On “Inside the Vatican” this week, veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell and host Colleen Dulle give an update on the former pope’s health. The rest of the podcast looks at three of Pope Francis’ Christmas messages.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's medical condition remains serious, but the Vatican reported Thursday that he is "lucid and alert."

The only thing certain is that the most important ritual following the death of a pope—a conclave to elect a new one—does not apply.

The emeritus pope Benedict XVI has suffered a decline in health, Pope Francis said today at the end of his general audience. He asked for prayers for the 95-year-old former pontiff.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI wrote that Vatican II was both meaningful and necessary for the post-war Church, in a letter to a conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

Canon lawyers are proposing new laws that will delineate the rules on papal retirement. Retired Pope Benedict XVI has had to trailblaze a path, as the last pope to step down was in 1294.