When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after the conclave of March 2013, few ...

and Pope Benedict XVI. The selection of a new pope involves a considerable degree of secrecy: according to the encyclopedia, the area of the papal conclave is sealed for the duration of the ...

including Pope Benedict XV (tomb at right) and John Paul II. The tomb of Pope Paul VI lies in the extensive system of vaults called the Vatican Grottoes, built under St. Peter's Basilica in the 1500s.

Among the more extraordinary stories from the Vatican's 1,000-year-plus past is that of Benedict IX, a medieval pope whose reign was anything but stable. Benedict IX's papacy was marked by being ...