Pope Francis, on his first visit to Corsica, praised the island people's deep faith and tradition of popular piety. On December 5, thousands of Corsicans gathered in Ajaccio to welcome the first pope ever to visit the island.

Pope Francis’ visit to Corsica will be his third visit to France, though he has yet to visit Paris.

Pope Francis offered a heartfelt appeal for death row prisoners in the United States, which significantly comes as Joe Biden, the second Catholic president in the country’s history, nears the end of his term.

When Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi receives the red hat and cardinal’s ring from Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 7, he will be the seventh Japanese cardinal in the history of the Catholic Church.

“In Hong Kong, we have our wounds that we need to heal,” Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J., the bishop of Hong Kong, told America’s Vatican correspondent in this exclusive interview.

“The Roman Curia can no longer say, ‘The law is set here, and it is to be obeyed out there,’” Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta told America’s Vatican correspondent in this exclusive interview.