Vatican Takes On Christian Fundamentalists Over Is...

It’s not easy walking through the minefield called Middle Eastern politics, and a Vatican document released Sunday managed to criticize Israel, Egypt, Islam and even Christian fundamentalists. The 46-page text, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness,” will serve as a working document for an October meeting at the Vatican about the Mideast. The document was made public Sunday, the final day of...

Chief Exorcist says Devil is in the Vatican

Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican”, according to the Holy See’s chief exorcist. Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican’s chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as...

Pope To Visit UK Urges Church To Accept Anglicans

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed Monday he would visit Britain later this year, a trip that has grown fraught following his move to welcome into the Roman Catholic Church groups of Anglicans upset over the ordination of gays and women. No dates were announced. Officials at both the Vatican and in Britain say the visit is planned for September. It will the first papal visit to Britain since Pope John Paul II visited in...

Fears for Pope’s Health as Christmas Mass Mo...

The Vatican has denied that Pope Benedict XVI had “health problems” after it emerged that he is to hold the traditional Christmas Eve Midnight Mass two hours early.Father Federico Lombardi said that the decision to hold the mass at ten in the evening had been taken nearly two months ago. The service would end at midnight rather than starting at midnight in order to “to tire the Pope a bit less” and...

For One Episcopal Parish, a Path to Catholicism

When the Vatican announced last week that it would welcome groups of traditionalist Anglicans into the Roman Catholic Church, leaders of one Episcopal parish celebrated as if a ship had arrived to rescue them from a drifting ice floe. Bishop David Moyer of the Church of the Good Shepherd welcomes a Vatican decision to embrace traditionalist Anglicans. “We’d been praying for this daily for two years,” said Bishop David...