While an African pope would be a historically stunning development, just one of the drawbacks is that no African cardinal holds a major office in the Vatican.

Now predominantly Muslim, North Africa was once a Christian heartland, producing Catholic popes who left their mark on the Church to this day. Their papacies were in the era of the Roman Empire, which ...

The last African pontiff was Pope Gelasius, who died in 496 after leading the church for a little over three years. Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general for the Synod of Bishops Cardinal Mario ...

From St. Peter to Pope Francis, the history of the papacy in the Catholic Church spans more than two thousand years. The pope ...