During the celebration of the Easter Vigil, which included the reading of a message from Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals and Prefect of the Congregation ...

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Popes’s Vicar to the City of rome, will replace the Holy Father at leading throngs of faithful gathered at Rome's Collosium, the once site of massive Christian persecution, ...

In 1981, Pope John Paul II named Cardinal Ratzinger as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The cardinal’s conservative stance drew him closer to John Paul and he became one of ...

Cardinal Grech said Cardinal Ratzinger was misunderstood in Rome, too, where, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he had a reputation of being rigid and inflexible. Pope ...

COMMENTARY: Aside from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, no curial cardinal achieved more on critically important issues than did the Chilean cardinal, who died Oct. 3. Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez of Chile ...

ROME — Pope Francis vowed Friday to provide justice to victims of clergy sexual abuse and German authorities called for further investigation after an independent audit faulted retired Pope Benedict ...

In some ways, last week's news was not particularly new: another independent report about sex abuse in the Catholic Church. We've had them from Pennsylvania, from France, and now from Germany's ...

I was rushing out as the crowd was rushing in. It was about six minutes after the bells began to toll over St. Peter’s Square, confirming that the smoke was white and we indeed had a Papam. The ...

“Simple and humble worker” had served as head of the Vatican office on church doctrine. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the first German pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church in almost five ...

NPR's Eric Weiner reports from Vatican City in Rome, where the cardinals have chosen Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany as successor to the late Pope John Paul II. Thousands of faithful gathered ...