Monday, Oct. 7, 2013 | 9:08 p.m.

Subscribe | Today's paper | Customer care

Hi, (not you?) | Member Center | Sign Out

Pope Francis Headlines

A list of the most recent stories about Pope Francis.

25 items

Results 1 - 20 of 25next >

Pope replaces Dominican ambassador amid sex probe

Pope Francis has named a new ambassador to the Dominican Republic after the previous one was forcibly removed amid a sex abuse investigation. The nomination Monday of a replacement for Archbishop Josef Wesolowski signaled that the Vatican's investigation into his actions warranted permanent removal as envoy to the Caribbean country. ...

Rescuers lift a body as they reach the port of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. At least 114 people died and scores more were missing late Thursday after a crowded fishing boat carrying African migrants from Tripoli caught fire, flipped over and sank, Italian officials said. Between 450 and 500 people were believed to be on board; health commissioner Antonio Candela said only 159 were rescued. (AP Photo/Danilo Taralli)

Fisherman: migrants too weak to grab lifesaver

The friends were heading out on a fishing trip, when one heard voices from the sea. Don't be silly, Vito Fiorino told him — it's only the seagulls' early morning song. Then, about 500 yards (meters) from shore, he saw heads bobbing in the water. Dozens of Africans were floating, ...

Tourists and pilgrims take pictures of a poster announcing Pope Francis' visit outside the St. Francis Basilica, in Assisi, Italy, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. The pontiff is scheduled to visit Assisi, the birthplace of the Italian saint who inspired his name on Friday. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope trip to St. Francis' town highlights goals

Pope Francis broke bread with the poor and embraced the disabled on a pilgrimage to his namesake's hometown Friday, urging the faithful to follow the example of the 13th-century St. Francis, who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and service to the poor. According to ...

An Italian Coast Guard boat carry rescued migrants as they arrive in the port of Lampedusa Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. A ship carrying African migrants to Europe caught fire and capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, killing at least 94 people as it spilled hundreds of passengers into the sea, officials said. Over 150 people were rescued but some 200 others were still unaccounted for.It was one of the deadliest recent accidents in the notoriously perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Africa for migrants seeking a new life in the European Union. (AP Photo/Nino Randazzo, Health Care Service, HO)

Ship capsizes off Italy; 114 African migrants die

The rickety fishing boat was the third of the night to head toward the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, overloaded with African migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Most never reached shore. After the boat started taking on water, someone on board set a fire to get the attention ...

10 Things to Know for Wednesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday: 1. DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS TRADE BLAME FOR SHUTDOWN The accusations fly as the government grinds to a halt, and House bills aimed for at least a partial reopening fail. 2. WHERE THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ...

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2013 file photo, Pope Francis waves to faithful as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Pope Francis convenes his parallel cabinet on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, for a first round of talks on reforming the Catholic Church, bringing eight cardinals from around the globe together in a novel initiative to get local church leaders involved in helping make decisions for the 1.2-billion strong universal Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)

Pope urges reform, wants church with modern spirit

Pope Francis says he doesn't want a "Vatican-centric" church concerned about itself but a missionary church that reaches out to the poor, the young, the elderly and even to non-believers. That's the vision he laid out as he opened a landmark meeting Tuesday on reforming the 2,000-year-old institution. Francis convened ...

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010, file photo, Italian financial police officers talk to each other in front of St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. It comes as Italian prosecutors investigate alleged money-laundering there, a Vatican monsignor remains in detention and the pope himself probes the problems that have brought such scandal to the institution. (AP Photo/Angelo Carconi, File)

Secretive Vatican bank takes step to transparency

The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday. It comes as Italian prosecutors investigate alleged money-laundering there, a Vatican monsignor remains in detention and the pope himself probes the problems that have brought ...

AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EDT

Long-running feud over Obama health care law plunges nation into government shutdown WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress plunged the nation into a partial government shutdown Tuesday as a long-running dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law stalled a temporary funding bill, forcing about 800,000 federal workers off the job and ...

FILE - In this file photo taken on April 23 1997, Pope John Paul II waves to faithful as he crosses St. Peter's square at the Vatican. Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be declared saints on April 27, 2014. Pope Francis announced the date Monday, Sept 30, 2013, during a meeting with cardinals inside the Apostolic Palace. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Vatican: Benedict XVI may attend pope canonization

Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be declared saints on April 27 at a ceremony that might see two living popes honoring two dead ones. The Vatican on Monday said retired Pope Benedict XVI might join Pope Francis in the saint-making ceremony for their predecessors, noting that there ...

In this Saturday, March 23, 2013 photo provided by the Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis, left, meets Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo Saturday, March 23, 2013. Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has emerged from his self-imposed silence inside the Vatican to publish a lengthy letter to one of Italy's most well-known atheists. In it, he defends his record on handling sexually abusive priests and discusses everything from evolution to theology to the figure of Jesus Christ. Excerpts of the letter were published Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013 by La Repubblica, the same newspaper which just two weeks ago published a similar letter from Pope Francis to its own atheist publisher. The letters indicate the two men in white, who live across the Vatican gardens from one another, are pursuing a collaborative campaign of sorts to engage non-believers. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, Files)

Benedict defends abuse record in letter to atheist

Seven months after leaving the papacy, emeritus Pope Benedict XVI broke his self-imposed silence Tuesday by releasing a letter to one of Italy's best-known atheists in which he denied covering up for sexually abusive priests and defended Christianity to non-believers. It was the first work published by Benedict since he ...

Pope names future Newark archbishop

The pope has named a new bishop to help out and eventually take over for the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, who is under fire for his handling of a sexually abusive priest. Bishop Bernard Hebda, currently of Gaylord, Michigan, was named coadjutor bishop Tuesday for Archbishop John Myers, who ...

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - A Pakistani man carries the lifeless body of a girl from the site of a suicide attack at a church in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013. A suicide bomb attack on a historic church in northwestern Pakistan killed scores of people on Sunday, officials said, in one of the worst assaults on the country’s Christian minority in years. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)

Suicide attack on Pakistani church kills 78 people

A pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up amid hundreds of worshippers at a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 78 people in the deadliest-ever attack against the country's Christian minority. A wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, raising new questions about the government's ...

CORRECTS MONTH- Filipino Catholics pray during a mass at the Our Lady of Remedies Parish Church in Manila, Philippines Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013. Catholics around the globe are expressing mixed but mostly positive reactions to Pope Francis' recent remarks that the church has become too focused on "small minded rules" on hot-button issues like homosexuality and abortion. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Catholics cheer pope's remarks on gays, abortion

Catholics attending Sunday services around the globe said they were heartened by Pope Francis' recent remarks that the church has become too focused on "small-minded rules" on hot-button issues like homosexuality, abortion and contraceptives. Worshippers applauded what they heard as a message of inclusion from the man who assumed the ...

Workers give the last touches to the stage in front of the Santuario della Madonna di Bonaria, in Cagliari, Italy, Saturday Sept. 21, 2013, where Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass on Sunday, Sept. 22. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope offers hope to Sardinia's poor, unemployed

Pope Francis denounced what he called big business's idolatry of money as he traveled Sunday to one of Italy's poorest regions to offer hope to the unemployed and entrepreneurs struggling to hang on. "Where there is no work, there is no dignity," he said. Francis left aside his prepared remarks ...

Official: Peru bishop removed amid abuse charges

Pope Francis has removed a Roman Catholic bishop in Peru who an influential former prelate says is suspected of sexually abusing minors. Gabino Miranda, 53, was removed as part of the new pope's "zero tolerance" policy against abuse, the Rev. Luis Bambaren, the retired former Peruvian bishops' conference chief, told ...

FILE - In this March 15, 2013 photo made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis is greeted by Cardinal Timothy Dolan as he meets the Cardinals for the first time after his election at the Vatican. In an interview published Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013 in 16 Jesuit journals worldwide, Pope Francis called the church’s focus on abortion, marriage and contraception narrow and said it was driving people away. Now, the U.S. bishops face a challenge to rethink a strategy many considered essential for preserving the faith. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he thought the pope was telling everyone - inside and outside the church - to focus less on divisive social issues. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Pope's blunt remarks pose challenge for bishops

In recent years, many American bishops have drawn a harder line with parishioners on what could be considered truly Roman Catholic, adopting a more aggressive style of correction and telling abortion rights supporters to stay away from the sacrament of Communion. Liberal-minded Catholics derided the approach as tone-deaf. Church leaders ...

FILE - In this Nov. 21, 2010 file photo, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza walks past Pope Benedict XVI after receiving Cardinal's ring during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led the Vatican's department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church's crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response. Francis removed Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, with a reputation for being highly traditional on matters of liturgy and the question of priestly celibacy, from the important post of prefect of the congregation for clergy. Piacenza had only held that post since 2010, when he was appointed by Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, whose retro tastes in papal vestments and preference for traditional ceremonies found a supporter in the Italian prelate. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, Files)

Pope keeps cleric who leads nun crackdown in job

Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led the Vatican's department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church's crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response. After six months on the job to study the ...

Pope Francis meets Hungary's President Janos Ader, during a private audience at the Vatican, Friday, Sept. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Claudio Peri, Pool)

Pope blasts abortion after decrying focus on rules

Pope Francis offered an olive branch of sorts to the doctrine-minded, conservative wing of the Catholic Church on Friday as he denounced abortions as a symptom of today's "throw-away culture" and encouraged Catholic doctors to refuse to perform them. Francis issued a strong anti-abortion message and cited Vatican teaching on ...

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis is shown a dog by a member of the Federazione Italiana Sport Cinofili (Italian Federation of Canine' Sports), following his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Pope criticizes church emphasis on abortion, gays

Signaling a dramatic shift in Vatican tone, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church had become obsessed by "small-minded rules" about how to be faithful and that pastors should instead emphasize compassion over condemnation when discussing divisive social issues of abortion, gays and contraception. The pope's remarkably blunt message six months ...

Pope Francis reflects on priorities, influences

Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, reflected on his style, influences and priorities as pope in an interview with La Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit journal in Rome, which published the remarks Thursday. Here are some highlights: ___ ON FINDING GOD IN EVERYONE —"God is in everyone's life. Even if the ...

25 items

Results 1 - 20 of 25next >