Pope Francis critic and conspiracy theorist Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò found guilty of schism

The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the US, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis’ most ardent critics.

The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty on Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed him of its decision on Friday, a press statement said.

Convicted financier Raffaele Mincione is seeking to clear his name over Vatican’s €350m London investment

Pope Francis’s chief of staff has become one of the highest-ranking Holy See officials to testify in a foreign court, giving a British tribunal a detailed explanation of the negotiations at the heart of the Vatican’s “trial of the century”.

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra was called to testify on Thursday on behalf of the Vatican secretariat of state in a British civil proceeding brought against the Vatican by an Italian-British financier who was involved in the transactions over a London property.

Court of appeal reduces sentences of Finnegan Lee Elder, 24, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 23 over killing of Mario Cerciello Rega

An Italian court of appeal has upheld the murder convictions of two American men over the death of an Italian plainclothes police officer during a botched sting operation but reduced their sentences. The new trial was ordered after Italy’s highest court threw out their original convictions.

The court convicted Finnegan Lee Elder and sentenced him to 15 years and two months in prison and gave a sentence of 11 years to Gabriele Natale-Hjorth.