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Pope Benedict XVI

Italian business greets prospect of 2nd Monti term
Italian business and church leaders on Friday warmed to the prospect that Premier Mario Monti might stay on for a second term, while politicians ...
Did the butler do it? A Q&A on the Vatican trial
The Vatican has never seen anything like it. Pope Benedict XVI's trusted butler, who dressed the pontiff each morning, attended his daily Mass and ...
Pope's ex-butler goes on trial for leaked papers
There was a time when a Vatican trial could end with a heretic being burned at the stake. Paolo Gabriele doesn't risk nearly as dire a fate, but he ...
Worries over violence against churches in Israel
After a series of attacks by vandals on Christian holy sites in Israel, normally tight-lipped Roman Catholic officials are beginning to speak out, ...
Theft trial for papal butler starts next week
Pope Benedict XVI's ex-butler and another Vatican lay employee will go on trial next week in the embarrassing theft of papal documents that exposed ...
Clashes over prophet film; Hezbollah urges demos
Hundreds of Pakistanis protesting an anti-Islam film broke through a barricade near the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi on Sunday, ...
Pope makes peace appeal at open-air Mass in Beirut
Pope Benedict XVI made a sweeping appeal Sunday for peace in Syria and the Middle East, decrying the violence "which generates so much suffering.
US judge rules in favor of Legion in will dispute
A U.S. judge has thrown out a lawsuit contesting the will of an elderly widow who gave some $60 million to the Legion of Christ, the disgraced Roman ...
Pope's Lebanon visit made urgent by Syria's war
The brutal civil war in Syria and the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya have given a sense of urgency to Pope Benedict XVI's trip this week to ...
Vatican insists on interreligious dialogue
The Vatican underlined Pope Benedict XVI's push for dialogue among religions in the aftermath of the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya by a mob ...
Pope: Beirut trip is Mideast peace pilgrimage
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday characterized his trip to Beirut later this week as a pilgrimage for peace for the entire Middle East region and its ...
Bishop's conviction intensifies calls to step down
Calls for Bishop Robert Finn's resignation intensified a day after he became the highest-ranking U.S. church official to be convicted of a crime ...
Pope goes green with electric car
Pope Benedict XVI is now a bit greener. The 85-year-old pontiff was presented with his first electric car Wednesday, a customized white Renault Kangoo ...
Cardinal Martini, liberal papal contender, dies
Italian Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, a rare liberal within the highly conservative Catholic Church hierarchy who was nevertheless considered a papal ...
Lawyer for pope's ex-butler quits over strategy
A lawyer for the pope's former butler resigned Thursday, just weeks before his client was due to go on trial for his role in the scandal over leaked ...
Thieves toss away vial of Pope John Paul II's blood
A trio of thieves aboard a train stole a priest's backpack containing a vial of the late Pope John Paul II's blood on Tuesday, but police recovered ...
SF archbishop-elect apologizes for DUI arrest
The Roman Catholic archbishop-elect of San Francisco has apologized for his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving, behavior that he said brought ...
New papal envoy to Israel hopes to foster peace
Pope Benedict XVI has named Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto as a new envoy to Israel, who will also serve as apostolic delegate in Jerusalem and ...
Fidel Castro turns 86 behind closed doors
Cuba marked Fidel Castro's 86th birthday on Monday with congratulatory messages in state media but no planned appearance by the retired leader, who ...
Pope's butler, 2nd layman face trial in theft case
A Vatican judge on Monday ordered the pope's butler and a fellow lay employee to stand trial for the alleged pilfering of documents from Pope Benedict ...
Pope remembers victims of Asian calamities
Pope Benedict XVI has remembered the victims of Iran's violent quake as well as those impacted by unusually heavy rains in the Philippines and China.
Kissing protest follows arrest in northern Mexico
The arrest of a man after a woman objected to him kissing his female companion in public has prompted a "kiss-in" protest in a conservative Mexico ...
Pope finishes Christ trilogy
The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI has completed the third installment of his planned trilogy on the life of Christ. The publication date will be ...
Late Cuban dissident's family doubts crash report
The family of late Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya cast doubt on the official explanation of the car crash that killed him and another government ...