The final pilgrims of the 2025 Holy Year have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Leo XIV has closed out 2025 with a prayer that the city of Rome might be a welcoming place for foreigners and fragile people young and old.

The Vatican has doubled down on the value of monogamous marriage between a man and woman.

Pope Leo XIV is signalling his commitment to continuing the fight against clergy sexual abuse.

Pope Leo XIV is marking a feast day as the Vatican launches a new campaign to boost donations from the faithful.

Pope Leo XIV, now the successor of St. Peter, leads the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church in a sacred role that few others will ever hold.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, the first U.S. pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, previously led a Catholic religious order.

One hundred and thirty-three cardinals are sequestering themselves behind the Vatican’s medieval walls for the start of a conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

Cardinals hailing from 71 different countries are eligible to elect a pope this week in the most geographically diverse conclave in history.

The body of Pope Francis was moved Wednesday morning to St. Peter’s Basilica for three days of public mourning for an Argentine pontiff remembered for his humble style, concern for the poor and insistent prayers for peace.

Pope Francis has visited Rome’s main prison and kept an Easter season appointment to spend Holy Thursday among the least fortunate.

Pope Francis ushered in the New Year with an appeal for the faithful to reject abortion, calling for a “firm commitment” to protect and respect life from conception to natural death.

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message has urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Holy Land to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The Vatican is insisting at the close of a trial in London that it was the victim of a years-long fraud over its investment in a London property.

Vatican police have detained a former employee after he allegedly tried to sell a 17th century manuscript back to the Holy See.

Pope Francis is denouncing the weapons industry in his Christmas Day appeal for peace in the world and in particular between Israel and the Palestinians.

Pope Francis in a Christmas Eve homily said that “the clash of arms even today” prevents Jesus “from finding room in the world."

The Vatican next year will publish a collection of never-before-seen homilies delivered by the late Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Francis is traveling to Mongolia at the end of the summer.

Pope Francis was presiding over Easter vigil Mass at the Vatican.

The 16th century pope responsible for what is today known as the Gregorian calendar now has another, celestial claim to fame.

Pope Francis has intervened for the third time to crack down on the celebration of the old Latin Mass, a sign of continued friction with Catholic traditionalists.

The Vatican is allowing the public to visit the new tomb of Pope Benedict XVI under St. Peter's Basilica.

Pope Benedict XVI held one of the world’s highest—profile positions but once expressed a desire to be “hidden to the world.”.

The Vatican says Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is lucid, conscious and stable, but his condition remains serious.

Pope Francis has used his Christmas message Sunday to lament the “icy winds of war” buffeting humanity.

In the splendor of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis was presiding over Christmas Eve Mass.

The Vatican has defended Pope Francis from allegations he hasn't come down hard enough on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, saying the pontiff clearly views the war launched by Moscow as “repugnant.”.

The Vatican cardinal accused in a class-action lawsuit in Canada of sexual assault against a woman has denied any inappropriate behavior.

Pope Francis has greeted members of the Congolese community in Rome after knee trouble forced him to cancel a planned pilgrimage to Africa.

Pope Francis is urging the Catholic faithful to stop exploiting the old Latin Mass for ideological reasons.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has received Communion during a papal Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, despite her position in support of abortion rights.

Pope Francis invoked “gestures of peace in these days marked by the horror of war” in an Easter vigil homily in St. Peter’s Basilica attended by the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol and three Ukrainian lawmakers.

Pope Francis has prayed for peace in Ukraine in a ceremony that harks back to a century-old apocalyptic prophecy about peace and Russia.

Pope Francis has used his Christmas Day address to pray for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis has celebrated Christmas Eve Mass before an estimated 2,000 people in St. Peter’s Basilica.

A consortium of Catholic women’s groups is calling on the Holy See to join the Council of Europe and sign the European Convention on Human Rights.

Pope Francis has praised young people for their efforts to protect the Earth's environment.

Pope Francis is decrying society which “hurries past” the poor, judges them and leaves them to their fate.

Pope Francis has prayed for the end of the pandemic and a return of what he calls “a horizon of hope and peace.”.

Pope Francis has given the Catholic church nine new priests, encouraging them in an ordination ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica to be humble, compassionate and close to the faithful.

Pope Francis has used his traditional Easter address to denounce as “scandalous” that warfare continues to rage and military arsenals are fattened around the world as the coronavirus pandemic causes social and economic suffering.

Christianity’s most joyous feast day is being celebrated worldwide with worshippers spaced apart in pews and singing choruses of “Hallelujah” through face coverings for the second Easter Sunday in a row.

Pope Francis is urging his coronavirus-weary flock to not lose hope even through the continued “dark months” of the pandemic.

Pope Francis has celebrated a surprise Holy Thursday Mass with the cardinal he fired last year.

(Tiziana Fabi/Pool photo via AP)ROME – The Vatican declared Monday that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response to a question about whether Catholic clergy have the authority to bless gay unions. Since gay unions aren't intended to be part of that plan, they can't be blessed by the church, the document said. Francis has endorsed providing gay couples with legal protections in same-sex unions, but that was in reference to the civil sphere, not within the church. At the time, Argentine lawmakers were considering approving gay marriage, which the Catholic Church opposes. AdSpeaking of families with gay children, he said: “You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this.

Pope Francis celebrates a Mass with members of religious institutions on the occasion of the celebration of the World Day of Consecrated Life, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, pool)ROME – Pope Francis on Thursday offered encouragement to musicians who have been silenced as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, acknowledging many have lost work and the ability to practice together due to closed concert halls and social distancing norms. AdFrancis ended his message to the musicians with a question, asking them if the silence imposed on them as a result of the pandemic isn't actually a sign that something new is coming. “Is the silence we’re living in an emptiness or are we just in a phase of listening?” he asked. “Will (the silence now) let a new song emerge afterward?”

FILE - In this file photo dated Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, Pope Francis holds his pastoral staff as he arrives to celebrate Mass, at St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis received the first shot of the ant-COVID vaccine on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE)ATLANTA – The Atlanta Hawks sent a special gift to Pope Francis: an MLK jersey that was blessed by the pontiff on Martin Luther King Jr's 92nd birthday Friday. The Hawks sent the pontiff their alternate jersey honoring the Atlanta native son and civil rights icon who was assassinated in 1968. 1 jersey, which has “MLK” across the front — instead of “Hawks” or the city name — and Francis' name across the back.

Pope Francis has changed church law to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, Monday Jan. 11, 2021, while reaffirming they cannot be priests. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, FILE)ROME – Pope Francis changed church law Monday to explicitly allow women to do more things during Mass, granting them access to the most sacred place on the altar, while continuing to affirm that they cannot be priests. Currently, the ministry is reserved for men even though historians say the ministry was performed by women in the early church. Francis has created a second commission of experts to study whether women could be deacons, after a first one reported on the history of women deacons in the early church. “This closes the door on the diaconate for women,” she said in a phone interview, calling the change “a step backward” for women.

Pope Francis arrives to deliver the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing inside the blessing hall of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Friday, Dec. 25, 2020. (Vatican Media via AP)VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis made a Christmas Day plea for authorities to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all, insisting that the first in line should be the most vulnerable and needy, regardless of who holds the patents for the shots. “We can't let closed nationalisms impede us from living as the true human family that we are,” the pope said. Normally, tens of thousands of people would have crowded into St. Peter’s Square to receive the pope’s Christmas blessing and listen to his speech. Fraternity and compassion applies to people "even though they do not belong to my family, my ethnic group or my religion,” he said.

Cardinals sit as Pope Francis celebrates Mass the day after he raised 13 new cardinals to the highest rank in the Catholic hierarchy, at St. Peter's Basilica, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, Pool)VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis, joined by the church’s newest cardinals in Mass on Sunday, warned against mediocrity as well as seeking out “godfathers” to promote one's own career. The freshly-minted cardinals who did come to the Vatican wore protective masks and purple vestments, as the Church began the solemn liturgical season of Advent in the run-up to Christmas. Among those raised to cardinal's rank on Saturday by Francis was the current archbishop of Washington, Wilton Gregory, the first African-American cardinal. “When the Church worships God and serves our neighbor, it does not live in the night.

The next World Youth Day will be held inPortugal in 2023. (Vincenzo Pinto/Pool via AP)VATICAN CITY – With no papal travels abroad this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis is cheering efforts for a youth jamboree, traditionally attended by pontiffs, in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2023. Francis on Sunday presided over a handover ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica involving young people gearing up for the next World Youth Day, which draws huge crowds of Catholics from around the globe. When Francis attended the last such event in Panama in 2019, organizers announced that the next jamboree would be held in Lisbon in 2022. Francis applauded after youths from Panama symbolically slid across the basilica's floor a towering wooden cross to counterparts from Portugal as part of preparations for Lisbon.

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2019 file photo, Pope Francis celebrates Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. Vatican prosecutors have ordered the seizure of documents and computers from the administrative offices of St. Peters Basilica in an apparently new investigation into financial irregularities in the Holy See. The Vatican said Tuesday that Pope Francis has also named a special commissioner to run the basilica, reorganize its offices, update its statutes to comply with new Vatican norms on procurement contracts and to clarify its administration. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)ROME Vatican prosecutors have ordered the seizure of documents and computers from the administrative offices of St. Peters Basilica in an apparently new investigation into financial irregularities in the Holy See. Vatican prosecutors last year launched a separate investigation into the Vatican secretariat of states purchase of a luxury London building amid allegations that middlemen had fleeced the Holy See out of millions of euros.