Catholic World News

A spokesman for the US bishops' conference has flatly contradicted the claim by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that the health-care reform plan now under discussion on Capitol Hill would not...

The Washington DC office of Catholic Charities will drop health-care coverage for the spouses of its employees, in order to avoid clashing with a new law that requires equal treatment of same-sex...

The Diocese of London, Ontario, has announced plans for a "confessional blitz" on March 3, encouraging the faithful to return to the sacrament of reconciliation. All priests of the diocese have been...

Health-care directives released by the US Catholic bishops last November are likely to give rise to conflicts at American hospitals in end-of-life cases, the Kaiser Health News reports. The bishops'...

Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns, Ireland, has called upon the parishioners of his diocese to help pay over €10.5 million ($14.2 million) in expenses from sex-abuse lawsuits. That figure reflects the...

A Montana judge has ruled that a local public high school was justified in ordering a student to remove references to her Christian faith from a valedictory speech. Because the student, Renee...

The annual meeting of a Vatican-Islamic dialogue commission concluded with a joint statement denouncing the use of religion as a pretext for political violence. The joint commission formed by...

The president of the Ugandan Catholic bishops' conference has asked for international help to rebuild the northern section of his country, which has been devastated by years of civil war. Archbishop...

Leaders of the Salesian religious order have promised a thorough investigation of charges that some students were sexually abused while studying at a Salesian school in the 1960s. The inquiry has...

Tahir ul-Qadri, a Pakistani Islamic leader, has issued a fatwa condemning terrorism. His 600-page statement is a detailed rejection of the ideology that supports Al Qaida, as well as a condemnation...

The radical inequality of women in the Islamic world can only change if Muslims learn to re-think the message of the Qu'ran, argues Father Samir Khalil Samir, the Jesuit specialist on Islamic...

Speaking in Houston, Texas-- where Senator John F. Kennedy delivered a famous speech on religion during his presidential campaign in 1960-- Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput has offered a serious...

The Vatican has appointed a new diplomatic representative to handle relations with the Church in China, according to the respected Roman news agency I Media. Msgr. Ante Jozic, a Croatian native who...

Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Spain in November, his chief spokesman has confirmed. The Holy Father will preside at the consecration of the famous Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, and...

In a conversation with editors of the Washington Post, Archbishop Donald Wuerl defended the decision to eliminate health-care benefits for the spouses of employees at Catholic Charities. The...

Pope Benedict XVI hopes to bring about a "reform of the reform" by suggesting rather than requiring changes in the liturgy, the papal master of ceremonies has revealed. In a revealing interview...

Militant homosexuals in the Netherlands have called off plans to disrupt worship at a Catholic parish in Den Bosch, after receiving assurances that the parish would not deny Communion to open...

The House of Lords has voted to allow churches to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. The proposal, introduced as an amendment to the Equality Bill, would not require religious...

Continuing his series of weekly talks on the great figures of Church history, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about St. Bonaventure (1217- 1274) at his regular Wednesday public audience on March 3. St....

The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have called for an end to the television broadcast of ads promoting the government's campaign to encourage condom use. The ads have a destructive impact on...

At the conclusion of his regular weekly public audience on March 3, Pope Benedict took time to greet visitors from Sophia University in Japan and participants in a Vatican conference on pastoral...

The Observer, the student newspaper at the University of Notre Dame, has declined to print a column that defends Church teachings on homosexuality activity. The Observer turned down a column by...

The head of an Irish agency concerned with child abuse has said that he is confident that sexual abuse by Catholic priests is "coming to an end," as the Irish bishops adopt program to protect...

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has issued “Choosing the Common Good,” a brief statement that presents “some of the key themes of Catholic Social Teaching in the light of some...

In Rome for his ad limina visit, the president of the Uganda Bishops' Conference has called the lure of indigenous beliefs one of the “major challenges” facing the Church in that nation. “Not all...

The keynote speaker at the National Catholic Education Association convention in April is radio celebrity Garrison Keillor, a proponent of abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and same-sex...

The bishops of Nebraska are urging Governor Dave Heineman to reconsider his opposition to state funded prenatal care for illegal immigrants. “Denying prenatal coverage care in these circumstances...

A 30-year-old Connecticut man has alleged that he was abused by Father John Castaldo, a former priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, between 1989 and 1992. In 2001, the priest pled guilty to...

Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln consecrated the $14-million chapel of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter’s seminary in Denton, Nebraska, on March 3. The Fraternity’s priests celebrate the...

Diplomatic representatives of Israel and the Holy See, who are working to finalize a juridical accord establishing the rights of the Church in the Holy Land, have agreed to postpone a major...

Archbishop Murphy Pakiam of Kuala Lumpur has denounced a decision by the Malaysian government not to prosecute journalists who desecrated the Eucharist. The attorney general of Malaysia, Abdul...

Leaders of the traditionalist Anglican Church in America have announced their decision to make a formal request for entry into the Roman Catholic Church under the provisions of the Pope's apostolic...

A Spanish theologian has taken issue with the claim by a renowned exorcist that there is Satanic influence even within the Vatican. In a book released in Italy last month, Memoirs of an Exorcist,...

Zambia's President Frederick Chiluba is trying to silence the voice of the Catholic Church by loosing an ad hominem attack, Lusaka's Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu has charged. The archbishop spoke...

A Mexican woman has reported that she had an affair with the late Father Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, in the 1970s, and bore two of his children. Blanca Lara Gutierrez...

An Italian man who serves as an usher at the Vatican, already facing criminal charges for graft, now may face additional charges that he directed a homosexual prostitution ring. Angelo Balducci, a...

Vatican-watcher Sandro Magister of L'Espresso, who has been critical of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's performance as Secretary of State, provides a detailed critique in his latest column. He contrasts...

In the seven years since the Iraq War was launched, 2,000 Christians have been murdered and 600,000 have fled Iraq, according to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of...

Following the European Commission’s approval of a genetically-modified potato for industrial purposes, the Vatican newspaper has explained that the Church has taken no position on the issue of...

Christian Solidarity Worldwide is warning that Nepal’s new constitution, which will go into effect in May, may not permit conversions from one religion to another. The current draft language...

In a March 4 interview, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), the Catholic author of an amendment barring the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions in health care reform, made clear he would not support...

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople has received the first Cardinal Paul Poupard Foundation Prize because of his “engagement in favor of safeguarding creation.” The prize was...

The bishops of the United States have called for the extension and eventual expansion of trade preferences for Haiti in order to promote “long-term sustainable development that coordinates different...

Progress toward the beatification of Pope John Paul II may be delayed, a Polish newspaper reports, because doctors examining a reported miracle have been unable to reach a consensus. A Vatican...

CorrectionThe story below, first posted by CWN on March 5, is incorrect. CWN regrets the error. In the interview with Politico on which our story was based, Richard Doerflinger was speaking about...

Speaking on March 5 to the bishops of Uganda, who were concluding their ad limina visit to Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said that as shepherds they should remain close to their flocks, showing a paternal...

Pope Benedict XVI has set up a special commission to weigh the authenticity of the reported apparitions by the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, according to Italian media reports. The commission will...

Father Ciro Benedettini, the deputy director of the Vatican press office, declined to comment on new reports of abuse in a boys' choir in Regensburg. These reports are particularly sensitive because...

Israeli police clashed with rock-throwing Palestinians on Jerusalem's Temple Mount on March 5. The confrontation-- the second such incident in less than a week-- came after an Islamic preacher at...

Three Catholic bishops were among the activists arrested in Chennai, India on March 5 during a procession calling for an end to discrimination against Christian dalits. Archbishop A. M. Chinnappa...

In a lengthy statement released in anticipation of the coming national elections, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have decried a breakdown of trust in public institutions and called for...

Dutch Catholics are organizing a petition drive in support of a parish priest who refused to distribute Communion to homosexual activists, and criticizing the bishop who apparently pressured the...

"It's now becoming clear that Barack Obama is willing to put everything on the table in order to be the president who passes health-care reform," writes Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans...

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the rebel group whose bloody raids drove hundreds of thousands of civilians into refugee camps in northern Uganda, has now opened up operations in the Central...

An Irish bishop has caused a stir by saying that he was uncomfortable kissing the Pope's ring when the Irish bishops met with the Pontiff in February. Bishop Bill Murphy of Kerry said he was "rather...

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the Pontifical Household, delivered the second of four Lenten sermons on March 5, with Pope Benedict XVI among those in attendance. The Capuchin preacher...

"In an era in which institutional authority of all sorts has collapsed, a religious leader who wants to move opinion has to compete in a secular marketplace of ideas." Thus writes John Allen, in a...

Muslim gangs attacked three villages in central Nigeria and killed up to 400 Christians in pre-dawn attacks on March 7. “The shooting was just meant to bring people from their houses, and then when...

Violence against Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul-- the modern name for ancient Nineveh-- has led over 1,000 Christian families to flee in the past ten days, Syrian Catholic Archbishop...

Three weeks after the Philippine government distributed condoms for Valentine’s Day, the nation’s health secretary has accepted an invitation by two bishops to take part in a public debate on condom...

As part of the continental mission launched by the bishops of Latin America in 2007, he Brazilian bishops’ conference will distribute one million Bibles to families that cannot afford them. “The...

A preschooler at a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Denver will not be permitted to re-enroll next year because the child is being raised by two lesbians. “Parents living in open discord...

Caritas Internationalis, the international consortium of Catholic relief agencies, is urging the international community to increase legal protection for migrant domestic workers, some of whom are...

"The possibility of conversion demands that we learn to read the events of life in the light of faith," Pope Benedict XVI said at his midday audience on Sunday, March 7. The Pope said that it is...

The Vatican has asked bishops throughout the world to encourage participation in the annual Good Friday collection that is dedicated to the needs of the Church in the Holy Land. In a letter to...

Government programs can never replace private charity, Pope Benedict XVI said at an audience on March 6. The Holy Father met on Saturday, March 6, with members of the Italian volunteer group...

Cardinal Walter Kasper said that the sex-abuse scandals now arising in several countries point to the need for "a wider analysis, for maybe the whole Church and not just one country." "We have...

Pope Benedict XVI visited the parish of St. John of the Cross, in northern Rome, to celebrate Mass on Sunday, March 7. In his homily the Holy Father said that Lent is an ideal time for the faithful...

Church officials in Kuala Lumpur have accepted an apology from the editors of Al Islam magazine for the desecration of the Eucharist by reporters working for the journal. The two reporters, who...

Pressure is mounting on Church officials in Germany to provide a thorough accounting of sex-abuse complaints. And the country's justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, has criticized...

Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns, Ireland-- who last week asked the faithful to help pay for sex-abuse settlement-- has said that no money from parish collections will be used for that purpose....

The New York Times has published a profile of Garry Krupp, the founder and head of the Pave the Way Foundation, which has gained prominence by publicizing the evidence that Pope Pius XII worked to...

Japan has a skyrocketing suicide rate. The apostolic nuncio there, Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, tells L'Espresso thinks the acceptance of suicide reflects the absence of faith. He...

In a lengthy address delivered in Canada on March 6, Cardinal William Levada, prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stated that the reception of communities of Anglicans into...

In the weeks following a February attack on Christian churches and homes in Pakistan’s largest city, police have questioned 40 Christians and arrested five, according to a report published by the...

Attorneys representing an alleged former lover of Father Marcial Maciel and her children have severed ties with the family because their recent public accusations differed "in some substantial...

Gov. Gary Herbert of Utah has signed a law under which women who seek abortions from someone other than a doctor may be charged with homicide. The Utah legislature passed the law after a 17-year-old...

The Kansas House of Representatives is debating legislation that would compel religious nonprofits to pay sales taxes. “As originally drafted, House Bill 2549 would have repealed the sales tax...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany have presented an award to Sister Maureen Joyce to honor her decades of service to Catholic Charities. “It is not just of...

The Vatican has released a statement defending Church responses to sex-abuse complaints, and rejecting the charge by a German cabinet member that the Vatican was building a "wall of silence" on the...

The Vatican has expressed "concern and horror" at the mass killings of Christians in Nigeria. A March 9 statement from the Vatican press office made the point that although the conflict in...

The Vatican's representative at the UN has denounced gender ideology, saying that the approach has harmed rather than helped women. Speaking at a UN session on gender equality, Archbishop...

The Dutch Catholic bishops have called upon a former government minister to head an independent commission investigating sex-abuse complaints. Citing more than 200 reports of abuse filed with a...

Polish Catholic leaders have opened ecumenical talks with the Russian Orthodox Church in a bid to improve the historically strained relations between the two countries. A joint statement released by...

Abortion advocates will dominate a "Global Women's Rights Forum" at the University of San Francisco-- a Jesuit institution-- on March...

A Democratic lawmaker who voted to approve the health-care reform in the House of Representatives has said that he will not support the Senate version of the legislation unless a pro-life amendment...

Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who directed the cathedral choir in Regensburg from 1964 to 1994, has apologized to victims of sexual abuse at the choir’s boarding school. Msgr. Ratzinger has said that he...

The head of the oldest monastery in the German-speaking world resigned on March 8 after admitting abusing a boy four decades ago. Archabbot George Becker of St. Peter’s Archabbey in Salzburg was...

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York told an Albany television reporter on March 9 that he does not favor denying Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion and same-sex...

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has written a newspaper column defending an archdiocesan school’s decision not to re-enroll two children being raised by an openly lesbian couple. “The...

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, urged the international community to focus on persons,...

At the conclusion of his public audience on Wednesday, March 10, Pope Benedict XVI voiced his horror at the massacre of Christians in Nigeria and promised his prayers for the victims and their...

At his public audience on March 10, Pope Benedict XVI argued that the Church remains the same throughout history. While new movements and reforms frequently arise, he said, they are born out of the...

The Mexican woman who this week announced that she had borne three sons to Father Marcial Maciel, the late founder of the Legionaries of Christ, asked the religious order for $26 million before...

Sheik Mohammend Sayyed Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s Al Azhar University and the most prominent cleric in the Sunni Muslim world, has died suddenly of a heart attack while visiting Saudi Arabia. He...

A letter by Pope Benedict XVI to the Irish Church, in response to the sex-abuse scandal there, will be made public next week, Irish Central has reported. The Vatican has not confirmed the timing of...

Catholic bishops of Arizona and New Mexico have issued a joint message to Arizona state legislators, advising against legislation that would crack down on illegal immigrants. The bishops made the...

Patrick Fagan-- whose Mapping America project has provided volumes of data on the connections between religious faith, intact families, and healthy citizenship-- argues that most social scientists...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has reiterated its opposition to Senate health care reform legislation. On March 5, Politico reported that “the Roman Catholic bishops signaled...

The bishops of Ireland have agreed to “undertake and lead penitential acts” in their dioceses “to acknowledge the truth and reflect on the failures of the Church” with regard to the clerical abuse...

At the conclusion of the Irish bishops’ spring meeting, during which the assembled prelates agreed to “undertake and lead penitential acts” in reparation for the clerical abuse scandal, an Irish...

Lucetta Scaraffia argues in a L’Osservatore Romano article that an increased presence of women, both religious and lay, in the “decisional spheres” of the Church could have helped prevent the...

In an article republished by NPR and other media outlets, Kaiser Health News has profiled Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of...

The Gloucestershire Gay and Lesbian Community has accepted a Catholic deacon’s apology for preaching that “marriage is between Adam and Eve -- not Adam and Steve.” Following the January homily in...

Vienna's Cardinal Christoph Schönborn has said that the broadening sex-abuse scandal indicates a need to re-think the training that priests receive. The Austrian prelate called for a thorough and...

Speaking on March 11, Pope Benedict XVI called upon all priests "generously to dedicate themselves to hearing sacramental confessions, and courageously to guide their flock not to conform itself to...

The man accused of gunning down a pro-life activist in Michigan has told a jury that he shot the man, James Pouillon, because he was disturbed by Pouillon's graphic signs depicting the victims of...

The Israeli government coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could face a political crisis over the construction of new Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory. Leaders of the...

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message of condolence to the Al Azhar University in Cairo upon the death of the institution's longtime leader, Sheik Mohammend Sayyed Tantawi. Cardinal Tarcisio...

A Protestant missionary in Iran who was arrested on February 2 on charges of proselytizing has been tortured and is being threatened with execution, his wife reports. Rev. Wilson Issavi was arrested...

A former State Department official points out that while President Obama has claimed that religious freedom is a priority for his administration, he has not acted on that claim. The president is...

Throwing grenades, between 15 and 20 armed men stormed a World Vision office in northwestern Pakistan on March 10. The suspected Taliban members then robbed the staff, killed six aid workers, and...

Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Pope’s vicar for Rome, has criticized a decision by a Roman high school to install condom vending machines for students. The machines “cannot be approved by Rome's...

Sri Lanka’s leading prelate has founded the first Christian monastery in his largely Buddhist nation. Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, who served as secretary of the Congregation for Divine...

The former music minister of a Catholic parish in western North Carolina faces 30 years in prison after he pled guilty to a charge of producing child pornography. According to court documents, Paul...

The number of marriages in Scotland has fallen to the lowest level since 1893, while the marriage rate has fallen to the lowest level since 1855. “In such an aggressively secular society it is...

A parish priest who recently donated a kidney to a parishioner has been named an auxiliary bishop. “It's been a tremendously rewarding experience,” said Msgr. Mark Seitz, one of two...

Pope Benedict XVI met on March 12 with Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, the president of the German bishops' conference, to discuss the burgeoning sex-abuse scandal in that country. The...

A Catholic priest cannot be reduced to a "social worker," Pope Benedict XVI told a group of priests in Rome on March 12. Adopting that model of priestly ministry, he said, runs "the risk of...

A Chinese priest of the "underground" Catholic Church has been arrested for the crime of organizing a camp for 300 students. Father John Baptist Luo was unmoved by the threat of imprisonment. "I'm...

Police in Satna, in central India, stopped a group of about 60 Hindu militants that was seeking to enter the city's cathedral of St. Vincent on March 12. The group, which was protesting alleged...

Father Gabriele Amorth, the longtime exorcist of the Rome diocese, has drawn widespread attention this week for suggesting that scandals in the Church are related to the active presence of the Devil...

Pope Benedict XVI has decided not to take a vacation in the Italian Alps this summer, choosing instead to spend all of his vacation time at the summer papal residence on Castel Gandolfo. The Pope,...

The Catholic Health Association (CHA) spent over $1 million on lobbying in 2009 as the group pushed for passage of health-care reform legislation. The CHA, an umbrella group that represents the...

Breaking with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the president of the Catholic Health Association has endorsed the Senate health care reform legislation that is scheduled to be voted...

In a little-noticed town hall meeting in Brazil earlier this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that nations with restrictions on abortion deny women a “fundamental personal...

Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, lamented the fact that “nearly 70 percent of the world’s 6.8...

A German bishop said in a March 12 radio interview that while the discipline of clerical celibacy is not the cause of abuse scandals, “the celibate lifestyle can attract people who have an abnormal...

Thousands of Sri Lankans have venerated the relics of St. Anthony of Padua since they arrived in the nation’s capital on March 7. The saint has been a favorite saint of Sri Lankan Catholics since...

A Jesuit who helped found the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has died at the age of 82. Father Robert Carter, SJ, also helped found the New York chapter of DignityUSA, an organization that...

Church officials are moving quickly to answer suggestions that the discipline of clerical celibacy is responsible for clerical sex abuse. In an article published by the Vatican newspaper...

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has ended any speculation about the bishops' stand on health-care reform legislation, issuing a clear statement that the Senate bill now pending in...

Pounded by stories in the European media about the sex-abuse scandal that is exploding across the continent, the Vatican released an unusual statement on Saturday, March 13, defending Church...

Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, the Primate of All Ireland, is facing mounting public pressure to resign after being connected to the case of a notorious pedophile priest. The cardinal has insisted...

Pope Benedict XVI visited an Evangelical Lutheran church in Rome on Sunday afternoon, March 14. The Pontiff and the pastor, Rev. Jens-Martin Kruse, each delivered short homilies during an ecumenical...

Catholic Church officials in Switzerland have revealed that they are looking into about 60 reports of sexual abuse by priests. They said that they will recommend that victims bring their complaints...

At his Angelus audience on Sunday, March 14, Pope Benedict XVI reflected on the day's Gospel reading, which was the parable of the Prodigal Son. This parable, the Pope said, "represents an all-time...

Meeting on March 13 with the Catholic bishops of Sudan, who were making their ad limina visit, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the need for reconciliation in the war-torn African land. "I know how...

The Virginia-based Cardinal Newman Society (CNS), an independent group dedicated to a distinctively Catholic presence in higher education, will launch a new effort to support Catholic colleges and...

Five bishops appointed to conduct an investigation into the Legion of Christ were due to deliver their report to the Vatican on March 15, according to AOL News. The Vatican has not confirmed the...

A $4-million restoration project begins this week to repair erosion damage on the giant statue of Jesus Christ that overlooks the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Workers will patch and replace the...

Pope Benedict XVI met on March 13 with Prime Mininster Jadranka Kosor of Croatia. Their conversation centered on international concerns, including the status of Croatians in Bosnia-Herzegovina and...

Israeli officials have extended a state of alert in East Jerusalem, and barred young men from the Islamic mosques on the Temple Mount, as tensions continue to rise in the ancient city. Palestinians...

Reacting to the Catholic Health Association’s endorsement of Senate health reform legislation, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops,...

The Anglican Catholic Church of Canada is formally seeking union with the Holy See under the provisions of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. Describing the apostolic constitution...

Police in the southwestern Indian city of Karwar warned the diocesan vicar general to stop distributing Christian literature and pictures because “it offends Hindus.” 3.9% of the people who live...

Denying that the Church is a victim of media bias, Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton has told The London Times that criticism of the Church’s handling of the clerical abuse scandal is well...

Don Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, told The London Times in a recent interview that “legions of demons” have lodged at the Vatican but then appeared to downplay his...

Invoking Canon 1244, which declares that “diocesan bishops can decree special feast days or days of penance for their dioceses or places,” Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington declared March 15 a day of...

While journalists have been using a sex-abuse case in the Munich archdiocese in efforts to form a direct link to Pope Benedict XVI, emerging details of the case show clearly that the future Pontiff...

Pope Benedict XVI will meet Queen Elizabeth II, preside at the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and travel to Scotland during a 4-day visit to the United Kingdom in September, British...

A team of 5 bishops has completed an 8-month probe into the affairs of the Legionaries of Christ. Although the Vatican has not released any comment on the inquiry, informed officials have...

Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest who is serving an 8-year prison sentence for human-rights advocacy, has been temporarily released from jail for medical treatment. Father Van Ly has...

In his message of the 25th observance of World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI challenges young people to become aware "of the gifts that God has lavished on you, and of your responsibilities."...

Irish police officials have long been aware of Cardinal Sean Brady's role in the case of a notorious pedophile priest. In the 1970s-- before his episcopal ordination-- the future cardinal heard...

In the Code of Canon Law, #915 sets out the circumstances under which Catholics "are not to be admitted" to receive Communion. In light of the frequent debates about the reception of Communion by...

A European commission is pressing Turkey's government to recognize the status of Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I as the acknowledged "first among equals" of the world's Orthodox prelates. The...

An 82-year-old Brazilian priest, Msgr. Luiz Marques Barbosa, has been suspended after the television network Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT) aired a video that apparently portrays a 2009...

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin said that the nationwide extension of the Murphy commission may be “the only way” to uncover the whole truth about the extent of abuse by priests and religious...

Surprised by the number of abuse allegations in Bavaria, where over 100 have alleged being physical or sexual abused as youths, Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg has called for an increase in the...

The Catholic population of the United States rose from 67,117,016 to 68,115,001 between the beginning and end of 2008-- an increase of 1.49%, according to the recently published 2010 Yearbook of...

Joined by three other bishops, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles will offer a Mass for immigrants this Sunday, March 21, preceding an interfaith march for immigration reform. The march, whose...

Citing work by Catholic World News editor Phil Lawler, British journalist Damian Thompson blasted the blatantly inaccurate London Times headline “Pope knew priest was paedophile but allowed him to...

The Vatican has confirmed the formation of a commission to investigate the reported Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, presumably leading up to a formal Vatican statement on the subject. As was...

During his regular weekly audience on March 17, Pope Benedict XVI said that his letter to the Irish Church, in response to the sex-abuse scandal there, would be released very soon. Greeting...

A British Catholic adoption agency has won a victory in its court challenge against regulations that would have required equal treatment for same-sex couples. Catholic Care, an agency sponsored...

As Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh came under growing pressure to resign because of his indirect role in the handling of a pedophile priest, the Irish bishops' conference pointed out that the...

Continuing his series of weekly talks on the great intellectual figures of Church history, Pope Benedict XVI spoke at his public audience of March 17 on St. Bonaventure, offering his third talk on...

A Christian businessman was killed in another execution-style murder in Mosul, as the intimidation campaign against the Christian minority in that Iraqi city continues. Archbishop Emil Shimoun Nona...

A coalition of American nuns, claiming to represent over 50,000 members of women's religious orders, has broken with the country's Catholic bishops by coming out in support of the health-care reform...

Speaking to the German parliament, Chancellor Angelo Merkel called for "truth and clarity" in an investigation into sexual abuse of children. Although the scandal sweeping Germany has focused on...

Officials have shut down the operations of the only Christian television station in the Palestinian territories. Station managers say that they do not understand the complaint against them, but...

Pope Benedict XVI has been named an honorary citizen of Romano Canavese, the Italian town that is the birthplace of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State. The Pope visited Romano...

Writing for the online edition of The Washington Post, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Bishop William Murphy, and Bishop John Wester have explained why the United States bishops oppose the health care...

The Catholic Bishops Conference of India on March 16 objected to a decision by a prominent Indian government official that threatens the independence of some Catholic schools. The Indian...

At least a dozen Christians were slain with machetes in a small village near Jos on the night of March 16-17. The attackers cut out the tongues of most of the victims. “The Fulani herdsmen,...

Breaking with his brother bishops, Bishop John McCarthy has endorsed Senate health care reform legislation. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston and two other bishops wrote recently that...

The percentage of Catholics in the United States who are Hispanic increased from 20% in 1990 to 32% in 2008, according to a new study by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and...

The chancellor of the Diocese of Barra do Piraí-Volta Redonda died on March 16, two days after he and a former seminarian were kidnapped. Father Dejair Gonçalves de Almeida, 32, who ministered to...

Pope Benedict XVI's letter to the Irish Church, in response to the sex-abuse crisis there, will be released on Saturday, March 20, the Vatican press office has announced. During his weekly public...

Following the Vatican's official confirmation that a commission has been established to investigate the reported Marian apparitions at Medjugorje, journalist Andrea Tornielli of the Italian daily Il...

Despite public calls for the resignation of Irish Cardinal Sean Brady because of his role in handling a notorious sex-abuse case, the priests of his Armagh archdiocese strongly support the cardinal,...

If a priest admits to abuse of children during a sacramental confession, the confessor cannot report that abuse to legal authorities, a Vatican official has reminded readers of the Vatican...

In a thorough and even-handed account, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter writes that during his tenure as Archbishop of Munich and his early days as prefect of the Congregation for the...

Today's worldwide financial crisis demonstrates the need for a new global economic system, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of visiting Italian entrepreneurs on March 18. Citing his social encyclical...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has distanced itself from Network, which describes itself as “a progressive voice within the Catholic community that has been influencing...

Human rights group condemned a judge’s decision to release the murderer of a Guatemalan bishop. The judge ruled that Col. Byron Lima, who was convicted in the 1998 bludgeoning of 75-year-old...

The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) issued a statement on March 18 opposing Senate health care legislation. “In a March 15th statement, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, of...

Sliding further down the slippery slope begun by the 1968 introduction of the criterion of “brain death,” the US Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $321,000 to two Pittsburgh...

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the recently appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has traveled to Nigeria to preside at a March 19 Mass for the victims of recent...

In a 51-18 March 17 vote, the Idaho House of Representatives has approved legislation recognizing the right of pro-life health care workers to refuse to administer drugs that cause abortions or kill...

The Catholic Medical Association (CMA), a group representing American Catholic doctors, has issued a strong statement of opposition to the health-care reform bill pending in Congress. The...

Apologizing to Irish abuse victims and their families and acknowledging that “nothing can undo the wrong you have endured,” Pope Benedict has issued a pastoral letter criticizing the manner in which...

The US House of Representatives voted 219-212 on March 21 to approve the $940-billion Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act after the White House and pro-life Democrats agreed on the language...

Ireland’s leading prelates welcomed Pope Benedict’s pastoral letter to the Church in Ireland in which he apologized to Irish abuse victims, lamented the hierarchy’s failure to confront the scandal,...

A large interfaith march for immigration reform took place in the nation’s capital on March 21. Following Mass at a Washington parish, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles told the crowd that “the...

A bishop in south-central Borneo has told the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples that he is looking forward to President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to the world’s...

A Swiss abbot has proposed that the Vatican establish an international registry of priests who have committed abuse so that dioceses and religious orders could determine whether to accept a priest...

Vatican Radio announced on March 20 that the Holy See has launched Twitter pages in six different languages. In addition, the Vatican has launched a new web page (www.resources.va) that offers links...

At his Angelus audience on March 21, Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the day's Gospel reading: the story of the woman caught in adultery. That incident, the Pope told the crowd in St. Peter's Square,...

Pope Benedict XVI met on Saturday, March 20, with bishops from Burkina Faso and Niger, who were in Rome for their ad limina visits. The Holy Father strongly encouraged "new missionary efforts" in...

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, has decried what he sees as a campaign to discredit the Catholic Church through emphasis on sexual abuse by clerics....

In a brutal display of Islamic extremism, a Pakistani Christian who refused to renounce his faith was set on fire by Muslim militants. When police arrived on the scene, rather than helping the man,...

The special commission set up in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the Church in China will meet in Rome this week to reflect on the proper formation of priests and religious. In a related...

Pope Benedict XVI plans a full schedule of liturgical activities for Holy Week and Easter, presiding at all of the traditional ceremonies at the Vatican. The Pope's schedule, released by the...

Father Paul Marx, OSB-- an international leader of the pro-life movement, died on March 20, just short of his 90th birthday. The founder of Human Life International, Father Marx had brought the...

Responding to a wide variety of practices in the parishes of his Ottawa archdiocese, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast has written to emphasize that Church liturgical norms call for the faithful to...

The Vatican observed the feast day of St. Joseph-- the name day of Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Ratzinger)-- with a special concert on March 19. Performing in the Clementine Hall of the apostolic...

Jean-Marie Guenois, religion correspondent for Le Figaro, notes that while the immediate impact of Pope Benedict's letter to the Irish Church is limited, the most noteworthy aspect of the papal...

Reporters are digging energetically to establish a connection between Pope Benedict XVI and any priest guilty of sexual abuse, observes John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter. He recommends,...

A Christian girl from the eastern Pakistani city of Sheikhupura was enslaved by a Muslim police officer and burned alive. “The girl had been enslaved by a woman, Sama, a ‘dealer’ of youth sold as...

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has issued a statement praising Pope Benedict’s pastoral letter on the Irish abuse crisis. “Benedict XVI, like many of his predecessors, is often called on to...

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement on March 18 criticizing two articles on the abuse scandal. “We strongly deplore the tone of these articles which are offensive to...

Less than three months after a Massachusetts city established a historic district to prevent the demolition of a closed Italian Renaissance-style parish, the city council has unanimously taken the...

The Archdiocese of Chicago has introduced the cause for beatification of Father John Augustine Tolton, the first black priest in the United States. Born in 1854, he escaped slavery in 1862, was...

A priest of the Diocese of Lexington will likely serve one year in prison following a plea agreement in an abuse case. Two males allegedly abused in the 1980s “were willing to testify” against...

Is it still possible for an American political leader from the Democratic Party to uphold the pro-life cause? Reflecting in the Wall Street Journal on the recent example of Rep. Bart Stupak,...

Pope Benedict XVI will preside at a Mass in St. Peter's basilica on March 29 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. Pope Benedict has celebrated the anniversary Mass...

Denver's Archbishop Charles Chaput has charged that the political actions of groups like Catholics United-- and, even more seriously, the Catholic Health Association-- did serious damage to the...

Andrea Tornielli, the Italian journalist who last week named some members of a special Vatican commission investigation the reported apparitions at Medjugorje, now reports that one among many steps...

The clerical abuse scandal cost American dioceses $104,439,629 in 2009, according to an annual report released on March 23 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Only 59% of...

As President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, the bishops of the United States issued a statement reemphasizing their opposition to the...

Lamenting the deaths of two Christians who were burned alive, the bishops of Pakistan are urging authorities to punish those who commit violence against Christians. “We condemn the recent...

“Extremely shocked” and “ashamed” by recent widespread allegations of clerical abuse in the Netherlands, Cardinal Adrianus Simonis-- the retired Archbishop of Utrecht-- said that he had been aware...

A Spanish-born missionary bishop has lamented the barbarity of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group that is acting with impunity in his Central African Republic diocese. “The rebels...

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of an Irish bishop whose handling of sex-abuse complaints drew intense criticism from public officials and from his fellow bishops. Bishop John...

At this public audience on Wednesday, March 24, Pope Benedict XVI spoke on the influence of St. Albert the Great, "one of the greatest masters of scholastic theology," whose work demonstrated that...

Chinese police have arrested Father Kiu Maochun, a priest of the "underground" Catholic Church in Fujian, who helped organize a camp for university students. Another organizer of the same effort,...

In a message to a youth forum being held this week in Rocca di Papa, Italy, Pope Benedict XVI said that learning the true meaning of love is "central to faith and Christian life." In his...

The Vatican has announced an ambitious program to make digital copies of its entire collection of manuscripts. The program is already underway, with 75,000 pages of manuscript being rendered into...

Thirty years to the day after gunmen assassinated Archbishop Oscar Romero as he was celebrating Mass, President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador apologized on behalf of the government for the prelate’s...

An official of the Pakistani bishops’ conference has called upon the international community to exert pressure upon the nation’s government and defend the nation’s beleaguered Christian...

Armed with knives, bricks, and sticks, a group of Muslims attacked Christian villagers in Bangladesh on March 20, injuring 50. “They [the Muslims] said they will kill some of our people,” said...

The Diocese of Portland and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development have withdrawn their support of Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for Justice because of the Maine-based group’s support for...

The March 25 edition of L’Osservatore Romano includes an article by Msgr. Brunero Gherardini paying tribute to the Roman school of Thomism that flourished in the wake of Aeterni Patris, Pope Leo...

In a front-page headline story, the New York Times has called attention to a sex-abuse case in which the Vatican failed to act promptly on a request to defrock a Wisconsin priest who was accused of...

Speaking on March 25 to bishops of the Scandinavian bishops' conference, who were in Rome for their ad limina visits, Pope Benedict XVI said that "one of the most important messages that the people...

The Vatican has issued a report on the March 22-24 meeting of a special commission on the Church in China, created by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. During their discussions in Rome, the commission...

Cardinal Severino Poletto of Turin detailed preparations for a public exposition of the Shroud of Turin during a March 25 press conference at the Vatican. More than 1.3 million people have already...

The Vatican has announced that a 12-volume collection of official documents of the Holy See relating to World War II is now available online. Also available are the entire collections of official...

By a massive 77% majority, the Irish public opposes plans to dispense contraceptives to 14-15-year-old children without their parents' consent, according to a new poll commissioned by the Iona...

A New York firm has reached a tentative agreement to buy Caritas Christi, the health-care system operated by the Boston archdiocese, the Boston Globe reports. The sale-- which could encounter...

Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981, now wants to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima on the same date this year, when Pope Benedict XVI...

Writing in Business Week, an expert on corporate accountability asks why Church leaders have not been forced to accept their own responsibility for mishandling sex-abuse charges, and to face the...

Last week the militant atheist Christopher Hitchens published a vitriolic attack on Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic faith, concentrating on the sex-abuse scandal and charging that the Pope's...

Regretting his “seriously inadequate” response to a 1993 allegation against a diocesan priest, an Irish bishop apologized on March 25 for taking two years to inform civil authorities of the...

A day after the Holy See announced the resignation of Bishop John Magee as Bishop of Coyne, the Vatican on March 25 took the extraordinary step of publishing the former papal secretary’s resignation...

Three men attacked a Salesian in Bogota on March 20, robbing him and then stabbing him to death. Brother Luis Enrique Pineda, 56, was walking down the street to visit relatives. The Salesian...

A former Dominican who is a proponent of embryonic stem cell research has been awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. Born...

The Holy See Press Office on March 25 announced the details of the Holy Father’s apostolic journey upcoming apostolic journey to Portugal. The journey, which will begin on May 11 and conclude on May...

Maine’s leading newspaper has defended the decision of the Diocese of Portland and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) to withdraw their support of Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for...

The New York Times has reported that Pope Benedict XVI was informed about the parish assignment given to a priest who had been accused of molesting children. But the Vatican has countered that the...

The Legion of Christ has issued a public apology to "all those who have been affected, wounded, or scandalized by the reprehensible actions of our founder." The leaders of the troubled order...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, may be assigned by the Vatican to head an apostolic visitation of the Church in Ireland, according to media reports. A spokesman for the Sydney archdiocese...

Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, may be assigned by the Vatican to head an apostolic visitation of the Church in Ireland, according to media reports. A spokesman for the Sydney archdiocese...

A strongly worded editorial in the Vatican newspaper has decried the "vile intent" of journalists seeking to link Pope Benedict XVI to the sex-abuse scandal. Following up on a statement from the...

On Thursday evening, March 25, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a huge crowd of young people who had gathered in St. Peter's Square to celebrate t he 25th anniversary of the foundation of World Youth...

German Catholics are leaving the Church in droves, and confidence in Church leadership has been severely sapped by the sex-abuse scandal in that country, according to a survey by Stern magazine. The...

UN leaders continue to press the government of Nicaragua to end a ban on abortion that the Latin American country enacted 4 years ago, despite a promising drop in maternal mortality rates there. In...

In his message for this year's observance of World Mission Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI writes that the urge to spread the Gospel is "always a sign of vitality in our churches." In their missionary...

Pope Benedict XVI met on March 26 with Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom Caballeros. A brief Vatican statement released after the meeting said that the conversation had centered on the protection...

Writing in the London Times, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster argued that Pope Benedict XVI has been firm and decisive in his handling of sex-abuse cases-- both as Pontiff and previously as...

Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, has taken to task the leaders of the Catholic Health Association and the liberal lobby Network for their outspoken support of President Obama's...

Vatican Radio has taken the extraordinary step of posting a March 26 John Allen column in defense of Pope Benedict’s handling of the clerical abuse crisis while prefect of the Congregation for the...

Urging the international community to turn greater attention to the world’s poorest nations during the financial crisis, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, apostolic nuncio to the United Nations, told...

Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi has again urged lawmakers who are drafting a new Kenyan constitution to amend a clause that declares that life begins at birth. Calling upon lawmakers to recognize that...

The February 27 earthquake that killed hundreds and damaged over a half million homes has also left one million of Chile’s Catholics without a place of worship, according to the Chilean episcopal...

Four days after three men attacked and killed a Salesian brother in Bogota, a diocesan priest was brutally murdered in his rectory in Currulao on March 24. Father Román de Jesús Zapata, 51, likely...

Bishops from around the Philippines are discouraging the faithful from taking part in literal reenactments of Christ’s scourging and crucifixion. Such acts “are expressions of superstitious beliefs...

Palestinian Christians will encounter severe obstacles to their observances of Holy Week and Easter this year. The Israeli government has closed down borders for 9 days, barring most travel from the...

Islamic militants surrounded a hotel on the Indonesian island of Java, forcing organizers to scrub plans for an international conference of gay and lesbian...

With the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has issued a series of decrees advancing the causes of 16 candidates for beatification or canonization. The...

In a remarkable statement responding to intense worldwide criticism of the Church response to sexual abuse, the director of the Vatican press office has made the claim that Church leaders are...

Presiding at a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, and observing the 25th World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI told the largely youthful congregation that "to be Christian means to believe that...

Pope John Paul II preached the message of the Gospel "without weakness or hesitation, especially when faced with resistance, hostility, and rejection." Pope Benedict XVI paid that tribute to his...

Germany's Trier diocese has announced that new accusations of sexual abuse have been leveled against 20 priests there. The charges cover a 40-year period from 1950 to 1990. Bishop Stephan Ackermann...

Sandro Magister, the leading Vatican-watcher of L'Espresso, argues that the apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ must inevitably call for the removal of current top leaders in the religious...

Pressing their claims against the Catholic Church, two reported victims of sexual abuse by priests-- one in Canada, one in the US-- have claimed that Vatican officials were aware of the priests'...

With a media assault on Pope Benedict XVI reaching a frenzied level, reporters for dozens of major newspapers and wire services placed responsibility for sex-abuse cases at the Vatican, despite the...

Writing for National Review Online, Father Raymond de Souza provides a devastating rebuttal of the New York Times reports alleging that Pope Benedict has been lax in his handling of sex-abuse cases....

A bomb was placed outside a Christian family’s home in Mosul, killing a three-year-old child, injuring the other members of the family, and destroying the home. The bombing was the latest in a long...

Lauding a Human Rights Watch report that is drawing attention to atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Congolese bishop is calling upon the international community to defend innocent...

Iraq’s Christian leaders are expressing hope that the new government will promote stability and protect the Christian minority. “The Christians have hopes for a stable and strong government,”...

Denouncing “attempts to personally embroil Benedict XVI in the sex abuse scandals,” Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary has written a pastoral letter in which he criticizes the inaccurate reporting of The...

An Indiana bishop has publicly criticized a congressman who usually votes pro-life following his vote for health care reform legislation. “In the days leading up to the Health Care vote,...

Prompting anger from feminists, including an “ordained” woman, Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice reaffirmed in a letter to diocesan priests that the washing of feet on Holy Thursday is reserved to...

The priest who presided over the canonical trial of the late Father Lawrence Murphy-- the priest whose case has prompted heavy media criticism of Pope Benedict XVI-- has written a devastating...

The secular media continue to churn out speculative stories about Pope Benedict's involvement with the sex-abuse scandal, making connections and predictions with little or no supporting evidence....

Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas has charged that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is using the government to squelch his political opponents. He urged Venezuelan citizens to denounce "any...

The Baltimore archdiocese has filed suit in federal court, challenging the city's new restrictions on pregnancy-help centers. The regulations, requiring the centers to advertise that they do not...

The Italian bishops' conference has promised full cooperation with law-enforcement officials investigating charges of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. The bishops issued a statement emphasizing...

Since 2001, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) took control of sex-abuse cases involving Catholic priests, the Congregation has handled about...

Apologizing to victims of clerical abuse, Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee said in his March 30 Chrism Mass homily that Milwaukee bishops-- implicitly Archbishop William Cousins (1958-77)...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ executive committee issued a statement on March 30 defending Pope Benedict’s leadership in addressing the scandal of clerical sexual abuse. The...

Three women and two men who were former residents of a Catholic children’s home have accused Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg of physically abusing them in the 1970s and 1980s. Calling the allegations...

The apostolic nuncio to Haiti has announced that the nation’s sole major seminary will reopen on April 6. “Nine large tents (20 x 32 feet) will be used for classrooms, and 21 will be used as...

Nearly a month after English and Welsh bishops published their pre-election statement “Choosing the Common Good,” the bishops have issued a list of five issues and questions that they believe will...

Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton said at a March 30 press conference that the Canadian bishops have offered the Holy See the “absolute support and confidence of ... all the bishops of Canada in...

At his public audience on Wednesday, March 31, Pope Benedict XVI offered a preview of the Easter Triduum, during which the Church will be "living through the holy days that invite us to meditate...

An AP story recounts the apparent effort in 2007 to assassinate Sister Leonara Brunetto, a Brazilian Catholic nun who is working with indigenous tribes to stop the destruction of the Amazon rain...

At the conclusion of his regular weekly public audience on March 31, Pope Benedict XVI offered his greetings to university students who have gathered in Rome for an annual event sponsored by Opus...

Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has joined in the defense of Pope Benedict XVI against critical reports published by the New York Times....

New York's Archbishop Timothy Dolan, writing on his own blog, has provided a detailed critique of reports published in the New York Times, attempting to draw a connection between Pope Benedict and...

Moscow's Orthodox and Catholic leaders, Patriarch Alexei II and Archbishop Paolo Pezzi, each issued statements expressing shock and horror after bombing attacks on the city's commuter-rail system....