The Vatican says Pope Francis, who is hospitalized in critical condition with double pneumonia, was well enough to meet with the Vatican secretary of state and his deputy to approve new decrees for saints and call a formal meeting to set the dates for their canonization.

Thousands of people have gathered in St. Peter’s Square to pray for an ailing Pope Francis, expressing sorrow for his suffering, hope for his recovery and gratitude for his efforts to steer the Catholic Church in new directions.

The Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, but not when he is sick.

The president of Haiti’s transitional presidential council has said that the Trump administration’s decisions to freeze aid programs, deport migrants and block refugees will be “catastrophic” for Haiti.

Leaders of developing nations launched into the second-day of a U.N. climate summit to press rich industrialized countries to share their knowhow to fight global warming and ease the financial burdens they face.

The Holy See’s No. 2 official has confirmed the existence of a Vatican peace “mission” to try to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Vatican press office says that Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra have both tested positive for the coronavirus.

The European Commission has retracted internal communication guidelines that had proposed substituting the “Christmas period” with “holiday period” after an outcry by conservatives.

The Vatican’s Secretary of State has attempted to tamp down controversy over a Vatican diplomatic communication to Italy.

The Vatican secretary of state has intervened personally to shed light on one of the most sensational Vatican scandals of recent times: The 1998 murder of the Swiss Guard commander and his wife, purportedly by a disgruntled younger Swiss Guardsman who then took his own life.

ROME – Pope Francis has given the Vatican secretariat of state three months to transfer all of its financial holdings to another Vatican office following its bungled management of hundreds of millions of euros in donations and investments that are now the subject of a corruption investigation. The Vatican released the letter that Francis wrote to Parolin on Aug. 25 in which he announced he was stripping the secretariat of state of its ability to independently manage the money. Its financial holdings are now to be held by the Vatican's treasury office, known as APSA and incorporated into the Holy See's consolidated budget, Francis wrote. The outcome is essentially that which was sought years ago by Cardinal George Pell, Francis’ first economy minister who clashed with the secretariat of state over his financial reform and transparency efforts. Francis moved against his own secretariat of state amid a year-long investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the office's 350-million-euro investment into a London real estate venture.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at the San Damaso courtyard to meet Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, at the Vatican, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. Pompeo is meeting Thursday with top Vatican officials, a day after tensions over U.S. opposition to the Vatican's China policy spilled out in public. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)ROME – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Thursday at the Vatican to meet with top Holy See officials, a day after tensions over American opposition to the Vatican’s China policy spilled out in public. Pompeo was meeting with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher. The Vatican secretary of state, Parolin, said the Holy See was “surprised” by Pompeo’s article.