More than 3,000 Italians participated in the survey carried out in January, expressing their opinion on the challenges facing the Church and their assessment of the pope.

C onflicting SIGNALS are reaching the new American administration from Rome. And some carry a whiff of incense. While Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, was preparing to fly to Washington to schmooze President Donald Trump and his chums, a leader on the other side of the Tiber was communicating stark disapproval of their plans.

Pope Francis on Monday offered wishes to US President-elect Donald Trump in a message sent ahead of the presidential inauguration ceremony in Washington, DC. He expressed hope that US under Trump's leadership will prosper and always strive to "build a more just society,

Pope Francis has fallen and hurt his arm, the Vatican has announced, weeks after another fall resulted in a bad bruise on his chin

Pope Francis said Wednesday “that if we want to eradicate child labor, we cannot be its accomplices” and denounced that this happens “when we buy products that employ child labor,” during the general audience held in the Paul VI Hall.

Constantly in the public eye, Pope Francis is instantly recognisable across the globe, and his likeness adorns t-shirts, mugs, calendars, bookmarks, medals and jewellery, among other things. Too conservative for some, not conservative enough for others, he is the face of the modern Catholic Church.

Francis is also in a unique position, in that he follows two popes who had a more conservative view of what Vatican II represented. In Catholic theological terms, St. Pope John Paul II and Benedict came from the Communio school, which very much put the Council in a more direct relationship with the Church before the Council.

It’s also a topic which resonates personally with Francis. In his new autobiography, the Pope recalled how his paternal grandparents and father had planned to sail in 1927 on the Principessa Mafalda from Italy to Argentina, which sank with the loss of many lives, but ended up making a later crossing.

The book is the fruit of a six-year process to put the Holy Father’s memoirs into writing.

A scholar of medieval Christianity explores the history of Christians who spoke out, unafraid to risk official censure or even death.

Celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's willingness to accept a proposal for a common date for celebrating Easter in the West and the East.

Through the centuries it walks with us and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is at work in history,” Pope Francis said.