Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first cardinal ever prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was convicted in a complicated financial trial that aired the Vatican's dirty laundry.
Several of the foreign-staffed Catholic religious orders in Mongolia run shelters, orphanages and nursing homes to care for a population of 3.3 million where one in three people lives in poverty.
"You don't hear about enslaved people at Mass or in Sunday school," says Rachel Swarns. Her new book tells the story of 272 enslaved people sold in 1838 to help save what is now Georgetown University.
Catholic women's groups that have long criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the 2,000-year life of the church.
The real-life reenactments in the farming village of San Pedro Cutud in Pampanga province north of Manila resumed after a three-year pause because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The redacted report paints a damning picture of abuse allegations against nearly 160 priests, involving more than 600 victims and spanning 80 years, and the Archdiocese of Baltimore's response.
The doctrine, with origins in the 15th century, was invoked as a legal and religious standing by Europeans who "discovered" new lands and violently seized it from people who had been living there.
The leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics has steered his church leftward after more than two decades of conservative leadership. Opposition within the Vatican is fierce.
His trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan will highlight the long-running conflicts in both countries and the rising importance of Africa to the future of the Catholic Church.