VATICAN popularity and VATICAN trends

Liberal and conservative Catholics don't agree on much, but they're both outraged by a new rule on contraception coverage.Ever since the closing of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, conservative and liberal Roman Catholics have been deeply divided over church teachings, many of them concerning marriage and sexual matters. Those who are more conservative would like to see the teachings remain ...

The Vatican fiercely rejected claims by one of its archbishops of widespread corruption and waste in the management of the Holy See.

By Alessandro SpecialeReligion News ServiceVATICAN CITY (RNS) Ten years after the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in the United States, Catholic bishops from all over the world will meet next week at a Vatican summit aimed at preventing abuse and protecting children.Read More...More on Catholic Church

Des responsables de l'Eglise catholique "demanderont pardon" la semaine...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia for more than 15 years, championing the Vatican line on homosexuality and abortion but later coming under fire by two grand juries investigating child sex abuse allegations, has died. He was 88....

There's been a lot written recently about academic publishing, in the kerfuffle over the "Research Works Act"-- John's roundup should keep you in reading material for a good while. This has led some people to decide to boycott Elsevier, including Aram Harrow of the Quantum Vatican. I'm generally in favor of this, but Aram says one thing that bugs me a bit: Just like the walled gardens of Compu...

"Elles veulent rester dans la maison du pape" a commenté, amusé, Benoît XVI qui avait libéré ce dimanche les deux colombes en "signe de paix pour la…

Was the secretary general so good at his job he made serious Holy See enemies?

A Vatican administrator wrote to Pope Benedict XVI revealing mismanagement and asking to continue cleaning up financial affairs. Instead, he was made ambassador to the United States.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican was shaken by a corruption scandal Thursday after an Italian television investigation said a former top official had been transferred against his will after complaining about irregularities in awarding contracts.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican has defended its transfer of a top official to Washington after he exposed alleged corruption in the awarding of Holy See contracts....

An Italian news program has obtained letters from a top Vatican official to the pope in which he begs not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).

Religion is a great thing. To me it's superb. But when sex abuse scandals rock the domain of religion, it sets you thinking. It's some food for thought. Morality is a great thing. It's worth holding onto. So where in religion--And I'm not naming any one-- does the line get blurred. The whole of last year, saw a spurt in such news. News of abuse in religion is revealing. Let me not expound on it...

The Romney campaign put out a radio ad in Florida this morning that appears aimed squarely at one promising constituency: conservative women. The spot features two Romney endorsers, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Ambassador to the Vatican Mary Ann Glendon. Spotlighting Bondi is a straightforward political choice, but she’s only one of three statewide officers who have endorsed Ro...

It is a sheer misconception to assume that terrorism means making the lives of innocent people miserable through generating an atmosphere of harassment and persecution. Disfigurement of facts and defacement of actualities is also a very heinous form of terrorism. Pope Benedict, in his traditional beginning-of-the-year address to diplomats at the Vatican said referring to the assassination of a ...

RITE AND REASON:IN 2005 parishioners of St James in the farm belt town of Kansas, Ohio, recoiled when Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair, facing a tight budget, closed the parish, steering them to one several miles away. They filed an appeal to the Vatican. It failed.

A file on Mother Riccarda Beauchamp Hambrough (pictured) and Sister Katherine Flanagan will be studied in detail by the Church’s top historians and theologians.

Mena Suvari filed for divorce Friday after just 18 months of marriage to concert promoter Simone Sestito. The papers, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, cite “irreconcilable differences,” indicate the pair separated in November 2011 and request no alimony payments for Sestito, TMZ reports. The “American Horror” actress also wants her old name back -- that would be Suvari, rather than Suvari-...

The American Beauty star wed music producer Simone Sestitio in Vatican City in July 2010

Mena Suvari's Vatican wedding is ending in divorce ... TMZ has learned. The 32-year-old "American Beauty" actress has filed court papers to end her marriage to 25-year-old concert promoter Simone Sestito. The two were married back in 2010 at a… TMZMena Suvari -- I'm Filing For Divorce

Si ce n'est pas une revanche de l'histoire cela y ressemble. Le cinquantième anniversaire du Concile Vatican II qui va être célébré dans l'Eglise catholique en 2012 pourrait paradoxalement marquer le crépuscule de..."l'esprit du Concile" qui fut pourtant sa grande promesse. Cet...

VATICAN CITY — A rare Cuban crocodile met a bemused Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican on Wednesday, as Rome’s Bio Park zoo celebrated its centenary with the eco-friendly pontiff. A staff member from the zoo – which has 1,200 animals and is visited by 700,000 people a year – presented the 60-centimetre long crocodylus ...

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI received a rare, scaly visitor Wednesday during his weekly general audience: an endangered Cuban crocodile....

The Pope made his comments, some of his strongest yet against gay marriage, during a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican.

The Vatican has been caught plundering Wikipedia for background on 22 new cardinals announced by the Pope.

Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals Friday, including prelates in such key posts as New York and Hong Kong and a large number of Italians holding major Vatican positions.

The Most Rev. Gabino Zavala, an important figure in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a venerated champion for social and economic justice, resigned his post as auxiliary bishop Wednesday after revealing to the Vatican that he is...

American Episcopalians upset with their denomination’s acceptance of gay and female clergy can now convert to the Roman Catholic Church while keeping many cherished traditions in a special new U.S. diocese that was established on Sunday (Jan. 1) by Pope Benedict XVI. The Houston-based diocese, called the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will allow a special Anglican-style Catholi...

The newly-displayed Vatican archives show us that many of today’s challenges are not new.

Des extraits du film d’horreur « Frankenstein » ont été découverts dans les archives du Vatican, rapporte l’agence de presse catholique autrichienne Kath...lire la suite

US, UK and Vatican decry Christmas Day attacks claimed by the Boko Haram group that have left up to 40 people dead.

L'attentat contre une église catholique près d'Abuja au Nigeria qui a fait...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict called for an end to violence in Syria and a resumption of Middle East peace talks on Sunday on a Christmas Day marred by a bomb blast at a Catholic Church in...

A nativity scene was unveiled in St. Peter's square in front of the Basilica hours before the start of the evening Christmas Eve Mass on Saturday. Pope Benedict XVI also lit a candle in his studio window in a traditional sign of peace.

THE Sistine Chapel has been fitted with detectors to check for pollution from its millions of visitors every year that could harm priceless frescoes by Michelangelo and Botticelli.

A MYSTERY buyer has snapped up the web address vatican.xxx - a domain made for porn

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Wednesday an unknown buyer had snapped up the internet address vatican.xxx, a domain combining its name with an extension reserved for pornographic content.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The director of the Vatican Museums says there are no plans to limit the number of visitors who flock to the Sistine Chapel to admire Michelangelo's frescoes, despite harmful dust build-up....

En septembre dernier, Rome avait proposé un accord pour réintégrer ces chrétiens intégristes, en marge de l'Église depuis 1988. Rome indique qu'ils ont fourni une réponse «ni négative, ni positive».

The Vatican announced a 17th-century Mohawk-Algonquin woman will be canonized as a Catholic saint.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Antique books in the Vatican Library are being digitised to preserve them for future generations using a technique developed through ESA to store satellite images of the sky.

HOST says approval for Play Your Cards Right was like going to 'gameshow Vatican'

no comment : Le Vatican prépare Noël

It is the most significant change to worship for English-speaking believers since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI has urged this week's U.N. climate change conference in South Africa to craft a responsible and credible deal to cut greenhouse gases that takes into account the needs of the poor....

The Vatican says European inspectors in the fight against money laundering have held a week of meetings with church officials.

French appeals for Germany to sanction extra powers for the European Central Bank have been firmly rejected, despite warnings from politicians, economists and even the Vatican that it is the only way of "averting a catastrophe".

Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as archbishop of Boston in 2002 amid a sex abuse scandal, has retired from his post at the St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, the Vatican said.

The Vatican's official newspaper has claimed there are "few doubts" that William Shakespeare was a Catholic.

PLANET BUSINESS:Benetton is back to its old tricks, with a marketing campaign designed purely, it would seem, to get the Vatican to scale up its publicity for free.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Thursday it would take legal action to stop the distribution of a photo montage in an advertisement by the Italian fashion firm Benetton showing Pope Benedict kissing an imam on the mouth.

The Vatican threatens legal action over the publication of an ad showing Pope Benedict kissing a leading imam on the mouth as part of a Benetton advertising campaign.

AFter protests from the Vatican, Benetton has pulled an ad showing Pope Benedict XVI kissing a senior Egyptian imam.

Italian clothes company Benetton backed down and pulled a photo montage showing the Pope kissing a leading imam from its new global ad campaign on Wednesday after the Vatican issued a stern condemnation

Retailer says its campaign’s aimed at ‘unhate’; pulls picture featuring Pope after Vatican complains

Retailer says its campaign’s aimed at ‘unhate’; pulls picture featuring Pope after Vatican complains

Three popular African singers have released a CD in collaboration with Vatican Radio to mark the pope's upcoming visit to Benin.

[[323078]] CITE DU VATICAN (AFP) : Le pape Benoît XVI, âgé de 84 ans, a devant lui un voyage éprouvant de trois jours au Bénin, alors qu'il a donné des signes de fatigue au long de l'année sans jamais alléger son lourd programme de travail. Pape depuis six ans et demi, le souverain pontife à la...

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed his opposition to embryonic stem cell research, saying it's morally wrong to destroy an embryo no matter how beneficial the resulting treatment is....

An international conference opens in Rome Wednesday devoted to medical applications of adult stem cells.

THE GOVERNMENT decision to close Ireland’s Embassy to the Holy See has been described as “strange” by Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin. It was indicative of a view that saw religion as belonging to the private sphere, he said.

“The comic book was published in the 1930s, and for that reason expresses the values of the era — but can it really perturb young Britons of today, raised as they are on the Internet, video games and fish and chips?”

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday appealed for "an end to all violence" in Nigeria after deadly attacks by Islamists claimed at least 150 lives in the north of the country.The attacks Friday targeted Christian churches as well as police stations and an army base in Damaturu and Maiduguri and two small towns. "I follow with apprehension the tragic events reported in recent days in...

The pope “shares the outrage” of Catholics in Ireland over the handling of a sex-abuse scandal and plans to write a letter to Catholics there, according to a Vatican statement.

After hosting a panel earlier this year to discuss supposed flaws in evolutionary theory , Italy's science agency the National Research Council (CNR) reportedly put up thousands of dollars to help with the publication of a follow-up book, Evolutionism: The Decline of an Hypothesis . The move has vexed many scientists in the country where the Vatican recently came out in support of Darwin'...