After finishing as state runner-up in each of the last three seasons, the Antonian softball team finally broke through, capturing the TAPPS Division I state championship with an 11-8 victory over Plano John Paul II on Tuesday night.

Pope Leo XIV carried a wooden cross for all 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on his first Good Friday as pontiff.

One hundred and thirty-three cardinals are sequestering themselves behind the Vatican’s medieval walls for the start of a conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

Pope Francis recorded a pained and labored audio message to thank people for their prayers for his recovery.

Pope Francis’ medical team says the pontiff's condition isn’t life-threatening.

Vatican officials said that Pope Francis had developed pneumonia in both lungs, further complicating the pontiff’s recovery.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has visited Pope Francis in the hospital and says he’s “alert and responsive” and full of good humor despite his pneumonia.

Vatican authorities said Monday that Pope Francis has a complex infection in his respiratory system and will require more targeted drug treatment.

Paris Hatters announced the death of one of its co-owners in an Instagram post Saturday.

The Vatican says Pope Francis is stable and that he followed Mass on television after a second night sleeping well at the hospital.

Doctors have prescribed “absolute rest” for Pope Francis to help him recover from a respiratory tract infection.

Rosemary Kowalski was named the 2025 Texas Cavalier’s River Parade’s Grand Marshal on Tuesday morning.

The Vatican has unveiled a groundbreaking project for the upcoming Venice Biennale of Art: It is mounting a multimedia installation inside Venice’s Giudecca women’s prison.

In 1992, Sinéad O’Connor destroyed a photo of Pope John Paul II on U.S. national television.

A spokesman for Poland’s communist-era government in the 1980s who masterminded state propaganda and censorship for a regime in the final years before its collapse has died.

The Vatican says Pope Francis’ recovery from intestinal surgery continues to be “regular and satisfactory."

A magistrate slain by mobsters in Sicily has been beatified by the Roman Catholic church, the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Hans Kueng, a dissident Catholic theologian who fell out with Pope Benedict XVI, has died at age 93.

The Antonian boys basketball team celebrates after winning their second TAPPS 6A State title in the last three seasons at A&M Consolidated High School on March 12, 2021. COLLEGE STATION – Early on in the first quarter of their TAPPS 6A State Championship game, the Antonian boys basketball team was in trouble. Bishop Lynch came out on fire and jumped out to a 17-6 lead with a little over 2 minutes left in the frame. The Apaches lost to JPII last season in the state championship, the only blemish on what has been a stellar, three-year run of dominance. So to be able to get the second one tonight, when we missed out on getting it last year, it’s just sweet.”

SCHERTZ – With the district title on the line, Maeve Sullivan scored both of her goals in the second half to power the defending TAPPS Division III State Champion John Paul II girls soccer team to a 3-0 victory over Our Lady of the Hills. MORE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS COVERAGE

NEW BRAUNFELS – The reigning TAPPS Division III state champion John Paul II girls soccer team is rolling through the regular season thanks in large part to the play of junior forward Emilie Rompel, who is closing in on scoring her 100th career goal.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will make a pilgrimage to Iraq in March, pandemic conditions permitting, the Vatican said Monday, in announcing what would be the pontiff's first trip abroad in more than a year. The Vatican said Francis had accepted invitations from the Iraqi government from the local Catholic church. It wasn't immediately clear if the pope would travel if he had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 before the trip. In mid-2019, Francis told Catholic aid agencies that he planned on traveling to Iraq in 2020. While then ailing, he had wanted to go to Iraq in 1999, but, according to the Vatican, the pilgrimage never happened because then-dictator Saddam Hussein postponed it.

Scott Applewhite, File)The Latest on the Vatican's investigation of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and allegations of sexual misconduct (all times local). ___2:30 p.m.A Virginia man who accuses former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of sexually abusing him says he finds some comfort in the Vatican’s release of a report about the former prelate but he wants a public apology. “Its greatest failure is that it lets Pope Francis off the hook: nobody gave him the files, he knew only that there had been rumors, etc.,” she says. ___NoonAn advocate in Argentina for survivors of clerical sex abuse says ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick caused tremendous hurt and laments that church officials knew but did not act. It calls the report “one step in the right direction” but says the Vatican must ensure that past mistakes will not be repeated.

Those alarms continued, when a Catholic psychiatrist traveled to the Vatican in 1997 to report that his priest-patient was a victim of McCarrick's sexual abuse. McCarrick, 90, was defrocked by Francis last year after a Vatican investigation confirmed the globe-trotting envoy and fundraiser had sexually molested adults as well as children. “Pope Francis had heard only that there had been allegations and rumors related to immoral conduct with adults occurring prior to McCarrick’s appointment to Washington,” the report said. Vigano’s most explosive claim was that Francis himself lifted “sanctions" imposed by Benedict and made McCarrick a trusted adviser. Investigators interviewed 90 people, including McCarrick’s victims, former seminarians and priests, and officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Today is Monday, Oct. 19, the 293rd day of 2020. On Oct. 19, 1781, British troops under Gen. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, as the American Revolution neared its end. In 1944, the U.S. Navy began accepting Black women into WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). In 1765, the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, adopted a declaration of rights and liberties, which the British Parliament ignored. In 2001, U.S. special forces began operations on the ground in Afghanistan, opening a significant new phase of the assault against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 6, the 280th day of 2020. In 1973, war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday. Blood donors line up behind an ambulance on a Tel Aviv street, Oct. 6, 1973. Rock singer Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) is 69. Rock singer-musician David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) is 66.

Over 200 clergy abuse lawsuits led church leaders in the U.S. territory to seek bankruptcy protection, as they estimated at least $45 million in liabilities. (AP Photo/David Goldman)Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:1. CATHOLIC CHURCH WON $1.4 BILLION IN VIRUS AID Millions of dollars in taxpayer-backed aid went to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups, AP finds. HIGH COURT DRAWS TRUMPS IRE Even with two justices the president hand-picked, the Supreme Court has shown it is no rubber stamp for him or his administrations policies. TRUMP REBOOTS CAMPAIGN Trailing in the polls, the president will hold his first in-person fundraiser in a month in Florida and then a rally on Saturday night in New Hampshire.

South Texas is known for its rich history and colorful past, elements that have led to some unique town names.