Vatican

Fernando Cardenal was minister of education and led a literacy campaign under Nicaragua's Sandinista government in the 1980s.

Pope Francis on Wednesday offered a surprise public apology from the Catholic Church for a series of scandals which have shaken the city of Rome and the Vatican, from gay sex to drug use.

Cuba is one of the least Catholic nations in Latin America, where along with a sizable number of the religiously unaffiliated, both Pentecostalism and Afro-Cuban Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion, are thriving. The pope's announced visit to the island is probably more about politics than religion, one expert said.

The pope gave it -- complete with its His Holiness Francis label and a Vatican certificate of authenticity -- to an Uruguayan priest as a gift.

Today, Salvadorans will remember Archbishop Oscar Romero at masses in his honor across the country, and with a ceremony in San Salvador cathedral led by Panamanian Cardinal José Luis Lacunza.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – For the first time, a Haitian has been named a cardinal – and he's vowing to "bring the reality" of his tiny, impoverished Caribbean country "into the heart of the Vatican."