Associated Press

Arriving by the busloads, thousands of anti-abortion protesters rallied in the nation's capital Friday with a growing sense of optimism that their goal was finally in reach: a sweeping rollback of abortion rights.

Pope Francis vowed to provide justice to victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The Vatican has included a group that advocates for women's ordination on a website promoting a two-year consultation of rank-and-file Catholics.

A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany's Munich diocese on Jan. 20 faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI's handling of four cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said that Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing.

A top leader of the Knights of Malta warned the group's members on Wednesday that the Holy See's latest proposals to reform the order threaten its internationally recognized status as a sovereign state

Pope Francis issued a plea on behalf of prison inmates, saying they should never be deprived of hope and always be given the opportunity to redeem themselves.

Italy’s supreme court has faulted prosecutors for withholding evidence benefiting the key suspect in the Vatican’s fraud and embezzlement trial in a parallel case in the Italian courts.

Pope Francis has long lamented that he can't walk around town unnoticed like he used to before becoming pope. But he seems to have nevertheless kept his sense of humor after he was caught on camera making an unannounced visit to a Rome record shop this week.

Clergy abuse victims asked the European Court of Human Rights to make a definitive ruling on whether the Holy See can continue to avoid being held liable for sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests by claiming state immunity.

A Catholic church in Poland has asked a court to determine whether a Polish man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest is gay and whether the sexual contact may have been pleasurable for him.

After decades of dealing with the boyhood trauma of being molested by a priest, Jim Bartko sued the Roman Catholic church two years ago.

Pope Francis grew up listening to opera on the radio, is a fan of Argentine tango and thinks Mozart "lifts you to God." But it still came as a shock to see him coming out of a downtown Rome record shop Jan. 11 with a CD in hand. 

Pope Francis offered his condolences Monday to the victims of the “devastating” apartment fire in the Bronx borough of New York that killed 19 people, nine of them children.

A Swiss federal court has upheld a freeze on a reported 50 million euros in assets belonging to one of the suspects in a big Holy See fraud trial.

Nigerian-born Fr. Athanasius Abanulo has filled various chaplain and pastor roles across the United States, epitomizing an ongoing trend of international clergy recruits as fewer American-born men enter seminaries.