Pope Francis

Pope Francis arrived in Corsica, a stronghold of the Catholic faith, on Sunday, with locals hotly anticipating the first-ever trip by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, part of a whirlwind tour of European capitals aimed at drumming up support from allies ahead of a tough winter.

Pope Francis said on Sept. 27 that the Catholic Church must "seek forgiveness" over the "scourge" of child sexual abuse, during a visit to Belgium where the Church's dark past looms large.

In a speech before political and civil society leaders that opened his three-day visit to the country, Francis denounced the "tragic instances of child abuse" as a stain on the Church's legacy.

Pope Francis appealed Wednesday for religious unity to counter extremism and intolerance, as the longest tour of the 87-year-old's papacy got into full swing in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

On the first full day of his four-nation trip to the Asia-Pacific, the pontiff zeroed in on the role all faiths can play on flashpoint security issues.

Pope Francis' surprise decision to canonise the first millennial was greeted with very warm comments from the faithful

"This requires awareness, a great deal of reason, and the concerted efforts of the international community to seek peaceful solutions based on international law. I expressed a position similar to His Holiness, emphasizing that it is time for reason to prevail. We must prioritize diplomacy because we've seen that peace cannot be achieved through economic and military means alone.

The Vatican has undergone a notable shift in its approach towards the ongoing war in Ukraine, signaling a firmer stance against Russia's aggression.

Ukraine on Sunday angrily rejected Pope Francis's call to negotiate with Russia two years into its invasion, vowing "never" to surrender after the pontiff said Kiev should "have the courage to raise the white flag".

Pope Francis has called on Ukraine to embrace negotiations with Russia to end the devastating war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives over the past two years.

A Vatican court convicted two environmental activists of aggravated damage on June 10 and ordered them to pay more than 28,000 euros in restitution after they glued their hands to the base of an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums in a protest to draw attention to climate change.