The Associated Press

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.

More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years, according to a state report released April 5 that accused church officials of decades of cover-ups.

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.

Posters calling on Pope Francis to stop his crackdown on the old Latin Mass were plastered around the Vatican on March 28, in the latest display of conservative opposition to the pontiff.

On Sunday, around 250 residents brought back the faded practice of a special Mass and procession to pray to Our Lady of the Torrents, a local virgin associated with rainfall.

Pope Francis on March 25 accepted a resignation request from a German bishop who asked to step down because of his mistakes in handling sexual abuse cases.

Apache Stronghold sued the U.S. government under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to protect the place tribal members call Chi’chil Bildagoteel, an area dotted with ancient oak groves and traditional plants the Apaches consider essential to their religion. Some say it's the most important Native American religious liberty case in 15 years.

The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is taking action to address the realities of a rapidly approaching, drier future by donating water rights to the Great Salt Lake, replacing grass with rocks and water-wise landscaping around neatly manicured churches and reducing water use by more than one-third outside the headquarters in Salt Lake City's Temple Square.

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.

Dozens of bison from a mountain park outside Denver were transferred Wednesday to several tribes from across the Great Plains, in the latest example of Native Americans reclaiming stewardship over animals their ancestors lived alongside for millennia.

The Albany Diocese has declared bankruptcy, becoming the fifth of eight New York state dioceses to declare bankruptcy as they face lawsuits alleging clergy sexual abuse.

Spain’s ombudsman said March 13 that an independent commission set up a year ago to investigate historic sex abuse by the Catholic church has collected testimonies from 445 victims, as the nation tackles an issue other European countries acted on long ago.

Germany’s Catholic bishops and lay representatives gathered on March 9 for the final meeting of a potentially groundbreaking reform assembly that has been marked by tensions between liberalizers and conservatives and is drawing increasingly open opposition from the Vatican.

Like other victims of child abuse by priests, 52-year-old Stéphane said getting an official recognition from France’s Catholic Church of what happened is helping him get better, at last.

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.

Poland’s prime minister on March 8 stepped in to defend the good name of St. John Paul II, a "great fellow-countryman," following claims that he knew of sex abuse of minors by priests under his authority while archbishop in Poland and sought to conceal it.

Pope St. John Paul II knew about sexual abuse of children by priests under his authority and sought to conceal it when he was an archbishop in his native Poland, according to a television news report.

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.