Pope Benedict XVI

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Pope Appeals for Lebanon Peace
Pope Appeals for Lebanon Peace

Pope Appeals for Lebanon Peace

Pontiff calls for end to infighting, election of 'president for all'

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern today over the escalating tensions in Lebanon, calling on its people to find a “president for all Lebanese” to end the months of infighting that have stalled elections. After his noontime blessing, the pontiff told the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square that...

Jews Outraged at Vatican Prayer
Jews Outraged at Vatican Prayer

Jews Outraged at Vatican Prayer

Anger over call for Jewish conversion

(Newser) - An updated version of a centuries-old Good Friday prayer has opened a rift between Roman Catholics and Jews. When Pope Benedict XVI reinstated the Latin mass, the Vatican promised to rewrite a controversial prayer calling for the conversion of Jews. But the new, merely toned-down version has infuriated Jewish leaders...

British Cleric to Pope: Party On!
British Cleric to Pope: Party On!

British Cleric to Pope: Party On!

Archbishop of York knows Bavarian pontiff likes brew

(Newser) - An Anglican archbishop from the land of Monty Python brought Pope Benedict a hoppy Holy Grail this month, reports the Guardian. Archbishop of York John Sentamu had heard that Benedict liked Black Sheep, so he brought along the British ale and a custom brew dubbed Holy Grail to his audience...

Angry Students Block Pope Visit
Angry Students Block Pope Visit

Angry Students Block Pope Visit

Profs say appearance would be affront to 'people of science'

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI has scrapped plans to speak at a prestigious Italian university after unprecedented protests by furious students and professors who accused him of justifying Galileo's trial and "affronting" people of science, the Los Angeles Times reports. The pope once described as "reasonable" the 400-year-old heresy trial...

Italy's Favorite Saint to Be Exhumed

Preservation procedure sparks controversy among some devotees

(Newser) - The body of Padre Pio, one of Italy’s most beloved saints, will be exhumed this year for a “checkup” and to be put on display for public veneration, the Guardian reports. "It is our duty to allow the generations that come after us the ability to venerate...

Benedict Plans to Meet With Muslim Leaders

'Historic' spring summit seeks to mend rift after 2006 controversy

(Newser) - Catholic and Muslim leaders plan a "historic" meeting at the Vatican this spring, reports the AP, a year and a half after Pope Benedict's controversial comments about the Prophet Muhammad. Benedict proposed the meeting in response to an open letter from 138 Muslim scholars that urged interfaith dialogue based...

Pope Ushers in Christmas
Pope Ushers in Christmas

Pope Ushers in Christmas

Pontiff uses midnight Mass to speak out against harm to environment

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI ushered in Christmas with a traditional midnight Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, using his homily to speak out against the degradation of the environment and man's selfishness, reports Agence France Presse. The leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics lamented our "polluted world whose future is...

Pope Rips Christmas Materialism
Pope Rips Christmas Materialism

Pope Rips Christmas Materialism

Continues Vatican battle against rampant consumerism

(Newser) - Continuing the Vatican's battle against rampant consumerism on the occasion of Jesus' birthday, Pope Benedict XVI today blasted a pervasive "materialistic mentality" in "the way of living out and perceiving Christmas." The pontiff urged pilgrims gathered below his window on St. Peter's Square instead to "fill...

Pope Condemns Atheism
Pope Condemns Atheism

Pope Condemns Atheism

Lack of belief 'has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice'

(Newser) - Pope Benedict issued a strong condemnation of atheism today and warned that advances in technology must be met with similar advancements in ethics. In his second encyclical, the pope said atheist ideologies have "led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice," Reuters reports. "Man...

Vatican Offers Earthly Rewards
Vatican Offers Earthly Rewards

Vatican Offers Earthly Rewards

Employees get new corporate-style bonus system

(Newser) - The Vatican is offering corporate-style performance bonuses to its workers for the first time, the Times of London reports. Pope Benedict XVI is offering rewards based on "dedication, professionalism, productivity and politeness." The conditions will apply to the thousands of lay workers who do everything from run Vatican...

950 Years Later, 2 Churches May Reunify

Catholic, Orthodox leaders draw up road map to end schism

(Newser) - Nearly a millennium after they split, the Catholic and Orthodox churches have published a joint document outlining first steps towards reunification. The Ravenna Document imagines a reunified church with the Pope at its head and proposes a new council composed of Catholic and Orthodox bishops that could formally end the...

Pope to Shun Boston on US Visit
Pope to Shun Boston on US Visit

Pope to Shun Boston on US Visit

Omission of city at center of church sex abuse scandal raises ire

(Newser) - For his much-anticipated inaugural trip to the US this spring Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the White House, the United Nations, the site of the World Trade Center—but not Boston, where the Church sex abuse scandal first erupted. The omission of Boston from the papal tour has infuriated...

Pope Will Visit US in April
Pope Will Visit US in April

Pope Will Visit US in April

Pontiff will go to DC, Ground Zero, Yankee Stadium

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI will travel to the US in April, visiting the White House, Ground Zero, and the United Nations, the Washington Post reports. On his first trip to the country as pope, and the first papal visit since John Paul II's stop in St. Louis in 1999, he'll say...

Saudi King Meets the Pope
Saudi King Meets the Pope

Saudi King Meets the Pope

King Abdullah travels to the Vatican on his European tour

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah visited with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican today—the first official meeting of any pope with a reigning Saudi monarch. The visit comes as relations are improving between the Vatican and the Muslim world, the BBC reports. Still, the pontiff was expected to press Abdullah...

Anti-Franco Fights Erupt at Vatican Ceremony

Anger over church role supporting Spanish dictator as it honors clergy

(Newser) - Old wounds were ripped open and fights erupted yesterday as the Vatican beatified 498 priests and nuns killed in the Spanish Civil War. Scuffles between Catholics and leftists broke out near the Vatican's largest-ever beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican, which supported dictator Francisco Franco during the war,...

Vatican's Fast Action on Gay Priest Could Herald Change

Or was Pope's hand forced by TV camera?

(Newser) - An incident in which a Vatican official was caught on video making advances in his office to a younger man has raised questions about homosexuality in the hierarchy. The immediate suspension of the official also has some convinced that the Holy See has turned a corner in cracking down on...

Pope's New Cardinals: Still Old & European

But elevation of Houston archbishop reflects Southern shift

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI has named a new batch of cardinals, generally preserving the "princes of the church" posts for aging Europeans, reports Time magazine. There is, however, a new cardinal in Baghdad. And in recognition of the southward and Spanish-language shift of Catholicism in the United States, the pope...

Muslim Scholars to Pope: It's the Same God

Letter calls for peace, understanding between Christianity and Islam

(Newser) - Christianity and Islam are more alike than they are different, Muslim scholars say in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI. Quoting passages from the Bible and Koran, the letter shows links between the faiths, and calls for peace. If enough people heed the statement, one scholar says, “the atmosphere...

Will Kidney Stone Make Teresa a Saint?

Priest reports miracle on 10th anniversary of her death

(Newser) - The disappearance of a half-inch-long kidney stone in the uterer of an Indian priest may be the second miracle required for Mother Teresa to become a saint. On the 10th anniversary of her death last month, the priest, who was scheduled for surgery to remove the stone the next day,...

China Installs Bishop With Pope's Approval

After half a century, some movement in Beijing-Vatican standoff

(Newser) - Pope Benedict publicly approved the appointment of the new bishop installed today in Beijing, bringing some warmth to long-frozen relations between the Holy See and China’s government-controlled church, Reuters reports. In a critical test for future ties, Joseph Li Shan took over the highest-profile diocese in the atheist nation,...

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