The word comes from the Latin cum clave, meaning with a key. It is not a metaphor. In the thirteenth century, the citizens of Viterbo physically locked the cardinals into a palace, cut their food down to bread and water, and eventually removed the roof, because the election had already dragged on for years. It […]
For twelve years, the answer to this question was unusual. Pope Francis turned down the papal apartments in 2013 and moved into a room in a Vatican guesthouse, where he stayed until his death in 2025. His successor moved back. Pope Leo XIV lives in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace, the traditional papal […]
Quick Summary: The pope holds three jobs at once, and most descriptions collapse them into one. He is the bishop of a single diocese in Italy. He is the spiritual leader of roughly 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. And he is the sovereign of a 0.49 square kilometre state with its own diplomatic corps, currency arrangements, and […]