Breaking: Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina elected Pope Francis I
UPDATE #2:
UPDATE #2:
With news that the actual conclave is set to begin on Tuesday, we are now giving readers the chance to make their final fantasy papal picks in our ongoing U.S. Catholic papal polls.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although by March 6 the world's cardinals had not set a date to begin the conclave to elect a new pope, they had begun discussing "the profile" required of the next pope to meet the needs of the church, the Vatican spokesman said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- 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.
"There might be a need for a long delay" as the cardinals try to gauge how much they do or don't know enough about each other, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier told Catholic News Service March 1, the first day of the "sede vacante."
No church leader wants to be away from his diocese for too long, he said, and no one wants to miss Easter, March 31.
An excellent essay in the UK Guardian by Keith Chappell on next month's meeting between the Irish bishops and Pope Benedict XVI regarding the sex abuse crisis in that country points to a big difference between this pope and the last: a far more robust response to child sex abuse.
Get it? Like CLUE, only with the pope instead of Miss Scarlet. And no, I'm not accusing the pope of actually killing the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, though I do think Benedict dealt a serious blow to the Anglican Communion, intentional or not, by creating a special process to admit large numbers of Anglicans to the Roman Catholic communion.
Taking a page from arrangements in the U.S., U.K, and Australia, Rome is preparing a legal process for Anglicans unhappy over women's ordination and a more permissive approach to homosexuality to enter the Roman Catholic Church--while keeping their Anglicanism intact.
We've all heard it, and maybe even thought it, before: Why doesn't the church sell of all its riches and give the proceeds to the poor?
Now many who share this idea are gathering on Facebook. Alberto Juesas Escudero of Spain started an online petition on Facebook calling on the Vatican to sell its treasure and buy food for Africa, Zenit reports (I couldn't find the petition myself). More than 40,000 people have joined him.
The Lefebvrite controversy seems to be moving from initial concern over its effects on Catholic-Jewish dialogue to fear among Catholics, especially in Europe, that the Vatican is backing away from the reforms of Vatican II.