“I really had to do a double take, because conventional wisdom has been that there will never be a pope from the United States,” said Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis.

Pope Leo's older brother John Prevost said he and his brothers limit political topics when they speak each week, but there is that "brother connection."

“Religious freedom in India is abysmal," U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Vice Chair Asif Mahmood said at a hearing on Capitol Hill.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended targeted sanctions against the Taliban, Iraqi militias, and government officials in Nicaragua, Nigeria, China, and Russia.

The pontiff marked the centenary of the Vatican Publishing House, saying printed books remain a vital “opportunity to think” in the digital age.

The pope expressed his encouragement to the priests who are working in war- torn southern Lebanon. The Holy Father said he prays for them, supports them, and gave them his blessing.

Twenty-eight Swiss Guards were sworn in Wednesday at the Vatican.

Recent excavations at the site match the account of an eighth-century Bavarian bishop who wrote about a church in Bethsaida that was built over the home of Sts. Peter and Andrew.

The pontiff met with the secretary of state amid Trump's ongoing criticism of the Holy Father and the Vatican.

Father Gerardo F. Saco Jr. cited "human limitations" in withdrawing from the Diocese of Tagbilaran weeks before his scheduled May 26 episcopal ordination.