It was the first time that Francis had skipped giving the blessing and reading an address from the window since his election in 2013, apart from times he was traveling outside Rome.

The Vatican said that on Sunday the pontiff will not address crowds from a window overlooking St. Peter's Square, and will also not hold his general audience from there this Wednesday.

One Vatican official was put into a protective quarantine after a priest from France’s Catholic church in Rome tested positive for the virus.

Pope Francis cancelled official engagements for the third day in a row Saturday as he battled an apparent cold.

The religious orders will investigate the botched handling of a priest who sexually abused girls as young as six-years-old and suffered no punishment.

In his impromptu remarks Wednesday, Francis said “so many times we lose patience. Me, too.” He then added “I say ‘excuse me’ for the bad example” he gave in the incident Tuesday.

She could be Toronto's first-ever saint, but the process can take years - even centuries - to complete.

The reform now removes any excuse to not co-operate with legitimate legal requests from civil law enforcement authorities.

He later invited hundreds of needy, including migrants, to dine with him in a Vatican hall.

The work in bronze and clay by Timothy Schmalz of Kitchener, Ont., depicts more than 100 migrants and refugees from different cultural and racial backgrounds and time periods.