Pope

May 6, 2025 4:21 PM

Cardinals enter seclusion ahead of secret conclave to elect new pope

Cardinals who will take part in the secret conclave to elect a new Catholic pope began checking into two Vatican hotels on Tuesday, where they will be barred from contact with the outside world as they decide who should succeed Pope Francis. The conclave will start behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel on Wednesday afternoon, with all cardinals under the age of 80 able to vote on who should be the next leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church. The race to succeed Francis, who died last ...

Pope tells priests to keep it snappy or people will nod off

Priests should keep their homilies short and speak for a maximum of eight minutes to prevent members of the congregation from nodding off, Pope Francis said on Wednesday. The homily, or message delivered by a celebrant during a church service, “must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling”, the pope said during his weekly audience. It should not last longer than eight minutes “because after that time attention is lost and people fall asleep, and they are right,” said the 87-year-old p...