Vatican City

Pope Francis will use his upcoming high-level visits to the U.S. and UN to press the concerns of the poor and marginalized, says expert Kenneth Himes.

The pope’s encyclical on the environment carries a profoundly religious message about care for the earth, wedded to a new call for activism, say religious scholars Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.

The election of pope to lead the world’s one billion Catholics stirs debate over the spiritual authority of the pontiff and the church’s role in the world.

The surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has given rise to speculations that the next pontiff to lead the Catholic Church will hail from the developing world, says expert James P. McCartin.

U.S.-Vatican relations remain uneven following Joseph Ratzinger’s accession as Pope Benedict XVI, particularly as the Obama administration pursues a more liberal social agenda.

Relations between the Vatican and Israel are a complex combination of diplomacy mixed with interfaith discussion.

Timothy Samuel Shah, a scholar on religious issues, says that when Pope Benedict XVI makes his first visit to the United States as pope, it will give Americans their first chance to hear firsthand his views on Iraq, the environment, and immigration.

Sebastian Mallaby, director of CFR’s Center for Geoeconomic Studies, says the skewed governing securities ratings agencies is partly to blame for stock market turmoil.

Pope Benedict XVI’s first year has been quiet and at times confusing to his critics. But experts caution against reading too much of a theological shift into the pope’s tranquil beginnings.