The pope’s portrait is everywhere these days. Here, we found it in a store of liturgical paraphernalia in central Rome. There were also many other symbols around, as a testament to how religion and ...

Pope Francis is breaking with tradition when it comes to where he will be laid to rest – choosing a light-filled basilica ...

Pope Francis to be buried in Saint Mary Major church, not Saint Peter's basilica, in a break with tradition and sign of humility.

The conclave to select the next pontiff has not started yet, but meetings to set the agenda were underway, and the church released the first image of Francis’ tomb.

In antiquity and now, inconsistency and illogicality lie at the heart of the human effort to imagine what happens when we’re dead ...

Excavations on unpromising mounds in the Iraqi desert revealed Sumer’s earliest city. Surviving relics and a rebuilt temple ...

Alongside the gossip and the gallows humor, the ancient and solemn rituals continue,” Chiara Barzini writes from Italy.