There has been an opportunity for the New Zealand Catholic Bishops meet to with Pope Benedict XVI. This was the first of two meetings they will have with the Pope during their ad limina visit. The second meeting will take place on Saturday 17 December. President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop John Dew of Read more
Pope Benedict illuminated a huge Christmas tree in Umbria, bring life to the tree by using a Sony Tablet S. As he turned on hundreds of lights forming the “world’s largest Christmas tree”, and speaking from Rome, Benedict said that he has three personal wishes for the Christmas season. My first wish, therefore, is that Read more
Pope Benedict has encouraged to world to display a courageous showing of brotherhood in face of the global economic crisis. In times when people are left searching for hope, people need to be able to rely on “the courage of of brotherhood,” the pontiff told the Italian branch of Caritas. Lamenting the divide between rich Read more
An official of a U.S. group advocating for victims of clergy abuse lamented that Benedict, with his remarks, was setting a “terrible example” for bishops.
“No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict,” David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.
“The pope would have us believe that this crisis is about sex abuse. It isn’t. It is about covering up sex abuse,” Clohessy said. “And while child sex crimes happen in every institution, in no institution are they ignored or concealed as consistently as in the Catholic church.”
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Africa’s future focused Pope Benedict’s attention on his second trip to the continent. In his final homily the Pope told some 50,000 packed into a stadium at Contonou and another 30,000 watching on giant screens from outside that corruption is not acceptable, AIDS is mainly an ethical problem and to seek reconciliation in the face of Read more
Pope Benedict XVI used his Sunday Angelus address to remind people that God has given everybody both talents and a mission in life.
“God calls all men to life and bestows him with talents, while entrusting him with a mission to accomplish,” said the Pope from the window of his apostolic palace to the crowds gathered below in St. Peter’s Square.
“It would be foolish to think that these gifts are due to us, just as our failing to use them would be a dereliction of the goal of our very existence.”
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Benedict XVI has shifted responsibilities in the Roman Curia to enable the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to focus more on liturgy. With an apostolic letter promulgated “motu proprio” (on his own initiative), the Holy Father established a new office within the Tribunal of the Roman Rota. The document, “Quaerit Semper,” assigns to Read more
Pope Benedict XVI joined Buddhist monks, Islamic scholars, Yoruba leaders and a handful of agnostics in making a communal call for peace Thursday, insisting that religion must never be used as a pretext for war or terrorism. Benedict welcomed some 300 leaders representing a rainbow of faiths to the hilltop Italian town of Assisi to Read more
In a message marking World Food Day 2011, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated the tools that today’s businesses and governments need to implement now to eradicate global hunger: “A change in lifestyle and a necessary moderation of behavior and consumption”. He stated that food should not be equated with other merchandise and therefore should not Read more
Pope Benedict has announced the Year of Faith in the hope that it will encourage a “new evangelisation” . The Year of Faith will begin on October 11, 2012, the 50th anniversary of the start of the Second Vatican Council ” up to “24 November 2013, Solemnity of Christ the King. ” The year will Read more