Associated Press

Lech Walesa, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership of the Polish anti-communist resistance as the head of the Solidarity trade union, and was later Polish president, had a front row seat during the ceremony.

An Australian jury on Thursday convicted a former Catholic bishop renowned for hosting alcohol-fueled house parties of sexually abusing two young Indigenous men.

"I hope the pope comes to help the poor like me," said María Ruíz Díaz, a 70-year-old retiree.

Pope Leo XIV will meet with survivors of clergy abuse during a four-day trip to France next month that will include a visit to UNESCO headquarters, a meeting with French bishops in Lourdes and an interreligious meeting in the border city of Metz.

A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit Monday from an interfaith group that challenged the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's Religious Liberty Commission, dismissing claims that its overwhelmingly conservative Christian makeup lacked a legally required balance of viewpoints.

Donated Marian icons line the walls inside the Ephesus House. At the center stands a statue of Mary modeled after the one in Turkey, alongside a relic said to be from her veil.

The artistic phenomenon of irony collapsing into sincerity is being interpreted by some as a way for younger generations to grapple with ritual, meaning and authenticity, even as participation in organized religion in the United States has dropped dramatically in recent decades.

For traditionalist Catholics who worship at churches affiliated with the breakaway Society of St. Pius X, Sunday Mass now comes with an extraordinary question.

Pope Leo XIV began a summer vacation on Sunday, capping a whirlwind finale to the first half of 2026 in which he emerged as a powerful global statesman on issues from artificial intelligence to war and flexed decisive papal muscle to govern internal church problems.

St. Agnes in St. Paul is not affiliated with SSPX, but parishioners said they were saddened by the schism and would continue to pray for a united church.

The ultraconservative Catholics insisted they were merely saving souls and were victims of an unjust sanction by the Holy See.

The ultratraditionalist Society of St. Pius X defied Pope Leo XIV by consecrating four bishops without his consent at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. The move incurs an automatic excommunication for the bishops involved.

The San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese has agreed to pay $395 million to settle more than 500 lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by church officials, plaintiffs' attorneys said Monday.

Bishop Robert Barron said in comments in the Oval Office that "no one on this commission wants an established religion, but we all want the free exercise of religion. We sense that being limited in different ways."

 A collection of early public writings by the future Pope Leo XIV will be published this fall for the first time in English.

The Society of St. Pius X, which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass and rejects the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, is planning a highly organized, four-day, livestreamed extravaganza for the consecrations at its Swiss seminary.

Addressing the governing body of the U.N. World Food Program in Rome, Leo pressed governments to cut red tape and tear down obstacles that prevent assistance from reaching those in need.

The Vatican has long opposed multinational mining corporations, especially in Latin America and in favor of the Indigenous peoples, whose lands and livelihoods are often ravaged by mining projects.

The pontiff's day trip marked the midway point of his summer 2026 grand tour of Italy. 

A new report found that about 185,000 children born to unmarried mothers were put up for adoption in England and Wales.