Pope Francis

For the first time, the Catholic Church has a retired pope living alongside the reigning pope.

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Pope Francis has named nine cardinals to advise him on running the church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy.

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The Vatican says Pope Francis has paid a visit to the tomb of Peter, the church's first pontiff, who is buried beneath St. Peter's Basilica.

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Pope Francis is celebrating Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, which is filled with thousands of people waving olive branches and palm fronds.

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Pope Francis and former Pope Benedict have concluded their meeting at the papal retreat south of Rome, where Benedict has been living since becoming the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.

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Pope Francis urged princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people gathered for his installation Mass on Tuesday to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest, mapping out a clear focus of his priorities as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.

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New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith (R) will lead a Congressional delegation to the investiture of Pope Francis at the Vatican.

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Pope Francis will visit his predecessor at the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo next Saturday in a historic encounter that brings together the new pope and the first pope to resign in six centuries, the Vatican said in an announcement that outlines the church rites and political meetings for the first days of the papacy.

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In his first Mass as pontiff, Pope Francis has displayed his informal style as a pastor. He delivered an off-the-cuff homily in the Sistine Chapel today about the need to walk with God, build up his church and confess. He referred at one point to children building sand castles on the beach.

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Pope Francis has opened his pontificate with a visit to Rome's main basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, a day after cardinals elected him the first pope from the Americas in a bid to resurrect a Catholic Church in crisis.

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