‘Pope Francis’ Laundry’ opens in Rome

Pope Francis took an elevator to board his flight to Malta to "avoid unnecessary strain." The trip to Malta comes one day after he apologized to Canada's indigenous communities for abuses at residential schools there.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, on trial for corruption, says the pontiff gave his blessing for payment to a UK security firm to facilitate the release of a Colombian nun being held by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Mali.

Speaking to reporters while en route home from Canada, Pope Francis said he didn't use the term "genocide" during his trip because it never came to mind.

Shepherd Chowe pushes a cart filled with tins, iron rods and other metallic objects down a dusty pathway in Hopley, a poor settlement about 15 km west of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. He is among desperate Zimbabweans selling scrap metal for survival as the cost of living soars, piling pressure on a population already facing food shortages and high unemployment, and stirring memories of economic chaos years ago under the late leader Robert Mugabe's near four-decade rule.

John Paul I is known for one of the shortest papal reigns in history, but he has now reached one of the last steps in the Catholic Church's sainthood process.

At the start of a three-day visit to Kazakhstan, Pope Francis appealed for peace and an end to the "senseless and tragic war" in Ukraine.

The human rights defender Bianca Jagger continues her battle against the political repression of the Ortega regime in Nicaragua, where she was born. Several bishops and priests are incarcerated in Nicaragua, where the Catholic Church is suspected of supporting the opposition.

For the first time in centuries, a sitting pontiff will preside over his predecessor's funeral. Pope Benedict was the first Roman Catholic pope in 600 years to leave his post before dying.

Pope Francis starts a historic trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan on Tuesday - two countries where protracted conflicts have displaced millions.

At the start of a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis has said that Africa is not a "mine to be stripped" as he took aim at the "poison of greed" fueling conflicts on the continent.

Pope Francis strongly denounced the "economic colonialism" which "is unleashed" in Africa and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on the first day of his visit to the country. "After political colonialism, an equally enslaving economic colonialism was unleashed.

Large crowds turned out in the Democratic Republic of Congo's for mass with Pope Francis. The pontiff is on a six-day trip to the continent.