The pope's arrival in Indonesia launches an 11-day voyage zigzagging across time zones that will also take him to Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006, has long been called the "patron saint of the internet." After many years, two miracles and Vatican approval, he's officially set to be canonized, likely in 2025.

With the U.S., Great Britain and France facing elections in coming months and a rightward shift in European parliamentary elections, there is pressure for leaders to act while the status quo lasts.

G7 leaders are meeting in Italy, where Pope Francis will join them to talk about the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Although the Catholic Church officially opposes abortion, the report says there's far greater diversity of opinion among laity in the U.S.

Pope Francis overcame concerns about his health to preside over Easter Sunday Mass, leading tens of thousands of people in a flower-decked St. Peter's Square.

Now that Pope Francis has OK'd priests blessing same-sex couples, LGBTQ+ Catholics are figuring out how to ask for these blessings and whether they want them.

The pontiff called surrogacy "deplorable." But one U.S. surrogate said the practice helps those who are unable to have children start a family.

In his Christmas Mass address Sunday, he said the word of God is being drowned out by the violence in Gaza. Pope Francis has called for a ceasefire multiple times since the war started on Oct. 7.

Francis' planned Saturday address would have been the first time a pope had addressed a U.N. climate conference, which is taking place in Dubai.

The Pontifex has long used his platform to advocate for climate change awareness. Now he's attending one of the biggest conferences seeking to address it.

"The pope is well. He's better than before,'' said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the surgeon who performed the 86-year-old pontiff's operation on June 7.

The pope underwent "a laparotomy and abdominal wall surgery under general anesthesia" on Wednesday, the Holy See's official news portal says. The pope had complained of abdominal pain on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president held talks in Rome, where he received pledges of both open-ended military and financial support as well as stronger backing for Ukraine's aim to join the European Union.

Catholic women's groups that have long criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the 2,000-year life of the church.