Associated Press

Pope Francis has defended his controversial decision to let priests bless same-sex couples but admitted that "solitude is a price you have to pay" when you make difficult decisions.

Pope Francis on Jan. 10 confirmed a new leader for India's Syro-Malabar Church in a step toward healing a decades-long liturgical dispute that became so dire that Francis recently threatened to excommunicate hundreds of priests.

A Wisconsin judge suspended charges against defrocked Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the 1970s, ruling Jan. 10 that the former cleric is incompetent for trial because of dementia.

The Vatican has decided to shut down a Slovenian-based female religious community founded by a controversial ex-Jesuit artist accused by some women of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuses.

A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5.5 years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

Verdicts are expected Dec. 16 for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican's modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ' own role in the deals.

Pope Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes, so he can be near his favorite icon of the Madonna.

The fatal stabbing of a Catholic priest inside the church rectory where he lived has rocked the eastern Nebraska community of Fort Calhoun, a one-stoplight town where people tend not to worry if they forget to lock their doors at night.

President Joe Biden is hosting a White House reception the evening of Dec. 11 to mark Hanukkah, celebrating the festival of lights as he has continued to denounce rising antisemitism in the U.S. and abroad amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Pope Francis said Dec. 6 he was feeling "much better" after a two-week bout of bronchitis but again asked an aide to read his remarks.

For a second Sunday, an ailing Pope Francis skipped his popular window appearance to the public in St. Peter's Square, but in televised remarks said he's doing better even though his voice wouldn't let him read all his comments aloud.

Pope Francis said on Nov. 30 that he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors recommended he cancel his planned visit to Dubai this weekend to avoid the quick changes in temperature that would be involved.

Pope Francis presided at his weekly audience with the public at the Vatican, but he said that he's still unwell and asked an aide to read his remarks for him on Nov. 29, a day after canceling an overseas trip.

Pope Francis has punished one of his highest-ranking critics, Cardinal Raymond Burke, by yanking his right to a subsidized Vatican apartment and salary in the second such radical action against a conservative American prelate this month, according to two people briefed on the measures.

Pope Francis is receiving antibiotics intravenously to treat a lung inflammation and will scale back some appointments, but he doesn’t have pneumonia or fever, the Vatican said Nov. 27.

Pope Francis met separately Nov. 22 with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and begged for an end to what he called terrorism and "the passions that are killing everyone."

The founder of the far-right, unofficial Catholic media group Church Militant has resigned for an unspecified violation of the organization's morality clause, the group said in a statement Nov. 21.

A French bishop has been given a preliminary charge of attempting to rape an adult man a decade ago, the Paris prosecutor's office said Nov. 20. It is the latest of a growing number of accusations of sexual abuse by clergy in France.

Pope Francis' recent gesture of welcome for transgender Catholics has resonated strongly in this working class, seaside town south of Rome, where a community of trans women has found help and hope through a remarkable relationship with the pontiff forged during the darkest times of the pandemic.

Hong Kong's newly appointed Roman Catholic cardinal said he dreamed of bishops and faithfuls from different parts of greater China praying together one day during a historic visit by the head of the Chinese Catholic church, a publication affiliated with the city's diocese reported Nov. 17.