Catholic Church

Pope Francis has doubled down on his traditional views on abortion and women during his in-flight press conference coming home from Belgium. He has praised Belgium’s late King Baudouin as a “saint” for having abdicated for a day in 1990 rather than sign legislation legalizing abortion. Francis said: “You need a politician who wears pants to do this.” Francis drew...

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.

Pope Francis has arrived in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea. He landed in Vanimo, on the northwest coast of the country, with a ton of humanitarian aid to deliver to the missionaries and faithful who live there.

The Most Reverend Michael R. Cote has retired as Bishop of Norwich after reaching his 75th birthday. The Diocese of Norwich said on Tuesday morning that Bishop Cote submitted his resignation on June 19, which is standard in the Catholic Church when a bishop reaches the age of 75, and Pope Francis has accepted it. Bishop Cote will transition to…

Stephen Colbert, Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Whoopi Goldberg and Tig Notaro are also on the Pope’s guest list for the Vatican fun-fest.

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

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. Francis presided over Easter Sunday Mass in a flower-decked St. Peter’s Square. He then delivered a heartfelt prayer for peace in his annual roundup of global crises,...

In a speech to his diplomatic core on Monday, Pope Francis compared surrogacy to human trafficking and called for a universal ban on the practice. “I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child.”

Pope Francis delivered his annual Christmas Day speech from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to the throngs of people in the piazza below.

The Vatican said Monday that Pope Francis had approved Catholic priests to bestow blessings to people in same-sex relationships.

The Most Rev. Christopher Coyne is the new Archbishop of Hartford.

Authorities in Mexico say the roof of a church has collapsed in northern Mexico during a Mass, killing at least nine people and injuring about 50.

A Louisiana grand jury has charged a now-91-year-old disgraced priest with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1975.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who claims he was sexually assaulted by a priest when he was 14 years old.

In 1992, Sinéad O’Connor destroyed a photo of Pope John Paul II on U.S. national television. While the pushback was swift, for survivors of clergy sex abuse O’Connor’s protest was prophetic, forecasting the global denomination’s public reckoning that was still to come.

Conservative sectors in the church are criticizing the appointment of Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández to lead the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith over his 1995 book “Heal Me with Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing.”

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in Massachusetts decades ago, an expert for the prosecution says, raising doubts about the future of the criminal case against the 92-year-old. Prosecutors this week disclosed the findings of their expert to the judge, who will ultimately rule…

Pope Francis is expected to be released from the hospital “in the coming days,” as he recovers well and without complications from abdominal surgery last week, the Vatican said Wednesday.