vatican said Francis approved in May the change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which had previously not ruled out capital punishment if needed to defend human life “against the unjust aggressor.” That position is now considered “outdated,” according to Catechism No. 2267.

An Australian court on Tuesday convicted a Catholic archbishop of covering up child sex abuse. Philip Wilson, archbishop of Adelaide, is the highest-ranking member of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy to face legal penalties in the worldwide abuse scandal. Wilson pleaded not guilty to concealing priest James Fletcher’s abuse of children in the 1970s. The 67-year-old archbishop will be sentenced in June and faces a maximum sentence of two years.

Every active Catholic bishop in Chile offered to resign Friday over a sex abuse and cover-up scandal within the Chilean Roman Catholic Church. The unprecedented move by the 31 bishops comes after Pope Francis called for a meeting with the national bishops’ conference over the case of Bishop Juan Barros, who faced accusations of ignoring abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima. Francis said an investigation by two Vatican sex crimes experts showed “grave defects” in the way Chilean church authorities handled the abuse reports.