Vatican City, Jun 20, 2020 / 05:04 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has approved the inclusion of three additional invocations in the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called the Litany of Loreto.

In a June 20 letter to the presidents of bishops’ conferences, Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for the Divine Liturgy and the Discipline of the Sacraments, said the invocations “Mater misericordiae,” “Mater spei,” and “Solacium migrantium” should be inserted in the Marian litany.

Vatican City, Jun 19, 2020 / 12:40 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis declared Friday that Sister Maria Laura Mainetti, an Italian religious sister killed by three teenage girls in a Satanic sacrifice, was a martyr for the Catholic faith.

The 60-year-old Sister of the Cross was in 2000 stabbed to death by three teenage girls in a park in Chiavenna, Italy.

Mainetti's killers were convicted and imprisoned.

Vatican City, Jun 19, 2020 / 05:20 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Friday appointed Fr. Michel Mulloy as the next bishop of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota.

Bishop-elect Mulloy, 66, has been diocesan administrator of Rapid City since August 2019, leading the diocese while the bishop’s seat was vacant.

He leaves the Diocese of Rapid City just before the consecration of Bishop-elect Peter Michael Muhich, which will take place in July.

Vatican City, Jun 17, 2020 / 04:15 pm (CNA).- As his general audience came to a close Wednesday, Pope Francis praised Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who helped tens of thousands of Jews and others to flee from advancing Nazi forces.