(RNS) — Nearly a year after the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, two deeply sourced books offer competing portraits of the context and maneuvering behind the first U.S. pope’s election. “Popes, ...

U.S. bishops marked the first anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s election by recalling the moment they learned he had been chosen, describing their reactions in a video message. “When we were watching the ...

That the head of the Catholic Church is as American as baseball proves that ancient prejudices can be conquered and rifts between people can be mended. I still cannot quite believe that there is an ...

The odds-makers likely had an easier time 20 years ago, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, long a loyal servant of Pope John Paul II and dean of the college of cardinals, stepped onto the balcony ...

The biggest cheer that rises from St. Peter’s Square after the white smoke emanates from the makeshift chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel comes after the cardinal protodeacon announces, ...

The First American Pope $2 Bill represents not just a piece of currency, but a significant milestone in both American and religious history. As the first pope from the United States, Pope Leo XIV, ...

Church leaders in the Christian East welcomed the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8, noting his first words to the crowd in St. Peter's Square were about peace. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of ...

(RNS) — Whether mainline Protestant warmth toward the new pope is a result of convergence on social justice issues or pride in the fact that he is American, or because the election of a new pope is ...

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When a pope dies or resigns, one of the world's most secretive and fascinating elections begins. Behind the locked doors of ...