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Scientific tests prove bones housed in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome are those of the apostle St. Paul himself, according to Pope Benedict XVI.
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.
The devout actor still goes to church - but forgoes Communion
Father Alberto Cutie, an internationally known Catholic priest who admitted having a romantic affair and breaking his vow of celibacy, is joining the Episcopal Church to be with the woman he loves, he said Thursday.
Unregistered churches are attracting millions of worshippers in China, exposing an enduring rift between the government and the Vatican.
It's an issue that simply won't go away. In spite of signals from the Vatican discouraging even discussions of obligatory celibacy for Catholic priests, the almost 1,000-year-old rule is under the microscope. And it will be for decades to come. Here's why.
Does Antimatter really matter? And other burning questions
The scandal surrounding the Rev. Alberto Cutie has raised questions in the minds of many concerning the Catholic Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. Why does the church continue to defend a practice that seems so unnatural and so unnecessary?
Pope Benedict XVI completed his eight-day tour of the Holy Land on Friday with an exhortation to both Israelis and Palestinians to work through their decades-old conflict.
Just so you know, Bart Ehrman says he's not the anti-Christ.
Scientific tests prove bones housed in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome are those of the apostle St. Paul himself, according to Pope Benedict XVI.
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.
The devout actor still goes to church - but forgoes Communion
Father Alberto Cutie, an internationally known Catholic priest who admitted having a romantic affair and breaking his vow of celibacy, is joining the Episcopal Church to be with the woman he loves, he said Thursday.
Unregistered churches are attracting millions of worshippers in China, exposing an enduring rift between the government and the Vatican.
It's an issue that simply won't go away. In spite of signals from the Vatican discouraging even discussions of obligatory celibacy for Catholic priests, the almost 1,000-year-old rule is under the microscope. And it will be for decades to come. Here's why.
Does Antimatter really matter? And other burning questions
The scandal surrounding the Rev. Alberto Cutie has raised questions in the minds of many concerning the Catholic Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. Why does the church continue to defend a practice that seems so unnatural and so unnecessary?
Pope Benedict XVI completed his eight-day tour of the Holy Land on Friday with an exhortation to both Israelis and Palestinians to work through their decades-old conflict.
Just so you know, Bart Ehrman says he's not the anti-Christ.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday to use his moral authority to thwart anti-Semitic sentiment and hatred toward Israel, especially by Iran.
Three years ago, the film based on Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" was the focus of protest and controversy, with a Vatican archbishop calling for a boycott and Catholics at many levels refuting plot points.
With his visit already bogged down in historical disputes, the pope's message of peace in Gaza was interrupted Monday by an impromptu speaker who fueled the longtime resentment between Palestinians and Israelis.
There is an assumption that the visit to the Middle East by Pope Benedict XVI will be a profound event. However, no one seems to be asking why there is such an expectation.
As he arrives in Israel, the focus for Pope Benedict XVI shifts from Catholic/Muslim ties, which were at the heart of his three-day visit to Jordan, to relations with Judaism.
For more than 20 years, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then the Vatican's top doctrinal czar, was the intellectual architect of the papacy of John Paul II.
On the second day of his visit to the Middle East, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the need for harmony and unity between Christians and Muslims.
Pope Benedict XVI arrived Friday in Amman, Jordan, for a weeklong visit to the Middle East that he hopes will help "foster good relations between Christians and Muslims."
Pope Benedict XVI will leave for a weeklong tour of the Middle East Friday morning, the first papal visit to some of Christianity's most holy places since Pope John Paul II made the pilgrimage in 2000.
The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.
Prince Charles visited the Vatican on Monday for his first meeting with a pope since his 1996 divorce from Princess Diana.
He built his own traditionalist Catholic church in L.A. How will faith affect his divorce?
Critics took to the social networking site Facebook to voice their fury over Pope Benedict's remark that condoms do not prevent HIV.
Along the Rust Belt and in cities dotting the Northeast and Upper Midwest, Catholic communities are mourning the loss of parishes. It's a five-year trend of sweeping church closures that most recently hit Cleveland, Ohio.
An estimated 1 million people turned out to hear Pope Benedict XVI preach a Mass in Angola on Sunday, the last major event of his first trip to Africa.
Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Angola on Friday as part of his week-long visit to Africa, a journey marked by the pontiff's controversial comments on reproductive issues and some of the continent's political regimes.
Tens of thousands of people packed a soccer stadium in Cameroon Thursday, including President Paul Biya and his wife, for the first large-scale mass of Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to Africa.
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.
The African-American religious community deserves considerable praise for taking leadership of the civil rights movement during the first half of the 20th century.
The pope has admitted making mistakes over the lifting of the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, saying the church will make much greater use of the Internet in the future to help avoid such controversies.
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 a memorial that is part of the site, his ambassador to Israel said Tuesday.
Pope Benedict XVI will visit Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories May 8-15, he announced Sunday.
James Dobson, the influential evangelical leader of the Christian ministry Focus on the Family, has stepped down as board chairman, he announced Friday.
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.
The Catholic bishop who caused outrage for denying the Nazis had systematically murdered millions of Jews in the Holocaust apologized Thursday for his statements.
A British Roman Catholic bishop who was ordered to leave Argentina because of his inflammatory comments about the Holocaust has returned home.
A Catholic bishop who was ordered to leave Argentina because of his inflammatory comments about the Holocaust left the country Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan will become the new archbishop of New York, the Vatican announced Monday.
Bishop Richard Williamson, who last month denied the existence of the Holocaust in an interview with Swedish television, was ordered Thursday to leave Argentina within 10 days, the Ministry of Interior said.
Pope Benedict XVI met Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, at the Vatican on Wednesday, both sides said in statements -- but that seems to be all they agree on.
The gray-haired bishop speaks haltingly at first, choosing his words with care. He pauses, stumbles, repeats himself, underlines words vocally for emphasis. But then he warms to his topic, and the words begin to flow freely.
Pope Benedict XVI will visit Israel in May, outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Sunday.
Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday the Catholic Church is "profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism."
A German court Monday refused to intervene in the case of Bishop Richard Williamson, who is facing prosecution for denying the Holocaust -- a crime in Germany.
A Holocaust denier Pope Benedict XVI welcomed back into the Roman Catholic Church last month has been removed from his position as head of a seminary in Argentina.
Germany's Catholic bishops are calling for the expulsion of a bishop, recently brought back into the church by Pope Benedict XVI, after new reports that Richard Williamson denies the Holocaust.
Manti Te'o refrained from mincing words each time he met a college coach. Te'o, one of the nation's highest ranked linebacker prospects, told every coach who recruited him that, after his freshman season, he might leave the country for two years.
The Vatican says it has ordered a controversial bishop who denies the Holocaust to "distance himself" from his views "in an absolutely unequivocal and public manner."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI firmly reject denial of the Holocaust, a week and a half after the Vatican rehabilitated a bishop who denied the Nazis had intentionally murdered 6 million Jews.
The Russian Orthodox Church enthroned a new leader Sunday at Moscow's spectacular Christ the Savior Cathedral in a ceremony attended by Russian leaders and Christian delegations from around the world.
A bishop who denies that Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers apologized Friday that his remarks caused "distress" for the pope.
Federal prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether leaders of the Los Angeles archdiocese committed fraud by failing to properly deal with charges of priests molesting children, two law-enforcement sources told CNN.
Russian Orthodox Church leaders Tuesday selected Metropolitan Kirill, a 62-year-old modernizer, to be the next head of the church.
Jewish officials in Israel and abroad are outraged that Pope Benedict XVI has decided to lift the excommunication of a British bishop who denies that Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers.
"Everyone has a right to vote their conscience," the actors says in an exclusive statement
Pope Benedict XVI launched his own channel on YouTube Friday in an effort to use new technology to reach a younger audience.
Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to homosexual behavior and warned that humanity could destroy itself.
Theological conservatives estranged from the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church in Canada formed a rival North American "province" Wednesday.
Breakaway conservative members of the Episcopal Church in the United States and its Canadian counterpart are expected to formally announce Wednesday the formation of a rival North American Anglican church.
Thousands of Cubans, including President Raul Castro and Communist Party leaders, flocked to a Catholic ceremony on Saturday putting a 19th century monk on the path to sainthood.
When John Lennon remarked in 1966 that the Beatles were then "more popular than Jesus" his comments prompted outrage in the United States. But this weekend the Vatican's newspaper paid tribute to the band on the 40th anniversary of the release of the "White Album" in an article interpreted by some as a papal pardon for Lennon.
A dramatic breakthrough in support among Evangelicals did not take place as expected by many observers. Why?
While not playing down differences, the Pope is as keen as many Muslim scholars to promote mutual understanding rather than enmity
The Rev. Loran Livingston can see the stress in their faces and hears the dilemma in their questions as Election Day draws near.
As thousands express their anger at the Camorra's threat to a young writer, the Pope chooses to say nothing
For decades, Roe v. Wade divided Catholics from their Democratic leanings. But that may all be changing
As Pope Benedict XVI announced the ascendance of four new saints, a look back at how the guiding lights of the Catholic faith are identified
One reason the Republicans aren't going after Obama's relationship with the Rev. Wright: their Veep candidate has her own church issues
The road to sainthood for the Nazi-era Pontiff had been put on hold, but on the holiest of Jewish holy days, the current Pope appears to renew the process
The attempts by Obama's running mate to justify his pro-choice abortion views have prompted criticism from the Catholic bishops. Will this be John Kerry redux?
In France, Benedict reiterates his scholarly meditations on faith and reason, trying to spark interest in a haven of secularism
Once termed "the eldest daughter" of the Catholic Church, France is now emblematic of Rome's loosening hold in the developed world
A smooth-talking Italian businessman who once dated actress Anne Hathaway and claimed to have friends in high places at the Vatican is headed to prison after pleading guilty Wednesday in a Manhattan real estate fraud case
Her faith is one of the reasons many evangelical Christians are excited about Sarah Palin's addition to the Republican presidential ticket, but the Alaska governor's evangelical beliefs have also drawn scrutiny.
Viewpoint: Her anti-abortion credentials are impeccable. But some of her views are at odds with younger Evangelicals
Key evangelical leaders rallied to Sarah Palin's support Monday amid news that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was having a child.
The Vatican says it wants to move the remains of Cardinal John Henry Newman to allow the faithful to pray to him. But gay rights activists see another reason
Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama plan to appear together Saturday at a minister-moderated forum held in a church as thousands of evangelicals plan to gather in the nation's capital to pressure both men move further to the right on social issues.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, struggling to hold together the troubled world Anglican family, urged church leaders gathered Sunday in England not to consecrate another gay bishop
As the Catholic Church marks a key anniversary of a traditionalist ascendancy, its leader is still keen to grapple with doubters
Conservatives are up in arms over Mexico City legalizing abortion and same-sex unions. But leftist politicians believe the government's social conservatism could be its downfall
Benedict won over many of the country's cynics, even if his anti-materialism message clashed with Sydney's hedonism
Pope Benedict XVI used some of the strongest language yet in his apology for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy
Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday offered his strongest public statement yet on sex abuse against minors by Roman Catholic priests, apologizing to victims and calling the abuse "evil."
Pope Benedict XVI urged religious leaders of all kinds to unite against those who use faith to divide communities
Forget Abba, Australia hails the octogenarian pontiff like a 21st century rock star, even though he has a very old-school sermon for everyone
Controversy over gay clergy and female bishops is likely to dominate the Anglican church's once-a-decade conference, which begins Wednesday.
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Sydney to lead hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the Roman Catholic church's youth festival
Pope Benedict XVI began a pilgrimage in Australia Sunday, saying he aims to raise awareness about global warming the crisis of clergy sexual abuse
Benedict XVI's handling of the U.S. priest-pedophile crisis won praise. Now Catholics in other countries want the same. Next stop: Australia
The latest fracture over female bishops in the Church of England could get Rome involved
The Vatican said Tuesday it regrets the decision by the Church of England's governing body to allow the ordination of women as bishops.
Democrats have usually conceded the evangelical vote during presidential elections, but Sen. Barack Obama is trying to change that by mobilizing what some call the "Christian left."
A conservative resolution in Jerusalem and a court decision in Virginia suggest that that the U.S. may be a key battlefield
Archbishop Raymond Burke, an expert in church law and perhaps the most outspoken of conservative U.S. bishops, will likely be made a cardinal after his appointment Friday
Anglican conservatives were all fire and brimstone when they began their Jerusalem meeting but they may emerge from it without a significant decision
A top U.S. evangelical leader is accusing Sen. Barack Obama of deliberately distorting the Bible and taking a "fruitcake interpretation" of the U.S. Constitution.
Italy's leader joins other prominent divorced and remarried Catholics in asking the Pope to reconsider the ban on their taking the sacrament
Fears of a schism over the issue of gay priests are fueled by an ominous declaration by conservatives
Just days before his death, the newsman took his family on a Roman holiday
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