Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has hailed the man who threw an Amazon statue into the Tiber as “a hero”. Cardinal George Pell reportedly vetoed a €50 million loan request to secure the purchase of a bankrupt Rome hospital. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has ceased to commemorate Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens in a dispute over the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Sri Lankan Catholics have thanked the country’s president for declaring the shrine of Our Lady of Madhu a “sacred area”. Fr Benedict Kiely visits “the city which contained one of the earliest Christian communities”. Bishop Robert Barron identifies “the most important issue facing the Church”. And Laramie Hirsch offers a Catholic defence of hunting. Follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen for updates throughout the day.