Associated Press

Pope Francis on Thursday defrocked a notorious Belgian bishop who admitted 14 years ago that he sexually abused his nephew but faced no Vatican punishment.

Several prominent lawyers have published stinging academic critiques and legal opinions about the Vatican’s recently concluded "trial of the century," highlighting violations of basic defense rights and rule of law norms that they warn could have consequences for the Holy See going forward.

"Cachita" is etched in tattoos, street murals, cartoons and other artwork on the island. She is revered in makeshift home altars, songs — and at her shrine some 500 miles (805 kilometers) east of Havana.

Exemptions that allow religious organizations to avoid paying Wisconsin's unemployment tax don't apply to a Catholic charitable organization because its on-the-ground operations aren't primarily religious, a divided state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Pope Francis says he has no plans to resign and isn’t suffering from any health problems that would require doing so, saying in a new memoir he still has “many projects to bring to fruition.”

The Vatican secretary of state is seeking to defuse outrage over Pope Francis' latest diplomatic foray, insisting in media interviews that a primary condition for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine is an end to Russia’s aggression and that any peace must be a “just peace.”

Ukrainian and allied officials Sunday criticized Pope Francis for saying that Kyiv should have the “courage” to negotiate an end to the war with Russia, a statement many interpreted as a call for Ukraine to surrender.

Pope Francis met with his Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is expected to soon release the first-ever audit of safeguarding procedures and policies church-wide.

The city of Baltimore has agreed to pay $275,000 toward the legal fees of a far-right Catholic media group to settle a lawsuit over the city's unsuccessful attempt to block a rally in 2021.

Pope Francis again asked an aide to read his remarks and was unable to get back onto his popemobile Wednesday, as lingering respiratory and mobility problems continued to take their toll on the 87-year-old pontiff.

The Church of England should create a fund of 1 billion pounds ($1.27 billion) to address its historic links to slavery, an advisory panel said Monday. That's 10 times the amount the church previously set aside.

An Apache group that has fought to protect land it considers sacred from a copper mining project in central Arizona suffered a significant blow March 1 when a divided federal court panel voted 6-5 to uphold a lower court's denial of a preliminary injunction to halt the transfer of land for the project.

A Spanish bishop rebuked comments made by some priests on a weekly internet program about praying for Pope Francis to die as soon as possible. The priests later apologized.

At least 15 Catholic worshippers were killed in a Burkina Faso village on Sunday when gunmen attacked a community as they gathered for prayers in the country's conflict-hit northern region, church officials said.

When the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are considered children under state law, Chief Justice Tom Parker cited verses from the Bible and Christian theologians in his concurring opinion. 

Former President Donald Trump promised to use a second term in the White House to defend Christian values and even suggested he'd shield the faith's central iconography, warning a convention of religious broadcasters on Thursday night that the left wants "to tear down crosses."

One of the first women who accused a once-exalted Jesuit artist of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse went public Feb. 21 to demand transparency from the Vatican and a full accounting of the hierarchs who covered for him for 30 years.

A retired Catholic bishop has been charged with sexual offenses including child abuse in a remote part of Australia's northwest.

Five years ago this week, Pope Francis convened an unprecedented summit of bishops from around the world to impress on them that clergy sexual abuse was a global problem and that they needed to do something about it.