“For us, as Hispanics who are suffering in the United States, it gives us great hope to believe that this next pope will be like Francis and stand with immigrants.”

Pope Leo XIV is a dual citizen of the United States and Peru, where he first served as a missionary and then as an archbishop. That made him the first pope from each country.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, O.S.A. has chosen to be known by Leo XIV.

It’s hard to describe the mood in Vatican City right now. There is great expectation and excitement but also a sense of unease.

Do we really trust the Holy Spirit to guide the election of a pope? What does that trust feel like? Zac, Ashley, Sebastian and JD talk about praying through and for the conclave.

What time will we see black or white smoke? How can I watch the chimney for white or black smoke?

That is the question ghosts really should be made to answer: Why remain where you have been most miserable?

As expected, the 133 cardinals who entered the Sistine Chapel May 7 failed to elect the next pope on their first ballot.

Now that the 133 cardinal electors are ensconced in the Sistine Chapel to elect a successor to Pope Francis, some potential candidates have come to the fore.

When else do we get an opportunity like this, to take someone at this level of leadership at face value?

As the Catholic Church prepares to elect a new leader, the editors of 'America' remember an extraordinary and beloved pontiff: Francis, a pope of monumental surprises.

For these next days of waiting, first and foremost for the cardinals in conclave and then also for all of us: Come, Holy Spirit, bringing wisdom, discernment and patience.

And what pressing questions they believe the Catholic Church faces today

What we know about the protocols being followed by the cardinals in conclave—and what happens next

Some five hours after the opening Mass, the cardinals were to process into the Sistine Chapel, swear an oath to uphold the conclave rules, listen to a final reflection and—if they chose to do so—conduct the first ballot.

Perhaps a revealing question is whether the church will continue the radical novelty Francis brought as a pope from a religious order—and whether this is the continuity needed now.

'America' is covering its 10th papal conclave this week—and while the technology has changed, the content remains much the same.

No one gathers Christians—Catholics and non-Catholics alike—throughout the world, however imperfectly, in the way the pope does. The world needs the pope.

German Catholic bishops say that even where the party has not tipped into extremism, it has failed to reform itself of such tendencies. They charge that a nationalism incompatible with Christianity has become the AfD’s animating ideology.