Joshua J. McElwee

Thanks to the personal intervention of Pope Francis, three young children of one Italian gay couple are being brought up in the Catholic faith and even ministering as altar servers.

Pope Francis has changed Catholic Church law to make explicit that laywomen can act as readers and altar servers in liturgical celebrations, effectively removing a previous option for individual bishops to restrict those ministries only to men.

Pope Francis suggested that people have a moral obligation to receive one of the new coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible, revealing in a new interview that he expects to get his own first dose this week. 

Pope Francis says he was left "astonished" by the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, expressing surprise in his first interview since the riot that such a scene could unfold in a country with a long history of practicing democracy.

The Vatican's doctrinal office issued a note Dec. 21 saying it is "morally acceptable" for Catholics to take vaccines against the coronavirus, in what appears an unprecedented effort to convince believers to inoculate themselves to help end the global pandemic.

Pope Francis Dec. 21 urged the bishops and cardinals who lead the Vatican's bureaucracy not to be in conflict with one another, warning that the Catholic Church can become polarized if the prelates appear always at odds. 

Pope Francis urges global governments in his message for 2021's World Day of Peace to shift spending away from military needs in order to help those experiencing poverty and to provide better healthcare to their populations.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher reaffirmed the recent shift away from accepting the global system of nuclear deterrence Dec. 16, telling a webinar that nuclear weapons only give "a false sense of security."

Pope Francis will be featured in a new Netflix documentary series focused on sharing the voices of senior citizens around the world, which is set for release in 2021.

In interviews with NCR, medical practitioners and theologians worried about the prospect of a March papal visit to Iraq exposing local organizers and security officials to the virus, or attracting even small-scale crowds.

The Vatican will begin a campaign to provide its small population of residents and staff members with new coronavirus vaccines "in the first months" of 2021, the head of the city-state's health department said Dec. 11.

Pope Francis on Dec. 8 decreed a special year dedicated to St. Joseph for the global Catholic Church, offering the 1.2 billion members of the faith an opportunity to obtain indulgences as the world continues to undergo the "grave tribulation" of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis will visit Iraq in March 2021, the Vatican said in an unexpected Dec. 7 announcement, restarting papal travel abroad after an unprecedented year-long suspension in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica to create 13 new cardinals, including Washington, D.C. Archbishop Wilton Gregory, Pope Francis cautioned them to prioritize the interests of the people they serve.

Washington, D.C., Archbishop Wilton Gregory expects being able to dialogue with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, only the second Catholic to be elected to the nation's highest office, "in an honest and respectful way."

Pope Francis has strongly defended his record on naming women to positions of authority at the Vatican, saying in a new book that women do not need to be priests to serve as leaders in the global Catholic Church.

Analysis: The report on disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick makes it clear: Pope John Paul II decided to appoint the priest as archbishop of Washington despite repeated warnings from high-level advisers.

The Vatican's report calls into question the decision-making of three popes and reveals a series of institutional failures that led to the repeated promotion of now disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

This timeline tracks the career of disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, ahead of the expected Nov. 10 release of the Vatican's report about how he rose through the ranks of the U.S. hierarchy.

The Vatican's report on the rise of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick will likely contain the names of people who were directly involved in his success and others who were ancillary but influential. NCR has assembled short biographical sketches of some of the more major figures.