Derek Gatopoulos

Pope Leo XIV prayed Friday for a peaceful end to the "increasingly deafening violence" of wars around the world as he celebrated a Catholic feast day on the same day as a high-stakes U.S.-Russia summit over the war in Ukraine.

Servicemen, veterans and others gathered Thursday in Kyiv to remember the adopted son of Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, who was killed in battle, in a funeral service underlining unity among Ukraine's diverse communities in the fight against Russia's invasion.

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.