The Vatican has detailed laws and rituals to ensure the transfer of power when a pope dies or resigns, but not when he is ...

Catholic cardinals gathered in Rome will offer a nightly rosary for Pope Francis as the pontiff remains hospitalized in ...

A scholar of global Catholicism writes how Francis has opened the church to the outside world in ways no pope had done before ...

Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, has held his title for 12 years. What to know about the Jesuit.

A legislative gap in the Vatican's laws leaves Pope Francis in charge despite his severe illness. An initiative to rectify ...

Time-honored rituals, drafted and refined over centuries, allow for ritual mourning and provide order at a dramatic moment of ...

Pope Francis is in critical condition at Gemelli Hospital in Rome with double pneumonia and kidney failure — and Catholics ...

Pope Francis remained in critical condition as the Vatican called senior church officials in Rome to a special saying of the ...

Pope Francis, 88, has been in critical condition since the weekend but showed improvement and resumed some work Monday, the ...

Catholics around the world including at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Carmichael are praying for Pope Francis as he ...

Pope Francis' health concerns include respiratory problems, a possible kidney infection, anemia, and now, pneumonia in both lungs.