Faith

Hindu hardliners have blocked the road to female pilgrims of menstrual age, after India's Supreme Court ruled they were allowed to enter a temple that has barred them for centuries.

The pope denounced what he called the contradiction of allowing "the suppression of human life in the mother's womb in the name of safeguarding other rights."

The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, according to Pope Francis, and is responsible for the Church's sexual abuse crisis.

Pope Francis spoke to reporters for the first time about a controversial deal with China, which some critics are calling a "sell-out" to the Chinese government.

The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has released a previously leaked report detailing the sexual abuse of 3,677 children by clergy there over seven decades. It's the latest in a global crisis for the Vatican and came with an apology from Germany's highest ranking cardinal.

Pope Francis has ordered an investigation into a U.S. bishop accused of sexually harassing adults, and accepted his resignation, as he meets Church leaders to discuss the escalating sex abuse crisis. Reuters' Philip Pullella reports.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former top Vatican official who accused Pope Francis of knowing about sexual misconduct by a cardinal for years and doing nothing about it - denies the accusations are driven by a vendetta.

A former top Vatican official has accused Pope Francis of having known of allegations of sex abuse by a prominent U.S. cardinal for years and called on him to resign, in an unprecedented broadside against the pope by a Church insider.

More than two million Muslim pilgrims hurled pebbles at a giant wall in a symbolic stoning of the devil in Mina, Saudi Arabia. It's the riskiest stage of the haj pilgrimage, during which hundreds died in a crush three years ago.

Many churchgoers said they were sickened and saddened by a grand jury report detailing widespread sexual abuse by hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania but they would not let the Roman Catholic Church’s cover-up dissuade them from their faith.

The Roman Catholic Church has formally changed its doctrine to oppose capital punishment, reflecting an evolution in teachings that started with Pope John Paul II.

Astronauts from the International Space Station gave Pope Francis his very own blue jump suit. And to distinguish him from ordinary planetary pilgrims like themselves, they added a white cape.