The pundits billed the televised speech French President Emmanuel Macron was scheduled to give at 8 p.m. on April 15 as the most important of his political career. After months of civil unrest and record protests, Macron had called for a “great national debate,” and in the Monday night address voters expected him to announce the way forward, and in so doing either unite or further divide a fractured country.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin on Thursday said he will offer his resignation to Pope Francis after a French court convicted him of failing to report child sexual abuse. The court in Lyon handed down a six-month suspended sentence against Barbarin for not alerting authorities of accusations against the Rev. Bernard Preynat between July 2014 and June 2015. In a brief statement, Barbarin expressed his “compassion” for the victims and said he will offer his resignation to the pope in a few days. Barbarin’s lawyer said he plans to appeal the conviction.

An Australian court in December convicted Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis’ top financial adviser and the Vatican’s economy minister, of molesting two choirboys, the Vatican said Tuesday. Pell is the most senior Roman Catholic cleric charged with child sexual abuse. The County Court of Victoria state delivered a unanimous verdict but demanded it be kept secret while prosecutors pursued another abuse case against the cardinal. That case was recently dropped. A sentencing hearing begins Wednesday for Pell, who faces potentially 50 years in prison.

Pope Francis closed out the Vatican’s four-day summit on sexual abuse by clergy on Sunday with a vow to confront abusers with “the wrath of God,” end cover-ups by their superiors, and prioritize the victims of what he called a “brazen, aggressive, and destructive evil.” At the end of Mass before nearly 200 Catholic bishops and other leaders, he offered an eight-point pledge of priorities going forward, calling for a change in the church’s defensive mentality and a vow to never again cover up cases.

Catholic religious orders from around the world issued public apologies on Tuesday for failing to address sexual abuse of children by their priests. Two umbrella organizations representing the global religious orders of the Catholic Church—the Union of Superiors General for male orders and the International Union of Superiors General for female orders—issued a joint statement days before a sexual abuse summit organized by Pope Francis is set to begin on Thursday.

Pope Francis on Tuesday for the first time publicly acknowledged that clergy have sexually abused nuns. “There have been priests and bishops who have” committed acts of sexual abuse, the pope said during a news conference aboard the papal plane on his return from the United Arab Emirates. “Should we do something more? Yes. Is there the will? Yes. But it’s a path that we have already begun.”

Pope Francis in a letter released Thursday encouraged U.S. bishops meeting for a weeklong retreat near Chicago to unify as the Roman Catholic Church deals with a “crisis of credibility.” In the eight-page letter addressed to the bishops, Francis said church leaders must reckon with parishioners’ pain, heal divisions, and devise specific approaches that go beyond “creating new committees or improving flow charts.”