In 1958, the papal election took a bizarre turn when white smoke was followed by black smoke—an unprecedented event in ...

Just three months after Pope John XXIII’s election, he announced he would launch an ecumenical council, a major undertaking that could enact sweeping changes in the life of the church.

Pope John XXIII signs his encyclical "Peace on Earth" ("Pacem in Terris") at the Vatican in this 1963 file photo. (CNS photo) A Reflection for the Feast of Pope St. John XXIII.

VATICAN CITY, June 3 -- The disinterred body of Pope John XXIII, the much-loved pontiff who initiated radical changes in the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s, was wheeled through St. Peter's ...

St. Francis, as Pope John noted, had taught the path to living well on earth, and thus experience a foretaste of paradise, is to be found in holiness of life.

Sometimes history looks a little more like spaghetti than a straight timeline of events. And the case of Pope John XXIII — and the case of the Johns before him — can be no different. I’m ...

On October 11, 2022 Pope Francis will celebrate Mass to mark the 60th Anniversary of the opening of Vatican II. This date also marks the feast day of Saint Pope John XIII, the pope who opened the ...

Minutes before the Pope’s words, the press office of the Vatican had issued a radio announcement informing the world of John XXIII’s historic announcement, unaware of a delay in the Mass at St ...

At a memorial Mass commemorating John XXIII in 2006, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone shared with the faithful the Pope’s Daily Decalogue: 1. Only for today, I will seek to live the livelong day ...

Here are some quotes from John XXIII’s opening speech to the Second Vatican Council, delivered 60 years ago today. (Note that the pope, as was the custom of the day, refers to himself using the ...