When my 14-year-old, who is not Catholic, asked me whether I "liked the new guy," I told her I didn't l know yet, but that it was unlikely that any guy I liked would ever get that job.

Whoever succeeds Pope Benedict faces challenges that will impact Catholics everywhere, but will the choice have any impact on Catholic doctrine, which many believe is suspended somewhere between the Council of Trent counter-reformation and Vatican II.

As the conclave gets underway I hope the Cardinals understand it is time for moral, compassionate and truly healing leadership at the Vatican. There is no better time than now.

I believe that if a man robs a bank, kills the teller, runs out the door and jumps into the getaway car, the driver is an accomplice to the murder. In the context of the Catholic sex abuse crisis, Ratzinger was behind the wheel of the getaway car for 30 years.

The theologian Hans Kung has always been very hard on Joseph Ratzinger’s papacy, and was particularly disappointed by Pope Benedict XVI’s last aud...

VATICAN CITY — On Monday, April 4, 2005, a priest walked up to the Renaissance palazzo housing the Vatican's doctrine department and asked the d...

This week, Pope Benedict XVI, the most powerful religious leader in the world, steps down from office. But questions about what comes next -- from the process of electing a new pope to who will succeed him -- remain unanswered. Meanwhile, the pool of electors and possible successors dwindles.

In one of his last major moves before the end of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI is considering changing the rules for the international meeting of card...

All we outside Vatican who cherish our church have to go by are hunches, beliefs, speculation, conjecture and opinions. We can examine the Ratzinger's legacy and theorize, but no one can know why he resigned. The pope is the pope, accountable to no one. Not even God.

I have known Joseph Ratzinger since we were both young men at the Second Vatican Council in 1963-64. After the death of John Paul the Great, I very much wanted his great friend Ratzinger to succeed him, old and frail of health as he was.

The pope's resignation has broken with the traditions of Roman centralism. The Catholic Church is moving towards a more democratic era.

The Pope’s resignation is greatest reform in the Church since the Vatican Council II, a turning point. After Benedict XVI’s decision to renounce t...

I'd like to imagine he took a sweeping look at his career as a priest and prelate, and while not discounting the value of this contributions as an intellectual, took note of the degree to which he permitted the "power" to snuff out so much of the "glory."

Benedict's discernment in appreciating the frailties of advancing years and his wisdom in acting accordingly are extraordinary. But the question of his legacy arises. How do we put his career into perspective?

Catholics may be surprised at how closely non-Catholics follow these very public moments in their Church, and how invested other Christians, and people of other faith and no faith are in the machinations of the Catholic Church.

The lack of conscience in the yes-men Benedict and Pope John Paul II appointed to positions of decision-making means that Catholics should not be holding their breath expecting the Holy Spirit to elect a decent leader. The church as we know it is finished and that is a blessing in itself.

Tax-exempt organizations are prohibited from endorsing candidates. The Internal Revenue Service should investigate the Archdiocese of New York for this violation.

Sister Dr. Margaret Farley has done the unforgivable. She's challenging the way the Vatican looks at sex. Not abortion, not contraception -- sex. Farley is, in a sense, using "dirty words."