Nicole Winfield

Pope Leo XIV will declare John Henry Newman a “doctor” of the church, bestowing one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors on the deeply influential 19th Anglican convert who remains a unifying figure in both the Anglican and Catholic churches.

Pope Leo XIV surprised tens of thousands of young Catholics and showed up unexpectedly at a Holy Year welcome ceremony, thrilling the kids and receiving a rock star's welcome in the first big youth event of his pontificate.

Pope Leo XIV called for a renewed commitment to diplomacy to resolve conflicts as he marked the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Accords, the landmark Cold War-era agreement that ushered in a new era of security and human rights.

Pope Leo XIV received a rock star's welcome at the Vatican's festival of Catholic influencers as he urged them to ensure that human relations don't suffer with the spread of digital ecosystems and artificial intelligence.

Half a million young people are expected to pour into Rome next week for the biggest event of the 2025 Holy Year: a weeklong Jubilee celebration for young Catholics that will sorely test their tolerance for heat and the Eternal City's ability to provide public services, security and logistical support during its peak tourist season.

Pope Leo XIV called Sunday for "merciful compassion" for the world's poor, victims of tyranny and wars, as he celebrated Mass in a parish church that has special spiritual ties to Leo's own Augustinian religious order

Leo is a methodical, hard-working and well-prepared manager who wants to read entire reports, not just the executive summaries, before making decisions, people who know and work with him say.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to explicitly confirm the authenticity of the documents, which were posted online this week by a Vatican reporter.

The Vatican Museums on Thursday unveiled the last and most important of the restored Raphael Rooms, the spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace that in some ways rival the Sistine Chapel as the peak of high Renaissance artistry.

Pope Leo XIV doubled down on Friday on his appeal for unity in the polarized Catholic Church, urging priests to act in communion with their superiors and be models of reconciliation in a world driven by conflicts and divisions.

Leo met in St. Peter's Basilica with about 400 bishops and cardinals from 38 countries attending this week's special Holy Year celebrations for clergy.

Pope Leo XIV warned that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate.

 Pope Leo has been credited by victims of helping to dismantle an abusive Catholic movement in Peru, but other survivors have asked him to account for other cases.

Pope Leo XIV visited the papal summer palace south of Rome on May 29 as questions swirled whether he will use it himself to escape the heat or follow in Pope Francis' footsteps and keep the hilltop estate as a museum and environmental center.

Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for an end to the "heartbreaking" toll on its people, as he presided over his first general audience in St. Peter's Square.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine.

The top-ranked tennis player visited the new pope on Wednesday, gave him a tennis racket and offered to play, during an off day for Sinner at the Italian Open.

The women who have worked closely with Pope Leo XIV in recent years have praised his leadership style, ability to listen and respect for their opinions. In interviews with The Associated Press, they say they expect that as pope, Leo will continue to promote women in church governance positions, albeit with limits.

Leo said he will follow in the modernizing reforms of Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church inclusive, attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the "least and rejected.”

Over 12 years, Francis has sought to impose a kind of normality on the papacy with his informal style and disdain for pomp. During his five-week hospitalization for pneumonia, he has followed that same playbook.