At the Vatican Observatory, these women were part of a global attempt to map the night sky.

The Vatican has put a stop to the work of international auditors just months after they were hired to review the city-state’s bookkeeping — a move said to have surprised Pope Francis’ handpicked financial czar, Cardinal George Pell.

Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of Muslim, Christian and Hindu refugees Thursday and declared them all children of the same God, as he performed a gesture of welcome and brotherhood at a time of increased anti-Muslim sentiment following the Brussels attacks. Francis denounced the carnage as a “gesture of war” carried out by blood-thirsty people beholden to the weapons industry during an Easter Week Mass with asylum-seekers at a shelter in Castelnuovo di Porto, outside Rome.

Many years ago, when Oliver North was running for the Senate from Virginia, I received a call from a reporter. She told me that some church groups in the commonwealth were praying for North’s election. Then she asked if their behavior violated the separation of church and state. I explained to her that as separationism is a rule of constitutional law, only the state and not the church can violate it. My answer got on her nerves.

Pope Francis will travel to Cuba on Feb. 12 for a historic meeting with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first meeting between a pope and the Russian patriarch, the Vatican announced on Friday. For Francis, the meeting is the result of delicate and sustained diplomacy, some of which began decades ago under Pope John Paul II, and it is another milestone in his efforts to reconcile the Roman Catholic Church with Eastern Orthodox churches.

Italy has covered up ancient nude statues ahead of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani's official visit to Rome. As the leader arrived to meet Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and the Pope, plain white boards were pictured obscuring the sculptures in the city's Capitoline Museum. A video published on Italian news websites showed the measures taken at the attraction.

In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences. Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives...

Here are the reasons why Pope Francis is not just cool when it comes to church fundraisers.

Pope Francis' first Africa trip will highlight the problems of building dialogue between Christianity and Islam as both religions grow fast on the continent, threatening to widen an already volatile fault line there between them.

In February of 1962, while digging up the Vatican's Belvedere Courtyard to modernize a heating and cooling system, a group of Italian workers hit bone.

The day before Pope Francis met anti-gay county clerk Kim Davis in Washington last week, he held a private meeting with a longtime friend from Argentina who has been in a same-sex relationship for 19 years. Yayo Grassi, an openly gay man, brought his partner, Iwan Bagus, as well several other friends to the Vatican Embassy on September 23 for a brief visit with the Pope. A video of the meeting shows Grassi and Francis greeting each other with a warm hug.

Pope Francis appeared to weigh in on the side of anti-gay-marriage clerk Kim Davis, saying government workers have a “human right” to refuse to carry out a duty if they have a “conscientious objection.” While returning from his visit to the U.S., the pontiff told reporters aboard the papal plane Monday that anyone who prevents others from exercising their religious freedom is denying them a human right.

It won't be the parking.

Pope bands? So boring. Pope dolls? So kitsch. In the great panoply of papal merchandise, congressman Bob Brady of Philadelphia may just have clinched the very best: the Holy Father’s glass of water. Pope Francis was sipping from the glass during his speech to Congress on Thursday, and when he made his way out of the chamber he left his drink unattended. That’s where Brady stepped in.

America may be in for some tough love from the Pope. After a lifetime of watching the world's most affluent and powerful nation from afar, Pope Francis walked on U.S. soil for the first time Tuesday, at the age of 78, when he arrived in Washington from Cuba.

Pope Francis on Wednesday urged the United States to help tackle climate change and touched on other divisive U.S. political issues such as immigration and economic inequality on his first visit to the world's richest nation. In a speech on the White House South Lawn on the first full day of his U.S. trip, the Argentine pontiff lauded President Barack Obama's efforts to reduce air pollution, months after Francis made the...

Pope Francis has warned against the risk that militants could slip into Europe under cover of a huge wave of refugees fleeing war in Syria but also said the migrant crisis could help reawaken the continent's conscience. In an interview published on Monday with the Portuguese Catholic broadcaster Radio Renascenca, the pope referred to the risk that Islamic State, which has killed Christians and other minorities in the Middle East, could launch attacks in Europe.

Cuba announced Friday that it is releasing 3,522 prisoners ahead of next week's visit by Pope Francis, the third time Cuba has granted inmates freedom before a papal trip. The Council of State announced in state media Friday that the prisoners to be freed include a mix of women, people younger than 20, inmates suffering from illnesses and people whose terms were coming to an end next year.

Pope Francis Sunday issued a strong appeal to the entire European Church – including the Vatican – to take in migrant families as part of the lead-in to the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy.