Conclave not just an election, it's a liturgy
Updated 03/11/13 - Updates throughout
ROME - Elections are conducted differently in every country. Brazil insists on electronic voting machines while Canada sticks with paper ballots. In North Korea there's just one candidate and in Kenya half the population is running.
Michael Swan in Rome
The Catholic Register's Michael Swan reports from Rome to give a Canadian perspective on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the conclave to elect the next Pope.
VATICAN CITY - The Sistine Chapel's transformation from a world-famous tourist site to the prayer-filled space where cardinal electors will choose the next pope is under way.
VATICAN CITY - Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet said the conclave "opens up a new future" for the church and is a responsibility the cardinals see as "their main task."
VATICAN CITY - After completing their third pre-conclave meeting, the College of Cardinals still had not announced a date for the conclave. Instead, they used the March 4 and 5 meetings to discuss needs of the church.
VATICAN CITY - Cardinal-electors are caught in a Catch-22. They are eager to give the world a new pope; however, they need time to pick the right leader, said South Africa's cardinal.
Pope Benedict pledges obedience to next pope
VATICAN CITY - The Clementine Hall is traditionally where cardinals gather to bid farewell to popes at the end of a pontificate, but usually it happens when the pope is lying in state before his funeral.
Canonist explains 'rigid, highly formal' rules for electing pope
VATICAN CITY - The voting by cardinals to elect the next pope takes place behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, following a highly detailed procedure that underwent major revisions by Blessed John Paul II and a small, but very significant change, by Pope Benedict XVI.
Vatican guesthouse offers cardinals privacy, relaxed comfort
VATICAN CITY - When they are not in the Sistine Chapel, seated under Michelangelo's frescoes to vote for the next pope, the cardinal-electors will stay in a modern guesthouse that offers them both privacy and space to gather for relaxed conversation.
14 cardinals from Canada, US eligible to vote in conclave
VATICAN CITY - Here is a list of the 14 cardinals from Canada and the United States who are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI:
Cardinal Bevilacqua, retired Philadelphia archbishop, dies at age 88
PHILADELPHIA - Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, retired archbishop of Philadelphia, died Jan. 31 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where he resided.
According to the Philadelphia archdiocese, he died in his sleep at 9:15 p.m. He was 88. The archdiocese said he had been battling dementia and an undisclosed form of cancer.
Cardinal Bevilacqua headed the archdiocese from February 1988 to October 2003. Funeral arrangements were pending.