Associated Press

Four Roman Catholic bishops met with Mexican drug cartel bosses in a bid to negotiate a possible peace accord, one of the bishops said, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Feb. 15 he approves of such talks.

Despite their rocky start, Argentina's President Javier Milei and Pope Francis appeared to have hit it off as they held their first meeting Feb. 12 amid speculation that the Argentine pontiff might finally go home for a visit later this year.

Pope Francis on Feb. 3 reaffirmed Christians' special relationship with Jews amid rising antisemitism since the outbreak of the Gaza war in a letter to the Jews of Israel that he said was prompted by messages from Jewish organizations around the world.

Pope Francis on Jan. 31 announced the nomination of a new Chinese bishop, the third in less than a week, in an apparent sign that a controversial 2018 accord with Beijing governing the nomination of Chinese bishops is working.

Pope Francis recalled the extermination of millions of Jews in calling Jan. 24 for the upcoming Holocaust Day of Remembrance to reaffirm that war can never be justified and only benefits weapons makers.

Pope Francis said Jan. 14 that if he can, he'll visit his native Argentina in the latter part of 2024, a trip that would see him there for the first time in his nearly 11-year-old papacy and while his fellow Argentines are suffering economically.

Pope Francis has defended his controversial decision to let priests bless same-sex couples but admitted that "solitude is a price you have to pay" when you make difficult decisions.

Pope Francis on Jan. 10 confirmed a new leader for India's Syro-Malabar Church in a step toward healing a decades-long liturgical dispute that became so dire that Francis recently threatened to excommunicate hundreds of priests.

A Wisconsin judge suspended charges against defrocked Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the 1970s, ruling Jan. 10 that the former cleric is incompetent for trial because of dementia.

The Vatican has decided to shut down a Slovenian-based female religious community founded by a controversial ex-Jesuit artist accused by some women of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuses.

A Vatican tribunal on Saturday convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5.5 years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

Verdicts are expected Dec. 16 for a cardinal and nine other defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican's modern history: a case featuring a Hollywood-worthy cast of characters, unseemly revelations about the Holy See and questions about Pope Francis ' own role in the deals.

Pope Francis says he wants to be buried in the Rome basilica of St. Mary Major, not in the grottoes of the Vatican like other popes, so he can be near his favorite icon of the Madonna.

The fatal stabbing of a Catholic priest inside the church rectory where he lived has rocked the eastern Nebraska community of Fort Calhoun, a one-stoplight town where people tend not to worry if they forget to lock their doors at night.

President Joe Biden is hosting a White House reception the evening of Dec. 11 to mark Hanukkah, celebrating the festival of lights as he has continued to denounce rising antisemitism in the U.S. and abroad amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Pope Francis said Dec. 6 he was feeling "much better" after a two-week bout of bronchitis but again asked an aide to read his remarks.

For a second Sunday, an ailing Pope Francis skipped his popular window appearance to the public in St. Peter's Square, but in televised remarks said he's doing better even though his voice wouldn't let him read all his comments aloud.

Pope Francis said on Nov. 30 that he is suffering from acute, infectious bronchitis and that doctors recommended he cancel his planned visit to Dubai this weekend to avoid the quick changes in temperature that would be involved.

Pope Francis presided at his weekly audience with the public at the Vatican, but he said that he's still unwell and asked an aide to read his remarks for him on Nov. 29, a day after canceling an overseas trip.