The nun from Kerala was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini.

New York's Bishop John Jenik was suspended in 2018 pending a Church investigation into the alleged assault, which reportedly took place in the 1980s while the American was pastor of a Bronx parish.

Under the new measure, every diocese around the world is obliged by June 2020 to create a system for the reporting of sexual abuse by clerics, the use of child pornography and cover-ups of abuse.

The papal admission followed a rare outcry last week from the Vatican's women's magazine over the sexual abuse of nuns, leaving them feeling forced to have abortions or raise children not recognised by their priest fathers.

Pope Francis is urging politicians of all faiths to safeguard the rights of the unborn and is exhorting abortion opponents to also assure that children are born into a world where they can live with dignity.

In the history of the papacy, it is the first-ever visit by a Pope to the Arabian Peninsula, where Islam was born.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in will have an audience with the Pope during a visit to the Vatican from October 17 to 18.

Pope Francis prayed for the victims of the flooding at St Peter’s Square

51% of Kejriwal’s twitter followers are fake, while Rahul Gandhi emerges as the winner here with 69% fake followers.

However, he did not stress on the doing away with the church's most stringent celibacy rule.