One hundred and thirty-three cardinals are sequestering themselves behind the Vatican’s medieval walls for the start of a conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

Pope Francis recorded a pained and labored audio message to thank people for their prayers for his recovery.

Pope Francis’ medical team says the pontiff's condition isn’t life-threatening.

Vatican officials said that Pope Francis had developed pneumonia in both lungs, further complicating the pontiff’s recovery.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has visited Pope Francis in the hospital and says he’s “alert and responsive” and full of good humor despite his pneumonia.

Vatican authorities said Monday that Pope Francis has a complex infection in his respiratory system and will require more targeted drug treatment.

The Vatican says Pope Francis is stable and that he followed Mass on television after a second night sleeping well at the hospital.

Doctors have prescribed “absolute rest” for Pope Francis to help him recover from a respiratory tract infection.

The Vatican has unveiled a groundbreaking project for the upcoming Venice Biennale of Art: It is mounting a multimedia installation inside Venice’s Giudecca women’s prison.

In 1992, Sinéad O’Connor destroyed a photo of Pope John Paul II on U.S. national television.

A spokesman for Poland’s communist-era government in the 1980s who masterminded state propaganda and censorship for a regime in the final years before its collapse has died.

The Vatican says Pope Francis’ recovery from intestinal surgery continues to be “regular and satisfactory."

A magistrate slain by mobsters in Sicily has been beatified by the Roman Catholic church, the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Hans Kueng, a dissident Catholic theologian who fell out with Pope Benedict XVI, has died at age 93.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to Iraq in March, pandemic conditions permitting, the Vatican said Monday, in announcing what would be the pontiff's first trip abroad in more than a year. The Vatican said Francis had accepted invitations from the Iraqi government from the local Catholic church. It wasn't immediately clear if the pope would travel if he had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 before the trip. In mid-2019, Francis told Catholic aid agencies that he planned on traveling to Iraq in 2020. While then ailing, he had wanted to go to Iraq in 1999, but, according to the Vatican, the pilgrimage never happened because then-dictator Saddam Hussein postponed it.

Pope John Paul II elevated McCarrick, the current archbishop of Washington, to cardinal. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)The Latest on the Vatican's investigation of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and allegations of sexual misconduct (all times local). ___10:45 a.m.Top U.S. Roman Catholic leaders are reacting to the Vatican's investigation of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. “This report underscores the need for us to repent and grow in our commitment to serve the people of God,” Gomez says. — McCarrick, 90, was defrocked by Francis last year after a Vatican investigation confirmed decades of allegations that the globe-trotting envoy and successful church fundraiser had sexually molested adults as well as children.

Those alarms continued, when a Catholic psychiatrist traveled to the Vatican in 1997 to report that his priest-patient was a victim of McCarrick's sexual abuse. McCarrick, 90, was defrocked by Francis last year after a Vatican investigation confirmed the globe-trotting envoy and fundraiser had sexually molested adults as well as children. “Pope Francis had heard only that there had been allegations and rumors related to immoral conduct with adults occurring prior to McCarrick’s appointment to Washington,” the report said. Vigano’s most explosive claim was that Francis himself lifted “sanctions" imposed by Benedict and made McCarrick a trusted adviser. Investigators interviewed 90 people, including McCarrick’s victims, former seminarians and priests, and officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Over 200 clergy abuse lawsuits led church leaders in the U.S. territory to seek bankruptcy protection, as they estimated at least $45 million in liabilities. (AP Photo/David Goldman)Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:1. CATHOLIC CHURCH WON $1.4 BILLION IN VIRUS AID Millions of dollars in taxpayer-backed aid went to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups, AP finds. HIGH COURT DRAWS TRUMPS IRE Even with two justices the president hand-picked, the Supreme Court has shown it is no rubber stamp for him or his administrations policies. TRUMP REBOOTS CAMPAIGN Trailing in the polls, the president will hold his first in-person fundraiser in a month in Florida and then a rally on Saturday night in New Hampshire.

2003: Mother Teresa is beatified by Pope John Paul II, giving her the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta." Beatification, a recognition by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name, is the third of the four steps toward possible sainthood. Mother Teresa, who the Vatican credits a miracle to for the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman after the application of a locket containing her picture, would need a second miracle credited to her before she can be recognized as a saint. Hide Caption