Author: NICOLE-WINFIELD—Associated-Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV took aim Wednesday at skeptics who “ridicule those who speak of global warming,” as he strongly embraced Pope Francis’ environmental legacy and made it his own in some of his strongest and most extensive comments to date. Leo presided over the 10th anniversary celebration of Francis’ landmark ecological encyclical,…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Arnold Schwarzenegger downplayed the Trump administration’s climate skepticism Tuesday and threw his weight behind the Vatican’s environmental initiative, saying individual choice, local regulations and the Catholic Church’s moral leadership were far more important to “terminate” global warming. Schwarzenegger was at the Vatican to headline a three-day climate conference marking the 10th…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican appeals tribunal put an end Thursday to prosecutors’ efforts to salvage their claims of massive fraud in the Holy See’s “Trial of the Century,” in which a once-powerful cardinal and nine others were accused of fleecing tens of millions of euros from the church. The tribunal declared the prosecutor’s…

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday named a successor to embattled New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond, two weeks after the archdiocese agreed to a $230 million proposed settlement for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. History’s first U.S. pope named Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, as the coadjutor bishop of New…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Defense lawyers in the Holy See’s “trial of the century” asked the Vatican prosecutor to recuse himself from the appeals trial Monday, arguing he was implicated in questionable behavior according to years of private WhatsApp messages that have shaken the proceedings. The chats show Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi has a personal interest…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s “ trial of the century ” had it all: part Dan Brown thriller, part John Grisham legal drama, part low-brow Shakespeare tragicomedy. The financial whodunnit about the Holy See’s bungled 350 million euro investment in a London property was notable for its surreal cast of characters and exposure of…

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In the last two years, defense lawyers have acquired 3,225 pages of WhatsApp messages between two women who were tangential to the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” but were actually intimately aware of the investigation and in some ways involved. Their four years of conversations, from 2020-2024, provide a parallel, behind-the-scenes…

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Monday praised the willingness to forgive after the mother of slain American journalist James Foley told a Vatican vigil about her process of healing following meetings with an Islamic State group fighter convicted in his beheading. Diane Foley was one of the featured speakers at a special Vatican…