VATICAN CITY (AP) — A 2006 letter from a top Vatican official confirms that the Holy See received information in 2000 about the sexual misconduct of now-resigned U.S. cardinal, lending credibility to bombshell accusations of a cover-up at the highest...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The author of the bombshell accusation of sex abuse cover-up against Pope Francis denied Wednesday he acted out of revenge or anger, breaking his silence as his claims continued to divide a Catholic Church already polarized u...

ROME (AP) — An Italian journalist who says he helped a former Vatican diplomat pen his bombshell allegation of sex abuse cover-up against Pope Francis says he persuaded the archbishop to go public after the U.S. church was thrown into turmoil by r...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis declined Sunday to confirm or deny claims by the Vatican's retired ambassador to the United States that he knew in 2013 about sexual misconduct allegations against the former archbishop of Washington, T...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The highest-ranking American at the Vatican insisted Tuesday he never knew or even suspected that his former boss, disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, allegedly sexually abused boys and adult seminarians, telling The A...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Revelations that one of the most respected U.S. cardinals allegedly sexually abused both boys and adult seminarians have raised questions about who in the Catholic Church hierarchy knew — and what Pope Francis is going to do abo...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis will meet with some of the world's oil executives next week, likely to give them another moral nudge to clean up their act on global warming. Climate change policy and science experts are cautiously hopeful but a...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Thursday ended his emergency summit with Chile's bishops by thanking them for their "full willingness" to do whatever it takes to recover from a sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has discredited the church. F...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The world's oldest standing army is getting some new headgear. The Swiss Guards plan to replace their metal helmets with plastic PVC ones made with a 3-D printer, giving the pope's army cooler and more comfortable headgear when s...

ROME (AP) — The three whistleblowers in Chile's sex abuse scandal urged Pope Francis on Wednesday to transform his apology for having discredited them into concrete action to end what they called the "epidemic" of sex abuse and cover-up in the Cathol...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Young Catholics told the Vatican on Saturday they want a more transparent and authentic church, where women play a greater leadership role and where obeying "unreachable" moral standards isn't the price of admission. In a f...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The head of the Vatican's communications department resigned Wednesday after he mischaracterized a private letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI, then had a photo of it digitally manipulated and sent out to the media. A week a...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Stung by accusations of spreading "fake news," the Vatican on Saturday released the complete letter by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis after coming under blistering criticism for selectively citing it in a press r...

ROME (AP) — The United Nations received pledges Thursday of nearly $100 million in new funding for the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians after the U.S. slashed its aid, but it is still facing a nearly $350 million shortfall this year. A dozen c...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican on Friday removed the suspended Guam archbishop from office and ordered him not to return to the Pacific island after convicting him of some charges in a sex abuse trial. The Vatican didn't say what exactly A...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis marked his fifth anniversary as pope Tuesday by receiving votes of confidence from his predecessor and current Vatican No. 2, even as surveys showed his reform-minded papacy was turning off some of the most f...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The Vatican's leading expert on clerical sex abuse wrapped up his fact-finding mission to Chile on Thursday and headed to Rome to brief the pope, concluding one of the most extraordinary months in the Catholic Church's long-run...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican magazine has denounced how nuns are often treated like indentured servants by cardinals and bishops, for whom they cook and clean for next to no pay. The March edition of "Women Church World," the monthly women's m...

ROME (AP) — Italian government officials are warning of possible foreign interference in the March 4 general election, sounding the alarm following the U.S. indictment of Russian trolls and evidence of Russian-sourced fake news on popular Italian pla...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's sex-crimes expert is changing plans and will fly to New York to take in-person testimony from a Chilean sex abuse victim after his pleas to be heard by Pope Francis were previously ignored, the victim told The A...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — After coming under excoriating public criticism, Pope Francis decided Tuesday to send the Vatican's most respected sex crimes expert to Chile to investigate a bishop accused by victims of covering up for the country's most n...

TRUJILLO, Peru (AP) — Pope Francis denounced femicides and other gender-based crimes that have turned Latin America into the most violent place on Earth for women, calling Saturday for legislation to protect them and a new cultural mindset as he v...

IQUIQUE, Chile (AP) — It was all in a day's work for the ever-unpredictable Pope Francis. First he celebrated the first-ever airborne papal wedding, marrying two flight attendants at 36,000 feet during a flight on Thursday to this northern Chilean b...

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Pope Francis met on Tuesday with survivors of priests who sexually abused them, wept with them and apologized for the "irreparable damage" they suffered, his spokesman said. The pontiff also acknowledged the "pain" of p...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis' trip to Chile and Peru, originally aimed at highlighting the plight of indigenous peoples and the delicate Amazon ecosystem, is being overshadowed by the Catholic Church's dismal record confronting priestly sex abuse...