Jorge Mario Bergoglio

• Pope Francis: the man who won over the world in five minutes

  Never has a leader of the Roman Catholic Church become as popular in as short a time as Pope Francis did when he humbly asked the crowd gathered in St Peter's Square on March 13 last year to pray for him.

• Pope ramps up charity office to be near poor, sick

  When he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was known to sneak out at night and break bread with the homeless, sit with them literally on the street and eat with them.

• US eavesdropped on Vatican in run-up to conclave: reports

  US secret services allegedly eavesdropped on cardinals before the conclave in March to elect a new pope, Italian weekly magazine Panorama claimed on Wednesday.

• Military solution in Syria would be futile, Pope tells G20

  Pope Francis, in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the G20 summit, urged world leaders to "lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution" in Syria.

• Former Pope Benedict says 'God told me' to resign: report

  Former Pope Benedict has said he resigned after "God told me to" during what he called a "mystical experience", a Catholic news agency reported.

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  Lionel Messi, Argentina to play Italy in front of Pope Francis

  Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires and a lifelong supporter of Argentinian top flight club San Lorenzo. Lionel Messi will be a part of the Argentina squad.

• Pope Francis warns Latin America against legalising drugs

  Pope Francis warned Latin America against legalizing drugs, delving into a hot topic in his home region after celebrating the first public mass of his landmark visit to Brazil.

• Pope Francis washes women's feet in break with church law

  In his most significant break with tradition yet, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at a juvenile detention centre - a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men.

• New pope revives question: What is a 'Latino?'

  He is being hailed with pride and wonder as the "first Latino pope," a native Spanish speaker born and raised in the South American nation of Argentina. But for some Latinos in the United States, there's a catch: Pope Francis' parents were born in Italy.

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  'Pope Francis will be a great pope -- if they let him,' pilgrims say

  Tens of thousands of pilgrims thronged St Peter's Square on Sunday to see Pope Francis at his first Angelus appearance, but some were worried that this mould-breaking pontiff could come up against powerful vested interests in the Vatican.

• Why new Pope picked the name Francis

  The newly elected pope has explained what inspired him to pick the name Francis, which has never been used in papal history before.

• New pope's former neighbour recalls his 'love' letter

  An Argentine woman who grew up as the neighbour of the future Pope Francis says she was very briefly the object of his affections when they were both 12.

• Pope tells Argentinians they do not have to come to Rome

  Pope Francis has told the faithful in his native Argentina that they could donate money to charity rather than spend it to travel to Rome for his inauguration on Tuesday, the Vatican said.

• Pope Francis feted in Italian ancestral village

  Jorge Mario Bergoglio has made history as the first pontiff from Latin America, but his distant cousins in a hilltop hamlet in northern Italy claim Argentina's Pope Francis as one of their own.

• 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 capital, he's proudly known as one of their own, a true "slum pope."