When someone accepts election as pontiff, there undergoes a change in that individual, not only in life purpose in leading ...

Six hundred years later, Pope Gregory VII forced the brilliant monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry IV, to walk barefoot in the snow for miles before granting him forgiveness at Canossa ...

A family of seagulls — two adults feeding a chick — had gathered by the papal chimney a couple of minutes before white smoke billowed out to announce the election of a new pope. The Holy ...

When Robert Prevost took the name Leo XIV after being elected pope on 8 May, much was read into the reference this made to Leo XIII, a late 19th-century reformer and champion of social justice ...

Angels and Demons,' 'The New Pope' and 'The Two Popes' all feature stories about the head of the Catholic Church. By McKinley Franklin, THR Staff As the leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope’s ...

By choosing this name, Pope Leo XIV sends a clear signal: this papacy will prioritize people over politics, compassion over control. This isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about rebooting the Church ...

“We didn’t expect an American to be Pope,” Gregory Treverton, a USC Professor, said. Treverton is a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California and a former ...

As newly elected Pope Leo XIV — a native son of Chicago — made his first appearance on the loggia at St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Blase Cupich looked on from an adjacent balcony ...

Tight control over food in the conclave started in 1274 when Pope Gregory X decreed that cardinal electors would get only one meal a day if the papal voting took longer than three days.

The last conclave to last more than a week was in 1831, when Pope Gregory XVI was elected after 51 days of voting. Here’s a breakdown of how the length of conclaves has changed in recent years.