Daily News Channel
Pope Benedict XVI refused Wednesday to soften the Vatican’s ban on condom use as he arrived in Africa for his first visit to the continent as pope. He landed in Cameroon, the first stop on a trip that will also take him to Angola
Pope Benedict XVI will not visit Israel’s Holocaust museum when he makes his first trip to the region as pope in May, though he will visit an adjacent memorial, his ambassador to Israel said Tuesday. The museum includes controversial wording that reflects a long-running dispute over the role of Pope Pius XII during World War II.
Before he was Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would hold an annual summer retreat for his former theology students, focused each year on a single theme of acute concern. Three months after his rise to the papacy, Benedict XVI continued the tradition with a closed-door encounter in the Vatican’s breezy summer residence, Castel Gondolfo
The Vatican said Friday it is not satisfied by the apology issued by a Catholic bishop who denied the Holocaust, saying the cleric must still clearly "distance himself" from the controversial comments. Bishop Richard Williamson, who is now in England, issued a statement Thursday saying he regretted making the remarks.
The Catholic bishop who caused outrage for denying the Nazis had systematically murdered millions of Jews in the Holocaust apologized Thursday for his statements.
Four British soldiers died Wednesday in Afghanistan, bringing the number of international troops killed since Friday in the war-torn country to 11.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned Pope Benedict XVI Sunday over a Holocaust denier whom the pope welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church last month. Neither side seems to have shifted its position over Bishop Richard Williamson, who, shortly before the pope lifted his excommunication, denied the Nazis had systematically murdered six million Jews during World War II