Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi "is going to retire by the end of December", reports Robert Mickens. A Spanish artist has claimed that his new work features consecrated Hosts taken from churches. The US military is facing a "desperate" shortage of Catholic chaplains, Archbishop Timothy Broglio has said. Former Christians who join ISIS "the fiercest of all the fighters", a terrorism expert has said. Tom Odula, Inés San Martin and Caroline Wyatt preview the Pope's trip to Africa, which begins today. John Allen and Fr Thomas Reese comment on the trial of five people accused of leaking Vatican documents. And Samuel Gregg hails the emergence of an "increasingly self-confident Catholicism" in France. Follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen for updates throughout the day.