There is much speculation about how Pope Francis and Giorgia Meloni, the future prime minister of Italy, will relate to each other. Their positions on the migrant question appear to be diametrically opposed.

Just below those top-line figures on religious affiliation, significant changes in national identity also become clear—29 percent of the Northern Irish population now see themselves exclusively as Irish. This is just three points behind the 32 percent who consider themselves British.

The president of the German bishops' conference demanded an apology from a cardinal who seemed to compare the German Synodal Path with a Nazi ideology.

For the first time in the nation’s history, a woman, Giorgia Meloni, 45, could become prime minister. She would lead Italy’s 70th government since 1946.

Belgian bishops have created a prayer liturgy for same-sex couples, which cites Pope Francis' "The Joy of Love," and states that same-sex relationships can be a source of joy.

When Mikhail Gorbachev, who died on Aug. 30, first met with Pope John Paul in December 1989, less than a month after the Berlin Wall’s collapse, the two leaders “understood each other immediately.”