Pope Benedict XVI News

Cagliari, Italy, May 17, 2013 / 05:05 am .- Father Giovannino Tolu said his heart began racing when he heard that Pope Francis will the visit the shrine he oversees on the Italian island of Sardinia, making it the fourth time he has received a pontiff.

"I found Oakland to be the biggest surprise of my life," said the Most Rev. Alex J. Brunett, who since Oct.

There is nothing unusual about a Catholic leader urging priests to draw closer to their flocks, to focus on day-to-day issues that bridge the gap between pulpit and pew.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, mindful of the weight of Christian voters in September elections, made a quick trip to Rome Saturday for a private meeting with Pope Francis, focusing on how Europe's struggling economy should be at the service of the people.

Thousands of protesters, led by trade unionists, have rallied in the Italian capital Rome against the policies of the new coalition government.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, the Pope's interest in eradicating hunger is at 11," the director general of the FAO says.

The pale, young Christian woman sat handcuffed in the courtroom, accused of insulting Islam while teaching history of religions to fourth-graders. A team of Islamist lawyers with long beards sang in unison, "All except the Prophet Muhammad." The case against Dimyana Abdel-Nour in southern Egypt's ancient city of Luxor began when parents of three of ... (more)

Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta has a special briefcase he uses exclusively to carry documentation for a project that would completely revise an entire section of the Catholic Church's basic law.

Ernst von Freyberg told the bank's employees of the changes, which should be in place by the end of the year, this week, according to Vatican Radio.

Bishop David Zubik told the almost 100 men gathered before him that the foundation of who they are isn't their talent, their education or their intelligence.

Archbasilica of St. John Lateran From Wikipedia: The Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran , commonly known as St.

The first thing visitors will see when they enter the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale-an art show dedicated to the modern and cutting edge-will be a nod to the past: a three-paneled triptych on which the 20th-century Italian artist Tano Festa reproduced details from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

Islamabad, May 16 : The brother of slain Pakistani minister Shahbaz Bhatti will speak in front of Pope Francis and some 120,000 members of new Catholic religious movements on Saturday, the Vatican has said.

'We have started down the path of a disposable culture,' Pope Francis said in a May 16 address to four new ambassadors to the Holy See.

Raymond Ibrahim, a scholar of Islam and Islamic history who has a particular focus on Muslim persecution of Christians, has on his website - for which I also write - a new article, Islamic Forced Conversions - Past and Present , highlighting the astonishing similarities of past atrocities, which many people in the West believe to have been ... (more)

" Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the Church of God that he acquired with his own Blood.

"Tweet Inspiration: Faith in 140 Characters ," by Mark Hart, is available through local Catholic books stores as well as on the web through franciscanmedia.org. Hart, a local Catholic, is vice president of Life Teen.

A priest listens to a confession during Mass in 2012 at the Temple of Divine Providence in Warsaw, Poland.

I WAS 15 when Pope Paul VI died in 1978. He'd been pope my whole life. Elated at the election of John Paul, I followed his papacy with all the obsessive focus of a teenager.

Catholics can't put their faith on a part-time schedule or rely on it just for the moments they choose; being Christian is a full-time occupation, Pope Francis said.