The received wisdom about artist Francis Bacon’s life goes: He painted like a maniac in his chaotic studio every day, drank like a maniac in London’s seedy Soho neighborhood every night. There’s an ...

The challenges Pope Francis faces are gigantic. Beyond his intended cleanup of the central governance of the Church, beyond making its finances more transparent—both of which are essential if the ...

Last week’s papal letter on immigration to the U.S. bishops captured world headlines, but it was not news that Pope Francis — who is being prayed for as he continues to be hospitalized for bilateral ...

The book, which was six years in the making, vividly recreates Francis’ childhood in Buenos Aires but offers few new insights into his papacy. By Elisabetta Povoledo Reporting from Rome “I like ...

I came across a recent review of a Pope Francis biography published in November. I was struck by a few of the comments. Peter Smith reviewed The Great Reformer by Austen Ivereigh. According to Smith, ...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is the first ever from the Americas, an austere Jesuit intellectual who modernized Argentina’s conservative Catholic church. Known until Wednesday as Jorge Bergoglio, the ...

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For Mark K. Shriver, Catholicism was more than a religion—it was inherently linked to his very identity. The "cradle" Catholic is a member of one of the most famously Catholic families in American ...

St Francis (c. 1181–1226), the poverello, is one of the most universally loved figures of the past millennium. He chose a life of radical poverty, putting a promising career aside to side with the ...

At least two cases directly involved Bergoglio. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests — Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics — who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they ...