Staff Writer

Chief correspondent, Italy and Vatican

Pope Leo XIV arrives to bless a mosaic of the Virgin Mary and a statue of St. Rose of Lima in the Vatican Gardens, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope gets invitation to visit Peru during a Vatican garden party, then stays for lunch

Peru’s ambassador to the Holy See has publicly invited Pope Leo XIV to visit. The invitation, delivered during a Saturday ceremony in the Vatican gardens, confirms that 2026 is shaping up to be an important year of travel for the pope with big trips under study for Africa and South America.

Pope Leo XIV arrives for his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope tells Vatican office that processes sex abuse cases to uphold truth, justice and charity

Pope Leo XIV has told the Vatican doctrine office to uphold truth, justice and charity when deciding clergy sex abuse cases.

Aerial view of the village of Niscemi near the Sicilian town of Caltanissetta, southern Italy, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026, where severe storms provoked a landslide, and some 1,500 people had to be evacuated from their homes. (Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP)

Huge landslide leaves Sicilian homes teetering on cliff edge as 1,500 people are evacuated

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni was given an aerial tour of a southern Sicilian town where days of heavy rains triggered a massive landslide.

This combo shows, from left, cardinal Robert McElroy, cardinal Joseph Tobin and cardinal Blase Cupich. (AP Photo/File)

US Catholic cardinals urge Trump administration to embrace a moral compass in foreign policy

Three U.S. Catholic cardinals have urged the Trump administration to use a moral compass in foreign policy.

People lay down flowers in tribute to the victims after the official commemorative ceremony for the victims of the deadly fire at the "Le Constellation" bar in Crans-Montana, in Zurich, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Claudio Thoma/Keystone/Pool via AP)

Pope meets families of young Italian victims of the Swiss Alps bar fire

Pope Leo XIV has met with families of Italian teenagers killed or injured in a fire that engulfed a Swiss ski resort bar during a party on New Year’s Eve.

This undated image released on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026 by the Ice Memory Foundation, shows the Concordia Station, where the Ice Memory Sanctuary is being built in Antarctica for ice cores from the Alps carrying the memory of Earth's current atmosphere, which are preserved at a temperature close to -52°C/-61°F for future generations of scientists to study. (ENEA PNRA via AP)

A novel sanctuary in Antarctica is preserving ice samples from rapidly melting glaciers

Scientists have inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores in an Antarctic vault.

Colosseum Archeological Park guide Valentina uses a head-mounted device to livestream a guided tour for the press of the newly-restored underground House of Griffins, dated between the II and I century B.C., on the Palatine Hill next to the Colosseum, in Rome, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Ancient Rome meets modern technology as tourists visit restored, frescoed home via livestream tours

One of the best-preserved ancient Roman homes on the Palatine Hill is opening to the public for the first time.

Pope Leo XIV meets faithfuls at the end of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope to visit Spain this year, with stops in Madrid, Barcelona and Canary Islands, cardinal says

Pope Leo XIV is planning to travel to Spain this year. The archbishop of Madrid says he’s planning to make stops in Madrid, Barcelona and the Canary Islands to fulfil Pope Francis’ wish of visiting a key migration entry point to Europe.

Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The pope in a major foreign policy address blasts how countries are using force to assert dominion

Pope Leo XIV has denounced how nations are increasingly using force to assert their dominion worldwide.

Cardinal Stefen Brislin attends at a press conference at the end of Pope Leo XIV's first Extraordinary Consistory, a special formal assembly convening the College of Cardinals from around the world, at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope indicates new governing style for Catholic Church with regular, annual cardinal meetings

Pope Leo XIV says he intends to bring the world’s Catholic cardinals together on an annual basis. He’s indicating a new governing style for the church that involves consulting its top leaders regularly as a group.

The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Arguello, centre and Jesus Diaz Sariego, President of Spain's Conference of Religious Orders, left, take part in a press conference in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)

Spanish bishops will allow government to oversee compensation for sexual abuse victims

Spain’s Catholic bishops have agreed to let the Spanish government’s ombudsman have the final say in the church’s compensation of victims of sexual abuse by clergy members who have died or whose possible crimes are too old to be prosecuted.

Pope Leo XIV meets Cardinals and Bishops at the end of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope convenes cardinals and asks their priorities for 2 years, with Latin Mass off the agenda

Pope Leo XIV has asked cardinals to advise him on key priorities governing the Catholic Church for the next two years.

Pope Leo XIV closes St. Peter's Basilica Holy Door to end the 2025 ordinary Jubilee year, at the Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Yara Nardi/Pool photo via AP)

Pope Leo XIV closes 2025 Holy Year with critique of consumerism and xenophobia

Pope Leo XIV has closed the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year, denouncing consumerism and anti-foreigner sentiment.

Pilgrims and faithful hold a crucifix as they arrive to St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican to cross the Holy Door on the last day of its public opening, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Final pilgrims cross Holy Door as Vatican claims Jubilee success with 33 million visitors

The final pilgrims of the 2025 Holy Year have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. Monday was the last day for the public to participate in the Jubilee.

Pope Leo XIV reads the homily as he celebrates Mass on New Year's Day, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope opens 2026 with plea for peace in countries bloodied by war, families wounded by violence

Pope Leo XIV has opened 2026 with a plea for peace. He is singling out in particular countries “bloodied by conflict” and families wounded by violence.

Pope Leo XIV delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope offers gentle critique of Vatican culture in Christmas greeting reminiscent of past

Pope Leo XIV has urged Vatican cardinals to put their ambitions of power and personal interests aside and work instead on building communion.

Visitors admire Rome's Trevi Fountain, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, as the city municipality announced that, starting on Feb. 1, it will impose a 2 euro fee for tourists to visit the recessed fountain edge. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Visiting the Trevi Fountain now will cost more than just a coin toss with a 2-euro tourist fee

Tourists visiting the Trevi Fountain are now going to pay more than just the legendary coin toss over their shoulder.

Bishop Richard Moth speaks during a press conference announcing him as the new Archbishop of Westminster, replacing Cardinal Vincent Nichols as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in the Throne Room of Archbishop's House, Westminster, London, Friday Dec. 19, 2025. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)

Pope names new archbishop of Westminster as part of generational shift in English-speaking hierarchy

Pope Leo XIV has made another high-profile appointment that signals a generational shift in the English-speaking Catholic hierarchy.

Pope Leo XIV waves as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Dec.17, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope blasts ‘irrationality’ of military deterrence in first annual peace message

Pope Leo XIV says peace is not only possible but necessary. In his first peace message issued Thursday, Leo blasted the “irrationality” of nuclear deterrence and the weaponization of faith in modern political discourse.

Bishop Ronald Hicks speaks during a news conference, Thursday, Dec.18, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

Pope names fellow Chicagoan, Bishop Ronald Hicks, as new archbishop of New York

Pope Leo XIV has made a significant U.S. appointment by naming Bishop Ronald Hicks as the next archbishop of New York.

Burkhard Scheffler, second from right, a homeless man who died from the cold in 2022 on the edge of St. Peter's Square, is portrayed as St. Peter in a painting by German artist Michael Triegel and exposed in the chapel of the Teutonic College at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Church altar featuring homeless man goes on display a stone’s throw from his grave at the Vatican

In 2018, German artist Michael Triegel asked a homeless man in Rome to pose for a drawing, thinking that he would make an ideal model for St.

Ribbons representing lives saved from abortion according to Catholic organizations are seen on Nacimiento Gaudium, a nativity scene set in the Paul VI Hall during an audience led by Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope denounces ‘antisemitic violence’ of Sydney attack as he thanks Christmas donors

Pope Leo XIV has denounced the antisemitic violence behind the Sydney Hanukkah massacre. On Monday, he prayed for the victims and called for peace and fraternity during the holiday season.

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech as he celebrates a Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Prisoners in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope criticizes prison overcrowding during special Mass for inmates, guards and families

Pope Leo XIV has criticized prison overcrowding during a special Mass for detainees, guards and their families.

Customers enjoy their pasta at a restaurant in Rome, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian cooking and its rituals get UN designation as world heritage

Italian food is known and loved around the world for its fresh ingredients and palate-pleasing tastes, but the U.N.’s cultural agency is giving foodies another reason to celebrate their pizza, pasta and tiramisu by listing Italian cooking as part of the world’s “intangible” cultural heritage.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pope Leo XIV wave to journalists during their meeting in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope criticizes US bid to ‘break apart’ US-Europe alliance, insists on Europe role in Ukraine peace

Pope Leo XIV is insisting that Europe must have a role in any Ukraine peace deal. And he is criticizing what he says is the Trump administration’s effort to “break apart” the long-standing U.S.

Pope Leo XIV leaves after praying in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, on the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV gets into Christmas spirit with prayer for peace at Spanish Steps

Pope Leo XIV embraces a Roman tradition by praying for peace at a statue of the Madonna near the Spanish Steps.

Pope Leo XIV talks to reporters aboard an airplane as he returns from a six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alessandro Di Meo/Pool Photo via AP)

Pope cancels Holy See fundraising commission announced under questionable circumstances

Pope Leo XIV has taken his biggest step yet to correct one of Pope Francis’ more problematic financial moves.

Pope Leo XIV talks to reporters aboard an airplane as he returns from a six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alessandro Di Meo/Pool Photo via AP)

Vatican commission again says no to ordaining women as deacons, but urges other ministries

A second Vatican study commission has determined that women should not be ordained as deacons. The Vatican on Thursday took the unusual step of publishing a synthesis of the commission’s findings, including the members’ votes on specific theological questions.

Pope Leo XIV talks to reporters aboard an airplane as he returns from a six-day visit to Turkey and Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alessandro Di Meo/Pool Photo via AP)

Pope Leo XIV shares his thoughts on the conclave, reflects on spirituality and future travels

Pope Leo XIV has shared his thoughts during the conclave that elected him, saying he resigned himself to the inevitable and put the rest in God’s hands.

Pope Leo XIV waves as he boards a flight back to the Vatican after his visit to Lebanon at Beirut International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Pope Leo XIV sends message of support to southern Lebanon as he ends 1st foreign trip

Pope Leo XIV has prayed at the site of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, urging justice for the 218 victims.

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