Frances D'Emilio

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 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.

Pope Francis met with European rabbis on Nov. 6 and decried antisemitism, war and terrorism in a written speech he declined to read, saying he wasn't feeling well.

Pope Francis is pressing Catholic theologians to be more in tune with the challenges of ordinary people and urging them to dialogue with non-believers as well as believers of various religions.

Amid the latest bloodshed in the Middle East, Pope Francis led special Oct. 27 evening prayers in St. Peter's Basilica for a world "in a dark hour" and in "great danger" from what he described as the folly of war.

Pope Francis will make a two-day trip to Marseille, France, in late September, adding to a flurry of trips the 86-year-old pontiff will soon be making only weeks after leaving hospital following abdominal surgery.

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.

Pope Francis was discharged from the Rome hospital where he had abdominal surgery nine days earlier to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring, with his surgeon saying the pontiff is now "better than before" the hospitalization.

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 on April 16 publicly defended his predecessor Pope John Paul II, condemning as "offensive and baseless" insinuations that recently surfaced about the late pontiff.

Pope Francis urged world leaders April 12 to use reason and not arms to resolve differences, evoking memories of the 1960s Cold War between Washington and Moscow.

Bundled in a long, white coat and battling a hoarse voice, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of faithful on Palm Sunday, a day after he left a Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis.

A written account of the history-making papacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be placed alongside his body in his coffin for burial, the Vatican said Jan. 3 in revealing plans for the first funeral of a pontiff to resign in six centuries.

Within minutes of the announcement of the death of Pope Benedict, Words of praise and fond remembrance were offered by world leaders and religious figures, including the archbishop of Canterbury and Jewish advocates.

On September 4, Pope Francis will beatify John Paul I, the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Pope Francis voiced worry on August 21 about the situation in Nicaragua, where police detained several Roman Catholic clergy, including a bishop, critical of President Daniel Ortega’s administration.

Pope Francis on July 17 asked for prayers to accompany him on what he called his "penitential" pilgrimage to Canada to apologize to Indigenous groups for abuses inflicted by the Catholic church.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a once-powerful Italian prelate who long served as the Vatican's No. 2 official but whose legacy was tarnished by his support for Fr. Marcial Maciel, the serial sexual abuser and founder of the Legion of Christ, has died. He was 94.

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed his spiritual closeness to Catholics in China, voicing hope that the church there operates in "freedom and tranquility,'' but making no mention of a 90-year-old cardinal who was recently arrested in Hong Kong.