Nuns don’t have a vote in the election of a pope.

All Vatican personnel involved in supporting the upcoming papal conclave will take an oath of secrecy — under penalty of automatic excommunication.

Cardinals hailing from 71 different countries are eligible to elect a pope this week in the most geographically diverse conclave in history.

At Masses across Rome and socioeconomic lines, Catholics prayed the next pope focuses on poverty and peace days before the conclave that will elect Pope Francis’ successor.

While Pope Francis accomplished a lot in his 12-year papacy, he left much unfinished business and many challenges for his successor — from the Vatican’s disastrous finances to the wars raging on multiple continents.

Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini is taking to his first conclave the same spirit that guided his decades-long front-line ministry among the migrants, poor and Indigenous people in Guatemala’s highlands.

President Donald Trump has posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as pope.

Vatican workers have installed the simple stove in the Sistine Chapel where ballots will be burned during the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope.

Growing numbers of people are making bets on next week’s conclave to elect the next pope.

British Cardinal Vincent Nichols provides an insider's view of what's going on these days before the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis.

Several thousand Turkish Cypriots took to the streets of the northern half of ethnically divided Cyprus’ capital Nicosia to protest what they say is Turkey’s attempt to erode their secular roots and to strengthen the hold of political Islam over their society.

Four days of clashes between pro-government gunmen and members of a minority sect in Syria have left nearly 100 people dead and raised fears of deadly sectarian violence.

Israeli forces are preparing to carry out home demolitions across two northern urban refugee camps in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

A Lutheran church in Minneapolis is taking practical steps to help its mostly Latino immigrant congregation deal with the uncertainty and stress of a Trump administration crackdown.

Preparations for the conclave to find a new pope accelerated Friday with the installation of the chimney out of the Sistine Chapel that will signal the election of a successor to Pope Francis.

“Conclave” the film may have introduced moviegoers to the spectacular ritual and drama of a modern conclave, but the periodic voting to elect a new pope has been going on for centuries and created a whole genre of historical trivia.

Israel’s air force has struck near Syria’s presidential palace hours after warning Syrian authorities not to march toward villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.

The final season of “The Righteous Gemstones” is rife with the show’s trademark depravity.

Sister Inah Canabarro, a Brazilian woman who was the world’s oldest person, has died at age 116.

The United Nations’ emergency relief coordinator is urging Israel to lift its blockade of aid into the Gaza Strip.

If the next pope is from sub-Saharan Africa, he would be the first in Catholic Church history.

The conclave that begins Wednesday to elect a successor for Pope Francis is the first in 46 ½ years for which the Vatican hasn't ordered a new cassock for the new head of the Catholic Church.

Martin Scorsese is a producing a documentary made with Pope Francis that will chronicle the late pontiff’s work with cinema in the global educational movement he founded before his death.

Chief Justice John Roberts appears to hold the key vote over whether the Supreme Court will allow the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, in Oklahoma.

Palestinian hospital workers say overnight Israeli strikes on homes in Gaza have killed at least 12 people.

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

Israel released a Palestinian medic who has been held prisoner since soldiers killed 15 of his colleagues last month and buried them in a mass grave in southern Gaza.

The Italian cardinal at the heart of the Vatican’s “trial of the century” announced Tuesday he was withdrawing from participating in the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope.

Several moments were pivotal in Pope Francis’ relations with Native communities in the Americas.

Whoever succeeds Pope Francis will inherit his momentous and controversial legacy of relations with Indigenous people throughout the Americas.

Cardinals have decided the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis will begin May 7.

The Catholic Church in Oklahoma wants taxpayers to pay for an online charter school that “is faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ.”.

A historic Black church in downtown Memphis that was the organizing point for Martin Luther King Jr.'s final stand has suffered a devastating fire.

The Vatican says the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis will begin on May 7.

Local health officials say Israeli strikes on the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 27 Palestinians early Monday.

A violin made in 1941 inside the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau was found to contain a hidden note from its maker, Polish Jewish prisoner Franciszek Kempa.

A Palestinian diplomat has told the United Nations’ top court that Israel is killing and displacing civilians and targeting aid workers in Gaza in a case that Israel criticized as part of its “systematic persecution and delegitimization.”.

The Vatican is closing the Sistine Chapel to the public as part of preparations for the conclave to elect the next pope after the death of Francis.

Members of New Jersey’s Supreme Court sounded skeptical at times about the effort of a Catholic diocese to stop the state from empaneling a grand jury to investigate clergy sexual abuse allegations.

Israeli jets have struck Beirut’s southern suburbs in the third such attack since a ceasefire began in late November.

Roman Catholic faithful have begun visiting the tomb of Pope Francis.

Cardinals this week will start in-depth discussions on planning the conclave to choose Pope Francis' successor.

They came from around the world to rejoice in the naming of the first millennial saint but ended up bidding farewell to Pope Francis instead.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 after a 12-year papacy.

World dignitaries and Catholic faithful have attended Pope Francis’ funeral in St. Peter’s Square.

World leaders and rank-and-file Catholic faithful have said farewell to Pope Francis in a funeral that highlighted his concern for people on the peripheries and reflected his wish to be remembered as a simple pastor.

President Donald Trump has paid his respects to Pope Francis, joining more than 50 heads of state and other dignitaries at the funeral of the Catholic Church leader.

The head of the basilica that is housing Pope Francis's tomb says it reflects his “humble, simple and essential" life.

Speculation surrounding a conclave to elect a pope is a time-honored tradition.

Pope Francis visited a record 10 African countries throughout his pontificate, often venturing to areas ravaged by war, poverty or natural disaster.

Hours after Israel's Foreign Ministry posted a condolence for the passing for Pope Francis, it was deleted without explanation.

Associated Press reporter Nicole Winfield, who covered Pope Francis at the Vatican during his entire pontificate, earned the nickname “la prima della classe” -- or “the first in class” -- from him in 2018.

Three days of public viewing of Pope Francis’ body by ordinary mourners and statesmen alike have ended and the pontiff's coffin sealed.

The clash in style between Donald Trump and Pope Francis and their positions on migration, the environment and poverty will come into sharper focus with the president in Rome for Francis’ funeral.

The legendary attorney who was once deemed the “chief counsel” of the Civil Rights Movement by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been honored with a statue outside the Alabama State Bar Association.

The man who would become Pope Francis always bought his shoes in the same place.

Gaza's Health Ministry says Israeli strikes have killed at least 50 people, many of them women and children.

Hong Kong’s outspoken Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen has been allowed to leave the southern Chinese city to attend Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican City.

The papacy of Pope Francis ended with the same core doctrine for LGBTQ+ people that he had inherited.

After so many people lined up to see Pope Francis lying in state at St. Peter’s Basilica that the Vatican kept the doors open overnight, the lines of mourners waiting to pay their last respects have continued to file past his coffin.

The pastor of a Georgia megachurch who led a nationwide 40-day “fast” against Target stores is now calling for a “full Target boycott.”.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is establishing a task force to investigate employee reports of alleged anti-Christian bias.

Some Black churches are pledging to support the National Museum of African American History and Culture following an executive order by President Donald Trump alleging exhibits there and at other Smithsonian Institution sites have expressed a “divisive, race-centered ideology.”.

Antisemitic attacks around the world have increased dramatically since the war in Gaza began, but have declined slightly from a peak directly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel, according to an annual report from Tel Aviv University.

The body of Pope Francis was moved Wednesday morning to St. Peter’s Basilica for three days of public mourning for an Argentine pontiff remembered for his humble style, concern for the poor and insistent prayers for peace.

Pope Francis had a learning curve on clergy sexual abuse, with the turning point coming in 2018.

Thousands of people have begun filing through St. Peter’s Basilica to pay their final respects to Pope Francis at the start of three days of public viewing ahead of his funeral.

An Arizona jury found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty Tuesday of conspiring to murder her estranged husband.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is signaling support for the religious rights of Maryland parents who want to remove their children from elementary school classes using storybooks with LGBTQ characters.

Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world when he announced his resignation in 2013, the first in 600 years.

A new AP-NORC poll finds about three-quarters of U.S. adults say their household contributed at least some money to a charitable organization.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 17 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, and destroyed bulldozers and other heavy equipment that had been supplied by mediators to clear rubble.

Pope Francis never set foot in his native Argentina during his papacy.

The Anti-Defamation League says the number of antisemitic incidents in the United States reached a record high last year.

The plight of migrants was one of Pope Francis’ top priorities.

In his landmark 2015 encyclical “Praised Be,” Pope Francis cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern.

The death of Pope Francis has sent shockwaves through Iraq’s Christian community, where his presence once brought hope after one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent history.

Vatican News has reported that Pope Francis was thankful that he was able to greet throngs of people in St. Peter’s Square on Easter, a day before he died.

Pope Francis’ funeral has been set for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square, and a viewing of his body will begin on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Basilica, days after the popular pontiff died at age 88.

Eighty years after the Holocaust, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors are still alive, but according to a study 70% of them will be gone within the next 10 years.

A change in popes is a complicated process, with centuries-old rituals involving the transition in leadership for both the spiritual head of the global Catholic Church and the Vatican’s head of state.

Every pope has his critics.

An Irish-born American cardinal was entrusted by Pope Francis to be the camerlengo, the Vatican official who runs the Holy See after the death of one pontiff and before the election of another.

The faithful in Pope Francis’ hometown lit candles in the church where he found God as a teenager.

In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent ritual: He would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.

Pope Francis understood the power of a simple touch.

One of Pope Francis’ final encounters before his death was with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who visited the Vatican over the weekend.

Even though cardinals don’t campaign for the job, there are always front-runners going into a conclave to choose the next pope.

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke, setting off mourning in the Catholic world and days of ritual at the Vatican.

The Vatican says the canonization of the first millennial saint, Carlo Acutis, has been postponed due to the death of Pope Francis.

The death of a pope triggers a centuries-old ritual to elect a new one.

Tributes to Pope Francis are pouring in from around the world.

The death of a pope sets in motion a series of carefully orchestrated rites and rituals well before the conclave to elect his successor begins.

Pope Francis had an informal, lighthearted speaking style.

Pope Francis was the first pope from the Americas, the first Jesuit pontiff and the first to take the name of Francis, after St. Francis of Assisi.

Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s teaching in areas such as the death penalty and nuclear weapons.

The first pope from the Americas was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 17, 1936.

Pope Francis has died at age 88.

Pope Francis has died at age 88.

A Pentecostal church in South Africa has celebrated Easter Sunday with mass wedding ceremonies for around 3,000 people, with many of them entering into polygamous marriages.