The Pope on Capitalism: Encyclical ‘Charity in Truth’

Ever wondered what God makes of the current global economic crisis? We’ll never know, of course, but the man the Roman Catholic Church deems the Almighty’s “pastor in chief” has finally weighed in with his own take: Pope Benedict XVI offers neither stock tips nor bailout plans in Caritas in Veritate , but the long-awaited third encyclical of his papacy is a wide-ranging commentary on the sources of our economic woes and a holy blueprint for recovery based on something greater than the once mighty dollar.

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When Benedict Meets Barack

When Pope Benedict XVI greets U.S. President Barack Obama at the Vatican on July 10, the symbolism and sheer star power of the encounter will keep the pundits chattering away. The photo op alone is worth a thousand words: The 82-year-old man in white, the world’s most recognizable religious leader and head of its largest single denomination comes face-to-face with the charismatic first black President of the world’s last superpower

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The Day that Guns Came to Church in Louisville

At 4:55 p.m, five minutes before New Bethel Church’s highly publicized “open-carry service” was set to begin Saturday evening, Lynne Smith walked into the sanctuary with her husband and two friends and took a seat in the front row. Asked what weapon she had with her, Smith had to stop and think about which gun she’d brought but finally said it was a Beretta .25 automatic. Her husband, Michael Houston, wore a Browning .380 in a holster.

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N. Ireland police probe ‘hate attack’ on Romanian settlers

Police in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were treating a new attack on a Romanian family as a hate crime after a series of similar incidents in the city, authorities said Thursday. A window at the family’s house in east Belfast was broken shortly after 11 p.m. (6 p.m

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Former Catholic priest in photo scandal marries

Father Alberto Cutie, an internationally known Catholic priest who admitted having a romantic affair and breaking his vow of celibacy, was married this week in Miami, Florida. Cutie, 40, announced last month that he was leaving the Catholic Church and joining the Episcopal Church

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Man charged with murder in Kansas doctor’s death

Kansas prosecutors have brought murder and assault charges against the man suspected of killing Wichita physician George Tiller, whose women’s clinic was a frequent target of protests against abortion. Scott Roeder, 51, is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from Tiller’s shooting death Sunday morning, Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess said. Burgess set a preliminary hearing in the case for June 16.

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