Vatican

Pope Francis twirls a soccer ball he was presented by a member of the Circus of Cuba, during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. (AP/Andrew Medichini)

January 11, 2019, 6:59 am

Vatican Olympics team gets official blessing to compete

Some 60 nuns, priests, Swiss Guards and others form Vatican Athletics under agreement with Italian Olympic Committee, hoping to see Holy See flag flying at Games soon

By AFP

Pope Francis delivers a speech from the balcony of St. Peter's basilica during the traditional "Urbi et Orbi" Christmas message to the city and the world, on December 25, 2018 at St. Peter's square in Vatican. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP)

December 25, 2018, 2:25 pm

In Christmas message, pope hopes Israeli-Palestinian peace talks resume

Francis urges both parties to ‘resume dialogue and undertake a journey of peace’

By AFP

Nuns are silhouetted in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, April 1, 2018. (Andrew Medichini/AP)

December 9, 2018, 7:03 pm

Battle of wills: A tiny order of French nuns takes on the Vatican

Little Sisters of Marie, Mother of the Redeemer, threaten to renounce vows if superior is removed by Rome, where officials say she is too authoritarian

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis (R) speaks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of a private audience at the Vatican, on December 3, 2018. (Photo by Andrew Medichini / POOL / AFP)

December 4, 2018, 1:15 am

Pope renews call for two-state solution after meeting with Abbas

In statement, Vatican expresses concern over status of Jerusalem; ‘We are counting on you,’ Palestinian leader tells Francis

By TOI staff and Agencies

Pope Francis celebrates a mass in St. Peter basilica at the Vatican, November 18, 2018. (Andrew Medichini/AP)

November 23, 2018, 12:17 am

Vatican and Israeli Chief Rabbinate preparing joint statement against euthanasia

Representatives gather for 16th Bilateral Commission to discuss matters of human dignity ‘with special reference to the child’ in Jewish and Catholic teaching

By JTA

President Reuven Rivlin, left, and Pope Francis meet at the Vatican, November 15, 2018. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

November 15, 2018, 5:44 pm

In Rome, Rivlin tells pope Israel won’t ‘stand by’ in face of Hamas attacks

President thanks pontiff for his ‘absolute condemnation’ of anti-Semitism, touts Israeli commitment to ensuring religious freedom

By TOI staff

Pope Francis at the weekly general audience on November 7, 2018 at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP)

November 13, 2018, 7:00 pm

Pope plans Morocco trip in March to strengthen Christian-Muslim ties

Francis sees interfaith work as key to his legacy; visited Turkey in 2014, Azerbaijan in 2016, and Egypt in 2017

By Ella Ide

Pope Francis delivers his speech during a Mass for the closing of the synod of bishops in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Oct. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

November 6, 2018, 5:21 pm

Pope Francis: A Christian cannot be an anti-Semite

In aftermath of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left 11 dead, Holy See tells visiting Jews that anti-Semitism contradicts Catholic faith

By JTA

A worker is pictured inside the Apostolic Nunciature to Italy in Rome on October 31, 2018. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)

October 31, 2018, 7:50 pm

Missing girl’s family demands Vatican reveal truth on discovered bones

Holy See says human remains, possibly belonging to Italian teen, found on property left to it by Jewish fascist who later became Catholic

By Ella Ide

In this Sept. 23, 2015 file photo, Pope Francis reaches out to hug Cardinal Archbishop emeritus Theodore McCarrick after the Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File)

July 28, 2018, 4:01 pm

Pope accepts resignation of top US cardinal caught in sexual abuse scandal

Francis orders Theodore McCarrick to conduct ‘life of prayer and penance’ after he’s accused of molesting boys and adult seminarians

By Frances D'Emilio

In this May 25, 2006 photo, Pope Benedict XVI visits the tomb of Polish Cardinal August Hlond in Warsaw's St. John Cathedral. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)

May 24, 2018, 3:59 pm

Jewish group questions sainthood for WWII-era cardinal

American Jewish Committee tells Vatican that August Hlond was ‘extremely’ hostile to Jews and failed to condemn 1946 pogrom

By AP and TOI staff

Pope Paul VI, circa 1963 (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

May 21, 2018, 9:42 pm

Vatican announces sainthood for Pope Paul VI in October

First pontiff to visit Israel and begin dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Jewish world to be canonized

By JTA

Pope Francis leads a Pentecost mass, on May 20, 2018 at St. Peter's basilica in Vatican. (AFP/Vincenzo Pinto)

May 20, 2018, 6:36 pm

Pope says ‘dialogue and reconciliation’ needed after deadly week in Gaza

At Sunday mass, pontiff notes ‘heartrending’ situation in Palestinian enclave after 64 reported killed in border clashes

By TOI staff and AP

Pope Francis blesses the crowd at the end of a weekly general audience at St. Peter's square on May 16, 2018, in Vatican. (AFP PHOTO / Andreas SOLARO)

May 16, 2018, 3:15 pm

Pope ‘very worried’ by Gaza violence

‘War incites war, violence incites violence,’ pontiff says after 60 Palestinians killed in border clashes with IDF

By AFP and TOI staff

This picture kept in the Archivio Storico San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome and taken on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 shows an undated photo of Father Pio Maria Mortara, third from left, with some of his brothers. It’s an incident that has stained the Vatican for 160 years: a 6-year-old Jewish boy taken from his family by papal police and brought to Rome to be raised Catholic after church authorities learned his housekeeper had secretly had him baptized. Now the case has reared its head again, with new evidence that memoirs the boy wrote as an adult were altered to take the edge off his anti-Semitic views and enhance details favorable to the Catholic Church. (AP Photo)

April 20, 2018, 7:31 pm

Memoir of secretly baptized Jewish boy kidnapped by Vatican under fresh scrutiny

New evidence in 160-year-old affair shows that Edgardo Mortara’s memoir was altered to take the edge off his anti-Semitic views and enhance details favorable to the Catholic Church

By Nicole Winfield