Nearly 90 percent of the cardinals from Africa, Asia and South America in the conclave are there thanks to Francis. By ...

Discover how the Catholic Church selects its next pope, including the secretive rituals of the papal conclave, key figures to ...

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is a Vatican outsider, but his experience in a region sacred to three major religions may ...

Cardinal Mario Grech comes from Malta, but is known to cardinals around the world for his role as the secretary general of an ...

With conclave set for May 7, Church scholars say successor to Francis must balance legacy, heal rifts between reformists and ...

It is shrinking in traditionally Catholic bastions of Europe, with empty churches and the faithful formally leaving the church in places like Germany, many citing the abuse scandals.

Did Benedict XVI’s pontificate mark the end of a historical chapter in which the Church was rooted in, and oriented toward, Europe? And if so, would this mean that the decline of the European ...

Pope Francis, who chose his papal name after the 13th-century figure St. Francis of Assisi, known as the patron saint of ...

As tens of thousands of Catholics wait in hourslong lines to pay their respects to Pope Francis, many are debating the ...

When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after the conclave of March 2013, few ...