Associated Press

A state school board in Oklahoma voted June 5 to approve what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation, despite a warning from the state's attorney general that the decision was unconstitutional.

Pope Francis briefly went to Rome's main hospital on June 6 for tests and returned to the Vatican, two months after he was hospitalized with an acute case of bronchitis.

The head of St. Peter’s Basilica performed a special rite June 3 after a man stripped naked and hopped on the main altar with the words "Save children of Ukraina" written on his back.

If spirituality isn't driving the Catholic Church's missionary efforts, there is a risk of corruption, Pope Francis told the Vatican’s missionary fundraisers.

The Vatican is seeking clarity after the former director of its U.S. missionary fundraising office oversaw the transfer of at least $17 million of its endowment and donations into a new nonprofit and private equity fund that he created and currently manages. Fr. Andrew Small, the interim head of Pope Francis' clergy abuse commission, oversaw the transactions in his former role as national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States.

The archbishop of Chicago urged the Illinois attorney general on May 25 to provide information about newly uncovered cases of clergy sexual abuse that were included in a statewide investigative report, saying he would gladly add the names on his list of credibly accused priests if the claims were substantiated.

Illinois' attorney general has ended a five-year investigation into sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy in the state, releasing a nearly 700-page report that revealed the problem was far worse than the church acknowledged in 2018 at the start of the state's review.

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Bolivia acknowledged May 24 that the church had been deaf to the suffering of victims of sexual abuse, commenting as a pedophilia scandal involving priests is rocking the country.

An Illinois attorney general's office investigation released May 23 found that 451 Catholic clergy sexually abused nearly 2,000 children in the state over a nearly 70-year period, which was more than four times the 103 individuals the church named when the state began its review in 2018.

Pope Francis’ peace envoy for Ukraine, a veteran of the Catholic Church's conflict-mediation efforts, blasted war as a "pandemic" on May 23 and said all Christians are called to be peacemakers.

Pope Francis will travel to Portugal for World Youth Day in the first week of August and include a stop at the popular Marian shrine in Fatima, the Vatican said May 22.

A top Vatican cardinal defended Pope Francis' "drastic" leadership firings at the Holy See's preeminent charity, saying May 12 they were necessary for the wellbeing of staff at Caritas Internationalis and not a condemnation of its work.

Pope Francis could meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican this weekend, a Vatican official said May 11.

The head of the Church of England on May 10 condemned a British government bill that would dramatically curb migrants' ability to seek asylum in the U.K., calling the policy "isolationist, morally unacceptable and politically impractical."

The Vatican is formally recognizing 21 Coptic Orthodox workers who were beheaded by Islamic militants in Libya as martyrs with their own feast day, in a significant new ecumenical gesture aimed at forging unity between Catholic and Orthodox churches.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy on May 8 due to hundreds of new child sex abuse claims, becoming the second diocese in California to do so.

The Vatican-backed charity confederation, Caritas Internationalis, is hoping to open a new chapter this week after Pope Francis fired top managers over bullying complaints. But the recently ousted head is fighting back, claiming the Vatican engaged in a "brutal power grab" fueled by a "colonialist" attitude.

Ukraine’s prime minister said he asked Pope Francis during a private Vatican audience April 27 to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken to Russia.

Pope Francis said he hopes to travel to his native Argentina in 2024, which would mark the first time he would step foot in his homeland since becoming pontiff a decade ago.

A federal judge donated tens of thousands of dollars to New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese and consistently ruled in favor of the church amid a contentious bankruptcy involving nearly 500 clergy sex abuse victims, The Associated Press found, an apparent conflict that could throw the case into disarray.