SILVIA STELLACCI

Pope Francis tours St. Peter's Square in his popemobile after bestowing the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for to the city and to the world) blessing at the end of the Easter mass presided over by Cardinal Angelo Comastri in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Sunday, April 20, 2025.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis emerges from convalescence on Easter, delights crowd with popemobile tour

Pope Francis has emerged from his convalescence on Easter Sunday to bless people in St. Peter’s Square and treat them to a surprise popemobile romp through the square. The crowd erupted in cheers of “Viva il Papa!” (Long live the pope) and “Bravo!”

Pope Francis arrives at the end of a mass in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sunday, April 6, 2025, part of the jubilee of the sick and the health workers. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope makes surprise appearance at St. Peter’s Square, 2 weeks after leaving hospital

Pope Francis has made a surprise entrance to St. Peter’s Square during a special Jubilee Mass for the sick and medical workers in his first public appearance at the Vatican since leaving the hospital.

A man looks at the heart relic of Carlo Acutis, the 15-year-old Italian boy who died in 2006 of leukemia and beatified in 2020, at the San Rufino Cathedral in Assisi, Italy, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

You shouldn’t buy a piece of a saint. Catholic Church denounces online sale of Carlo Acutis relics

With the upcoming canonization of its first millennial saint, the Catholic Church has turned to police in Italy to investigate the online sale of some purported relics of Carlo Acutis.

Locals and tourists walk along a main street near St. Peter's Basilica, background, in Rome, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Pope thanks volunteers for ‘miracle of tenderness’ as another Holy Year event passes without him

Pope Francis has issued a message thanking volunteers for the “miracle of tenderness” they offer the sick as he continues his recovery from double pneumonia.

Catholic pilgrims from Mexico gather outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic where Pope Francis continues to be hospitalized in Rome, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Vatican says Pope Francis continues to improve but his prognosis remains guarded

The Vatican says that Pope Francis continues to improve from double pneumonia Thursday, though doctors say he needs more days of “clinical stability” before they revise their guarded prognosis.

Trumpeter Felice Carella is silhouetted as he plays the song Ave Maria for Pope Francis in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, where the Pontiff has been hospitalized since Feb. 14, in Rome, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Pope Francis shows further slight improvement as he battles pneumonia, the Vatican says

The Vatican says Pope Francis has shown further slight improvement as he battles double pneumonia, but doctors still say his prognosis is still guarded.

Candles and a photo of Pope Francis are seen in front of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, where the Pontiff is hospitalized since Friday, Feb. 14.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis is in critical condition after a long respiratory crisis, requiring oxygen at high flow

The Vatican says Pope Francis is in critical condition after he suffered a long asthmatic respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen. Francis has been hospitalized for a week with a complex lung infection.

This picture released on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, by Sea Punk shows some of the migrants who were saved at sea by the humanitarian ship Sea Punk I off the Italian island of Lampedusa over the weekend. (Sea Punk via AP, HO)

3 young brothers died in perilous central Mediterranean crossing, rescue group says

A German rescue group says three young African brothers drowned making the perilous central Mediterranean crossing with their parents.

Pope Francis waves before delivering the Urbi et Orbi (Latin for 'to the city and to the world' ) Christmas' day blessing from the main balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope calls for nations to overcome divisions in Christmas address as communities celebrate worldwide

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message has urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Holy Land to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

Pope Francis stands as he celebrates a mass Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Ajaccio on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica . (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Pope Francis makes 1st papal visit to France’s Corsica awash in expressions of popular piety

Pope Francis on the first papal visit ever to the French island of Corsica on Sunday called for a dynamic form of laicism, promoting the kind of popular piety that distinguishes the Mediterranean island from secular France as a bridge between religious and civic society.

Workers inspect the 315 A.D Arch of Constantine, near the Colosseum, in Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, after lightning struck it during a storm Tuesday, Sept. 3, loosening fragments from the ancient Roman structure. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

A lightning strike damages Rome’s ancient Constantine Arch

Lightning has struck Rome’s Constantine Arch near the Colosseum during a violent thunderstorm, loosening fragments from the ancient structure. The extent of the damage from Tuesday’s storm is still being assessed.

Italian firefighter scuba divers bring ashore, in the green bag, the body of one of the victims from the British-flagged vessel Bayesian, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. The yacht was hit by a violent sudden storm and sank early Monday, while at anchor off the Sicilian village of Porticello near Palermo, in southern Italy. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)

Divers recover 5 bodies from wrecked superyacht off Sicily; 1 still missing

Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily have found five bodies and searched for a sixth as questions intensified about why the sailboat sank so quickly.

In this frame grab taken from a footage released by the Italian Firefighters Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, scuba divers on the scene scene of the search for a missing boat, in Porticello, southern Italy. Rescue teams and divers returned to the site of a storm-sunken superyacht Tuesday to search for six people, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch, who are believed to be still trapped in the hull 50 meters (164-feet) underwater. (Italian Firefighters via AP, HO)

Deep seas and tight spaces impede search for 6 missing after yacht sinks off Sicily

Police divers have resumed searching for six people believed trapped in the hull of a superyacht that sank off Sicily.

Dolce & Gabbana launches a new perfume for dogs, but some vets and pet-owners are skeptical

Fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has launched a new alcohol-free perfume for dogs called ‘Fefé’ in honor of Domenico Dolce’s poodle, but not all vets and pet owners agree it’s safe or appropriate.

Botero's "Sleeping Venus" sculpture, installed in Rome's Pincio Terrace, Friday, July 19, 2024, appears to be in front of St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican. Rome's storied streets and piazzas have become a vibrant canvas for Fernando Botero's exuberant sculptures, turning the city into an open-air museum of voluminous forms and daring artistry. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

The late Colombian artist Botero is celebrated with an open-air sculpture exhibition in Rome

The daughter of the late Colombian artist Fernando Botero has helped to turn the streets and piazzas of the Italian capital into an open-air museum to display eight of her father’s famously voluminous and whimsical sculptures.

A woman sunbathes in a park in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Weather alerts, forest fires, melting pavement in cities: A sizzling heat wave has sent temperatures in parts of central and southern Europe soaring toward 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

‘Hellishly hot’ southern Europe bakes under temperatures topping 104 F

The Italian health ministry has placed 12 cities under the most severe heat warning as a wave of hot air from Africa is baking southern Europe.

Vatican ushers carry Pope Francis chair prior to the start of the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) at the Colosseum on Good Friday, in Rome, Friday, March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope skips Good Friday event to preserve health ahead of Easter, Vatican says

The Vatican says Pope Francis has skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum to protect his health, adding to concerns about his frail condition during a particularly busy liturgical period.

Members of Italian partisan associations attend a commemorative ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine, in Rome, Friday, March 22, 2024. The mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners was carried out in this cave area in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for the Via Rasella attack in central Rome against the SS Police Regiment Bozen the previous day. The Ardeatine Caves site was later declared memorial cemetery and a Mausoleum was built in memory of the victims buried there. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Italy marks 80th anniversary of WWII-era massacre in Rome with a concert honoring the dead

Italy is marking the 80th anniversary of one of the most horrific World War II massacres in German-occupied Italy. Italian politicians made solemn commemorations Sunday at the Ardeatine Caves.

A picture of Umberto Tirelli, left, is displayed near a sewing machine at the Tirelli Atelier in Rome, Tuesday, March 5, 2024. For nearly six decades, the Tirelli atelier in Rome has woven itself into the fabric of Italian and international film history, earning the nickname the "Oscar tailor's shop" for its contribution to cinematic costume design. Established in November 1964, the shop on a quiet Roman street has been behind 17 Academy Awards for Best Costume Design. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

This Rome atelier is behind many an Oscar for costume design. Will ‘Napoleon’ be next?

The Tirelli atelier in Rome’s Prati neighborhood has woven itself into the fabric of Italian and international film history, with its costume designs behind 17 Academy Awards for costume design.