The pope does not have to be a cardinal to be elected. The last pope not to be was Pope Urban VI in 1378. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires, became the first pope from the Americas ...

The Vatican used to be part of the so-called Papal States, areas of Italy under the pope's reign for hundreds of years, until they were conquered during the course of Italian unification in the ...

As Catholic cardinals meet to choose a new pope, they will face a big question: Is it time, after three consecutive non-Italian pontiffs, to give the papacy back to the nation that held it for most of ...

Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV ... has dual citizenship in the United States and Peru.He marks the fourth in a row from a country other than Italy. Francis was born in Argentina ...