Religious leaders are working with the governor’s office to develop Thursday morning’s interfaith service in memory of the Boston Marathon bombing victims. President Obama is scheduled to attend the service, which will be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End at 11 a.m. The cathedral can seat about 1,700 people. Laura Everett, director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, an ecumenical organization, said those organizing the service hope to represent the breadth of religious traditions in the city and find “a common language for us to pray together.” Read full story

A major grant will help Hebrew College expand pastoral care training for rabbinical students, the school announced today.The $290,000 award will support the expansion of courses on on caregiving, spirituality and pastoral counseling.Hebrew College -- Boston’s largest and most comprehensive institution for community Jewish education and home to the area’s only rabbinical school -- has also received $200,000 to provide financial aid for students in the master’s in Jewish education program, beginning with students who matriculate this fall.  Read full story

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Boston has reversed course and decided not to build a chapel on land it purchased on Boylston Street in Brookline.Church leaders decided that the project, which would have included the construction of an underground parking garage , would cost too much, said Julie Berry, the volunteer spokeswoman for the church’s Boston stake, a regional administrative unit akin to a Catholic diocese. The church will shop for a new location. Read full story

Each of the cardinals has to swear an oath of secrecy, promising not to reveal the substance of what went on during the conclave that elected the pope Wednesday; the penalty for breaking it is excommunication. But in an interview with the crew that helps design and illustrate his blog, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston today shared a few details about the experience of participating. Read full story

A collective cheer rose from beneath thousands of umbrellas, as onlookers mashed in St. Peter’s Square saw white smoke billow Wednesday evening from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, signaling the selection of a leader for the Roman Catholic Church. The basilica bells rang out, phone cameras flashed, and a flock of white birds flew over the roof of the Sistine Chapel. “I gotta call home, I gotta call home,” cried out Margaret Lynaugh, of New Jersey. Read full story

A plume of smoke -- by all appearances, black in hue -- is arising from a Vatican rooftop at 11:40 a.m. in Rome (6:40 a.m. Boston time). That would suggest the 115 cardinals cloistered in the Sistine Chapel have yet to decide on a successor to Pope Benedict XVI.The morning session of the conclave was expected to continue till noon in Rome, so the cardinals appear to have wrapped up earlier than scheduled. They will now take a four-hour break before resuming their prayerful deliberations.  Read full story

There will be no new pope Tuesday. Billowing black smoke ushering forth from the rooftop of the Sistine Chapel signaled that cardinals had not selected a successor to Pope Benedict XVI during the first session of their papal conclave. The 115 cardinals who will choose the new pope -- including Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley -- are expected to resume their deliberations at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday (4:30 a.m. Boston time). Read full story

The gregarious leader of the Roman Catholic Church in New York is predicting a successor to Pope Benedict XVI could be chosen by Thursday, according to an ABC News report. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, one of 115 cardinals who will select the new pontiff, wrote to priests in his archdiocese that his “guess” was that a pope would be chosen by Thursday night and installed early next week. A plume of black smoke rose Tuesday evening above St. Peter’s Square, signaling that no pope had been chosen during the first session of the papal conclave inside the Sistine Chapel.  Read full story

The princes of the Roman Catholic Church gathered in the Basilica of St. Peter this morning, opening the elaborate ritual to elect the next pope with a formal Mass in Latin. The cardinals, clad in red choir robes, sat arrayed around the central altar, Bernini’s 95-foot canopy towering overhead. The cobblestoned streets around the Vatican vibrated with the sound of chanting and organ music from the service, which was broadcast on Jumbotrons on St. Peter’s Square. Under thick rain clouds, tourists and pilgrims gathered to watch. Read full story

The Vatican allowed reporters on Saturday afternoon an unforgettable glimpse inside the Sistine Chapel before the cardinals lock themselves inside and cast their ballots for pope. The chapel is normally lit only by natural light filtering in through the windows, lending an ancient and melancholy air. Saturday, bright lights were strung from the walls so work crews could do their jobs.It felt almost like a movie set, with the blue sky and red garments in Michaelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fairly burning on the wall over the altar. Read full story