Nicole Winfield

The Vatican said March 18 it had closed its embassy in Nicaragua after the country's government proposed suspending diplomatic relations, the latest episode in a yearslong crackdown on the Catholic Church by the administration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

The Vatican Museums officially reopened its African and American ethnographic collections March 16 by showcasing intricately restored Rwandan raffia screens that were sent by Catholic missionaries to the Vatican for a 1925 exhibit.

Pope Francis has significantly increased the Vatican's female workforce, including in high-ranking positions, but women face continued resistance from the all-male Catholic hierarchy to access leadership positions in the church, according to Vatican statistics and independent surveys released March 8.

The Vatican and Greece finalized a deal March 7 for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries, the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution.

Pope Francis said Feb. 25 that financial misconduct by Vatican personnel harms the church’s mission and scandalizes the faithful, doubling down on the need for trials in the tiny city state to find justice.

Pope Francis will visit Hungary at the end of April, the Vatican said Feb. 27, in a trip expected to focus on migration to Europe and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The umbrella group of Catholic religious orders in France is demanding church authorities assume responsibility for horrific evidence of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse in L'Arche.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI's second secretary came out with a new memoir on Feb. 9, a light, photo-filled daily journal that sharply contrasts with the bombshell tell-all book published last month by the late German pope's main assistant.

Pope Francis has clarified his recent comments about homosexuality and sin, saying he was merely referring to official Catholic moral teaching that teaches that any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin.

The archbishop of Vienna, a longtime friend and former student of Pope Benedict XVI, has confirmed that it was he who wrote a letter to his former teacher urging him to accept election as pontiff in 2005 if the votes went his way.

The Vatican has ordered a prominent French priest who advised the Holy See for years on matters of sex and homosexuality to cease his psychotherapy practice following allegations he sexually abused men in his therapeutic care.

Pope Francis will deliver a final send-off for Cardinal George Pell during a funeral Mass on Jan. 14, the Vatican said, as revelations emerge of the Australian prelate's growing concern about what he considered the "disaster" and "catastrophe" of the papacy under Francis.

Australian Cardinal George Pell, who was the most senior Catholic cleric to be convicted of child sex abuse before his convictions were overturned, died Tuesday in Rome. 

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, who came to power on a campaign motto of “God, Family, Fatherland” made her first official visit to see Pope Francis on Jan. 10, fulfilling what she said was a hoped-for opportunity to better understand the Argentine pontiff.

Pope Francis on Jan. 9 broke his silence on the nationwide protests convulsing Iran, denouncing the recourse to the death penalty there and seemingly legitimizing the rallies as demonstrations “demanding greater respect for the dignity of women.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary has written a tell-all book that his publisher on Jan. 2 promised would tell the truth about the “blatant calumnies,” “dark maneuvers,” mysteries and scandals that sullied the reputation of a pontiff best known for his historic resignation.

The Vatican has detailed rituals and procedures to follow when a pope dies, but it has not published such rules for a pope emeritus. As a result, official word on December 28 that the health of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had worsened prompted questions about what happens if and when he dies.

Three weeks after news that Jesuit Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik had abused several women, Slovenia's Catholic bishops condemned the actions and voiced solidarity with the victims.

Opposition lawmakers in Italy are seeking a parliamentary commission of inquiry into three cold cases that have consumed the Italian public's imagination for decades, including the 1983 disappearance of a 15-year-old that was highlighted in the Netflix documentary, “Vatican Girl.”

A Vatican-appointed investigator who helped bring to light decades-old allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse against a famous Jesuit priest is calling for the hierarchs who hid his crimes to “humbly ask the world to forgive the scandal.”