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.