
Argentina: Boot camp for a politically savvy pope
Pope Francis has honed his leadership skills in one of the most difficult classrooms on the planet: Argentina, where politics has long been a blood ...

In Twitter era, new pope not a social media maven
Pope Francis has 1.2 billion followers in the Roman Catholic Church, but he's not following a single one of them on Facebook or Twitter. In a ...

Pope explains name, urges 'church for the poor'
The focus of Pope Francis' papacy began to emerge Saturday as he offered some intimate insights into the conclave that elected him pontiff, describing ...

Vatican criticizes campaign against pope
The honeymoon that Pope Francis has enjoyed since his remarkable election hit a bump Friday, with the Vatican lashing out at what it called a ...

Pope Francis reaches out to Jews
Like his predecessor, Pope Francis reached out to Rome's Jewish community at the very start of his pontificate, pledging to continue to strengthen the ...

Argentines celebrate Francis as their 'slum pope'
For more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide, he's Pope Francis. For Argentina's poorest citizens, crowded in "misery villages" throughout the ...
Pope's former neighbor recalls his 'love' letter
An Argentine woman who grew up as the neighbor of the future Pope Francis says she was very briefly the object of his affections when they were just ...

UK's Cameron disagrees with pope over Falklands
The pope may be infallible to his followers, but not to British Prime Minister David Cameron. Pope Francis — the Argentine cardinal elected as the new ...

Priest kidnapped by junta: Reconciled with pope
A Jesuit priest whose kidnapping by the Argentine military junta decades ago led to strong criticism of the newly elected pope said Friday that he and ...

New style of papacy: Pope Francis pays hotel bill
On his first day as shepherd of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Pope Francis picked up his luggage at a Vatican hotel, personally thanked each ...

Pope's partial lung shouldn't affect duties
The new pope has daunting challenges ahead ranging from the church sex abuse scandal to reinvigorating the flock. And the 76-year-old Francis will ...

New pope tied up in Argentina's 'dirty war' debate
It's beyond dispute that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, like most other Argentines, failed to openly confront the 1976-1983 military junta as it kidnapped and ...

New pope's views bind simplicity with 'complexity'
At gatherings of Latin American bishops, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was often a star speaker about economic inequities in a profit-driven world.

Argentina's pope goes for the Saints in soccer
He could have chosen the Devils. Instead he turned to the Saints. In a country where a blurry line separates religion from football, or soccer as ...

Pope Francis: Simple image, complex past
On the streets in Buenos Aires, the stories about the cardinal who would become the first pope from the Americas often include a very ordinary ...

Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis
From "the end of the earth," the Catholic Church found a surprising new leader Wednesday, a pioneer pope from Argentina who took the name Francis, a ...

Catholics overjoyed at 1st Latin American pope
Tears and cheers erupted across Latin America on Wednesday as an Argentine cardinal became the first pope from the hemisphere, and many expressed hope ...

Argentine leader wishes pope well despite clashes
President Cristina Fernandez will travel to the Vatican to attend her fellow Argentine Jorge Bergoglio's first Mass as Pope Francis on March 19, and ...

Holy rivals? Brazil ponders Argentine pope
Bitter rivals in soccer. The butt of one another's biting jokes. The samba versus the tango. Brazil and its neighbor Argentina are bitter rivals in ...

POPE LIVE: Around the world as a new pope emerges
"Pope Live" follows the choice of the new pope as seen by journalists from The Associated Press around the world. It will be updated throughout the ...

Falklands vote shows 99.8 pct want to stay British
An overwhelming 99.8 percent of Falkland Islands voters have backed keeping their government just the way it is: a British Overseas Territory. Of the ...

Falkland Islanders vote with an eye on Argentina
Britain is hoping this weekend's referendum on the political status of the Falkland Islands will push the United States and other neutral governments ...

'Operation Condor' trial begins in Buenos Aires
Argentina began a long-awaited human rights trial Tuesday focused on Operation Condor, the 1970s conspiracy launched by Chilean dictator Augusto ...