He who enters the conclave as pope, leaves it as a cardinal.” In other words, any candidate seen as the frontrunner before ...

During his pontificate, Francis overhauled the composition of the body that will elect his successor, making it more representative of the worldwide church. He threw out the old, unwritten ...

Pope Francis, a leader known for steering the Catholic Church toward mercy and care for ... in the region was actually reassuring to the more old-fashioned European cardinals who voted for him.

To outsiders, some of those landmarks might ... named after Queen Christina of Sweden. Old Swedes Church, also known as Holy Trinity Church, was built three decades later on the fort’s burial ...

Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, whose warm, humble, no-nonsense manner galvanized the Roman Catholic Church and drew widespread admiration from outsiders almost from the moment ...

And even then, you’re left with the feeling of not having gotten the whole story, as if it’s continuing to spin out somewhere ...

I can pay homage to the way he tried to make the Church more accessible and less intimidating for those who felt like outsiders ... the tone of a centuries-old institution. As I wrap up these ...

with centuries-old rituals involving the transition in leadership for both the spiritual head of the global Catholic Church and the Vatican’s head of state. These are the need-to-know terms ...

He removed the old structures, making the Church more flexible and shifting ... in a language accessible to all — the faithful and outsiders, including Muslims and non-believers.

A change in popes — through death or resignation — is a complicated process, with centuries-old rituals involving the ...