When you’re the emperor Augustus, they let you do it.

The word itself predates Christianity, but the conclave with its secretive deliberations and ancient trappings still captures ...

Here are some of the key words and phrases that will be used throughout the interregnum, especially the conclave to elect the ...

Pope Francis did call out Hamas as “evil” and called for them to return Israeli hostages. Yet these moments of moral clarity ...

Rome was famous for rejecting the idea of kingship. For almost 500 years, Rome was a staunch Republic, with rules in place to ...

Pope Francis's death sets an ancient machinery into motion. Soon, with a puff of smoke, the last absolute monarchy in Europe ...

Pope Francis's death sets an ancient machinery into motion. Soon, with a puff of smoke, the last absolute monarchy in Europe ...

Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church’s teaching in areas such as the death penalty and nuclear weapons, upheld it in ...

When did the church get involved? In ancient Rome, marriage was a civil affair governed by imperial law. But when the empire collapsed, in the 5th century, church courts took over and elevated ...

The controversial law of sacrilege — which carries the same maximum penalty of life in jail as murder — still exists in South Australia, but some say it shouldn't.

As Amazonian bishops gathered at the Vatican on Oct. 21, 2019, a man entered a nearby church after dawn and stole three ...

Among the ancient Hebrews, men were free to take several wives; married Greek and Roman men were free to satisfy ... The shift from "common law" marriages — where two people (or their families ...