While early popes endured the split of the Roman Empire, the Crusades and the Italian Renaissance, more recent popes have had to deal with how to integrate the religion's historically strict teachings ...

VATICAN CITY -- Key events in the life of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis and died on Monday: Dec. 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the eldest of five ...

Pope Francis had died at the age of 88, a senior Vatican official has announced. History's first Latin American pontiff ...

How many popes have there been? Has anyone ever refused the office? For an institution that has existed for nearly 2,000 ...