The Vatican is installing a new set of nine bullet-proof and shatter-proof glass panels in front of one of its most famous works of art, Michelangelo’s marble “Pietà” sculpture in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Any Catholic who participates in the celebration July 28 of the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly can receive a plenary indulgence, the Vatican announced.

With world peace under serious threat, Pope Francis called on all nations to observe the Olympic truce and cease all conflicts for the traditional period before, during and after the Olympic Games in Paris.

Conversations about the role of women in the church and their ministerial functions are still being held at the highest levels of the Vatican.

Children of Vatican employees began their summer holidays at a new outdoor sports area and pool as part of an annual summer program.

Vatican rulings on allegedly supernatural phenomena, such as Marian apparitions, will continue to be released publicly, but official validation of an event’s supernatural status — as has happened at Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe — would be “exceptional,” the Vatican’s doctrine chief said.

Following the example of a group of British cultural icons, a group of American “Catholics and non-Catholics” and prominent cultural and intellectual personalities asked Pope Francis in an open letter July 15 not to further restrict the traditional Latin Mass.

The pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark (6:7-13) about the mission of the 12 disciples in which Jesus sent them out “two by two” and told them “to take nothing for the journey” but only what was necessary.

More than 2 billion people in over 50 countries were set to go to the polls in 2024, according to the Center for American Progress, but Pope Francis has said he is worried that people are more disconnected than ever from the governments that are meant to provide for their well-being.

The Vatican expressed its concern about the violence waged at a political rally in the United States and it offered its prayers for the nation, the victims and peace.