Roman Catholic Church News

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his family wrapped up a four-day trip to Italy on Saturday with an audience at the Vatican with Pope Benedict.

In his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office, President Barack Obama is seeking to lift up the continent of his ancestors -- while keeping its emotions in check.

Jul. 10 - The Obamas' meeting with the Pontiff takes place amid tight security following the U.S. president's attendance at the summit of G8 leaders in L'Aquila. U.S. President Barack Obama had his first meeting with Pope Benedict at the Vatican on Friday.

Miss Bruni, who arrived in Italy late Thursday, stayed away from the wives' audience with Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday Photo: EPA Carla Bruni-Sarkozy surveysthe earthquake damage on a visit to L'Aquila "Someone tell the first lady that snobbery to the nth degree where we come from is called boorishness," the paper Il Giornale said as the G8 was ...

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife Sarah provided a behind-the-scenes look at the G8 on Wednesday as she blogged about the "good food and good company" at the so-called spouses' summit.

Even as family and fans were preparing to lay the late pop star Michael Jackson to rest, figures on the political right were lambasting the singer as a "pervert" and a "pedophile." Newsday , in a July 9 article, reported that a U.S. congressman, Peter King, had posted a YouTube clip in which he called Jackson a "pervert," saying, "Let's knock out ...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was criticized this week over his handling of a communion wafer at Romeo LeBlanc's Catholic-service funeral.

When President Obama meets with Pope Benedict XVI on Friday, there will be no right-wing Catholic demonstrators upbraiding the pontiff, as they did Notre Dame earlier this year, for conferring the church's legitimacy upon this liberal politician.

Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers say, has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary.

Maine's supreme court has ruled against the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland in a sex-abuse case that raised an issue of immunity.

POPE Benedict XVI on Wednesday hosted the wives of world leaders who were in Italy attending the G-8 summit, the Vatican said.

By Genevieve Pollock WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 7, 2009 .- Benedict XVI's latest encyclical offers a unique vision by using traditional principles to enlighten today's societal issues such as globalization, the economy, technology and the environment, affirms a university president.

IT would be "crass and counter-productive" for Kevin Rudd to attempt to lobby Pope Benedict XVI on the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, Jesuit priest Frank Brennan said yesterday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper consumed a communion wafer given him by a Roman Catholic priest last week and did not put it in his pocket as critics allege, says a spokesman.

Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday replaced the cardinal responsible for lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop as part of the Vatican's effort to reconcile with an ultraconservative group.

Faced with rapidly declining enrollment and mounting debt, Towson Catholic High School will not open for classes in September and becomes the archdiocese's first high school to close in many years.

Catholic Charities of Buffalo fell just short of its campaign goal, raising nearly 95 percent of its $11 million goal.

President Barack Obama listens to language translation during the Civil Society Leaders Forum, Tuesday, July 7, 2009, in Moscow.

VATICAN CITY, JULY 5, 2009 .- Benedict XVI is exhorting world leaders to look at the economic crisis as a reason to continue sending aid to underdeveloped nations, not as an excuse to stop.

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Tuesday was accused of 'sheer arrogance' over moves to press the Pope to create the country's first saint.