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Pope pardons ex-butler who stole, leaked documents
Pope Benedict XVI granted his former butler a Christmas pardon Saturday, forgiving him in person during a jailhouse meeting for stealing and leaking ...
Hurting Spaniards celebrate Christmas lottery wins
Winners of Spain's cherished Christmas lottery — the world's richest — celebrated Saturday in more than a dozen locations where the top lucky tickets ...
Pope stresses family values as gay marriage gains
The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people eschewing their God-given gender identities to suit ...
New female mayor gears Bethlehem up for Christmas
Bethlehem's first female mayor, Vera Baboun, can't walk through the main square of the biblical town without being stopped by admirers. "This is our ...
Fear keeps Egypt's Christians away from polls
A campaign of intimidation by Islamists left most Christians in this southern Egyptian province too afraid to participate in last week's referendum ...
Irish government to legalize life-saving abortion
Ireland's government pledged Tuesday to pass a law soon that will allow women to receive abortions if continued pregnancy threatens their lives — ...
China detains 500-plus people for doomsday rumors
Chinese police have detained more than 500 people from a fringe Christian group for spreading rumors about the world's impending end, state media ...
Syrian elected new Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch
Syria's state-run news agency says John Yazigi has been elected to head the Damascus-based Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch. He replaces Patriarch ...
Philippines OKs divisive contraceptives bill
Philippine legislators passed a landmark bill Monday that would provide government funding for contraceptives and sexuality classes in schools despite ...
Vatican hopes UN Palestinian vote brings peace
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has met with Pope Benedict XVI to thank him for supporting the recent U.N. resolution recognizing a ...
Mistrust runs deep over Egypt referendum
Nevine Mustafa finally had enough after 10 hours of waiting to cast her "no" vote in Egypt's referendum on a highly disputed draft constitution.
Mainstream Anglicans take back Zimbabwe cathedral
Mainstream Anglican Christians in Zimbabwe took back their cathedral on Sunday after a lockout of more than five years staged by an excommunicated, ...
Egyptians take quarrel over charter to the polls
Egyptians took their quarrel over a draft constitution to polling stations Saturday after weeks of violent turmoil between the newly empowered ...
Christmas comes to Vatican with tree lighting
The Christmas season kicked off Friday at the Vatican with the traditional lighting of the tree in St. Peter's Square — and a reminder from the pope ...
Vatican austerity means donated nativity scene
The Vatican has happily accepted a donated Nativity scene for St. Peter's Square this Christmas after a previous setup costing €550,000 ($717,000) was ...
Spanish botched fresco artist sells work on eBay
The 80-year-old Spanish artist who became famous because of her botched restoration of a Christ fresco in a small-town church is auctioning one of her ...
Del. man sues Boy Scouts, Mormons over sex abuse
A Delaware man sued the Boy Scouts of America and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday over childhood sexual abuse committed ...
Egypt court gives Christian 3 years for blasphemy
A Cairo court on Wednesday convicted a Coptic Christian blogger who shared an anti-Islam film on social networking sites and sentenced him to three ...
O'Reilly strikes back against 'War on Christmas'
Deck the halls and man the battle stations. The fight has resumed. I'm referring, of course, to the so-called War on Christmas, a yearly call to arms ...
Pope hits 1M mark as he tweets: 'Dear Friends... '
Pope Benedict XVI hit the 1 million Twitter follower mark on Wednesday as he sent his first tweet from his new account, blessing his online fans and ...
Putin rejects foreign advice on democracy
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday angrily rejected what he described as attempts to enforce foreign patterns of democracy on Russia and vowed to ...
China revokes new Shanghai Catholic bishop's title
In a fresh challenge to Vatican authority, China has revoked the title of a new Catholic bishop in Shanghai who outraged Chinese officials by ...
Vandals spray hate graffiti on Jerusalem church
Vandals have spray-painted "Death to Christianity" and "Jesus, son of a whore" on a Greek Orthodox monastery in Jerusalem. The overnight attack on the ...
Pope's sensitive side revealed in children's book
A children's picture book about the goldfish pond at the pope's summer residence reveals a side of him few may know. Every day while Pope Benedict XVI ...
British government to legalize same-sex marriage
The British government announced Tuesday that it will introduce a bill next year legalizing gay marriage — but banning the Church of England from ...