Pope Francis’ child protection board has issued its first-ever global assessment of the Catholic Church's efforts to address the clergy sex abuse crisis.

With Pope Francis a few weeks away from his 88th birthday, the plotting for his successor is well underway at the Vatican.

Pope Francis’ yearslong process to reform the Catholic Church has closed with recommendations that fell far short of giving women more equity as hoped.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says it’s important that allies’ aid to Ukraine doesn’t decrease next year.

Pope Francis has named 21 new cardinals.

Pope Francis' big Catholic reform project has opened with widespread calls for women to take up more positions of responsibility in the church topping the agenda.

Pope Francis has doubled down on his traditional views on abortion and women during his in-flight news conference coming home from Belgium.

Pope Francis has met with 17 survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Belgium.

An unholy argument over a hymn has struck a discordant note in the preparations for the main event of Pope Francis' trip to Belgium.

Pope Francis is still widely popular in several Latin American countries.

Pope Francis is urging Europe to be beacon of peace amid war and a welcome home for migrants.

Pope Francis has taken the unusual decision to expel 10 people from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality.

Pope Francis is traveling to Belgium this week, where he is in for a sober welcome.

Pope Francis will be visiting Belgium on a trip starting Thursday, facing a flock ravaged by countless scandals of priest sexual abuse and dwindling in the face of modernity, where women and gays insist on an equal role and rights.

The Vatican has confirmed that plans remain in place for Pope Francis to go to Belgium and Luxembourg.

An estimated 180,000 motorcyclists gathered at Our Lady of Fatima shrine in central Portugal on Sunday for the ninth annual Pilgrimage of the Blessing of Helmets.

The Vatican has given the green light for Catholics to continue flocking to a southern Bosnian village where children reported seeing visions of the Virgin Mary.

Pope Francis' longest and farthest trip has proven that despite his age, ailments and eight hours of jet lag, Pope Francis can still pull off an ambitious trip to Asia.

Mexico’s Catholic Church has a new addition to its ranks of “blessed,” with the beatification of the Rev. Moisés Lira.

Flying back to Rome from a lengthy trip to Asia, Pope Francis criticized both U.S. presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration.

Pope Francis has offered extensive praise for China at the end of a trip through Asia.

Pope Francis has strongly criticized both U.S. presidential candidates over what he calls anti-life policies on abortion and migration.

Pope Francis is concluding his visit to Singapore by praising its tradition of interfaith harmony.

Pope Francis has praised Singapore’s economic development as a testament to human ingenuity.

Pope Francis is heading to Singapore for the final leg of his Asian trip.

The estimated crowd of 600,000 people Pope Francis' Mass in East Timor is nearly half of the small Southeast Asian country's population.

When Pope Francis arrives Wednesday in Asia’s financial powerhouse Singapore for the last leg of a four-nation tour, he is expected to bring his message of unity and hope to one of the world’s richest nations.

The Vatican says some 600,000 people have attended Pope Francis’ Mass in East Timor, or nearly half the country’s population.

The top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is celebrating a milestone birthday, his 100th.

Leaders of worldwide religions commonly stay at the helm well past retirement age, but it’s not often you find centenarians overseeing major faiths.

Pope Francis has indirectly acknowledged the abuse scandal in East Timor involving its bishop and Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence hero.

East Timor pulled out all stops for Pope Francis’ historic visit to one of the world’s youngest and poorest countries to the tune of $12 million, drawing rebuke from activists and human rights organizations.

Pope Francis has arrived in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea.

Pope Francis has called for the Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to women who have been abused and marginalized.

Pope Francis’s visit to Papua New Guinea will take him to a remote part of the South Pacific island nation where Christianity is a recent addition to traditional spiritual beliefs developed over millenia that remain deeply ingrained.

Pope Francis has arrived in Papua New Guinea for the second leg of his four-nation trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Pope Francis is wrapping up his visit to Indonesia after celebrating Mass before an overflow crowd of 100,000.

Pope Francis has joined the grand imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque in pledging to work together to fight religiously inspired violence and protect the planet.

The president of East Timor sees Pope Francis’ upcoming visit as a prime opportunity to promote Asia’s youngest country on the world stage, not a time to confront the legacy of abuse by influential members of the clergy in the deeply Catholic nation.

Pope Francis has urged Indonesia to live up to its promise of “harmony in diversity” and fight religious intolerance.

Pope Francis has urged Indonesia to live up to its promise of “harmony in diversity” and fight religious intolerance.

Pope Francis is making the longest, farthest and most challenging trip of his pontificate when he goes to Asia and Oceania this week.

When Pope Francis makes his trip to Asia's youngest country, East Timor, it will make him the second pope to visit after John Paul in 1989, and the first since the country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.

When the Vatican acknowledged in 2022 that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning, East Timorese independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo had sexually abused young boys, it appeared that the global clergy sexual abuse scandal that has compromised the Catholic Church’s credibility around the world had finally arrived in Asia’s newest country.

When Pope Francis begins his Asia tour next week, one of his early stops will be at Indonesia’s iconic Istiqlal mosque.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Seán O’Malley as archbishop of Boston and named the current bishop of Providence, Rhode Island, Richard Henning, to replace him as leader of one of the most important Catholic archdioceses in the United States.

Voices across the globe are expressing concern over the growing number of arrests in Venezuela following last weekend's disputed elections.

A Texas church has not one — but two — members aboard the International Space Station.

Up to 3,000 Salvadoran Catholics will participate in Saint Óscar Romero's pilgrimage, an annual event that kicks off in El Salvador each Aug. 1 to honor San Salvador’s archbishop, who was appointed saint by pope Francis in 2018.

The congregation at St. Joseph Apache Mission in the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico, is struggling to deal with the hurt caused by their priest removing a cherished painting called the Apache Christ, which portrays Jesus as an Indigenous holy man.

The Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal group, has covered up defining features of the mosaics in its Washington D.

Pope Francis has voiced his hope that the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games will provide an opportunity for countries at war to respect an ancient Greek tradition and establish a truce for the duration of the Games.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Colombian bishop who was mentioned in a book about priests and bishops who have allegedly committed acts of sexual abuse.

Catholics from across the U.S. have converged for five days of traditional devotions at the Indianapolis Colts’ football stadium in what they’re calling the National Eucharistic Congress.

The Vatican says its doctrine office will be preparing a document on women in leadership roles in the Catholic Church, as part of a new initiative to respond to longstanding demands by women to have a greater say in the church's life.

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor has strongly defended the integrity and fairness of the city state’s justice system.

The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the United States after finding him guilty of schism.

Five women who say they were psychologically, spiritually and sexually abused by a famous ex-Jesuit artist are asking Catholic bishops around the world to remove his mosaics from their churches.

Pope Francis has decreed that an area of northern Rome long used by Vatican Radio will now house a field of solar panels to fuel Vatican City.

Pope Francis recently hosted more than 107 comedians at the Vatican. Some of the A-listers who attended the event were Whoppi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon and Chris Rock, to name a few.

Before flying to Italy’s southern Puglia region to meet world leaders at the Group of Seven summit, Pope Francis hosted a very different audience at the Vatican celebrating the importance of humor.

Pope Francis has challenged leaders of the world’s wealthy democracies to keep human dignity foremost in developing and using artificial intelligence.

A summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations has opened in Italy.

A top Vatican cardinal has urged European voters to remember their own migratory roots in showing sympathy to people forced to flee their homes.

Pope Francis’ apology for using a vulgar term to refer to gay men was the latest comment to make headlines about the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality.

Pope Francis has apologized after he was quoted using a vulgar term about gay men to reaffirm the Catholic Church’s ban on gay priests.

The Vatican has revised how it evaluates purported supernatural events, such as reported visions of the Virgin Mary, to guard against hoaxes and account for news going viral.

The Vatican has radically reformed its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena.

Forty-nine employees of the Vatican Museums have filed a class-action complaint with the Vatican administration demanding better seniority, leave and overtime benefits.

The Vatican has crossed a key milestone in the runup to its 2025 Jubilee with the promulgation of the official decree establishing the Holy Year.

A retired Roman Catholic bishop who was famous for trying to mediate between drug cartels in Mexico was apparently kidnapped but was later located and taken to a hospital.

Pope Francis has met with women prisoners in Venice who are the protagonists of the Vatican pavilion at the Venice Biennale art fair.

Tech giant Cisco Systems has joined Microsoft and IBM in signing onto a Vatican-sponsored pledge to ensure artificial intelligence is developed and used ethically.

Elevated by Pope Francis to the top hierarchy of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini has kept up his unflinching focus on the poor, the Indigenous and the migrant in Central America.

The Holy See has formally protested to France after a court there ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order.

The Vatican says Pope Francis will visit Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore in September.

The Vatican has issued a new document rejecting the concept of changing one’s biological sex.

Pope Francis has met with relatives of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Transgender Catholics are voicing disappointment with a new Vatican document rejecting the fundamental concept of changing one’s biological sex.

The Vatican has declared that gender-affirming surgeries and surrogacy are grave violations of human dignity.

Pope Francis has led thousands of people in a moment of silence to pray for the aid workers killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza.

Pope Francis has exposed the political “maneuvers” used to sway votes during the two most recent elections of popes in a book-length interview.

Pope Francis has rallied from respiratory problems to lead some 60,000 people in Easter celebrations and make a strong appeal for a cease-fire in Gaza and a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine.

Pope Francis is presiding over the Vatican’s somber Easter Vigil service, a day after he made the last-minute decision to skip his participation in the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum as a health precaution.

After the 1959 revolution, Cuba repressed gay people and many were sent to labor camps.

The Vatican says Pope Francis has skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum to protect his health, adding to concerns about his frail condition during a particularly busy liturgical period.

Pope Francis has washed and kissed the feet of 12 women inmates at a Rome prison.

Pope Francis appears in better health, walking into the Vatican audience hall on his own with a cane for his weekly audience and delivering his prepared text with a clear voice.

Pope Francis has decided at the last minute to skip his homily during Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

Pope Francis has defrocked a notorious Belgian bishop who admitted 14 years ago that he sexually abused his nephew but faced no Vatican punishment.

Pope Francis says he has no plans to resign and isn’t suffering from any health problems that would require doing so.

Cubans are often divided on many issues.

The clergy sexual abuse scandal is slowly gathering steam in Italy.

The Vatican has unveiled a groundbreaking project for the upcoming Venice Biennale of Art: It is mounting a multimedia installation inside Venice’s Giudecca women’s prison.

Ukrainian and allied officials have criticized Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

Pope Francis has said in an interview that Ukraine, facing possible defeat, should have the courage to negotiate an end to the war with Russia and not be ashamed to sit at the same table to carry out peace talks.

Pope Francis, who has been suffering from the flu, asked an aide to read out his prepared speech at a conference in the Vatican Friday, saying he was not yet well and becomes fatigued.

Pope Francis was taken briefly to a hospital in central Rome after the papal audience on Wednesday.

Pope Francis was well enough to celebrate his weekly Angelus prayer from the Vatican window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, a day after cancelling his engagements because of a mild flu.

The Vatican says that Pope Francis has canceled an audience as a precaution after coming down with mild flu.