US president Barack Obama has said he is “hugely impressed” by Pope Francis’s "incredible sense of empathy to the least of these". The Pope is considering whether to create national ecclesiastical tribunals to handle clerical abuse cases (John Allen analysis). One of Ireland's leading hospitals "won’t be performing abortions", even though it has promised to abide by the country's new law, a nun on the Mater Hospital board has said. John Allen says "the world is witnessing the rise of an entire new generation of Christian martyrs". Sandro Magister argues that the distance between Pope Francis and his two immediate predecessors is growing. Fr John Zuhlsdorf ponders rumours that Pope Francis expressed "strong reservations" about the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje last month. And Californians have complained to the police after they were kept awake by "loud parties" – at a local Catholic church. Follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen for updates throughout the day