Pope Francis

The Vatican's annual Palm Sunday service was closed to the public due to social gathering restrictions in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The head of the Catholic Church said people should use difficult times to make kind gestures to their loved ones.

Earlier this month, the head of the Catholic church tested negative for coronavirus and he made the plea to his clergy during a livestreamed mass from within the Vatican.

What is impressive about the range of activity of the week (in both geography and substance) is how strong Vice President Pence's messages have been.

A book co-written by the retired pontiff says it is not possible to be married and be a priest "simultaneously."

Calling the woman's actions "so violent," 'The Five' co-host Emily Compagno declared that the person who grasped the hand of Pope Francis deserved to be "choked out" by his security guards. "He's not Jesus."

The pontiff was greeting the faithful in the Vatican when a woman made a grab for his hand.

The leader of the Catholic Church spoke about the unconditional love of God and "the greater light of Christ" in his annual Christmas blessing and sermon at St. Peter's Basilica this week.

The Trump White House is practically a zoo this week. Today there will be the traditional turkey pardon; yesterday the president welcomed Conan the special ops dog (named for comedian Conan O'Brien).

"It is not just about migrants; it is also about the face we want to give to our societies," Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis compared the persecution and hatred of homosexuals to Nazism. "That is what was done in those days and today it is happening again."

Two nuns from two different orders in Sicily returned from a mission in Africa pregnant. The Catholic Church has responded with an investigation.

Gianluigi Nuzzi's new book, Universal Judgment, asserts that the Vatican will default by 2023. The Vatican has denied these claims, despite recent financial scandals.

As arguments about clerical celibacy and women's role in the church drag on, activists took out their anger on two statues of Pachamama, an indigenous symbol of life and fertility depicted as a nude pregnant woman.

"We have fallen into the culture of adjectives and adverbs, and we have forgotten the strength of nouns," the Pope told his communications team on Monday.

"The Two Popes" tells the never-before-told story of Pope Benedict's efforts to groom Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to become Pope Francis.

Pontiff told Mexican TV "Those who build walls end up being prisoners of the walls they build."

"Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?" he asked. "Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?"

The pope said that whistleblowers would be granted protection and that dioceses worldwide would be required to have a system in place to preserve the anonymity and confidentiality of those submitting claims.

"A pope who is guilty of heresy and remains obstinate in his heretical views cannot continue as pope," the letter signed by 19 priests and theologians says.

"It was a river of blood," said N.A. Sumanapala, a shopkeeper near St. Anthony's Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Alain de la Morandais said of church abuse: "We always have the impression that it is a rape, that there is violence. But I do not always think so."

Pope Francis said people can't spend their whole lives accusing the church of wrongdoings.

The Million Dollar Vegan campaign is offering the sum in a bid to highlight the connection between animal farming and climate change.

An entire congregation in France was shut down after the Vatican learned that nuns were held as sex slaves.

The state's 15 dioceses collectively released the names of Texas priests with "credible accusations" of sexual abuse.

"That is not a Christian gesture," the pope has said about the president's claim that Mexico would pay for the wall.

"May the Lord help us to put out the hotbeds of hate that flare up in our societies," Pope Francis said on Sunday, mourning the victims of Saturday's shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Oscar Romero was shot dead in San Salvador in March 1980.

Pope Francis made the remarks during an address to worshippers in the Vatican.