The Watchmen

Vatican City, Nov 23, 2009 / 01:22 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, explained last week that the entrance of

Madrid, Spain, Nov 23, 2009 / 10:14 pm (CNA).- During the

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While some pundits have sounded the death knell for ecumenical relations between the

As Episcopal Parishes and Dioceses Break From the National Body, Ugly Court Battles Over Valued Property Have Followed

When the members of St. Luke's of the Mountains Church in La Crescenta, Calif., voted in 2006 to leave the Episcopal Church, they never meant they wanted to leave their church.

But last month, they got notice they were being evicted from the 80-year-old stone structure that had been their spiritual home.

The congregants lost a long legal fight for

VATICAN CITY — In 1512, Raphael finished his ruminative portrait of Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the

Handed over to foster care when barely a few weeks old and then hauled through the care system's institutional layers, Graham Baverstock had few chances at a childhood. Now aged 51, confined to a wheelchair and reliant on local authority carers, benefit cheques and doctors, he is a damaged man who admits he is quick to anger and slow to trust. He has tried to kill himself twice and thoughts of suicide are never far from his mind.

There is one year of his life from which Ba

Evangelist Tony Alamo was sentenced Friday to 175 years in prison for taking

Source:

A Riverside Seventh-day Adventist university is under fire for teaching evolution in its biology classes without telling students that the scientific explanation for the origins of life contradicts church beliefs.

The controver

DAYTON, Ohio — An Ohio woman has been complaining to various officials because she says a hospital facility refused to help her get pregnant because she's not married.

Karri O'Reilly acknowledges that Kettering Reproductive Medicine outside Dayton has religious ties, but she says it should not have turned her away because its parent organization also accepts taxpayer funds.

Kettering Health Network, which is affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, has rel

Source:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia —

Malaysian authorities have confiscated more than 15,000 Bibles in recent months because they referred to "God" as "Allah," a translation that has been banned in this Muslim-majority country, Christian church officials said Thursday.

The alleged seizure of the Bibles, imported from ne

Source:

As the 35 youth at Camp Brotherhood entered the chapel Tuesday, the laughing, shouting and talking fell to a low murmur.

Some even took off their shoes as they entered the worship space to s

The Scotsman

POPE Benedict has appointed a Ghanaian cardinal to one of the most influential jobs in the Vatican, increasing the possibility that the next pontiff might be a black man.

He named Cardin

Crucifixes have been banned in Italian schools by a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights.

The decision has enraged politicians, with Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini saying: 'This is a death blow for a Europe of values and rights.

'Europe's roots lie in its Christian identity. At a time when we'r

Losing influence: Pope Benedict XVI greets pilgrims before his weekly address at the Vatican today

Catholic convert Tony Blair is among several world leaders

By John Thavis
Posted: 11/2/2009

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI called on Iran to strengthen guarantees of religious freedom for the country's tiny Catholic minority.

Welcoming Iran's new ambassador to the Vatican Oct. 29, the pope praised the "deep religious sensibility" of the Iranian people, and said the Catholic community there -- which dates to the church's early centuries -- has a long history of living in harmony with the Muslim majority.

"The Holy See tr

JIM MURPHY will travel to Rome this week to finalise a deal to bring the Pope to Scotland.

The Scottish Secretary will have talks with the Vatican about the details of Pope Benedict's tour of the UK next year.

It follows a meeting last week between Murphy and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who invited the Pope to Britain when he met him at the Vatican in February.

A preliminary itinerary included visits to Edinburgh, Birmingham and Oxford.

And it's now hoped a trip to Gla

By Deacon Keith Fournier
10/24/2009
Catholic Online

'To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church'.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) – On April 20, 2005 newly elected Pope Benedict XVI gave his first message at the end of a Mass he had concelebrated with the members of the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. He signaled his mission: “Nourished and sustained by the Euch

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States Supreme Court on Monday turned away a last-ditch appeal to stop the release of documents from sexual abuse lawsuits against priests in a Roman Catholic diocese in Connecticut.

The court refused to hear the appeal from the diocese, in Bridgeport, which has fought for years to prevent the release of the docume

THE Vatican yesterday slammed tonight’s Halloween celebrations as “anti-Christian” and “dangerous” because of its links to the occult.

The ghosts and goblins fun festival falls before tomorrow’s deeply-significant Roman Catholic holy day of All Saints.

The condemnation follows similar criticism from Catholic bishops in Spain who earlier his week urged parents not to let their children dress

By Associated Press
7:44 AM CDT, October 21, 2009

TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — A bankruptcy judge has agreed to reopen the closed Oklahoma bankruptcy case of a member of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.

A trustee overseeing the case of Thomas Scarcello asked to reopen the case to look for possible assets Scarcello may not have report