When the bells of St. Peter's Basilica tolled on Easter Monday, announcing Pope Francis's death at 88, they rang for the world's 1.3 billion Catholics and all of humanity. During the moment of ...

His predecessor, Pope Benedict, stepped down from the papacy in 2013, a decision that had not been made by someone of his station in almost 600 years. Benedict, then 85, cited his age and ...

Pope Francis was a man of the people. Will the next pope be? After 12 years as the head of the Catholic church — and the most famous Christian in the world — Pope Francis died on Monday (April ...

Pope Francis’s death on Monday launches the centuries-old Catholic ritual of mourning and selecting a new leader of the church. Bells rang early Monday to announce the death of Francis, who died ...

Let diplomacy silence the guns!” Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in St. Peter’s Square a few hours after the United States ...

Pope Francis passed away on Monday at the age of 88 after being hospitalized for double pneumonia for over a month. The pontiff was last seen in public on Sunday, April 20, as thousands gathered ...

Perhaps by recalling the dual identity that John XXIII—the same pope the woman at St. Peter’s Square was so fond of in 1963—used to describe the Church: mater et magistra, mother and teacher.

As a bishop in Peru, Pope Leo XIV’s handling of two abuse cases was a study in contrasts, siding strongly with victims in one ...

What happens during the interregnum period? Tom Reese, S.J., explains the time between one pope's death and the succession of the next pope.