The night before he became the first American leader of the Catholic Church as Pope Leo XIV, Chicago-born Cardinal Robert ...

There is no limit as to how long a conclave can last when electing a new Pope. One vote will be held on the first day of ...

Cardinal-electors take an oath to maintain “absolute and perpetual secrecy” concerning “all matters directly or indirectly ...

Papal conclaves have featured calls of election fraud and bribery so gauche that riches were wheeled in on donkey carts.

Two cardinals, Michael Czerny and Chibly Langlois, sat down with ABC News to discuss the challenges facing the church that the new pope will have to face.

Intelligence agencies have long gathered information to help their governments get a sense of who the next pope might be ...

More than 130 cardinals from all over the world are gathering today for the papal conclave, through which a new head of the Catholic Church is elected.

Over 130 voting cardinals must decide whether to continue in the direction of Francis or elect a pope likely to choose a more traditional path.

On the afternoon of Thursday, May 8, white smoke from the Sistine Chapel's chimney billowed into the sky, prompting waves of ...

Conclave writer Robert Harris has named the two actors who were in line to play the film’s protagonist before Ralph Fiennes.

As with any new papacy, a quick look at their first appointments and audiences inside the system offers at least a small ...

Simply put, a conclave is the assembly of cardinals that elects a pope. The word itself comes from the Latin "com" and "clavis," meaning "together" and "key," respectively – highlighting the absolute, ...