Associated Press

The young cardinal in charge of Mongolia’s tiny Catholic community said July 17 that Pope Francis' upcoming visit to a country with just 1,450 Catholics is evidence of his willingness to travel to the farthest corners of the globe to minister to even a handful of the faithful.

Pope Francis’ peace envoy was traveling to Washington on July 17 as part of the Holy See's peace initiatives for Ukraine, hoping to support humanitarian operations especially concerning children, the Vatican said July 17.

Three decades ago, the man named by Pope Francis to be the Catholic Church's new guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy wrote a short book about kissing and the sensations it evokes. Some conservatives are using the volume to criticize the appointment of Cardinal-designate Victor Manuel Fernández to lead the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández, chosen by Pope Francis to head the Vatican office that ensures doctrinal orthodoxy, conceded July 9 he made mistakes in handling a 2019 case of a priest accused of sexual abuse of minors.

Hong Kong’s newly named Roman Catholic cardinal said July 10 that he hopes for reconciliation and wants the city to give young people more hope following the economic downturn and a campaign to crush a pro-democracy movement.

Pope Francis travels to the periphery of Roman Catholicism later this summer when he becomes the first pontiff to visit Mongolia, a Central Asian nation squeezed between Russia and China with just 1,500 Catholics.

A U.S.-based group that tracks how the Catholic hierarchy deals with allegations of sexual abuse by clergy says Pope Francis made a "troubling" choice in appointing an Argentine prelate to a powerful Vatican office that handles such cases.

Pope Francis has set up a special commission tasked with identifying those he calls the "new martyrs" of the 21st century — Christians who have been slain in some cases simply for attending Mass or for helping the poor.

A former Catholic priest with a lengthy career at parishes across New Mexico has been arrested on criminal charges of coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity through text messages, federal law enforcement authorities announced June 29.

The Supreme Court on June 29 used the case of a Christian mail carrier who did not want to work Sundays to solidify protections for workers who ask for religious accommodations.

Former 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.

 Italy’s Parliament is poised to open a bicameral commission of inquiry into the disappearance of the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee, the third new investigation launched in the four decades since Emanuela Orlandi vanished on the streets of Rome.

More than half a million people formally left the Catholic Church in Germany last year, significantly higher than the previous record as the church wrestles with a long-running scandal over abuse by clergy and with calls for far-reaching reform.

German police and prosecutors searched Catholic Church properties on June 27 in connection with a probe of the archbishop of Cologne in western Germany over perjury allegations, authorities said.

Cabrini University has announced that it will close at the end of the 2023-24 school year, with Villanova University assuming ownership of the nearby land in the Philadelphia suburbs where the fellow Roman Catholic university is located.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offered June 22 to help try to gain the release of a Roman Catholic bishop imprisoned in Nicaragua.

Exactly 40 years after the teenage daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared, the Vatican said June 22 that new leads "worthy of further investigation" had surfaced hopes of finally getting to the bottom of one of the Holy See’s enduring mysteries.

Pope Francis said June 22 he was short of breath and still feeling the effects of anesthesia from abdominal surgery two weeks ago.

A cross bequeathed by the late Pope Benedict XVI to a parish in his German home region of Bavaria has been stolen from the church where it was exhibited, police said June 20.

The head of a religious art and culture center founded by a disgraced Jesuit priest came to his defense June 17 after he was expelled from the Jesuit religious order following allegations of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse against adult women.