Nicole Winfield

Pope acknowledges he got caught at record store

ROME – Pope Francis has long lamented that he can’t walk around town unnoticed like he used to before becoming pope. But he seems to have nevertheless kept his sense of humor after he was ca...

Venice reclaims spotlight as first COVID-19-era film fest opens

VENICE – Venice is reclaiming its place as a top cultural destination with the opening of the Venice Film Festival – the first major in-person cinema showcase of the coronavirus era after Ca...

Pope arrives in Thailand to encourage Catholic minority

BANGKOK – Pope Francis arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday to begin a tour of Thailand and Japan, beginning a mission to boost the morale of those countries’ tiny minority Catholic communities a...

Pope declares Vatican’s Secret Archive not so secret anymore

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has declared that the Vatican Secret Archive isn’t so secret after all. Francis on Monday officially changed the name of the Holy See archive to remove...

Pope canonizes John Henry Newman, 19th-century theologian

VATICAN CITY – With Prince Charles looking on, Pope Francis on Sunday canonized Cardinal John Henry Newman, praising the 19th-century Anglican convert who became an influential, unifying fig...

Pope urges compassion in elevating 13 likeminded cardinals

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has added 13 new cardinals to the top of the Catholic hierarchy, telling them they must show God’s compassion to those who suffer to be faithful to their ministry...

Pope seeks ‘courageous’ debate over Amazon priest shortage

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis urged South American bishops on Monday to speak “courageously” at a high-profile meeting on the Amazon, where the shortage of priests is so acute that the Vatican...

Vatican mystery over missing girl deepens as bones are found

VATICAN CITY – The mystery of the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee took yet another twist Saturday after excavations last week at a Vatican City cemetery....

American cardinal severs ties with Bannon-linked group

VATICAN CITY – A conservative American cardinal distanced himself Tuesday from former White House adviser Steve Bannon and severed ties with a Bannon-linked institute that wants to train fut...

Analysis: Pope’s sex abuse summit: What it did and didn’t do

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis’ summit on preventing sexual abuse was never going to meet the expectations placed on it by victims groups, the media and ordinary Catholics outraged over a scand...

A global look at the Catholic Church’s sex abuse problem

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis’ high-stakes sex abuse prevention summit is meant to call attention to the crisis as a global problem that requires a global response. His decision was...

Sex abuse survivors to meet with Vatican summit organizers

VATICAN CITY – The organizers of Pope Francis’ summit on preventing clergy sex abuse will meet this week with a dozen abuse victims who have descended on Rome to protest the Catholic Church’...