VATICAN CITY - Players and officials from Roma and Lazio met with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on Wednesday in a peace initiative ahead of the Italian Cup final between the two bitter rivals.

The occasion happened during the general audience and is four days before the match at Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped "liberate" a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican's insistence that no such papal exorcism took place.

VATICAN CITY - Is Pope Francis an exorcist?

The question has bubbled up ever since Francis laid his hands on the head of a young man in a wheelchair after celebrating Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm in the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a huge rally Saturday to invigorate the church's moral conscience, hours after he held talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany's leader.

KINSHASA, Congo - Members of Congo's powerful Catholic clergy on Thursday called for the election commission to re-evaluate "serious errors" in national elections that gave victory to the incumbent president — or failing that, to resign.