‘Pope Benedict is widely expected to soon announce his first batch of cardinals, the prelates who help him run the Roman Catholic Church and act as his top advisors.
Some Vatican sources believe he may announce the names of new members of what is arguably the world’s most exclusive men’s club as early as this Wednesday […]
‘Pope Benedict XVI warned a French Catholic community to be careful about whom it recruits, following a series of headline-grabbing incidents involving its members.
The Congregation of Saint John should learn from past experiences and be more careful to check the religious callings of new monks, the Pope told some 1,800 members of the community present […]
‘A priest who once worked at the Vatican and was purportedly good friends with the late
Pope John Paul II has returned to Canada to face criminal charges involving sex with children decades ago, police told AFP.
Monsignor Bernard Prince, 71, was arrested upon his arrival at the Montreal airport from Italy late Tuesday, said Sergeant Kristine […]
‘A planned papal trip to Turkey will be a critical test of Christian-Muslim relations, a top Roman Catholic official said Wednesday, citing a priest’s slaying that a Vatican newspaper has linked to protests over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
“Now (the trip) becomes very serious,” Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Vatican’s office for Christian unity, […]
‘Laura Bush said Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern over violence linked to the prophet drawings in their meeting Thursday, with the pontiff calling for peace and tolerance.
“He talked to me about the worries of terrorism, the worries right now of the violence in Beirut and Damascus and other cities,” Mrs. Bush said after the 20-minute […]
‘A busy First Lady Laura Bush will meet with Pope Benedict before leading the official U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics, the White House said yesterday.
Bush will meet tomorrow with the Pope at the Vatican before paying a courtesy call later in the day on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. While in Rome, she also […]
‘Have you heard the one about Michael Jackson and the Pope?
Turns out, they haven’t either.
On Monday, an Italian priest who runs a music label specializing in religious songs indicated that Jackson might be one of several artists to sing on a CD made up of Pope John Paul II’s prayers set to music.
“It is only […]
‘Signalling a change of attitude from his predecessor,
Pope Benedict XVI has suggested the head of the powerful Roman Catholic Jesuit order can step down, an Italian news report said.
In a letter to the worldwide Jesuit order, its General Peter Hans Kolvenbach has said the pope had given permission to call a general assembly in January […]
‘Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that he hoped the blood shed by a Roman Catholic priest slain in Turkey over the weekend would become the “seeds of hope” to build a lasting fraternity between peoples.
Benedict sent telegrams of condolences to church authorities in Italy and Turkey following the killing Sunday of the Rev. Andrea Santoro, […]
‘Pope John Paul II refused to consider retirement despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease because he worried it might set a “dangerous precedent,” according to a new book by a Vatican cardinal.
Cardinal Julian Herranz writes that the late pope’s longtime secretary told him John Paul feared “creating a dangerous precedent for his successors because someone could […]
‘SECRET discussions between the Roman Catholic Church and Michael Jackson to put the prayers of Pope John Paul II to music appeared to be in disarray last night after the singer fled members of the press who had got wind of the project.
Pope John Paul, who died last April, wrote 24 religious prayers and chants […]
‘Pope Benedict XVI now has a place to call home in Central Florida.
St. Paul Catholic Church will celebrate tonight its designation as one of only 60 “minor basilicas” in the United States and just the second in Florida to have the honor of being a “home away from Rome” for the pope.
Tonight, the oldest Catholic […]
‘The Vatican is defending its imposition of a copyright on papal pronouncements but says there is no bar on dissemination and publication of the pope’s works by the news media.The Vatican publishing house Libreria Editrice Vaticana set down the position earlier this week in a statement after the Italian newspaper La Stampa reported that a […]
‘Pope Benedict XVI warned in his first encyclical Wednesday that sex without unconditional love risked turning men and women into merchandise.
In the 71-page document “God is Love,” Benedict explored the relationship between the erotic love between man and woman, referred to by the term “eros,” and the Greek word for the unconditional, self-giving love, “agape” […]