Nicole Winfield - Associated Press

Pope Francis is making his first foray into the former Soviet Union with a weekend visit to Armenia, a year after he riled Turkey by declaring the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians genocide and amid fresh tensions with rival Azerbaijan.The Vatican has long cheered the Armenian cause,

The nomination came two days after Francis laid out the legal procedures to oust a bishop for negligence.

Summit participants call human trafficking, forced labor and prostitution a “crime against humanity” that should be prosecuted as such.

When Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, visit migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos this weekend, they'll be doing more than sending a political message about the need to welcome refugees.Christianity's two most

Their presence on Lesbos will be highly symbolic at a time of growing criticism of the EU-Turkey deal.

The society said its legal status in the church wasn’t discussed but that lower-level talks would continue “without haste.”

The new rules call for an administrator to be named for each saintly cause who must “scrupulously respect” the intention of each donation.

The Chiapas visit is aimed at boosting the faith in the least Catholic state in Mexico.

Pope Francis heads into the capital's crime-ridden suburb of Ecatepec on Sunday to see firsthand the reality of the Mexican "periphery," where drug violence, gangland-style executions and kidnappings are daily facts of life.The pontiff is expected to bring a message of hope and solidar

Francis begins his trip praying before the Virgin of Guadalupe shrine. After that he enters uncharted papal territory.