The Latest Breaking News from Vatican

Pope Francis said he wants to give women more top-level positions in the Holy See and disclosed that for the first time he would name women to a previously all-male Vatican committee that helps him select the world's bishops.

Reminiscent of the scene in Oscar-nominated film The Two Popes where Cardinal Julio Bergoglio (Jonathan Price) was led by the Swiss Guards up the long staircase to have audience with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI (Anthony Hopkins) at the Apostolic Palace, a group of Buddhist monks and laymen were guided…

Pope Francis said that while the Vatican's secret and contested agreement with China on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops is not ideal, he hopes it can be renewed in October because the Church takes the long view.

Monsignor Javier Herrera-Corona, the Vatican's unofficial representative in Hong Kong, delivered a stark message to the city's 50-odd Catholic missions before finishing his six-year posting in March: the freedoms they had enjoyed for decades were over.