Monsignor A. Anthony Frecker was a grade-school student considering the priesthood in 1958 when the Roman Catholic Church elected the pope who has become one of his personal heroes. More than 50 years ...

Angelo Giussepe Roncalli was born at Sotto il Monte, in northern Italy, on Nov. 25, 1881, the son of a relatively prosperous peasant family. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Bergamo in 1904 ...

(RNS) Religion News Service asked experts, biographers and theologians to assess the two popes who will be canonized on Sunday. (RNS) One was a man who shook the very foundations of the Roman Catholic ...

ROME (RNS) Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be formally declared saints on April 27, 2014 -- a bit of ticket-balancing by Pope Francis, who may be hoping to heal splits in the church by pairing ...

ROME – For many Catholics, Pope Francis long has called to mind St. Pope John XXIII, known to Italians as “Good Pope John,” who convened the Second Vatican Council. Like Pope John, Francis is known as ...

On Thursday morning, a small convoy with police protection will depart from the Vatican bound for the northern Italian city of Bergamo, almost six and a half hours away. In a sense, it’s actually a ...

A Vatican spokesman announced that Pope John XXIII died in the afternoon. He was 81. The spokesman said that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church had been suffering from a stomach tumor that caused ...