Leading the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church. Location: Vatican City. There are no official candidates for the papacy, but ...

There are no official candidates for the papacy, but some cardinals are considered “papabile.” That means they possess the ...

For nearly 180 years, papal conclaves have chosen a new pope in three to five days. In centuries past, they've taken a lot ...

Cardinals have no contact with the outside world after the master of liturgical ceremonies utters the words “Extra Omnes” the ...

The cardinals set the date after arriving for the first day of informal meetings following Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday.

The voting is highly choreographed and time-consuming to avoid any possibility of fraud or doubt about the results.

Do you know how many papal conclaves there have been in your lifetime? Here’s how many conclaves there were in the last 100 ...