pope

The Roman Catholic Church has announced that Pope Francis was rushed to a hospital and will be admitted to the hospital.

There's still no Pope.

The Conclave to replace Pope Benedict is underway at the Vatican.  Millions around the world are watching for white smoke from the Sistine Chapel.

The Vatican Fire Brigade has added the chimney to the Sistine Chapel as the College of Cardinals prepares to begin the conclave the elect the next pope.

The news of Pope Benedict XVI's resignation quickly spread across social media platforms on Monday. While the pope remained silent on his recently opened Twitter account, his Facebook page (which we completely fabricated) got weird. Check out how (we imagine) the pope's "friends" reacted to his resignation:

UPDATE 3/13:  Details on Pope Francis The Prophesy of the Popes has been a favorite subject on programs like Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis and Coast to Coast AM.  Now that Pope Benedict XVI has announced he'll be stepping down at the end of February, it's a great time to review what has been foretold about the heads of the Roman Catholic church.

Pope Benedict XVI may be the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church with a tradition dating back more than 2,000 years, but that doesn't mean he's not up on the latest technology. In fact, the Vatican recently revealed the pope's Twitter handle and said that he'll start tweeting to followers on Dec. 12.

No one can accuse Pope Benedict XVI of being old-fashioned, even if his beliefs on doctrine are strictly traditionalist. The Pontiff proved he holds his traditional views in a very modern social landscape by praising the usefulness of social media communication.

The technologically-savvy Pope Benedict XVI has already encouraged priests to blog and helmed the launch of the Vatican’s YouTube channel and Pope2You mobile and Facebook apps. So it’s really no surprise that as part of his newly-launched news portal, the pontiff sent his first tweet recently — from the papal iPad. You can follow the Vatican on Twitter at @news_va_en.