The Vatican had sent a letter to the Italian government to request a change in a new anti-homophobia law to be passed. On June 17th, a "verbal note" by the Vatican's secretary of relation with states, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, was delivered to the Italian embassy, as confirmed by a spokesperson of the Vatican.

On 15th March, in the Vatican decree published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Pope Francis gave a pronouncement against blessing same-sex marriages, calling them "illicit" and "not ordered to the Creator's plan".

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Catholic church in Washington, D.C. regarding ban on religious bus advertisement.

Religious people are more afraid than Secular Americans according to the annual “Chapman Survey of American Fears.”

Many priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse just ‘fled’ to foreign countries and smoothly found work there.