Pope Francis died early Easter Monday, less than twelve hours after the last evening Masses had been offered in Roman parishes. On Easter Sunday evening, the assigned Gospel passage is from Luke 24, in which the disciples on the road to Emmaus meet the Risen Jesus. When the late Holy Father’s body is transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica on April 23, Emmaus will be read again at Masses offered there, the assigned passage for Easter Wednesday.

During the March 2013 interregnum following the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI, and in the conclave itself, proponents of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, as Benedict’s successor described him as an orthodox, tough-minded, courageous reformer who would clean the Vatican’s Augean stables while maintaining the theological and pastoral line that had guided the Church since John Paul II’s election in 1978: dynamic orthodoxy in service to a revitalized proclamation of the Gospel, in a world badly needing the witness and charity of a Church of missionary disciples.

Pope Francis passed away at 7:35 a.m. local time on Easter Monday, April 21, at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, as confirmed by the Holy See Press Office. The 88-year-old pontiff led the Catholic Church for a little more than 12 years.

The entire Church mourns the death of the Holy Father, Pope Francis. In cathedrals, basilicas, parish churches, shrines, and chapels the Holy Eucharist will be offered for the repose of his soul. Communities and individuals will ask God to bestow his infinite mercy on the man who served the Church as Bishop of Rome.

Happy Easter! Alleluia! Christians around the world are celebrating the miraculous events of almost 2000 years ago: that Jesus of Nazareth was raised to a new and glorious life after having been crucified, dead, and buried. This joyful event was understood as the proof that His seemingly shameful death on a cross was actually the culmination of a life-long sacrifice to God the Father.

Oftentimes in the cycles of history, what was once old and unquestioned becomes lost and forgotten, and when it is rediscovered, it becomes something new again. And what was in its day revolutionary eventually becomes the dominant paradigm, so taken for granted that its origins as a break or a rupture fall into oblivion...

Some bright morning when this life is over / I'll fly away / To that home on God's celestial shore / I'll fly away...

The College of Cardinals announced Monday that the conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor will begin on May 7, as the Church enters the final preparatory phase for choosing its 267th pope.The pivotal proclamation came following a morning general congregation meeting at the Vatican, where cardinals have been gathering daily since Pope Francis’ burial at St. Mary Major Basilica on April 26.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles, will be a controversial participant in Friday’s ceremony to close Pope Francis’ coffin, and Saturday’s papal burial. The 89-year-old cardinal, who in 2013 was briefly relieved of administrative and public duties in the LA archdiocese by his successor in office over his handling of abuse cases, will be among eight cardinals required to attend the April 25 rite in St. Peter’s Basilica to close the pope’s coffin...

Back in 1986, researchers Bob Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney took infant rhesus and Japanese macaque monkeys and switched them shortly after birth. Each was placed in a socially similar but acoustically different environment. The question: Would the monkeys develop regional vocalizations that were contrary to how their species normally communicated? Can animals actually develop regional accents or language in the same way a Boston human will inevitably pronounce park as pahk?