In his first night as pontiff emeritus, the Vatican says, Benedict slept peacefully. Perhaps not everyone else has. The cardinals have set their first General Congregation for Monday, March 4, not as some mistakenly wrote, to begin the conclave, but to consider the housekeeping tasks of the sede

It was a solemn leave-taking in Benedict’s last meeting as pontiff with the College of Cardinals, subdued, almost anticlimactic after the emotional encounter in Piazza San Pietro Wednesday. That it was unprecedented, really, can be seen in his solemn promise of “unconditional reverence and

The crowds were larger, the audience wider as Benedict XVI spoke at his final general audience Wednesday, Feb. 27. His candor was striking: “There have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the whole history of the church it has ever been - and the Lord seemed to sleep

A climate check on what the world is saying about the conclave.