The history of this ancient process is frequently the subject of attention as the world gets ready for the next papal ...

Cardinal Robert Prevost joins the conclave Wednesday to pick Pope Francis' successor. His rise in the faith began at a South ...

It was the mounting rage of citizens in Viterbo, a small town north of Rome, that ended the longest papal election in the ...

A new pope to replace Pope Francis will be elected on Wednesday, May 7, and for the first time in history, Rwanda will be represented in the process. Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, the Archbishop of ...

First of all, the conclave has a rule that if the voting takes too long, then a pope can be elected with a 50+1 percent of ...

As a fireworks expert tests the Vatican's contemporary system for "holy smoke," Catholic cardinals mull their divergent priorities for Pope Francis' successor.

For the first time, the majority of cardinals to choose a pope are not from Europe, as Catholic demographics shift. But ...

Cleaners and cooks. Doctors and nurses. Even drivers and elevator operators. All the support staff for the cardinals who will ...

The voting is highly choreographed and time-consuming to avoid any possibility of fraud or doubt about the results.

As different as a papal election is from every other kind of election in the modern world, each conclave nonetheless has an ...

A conclave is the centuries-old election of a pope that derives its name from the Italian “con clave” (with a key) to ...

The College of Cardinals gathers this week to elect the next pope to lead the Catholic Church. But what preparations go into setting up the rare, secretive event?