Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis on March 13, 2013. He is the first Latin American pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first non-European pope in more than a millennium. Find reporting and commentary on Pope Francis here, along with continuing coverage at the Vatican in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation in February 2013.
(RNS) Is Pope Francis endorsing heresy? It might look that way from headlines that made it seem as though the pontiff had said that everyone – even atheists! – were destined for heaven. What he actually said was boilerplate Catholic doctrine.
Redemption for all: Stephen Colbert professes his faith to a stapler after Pope Francis disappoints him.
(RNS) When Pope Francis said believers and atheists can agree on the goal of doing good, and that even atheists were part of Christ’s redemption, atheist leaders say this is the kind of pope they can work with.
(RNS) In remarks that may prompt a theological debate about the nature of salvation, Pope Francis declared that God “has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone!”
(RNS) The Vatican on Wednesday said that Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned in February amid reports that he had made sexual advances to a number of priests, will do penance in an undisclosed location outside of his country.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) While the number of Catholic priests in the Americas and in Europe is declining compared to the overall Catholic population, those losses were offset by increasing ranks of permanent deacons.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Friday (May 10) met with Pope Tawadros II, head of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, an encounter that brought the number of popes residing within the Vatican walls to three this week. It also put a spotlight on the suffering of Christians in Egypt.
(RNS) Even as an annual review this week gave Catholic bishops high marks on sex abuse prevention policies, officials with the church’s oversight agencies expressed serious concerns about “recent high-profile failings” in several dioceses.
VATICAN CITY (RNS) With one of the more colorful unscripted expressions that have become a hallmark of his young pontificate, Pope Francis reminded nuns that they should be “fertile” spiritual mothers, not “‘spinsters.”
VATICAN CITY (RNS) When the Vatican’s doctrinal office informed the office that oversees religious orders about a probe of American nuns, the cardinal who heads the office was told the investigation was already completed.
