But what exactly is a cardinal? - High dignitary - A cardinal (from the Latin "cardinalis", or principal) is a high dignitary of the Catholic Church chosen by the pope to assist him in his government.

Cardinals chose a new pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics on Thursday, sending up white smoke from the Sistine Chapel on their second day of voting in conclave. Sworn to secrecy, on pain of ...

The Chicago-born pontiff is the first American to lead the Catholic Church, and while his positions on some of the church’s ...

I don’t think he’s the kind of man who sends coded messages,” Cardinal Michael Czerny says in this exclusive interview with ...

Prevost, 69, was born and studied in Chicago, receiving a degree in Theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

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The process to elect the next pope will begin on May 7. ROME -- Two cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church who will be voting in the upcoming papal conclave sat down with ABC News to discuss the ...

Conservative-leaning Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana would, like Ambongo, be the Catholic Church's first contemporary African pope if selected. But the Ghanaian, who was the first man from his ...

Pope Leo XIV’s multicultural and missionary background will enrich his papacy and bring a unique perspective to his role as ...

Pope Francis’ emphasis on reaching out to the "peripheries" of the Catholic Church and ... has selected about 80% of the 135 church leaders – called cardinals – who will vote for the next ...

Furthermore, every member of the flock is obliged by the tenets of the Church to ... to elevate a Catholic leader who is a uniter will only be possible if the cardinals can prevail over their ...

The key question facing the cardinals ... is the rootedness in Christ that moves the church out of itself and into the world. The great French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain once said ...