Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Michael Swan, The Catholic Register

Michael is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register.

He is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University.

Follow him on Twitter @MmmSwan, or click here to email him.

As a theologian, Natalie MacMaster favours the toe-tapping, hand-clapping, step-dancing-around-the-kitchen-table school of theological inquiry. The Juno-Award-winning fiddler now has an honorary doctor of divinity degree to back up her theology.

TORONTO - The Renaissance has always been worth looking at — all those gorgeous paintings and striking sculptures — but it’s also worth a listen.

Smart journalists won’t tell you they chose this career because they wanted to experience history first hand. It sounds like the self-serving, grand fantasy of a delusional paranoid narcissist. So we lie.

If casual observers and ordinary Catholics were surprised by a Jesuit Pope, they weren’t alone. The world’s 17,000 Jesuits were surprised too.

Liberals in the Church never warmed to the papacy of Benedict XVI.

March 13, 2013

POPE FRANCIS

ROME - Argentina has given the world a Pope.

ROME - St. Peter's Basilica broke out into sustained applause Tuesday morning when hours before the start of the conclave Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the college of cardinals, thanked God for the "brilliant pontificate" of the 265th successor of St. Peter.

Rome - Cardinals exited the final session of their pre-conclave discussions on the state of the Church just before 1:00 p.m. on Monday. Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet smiled and waved to reporters as he strolled through St. Peter's Square and then to lunch.

Updated 03/11/13 - Corrections

ROME - The process of picking a pope so far has been something like a synod and something like a retreat, said Toronto's Cardinal Thomas Collins just before celebrating Sunday Mass at his titular church in Rome.

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.