Tributes have come in from around the world, with Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI offering prayers and US President Barack Obama praising Pope Shenouda as an "advocate for tolerance and religious dialogue".
From a humble background in Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio has risen to the head of the Roman Catholic Church as Pope Francis.
The outgoing head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, has hinted he will withdraw into seclusion after stepping down at the end of this month.
Some 2 million people are also expected to flock to the city in late July for World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that Pope Francis is scheduled to attend.
Authorities were still taking no chances and more than 5, 000 police have been patrolling Athens with demonstrators blocked from coming near the city's Roman Catholic cathedral before the Pope's scheduled appearance.
More than 2, 000 cardinals, archbishops, bishops and priests, as well as more than 10, 000 of the Roman Catholic faithful, joined the pope in celebrating Mass in St.
With the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires as pope, the Roman Catholic Church enters the next chapter of her history.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said it was "deplorable" that as the time for the Roman Catholic cardinals to elect a new pope approaches, a rash of "often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories" has appeared.
The German-born Pope added that the Roman Catholic Church remained committed to fighting anti-Semitism.
The 115 scarlet-clad cardinal-electors of the Roman Catholic Church who will choose the next Pope have shut themselves away from the outside world and started their deliberations in earnest.
Cardinals, many of them among the electors who chose him to be the Roman Catholic church's first Latin American pope, sat on chairs during the ceremony held under hazy skies on a breezy day.
At the beginning of 2000, the head of Germany's Roman Catholic bishops raised the possibility that the Pope might step down because of ill health, but this was dismissed as it would have meant him not leading jubilee celebrations which he considered an important milestone.
Pope Benedict XVI has amended Roman Catholic church law so that the conclave selecting his successor can be brought forward, the Vatican says.
EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as "papabili" contenders to the throne.
To move forward, the Roman Catholic Church and its leader, the next pope, ultimately must handle child sexual abuse among its clergy with transparency and honesty, rather than internally and secretly.
There was widespread speculation before the conclave that the Roman Catholic Church was about to elect its first black pope from Africa.
The news about the timing of the conclave comes as the Pope accepted the resignation of the Roman Catholic Church's highest cleric in Britain, Cardinal Keith O'Brien.
Francis, the 266th pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, is inheriting an institution struggling to deal with the fallout of years of child sexual abuse by priests and infighting within the Vatican's central administration problems that have alienated believers.
The ruling comes a day after the Roman Catholic church found new hope in its newly elected Pope Francis, formerly known as Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, a moderate Jesuit known for bridging the differences between conservatives and reformers and being liberal on social justice.
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All Roman Catholic bishops are obliged to tender their resignations to the Pope on their 75th birthday.
In 1963, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the late Pope John XXIII as head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, will thank the Pope for his work and say he is standing down with "astonishing courage and humility".
The Vatican has opened the archives of Pope Pius XI, who presided over the Roman Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) Filipinos in Asia's largest predominantly Roman Catholic nation attended Mass on Sunday with their church awkwardly having no pope for the first time in 600 years and prayed for the smooth rise of a successor to Benedict XVI to lead an embattled institution.
Under the Roman Catholic Church's canon law, it is technically possible for a pope to resign, but no pope has ever left office voluntarily in modern times.
Pope Benedict - the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - was elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church in one of the fastest conclaves in history.
ROME Whatever challenges the Roman Catholic Church faces in 2013, they pale compare to those that prompted the resignation 598 years ago of Pope Gregory XII.
In 1980, Pope John Paul II arrived in France on the first visit by the head of the Roman Catholic Church since the early 19th century.
In Argentina, the push to legalize same-sex marriage met with fierce opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio -- then the archbishop of Buenos Aires and now the pope -- engaging in a notorious war of words with the government over the issue.
The Mass marked the role played by the Roman Catholic Church in toppling communism, particularly that of Poland's Karol Wojtyla, then newly-elected as Pope John Paul II.
BBC: The event is being marked by three days of celebrations
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