Christopher White

Pope Francis on Jan. 19 denounced President Donald Trump's provisional plans to carry out a massive deportation of migrants as a "disgrace."

View from the Vatican: Hope is less autobiography than it is an aggregation of existing stories, interviews, speeches and history that are already known about the now-88-year-old pontiff. 

Pope Francis suffered a fall and injured his right arm, the Vatican announced on Jan. 16. 

President Joe Biden has awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

Consolata Missionary Sr. Simona Brambilla will serve as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican office that works with religious orders and their members.

Pope Francis appealed for negotiations to end Russia's ongoing invasion in Ukraine and for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Middle East during his annual Christmas Day message. 

Pope Francis on Dec. 24 officially launched the Vatican's 2025 Jubilee Year, encouraging Christians to use the milestone occasion to dream of a "new world where peace and justice reign."

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Dec. 20 that he would nominate Brian Burch as his next ambassador to the Holy See. Burch is president of the political advocacy group CatholicVote.org.

Pope Francis on Dec. 19 spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden by phone, ahead of a  White House announcement that the two men will hold a final meeting at the Vatican next month before Biden leaves office. 

Fiducia Supplicans arrived in reporters' inboxes at 2:15 in the afternoon one year ago today, on Dec. 18, for "immediate" publication. In many respects, it defined the year ahead for Pope Francis and some of his key allies.

Pope Francis warned against reducing faith to a "private affair" during a visit to Corsica, a French isle where as many as 90% of residents identify as Catholic and where adult baptisms and confirmations are on the rise.

Pope Francis on Dec. 12 called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, the alleviation of foreign debt and the creation of a new global fund to eradicate hunger and combat climate change. 

Pope Francis on Dec. 8 made a special appeal for the lives of death row inmates in the United States to be spared.

Pope Francis, with bruises visible on his neck and chin, led a Dec. 7 consistory elevating 21 new prelates. He has now named 110 of the 140 cardinals who are eligible to participate in a future papal conclave.

The 2019 Notre Dame fire is remembered as one of France's darkest days. But for the historically Catholic country, it served as a harbinger of things to come. Now, the cathedral's reopening offers the church some positive news.

Decades of clergy sex abuse scandals are an "existential threat" to the Catholic Church and can only be remedied through transparency and prioritizing survivors, said the Australian ambassador to the Vatican. 

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to office, it's worth considering what Vatican-U.S. relations might look like during the four years ahead, NCR's Christopher White writes. 

For nearly 50 years, Columban Fr. Robert McCulloch has worked tirelessly to improve the country's health care and education systems, and in the process has helped boost Catholic-Muslim relations.

The U.S. bishops' conference needs a "committee on synodality," San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy told NCR in a joint interview with Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, who said, "This has to come in at the top of the list."

Pope Francis' three-year consultation on the future of the Catholic Church concluded on Oct. 26, outlining the institution's challenges and proposing ways for all the baptized to be involved in charting a path forward.