VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is confirming Pope Francis will travel to Panama in January for the Catholic Church's big youth rally, and says he'll also spend time there with juvenile delinquents and people suffering from AIDS.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is hosting an unprecedented exhibition of Russian fine art, bringing treasures from Moscow's famed Tretyakov Gallery to Rome following a sold-out exhibit of Vatican works at the state museum two years ago.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The communications minister of Cyprus says a rare 6th-century portrait mosaic of St. Mark which was looted from an Orthodox Christian church more than four decades ago has returned intact to the Mediterranean island nation.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Championing the cause of the poor, Pope Francis on Sunday lamented that "the wealthy few" enjoy what, "in justice, belongs to all" and said Christians cannot remain indifferent to the growing cries of the exploited and the indigent, including migrants.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has prayed for victims of California's wildfires and freezing weather on the U.S. East Coast.

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) – A self-described white nationalist with a social media connection to the suspect in last month’s Pittsburgh synagogue massacre faces gun-related charges after his relatives reported concerns about his behavior and violent rhetoric to the FBI, according to court records.

BEIJING (AP) — A bishop who has resisted demands to join China's Communist Party-controlled church body has been taken into custody, a Catholic news service reported, despite recent moves by Beijing and the Holy See toward reconciliation.

ROME (AP) — Italy's Catholic Church says it will open talks with the government to respond to a European Court of Justice ruling that says Italy has the right to recover millions of euros in property taxes.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italy's Catholic bishops are declaring a new era of transparency and truth about clergy sex abuse, as awareness of the scandal that has convulsed much of the Catholic world begins to take hold in a country where it was long ignored.

ROME (AP) — An Italian Catholic priest who considers Pope Francis an antipope and claims to have supernatural communications with angels, saints and the Madonna has been excommunicated.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is denouncing gossip as a form of "terrorism" and is warning the faithful against telling lies.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is giving a prominent new role to the Vatican's most trusted sex crimes investigator as he seeks to improve the Holy See's response to abuse at a time when the church and papacy are facing a credibility crisis.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is going to Morocco in March in what is expected to be a heavy year of foreign travel for the 81-year-old pontiff.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has decreed that an American religious brother, James Miller, was killed out of hatred for the Catholic faith during Guatemala's civil war and can be beatified.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is denouncing the way some governments seek to discredit their critics through "whisper" campaigns, using the media to defame anyone who represents a threat.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — More bones were found on the grounds of the Vatican embassy in Italy, adding grisly new evidence to the growing mystery over who was buried on Holy See territory and why.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis is urging efforts to ensure that anti-Semitism is "banned from the human community."

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has decried the attack on pilgrims in Egypt, saying they were killed "for being Christians."

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican said Tuesday that human bones were found during renovation work near its embassy to Italy, reviving talk about one of the Holy See's most enduring mysteries — the fate of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee who disappeared in 1983.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A monthlong meeting of Catholic bishops marked by demands for women's rights wrapped up Saturday with delegates saying a place for women at the church's decision-making table was a "duty of justice" and that the church as a whole must recognize the urgency of "inescapable…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis wrapped up a monthlong meeting of bishops dedicated to young people by saying Saturday the Catholic Church was being "persecuted" and "dirtied" by accusations from the devil — an apparent reference to claims that he covered up for a sexual predator that have …

NEW DELHI (AP) — Protesters on Saturday set fire to a Hindu religious center in southern India for supporting a Supreme Court decision allowing women of menstruating age at one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites.

NEW YORK (AP) — The umbrella organization of Catholic religious orders in the U.S. is suggesting that its members consider voluntarily identifying priests accused of sexual abuse, opening up what could be a major new chapter in the Catholic Church's long-running abuse and cover-up saga, The …

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has forcibly removed the bishop of Memphis, Tennessee, Monsignor Martin Holley, following a Vatican investigation into the diocese.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — As the Vatican copes with the growing clergy sex abuse scandal and declining number of priests worldwide, it is laying the groundwork to open formal debate on an issue that has long been taboo: opening up the priesthood to married men in parts of the world where clergy ar…

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NEW WILMINGTON – Motivational speaker, former NFL player, and sports trainer Anthony Griggs will speak during the 2018 Spiritual Emphasis Westminster (SEW) speaker series at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Wallace Memorial Chapel on Westminster’s campus.

GREENVILLE – Thiel College Adjunct Professor of Religion and Campus Pastor Jayne M. Thompson is celebrating 35 years of ordained ministry, 25 years of campus pastoral work and five years of teaching and service to Thiel College.

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THERE was a concert pianist in the last century who longed to play in the great concert hall in Vienna.

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MINNEAPOLIS – Pope Francis’ decree that the death penalty is “inadmissible” in all cases could pose a dilemma for Roman Catholic politicians and judges in the United States who are faced with whether to strictly follow the tenets of their faith or the rule of law.