A top Roman Catholic official opened a conference on protecting children from sexual abuse Monday by defending Pope Benedict XVI, arguing that he deserved thanks for his efforts.
The Catholic church is outraged at new contraception rules. CNN's Brianna Keilar has more.
Recently, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Religious Liberty argued that the Obama administration's requirement that most health insurance plans cover contraception goes against "the mandate of Jesus Christ."
Pope Benedict XVI speaks about the need for peace in his Christmas Eve Mass.
Pope Benedict XVI presided over Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, delivering a homily that focused on the "essence" of the holiday rather than the "commercial celebration" it has become.
Pope Benedict XVI prayed for peace in Syria, reconciliation in Myanmar, and comfort in flood-stricken Thailand and the Philippines in his annual Christmas message "To the City and the World" on Sunday.
Pope Benedict XVI confirmed plans Monday to visit Mexico and Cuba before Easter.
If there is one institution that has made a point of desperately trying to keep women in their place, it's organized religion.
The Archdiocese of Chicago will pay $3.2 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged church leaders failed to remove a priest they knew had sexually abused minors, the plaintiff's attorneys said Tuesday.
Pope Benedict XVI is planning potential trips to Mexico and Cuba in 2012, the Vatican said.
The Rev. Robert Jeffress, a leading evangelical minister, claimed last Friday that Mormons are not Christians. Jeffress went on to declare that Mormonism is "a cult," meaning it's not a "real" religion, and he implored his followers to reject Mitt Romney, a Mormon, as a candidate for president because as Jeffress sees it: "As Christians, we have the duty to prefer and select Christians as our leaders."
Egypt's military rulers have rejected the resignation of Hazen Beblawi, a top official who served as both the deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Muslims and Christians alike say Egypt's generals have to go following clashes that left at least 25 dead on Sunday.
Violence has returned to the streets of Cairo -- this time in fresh confrontations between army forces and pro-Coptic Christian protesters.
Thomas Jefferson famously wrote about the wall of separation between church and state. He didn't mention separating church and politics, but everybody knows it's a sticky wicket.
CNN's Candy Crowley looks at how GOP candidates are dancing around fellow Republican Mitt Romney's Mormon faith.
The archbishop of Canterbury tries to heal rifts in the Anglican church of Zimbabwe, Nkepile Mabuse reports
Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said Monday that clashes hours earlier between army forces and pro-Coptic Christian protesters had "brought us back" to the tense, violent period at the onset of the recent revolution.
Pope Benedict XVI said goodbye to his native Germany on Sunday, capping a packed four-day visit in which he met with political and religious leaders in a country that -- like many others in Europe -- has seen growing disenchantment with the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI meets members of the Muslim community in Germany. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports.
On the third day of his visit to his native Germany, Pope Benedict XVI made two stops Saturday straddling the lines of history that have divided the country violently -- in past decades into Communist east and democratic west and in past centuries into mostly Protestant north and stalwart Catholic south.
Pope Benedict XVI met Friday with a group of people who had been sexually abused by clergy in his native Germany, where disenchantment with the Roman Catholic Church has grown in the wake of the scandal.
On his first state visit to his homeland, Pope Benedict XVI met Thursday with Germany's prime minister and president and spoke to legislators, but insisted that his purpose was not economic or political, but spiritual.
Ireland stepped up its battle with the Roman Catholic Church over child abuse Sunday, with Justice Minister Alan Shatter vowing to pass a law requiring priests to report suspicions of child abuse, even if they learn about them in confession.
The Vatican has rejected criticism that church leaders sought to cover up extensive abuse of young people by priests in Ireland, in a lengthy statement sent to the Irish government Saturday.
Pope Benedict XVI is in Madrid, Spain for World Youth Day. CNN's Al Goodman reports.
Rio de Janeiro will host the next World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI announced Sunday to hundreds of thousands of young Roman Catholic pilgrims at the close of this year's event in Madrid.
Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Madrid for World Youth Day, but demonstrators protest over the cost of the pontiff's visit.
Catholic youths should not hide their beliefs from their peers, Pope Benedict XVI told them in a World Youth Day speech delivered Thursday in Spain.
A man arrested in Madrid on suspicion of planning an attack against a demonstration to protest the visit of Pope Benedict XVI was a volunteer for the papal visit's organizing committee, a committee senior spokesman said Wednesday.
Critics say hosting Pope Benedict XVI in Madrid for World Youth Day is too costly. CNN's Al Goodman reports.
To fight child abuse by priests, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops revised its 2002 charter Thursday, the group said.
Evangelist Billy Graham makes his first public appearance in years while attending the re-opening of his library.
Famed evangelist Billy Graham, 92, was being treated Wednesday at an Asheville, North Carolina, hospital for pneumonia following an overnight health episode, according to a spokesman.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Tuesday voted to allow the ordination of openly gay and lesbian ministers.
Ben Wedeman reports on how an outbreak of sectarian violence resulted in attacks on churches in Cairo.
Muslim-Christian sectarian violence intensified in Egypt this weekend, spurring an emergency meeting of the Cabinet and public exhortations from Coptic Christians for international protection.
At least six people were killed and 120 injured in sectarian clashes outside a church in Cairo on Saturday, officials said.
The late Catholic leader moves one step closer to becoming a saint
CNN's Diana Magnay on the reaction to John Paul II's beatification in the Polish city of Krakow.
For many Poles, John Paul II's beatification simply confirms what they already knew. They thought him a saint already, the very fact of his papacy a blessing for Poland.
Nadia Bilchik talks to T.J. Holmes about the process of beatification, and others who have been through the process.
Christopher Lukasik was building shelves when a metal rod hit his eye, tearing about a third of his optic nerve fibers and leaving everybody from his doctors to his family wondering whether he would ever see again.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived in Rome for the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II, airport officials said Saturday, despite his EU-wide travel ban for alleged human rights abuses.
More than one million people are expected in Rome this weekend for the beatification of Pope John Paul II, the biggest event in Vatican City since his death six years ago.
During Easter celebrations at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI addresses the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.
The New Hampshire House majority leader lashed out Friday on his Facebook page at a Roman Catholic bishop, calling the clergyman a "pedophile pimp" who "has no moral credibility to lecture anyone."
Egypt's military has started rebuilding a church burned down in an outbreak of unrest between Christian Copts and Muslims, a military official told CNN on Sunday.
Thirteen people were killed and 90 wounded in clashes between Coptic Christians and Muslims in Cairo, state-run Egyptian television reported Wednesday.
Mourners gathered Thursday to bury seven Coptic Christians killed in sectarian clashes that left more than a dozen dead in the Egyptian capital this week.
The Vatican is warning people who plan to travel to the beatification of Pope John Paul II to look out for scammers claiming to sell tickets for the ceremony.
A lawsuit claims that the owners of the World Trade Center reneged on an agreement for rebuilding a Greek Orthodox church destroyed in the collapse of the twin towers after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Iraqi Christians seeking refuge in France face an uncertain future. CNN's Jim Bittermann reports.
At Sunday mass in the suburbs outside Paris, a score of Iraqi Catholics are praying for themselves and their families.
The makers say the app isn't replacing the confessional, but it will help people with the sacrament. WCVB reports.
Yes, the Roman Catholic Church still supports the new app designed to help Catholics make confession. To a point.
CNN's Ben Wedeman reports on the aftermath of a New Year's church bombing that rekindled sectarian tensions in Egypt.
The Palestinian Islamic Army, which has links to al Qaeda, carried out the New Year's Day attack on a Christian church in Alexandria, Egypt, that left almost two dozen people dead, Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said Sunday.
In March 2010, Cardinal Sean Brady read a letter from Pope Benedict XVI on sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland.
Irish victims of sexual abuse are "disgusted" by a newly revealed letter in which a Vatican official expresses "serious reservations" about requiring bishops to report suspected abuse by priests to police, they said Wednesday.
The late Pope John Paul II takes a significant step towards sainthood. CNN's John Allen explains on American Morning.
John Paul II moved closer to sainthood Friday as the Vatican announced he will be beatified later this year.
Security is boosted at Coptic churches in Europe after a deadly attack in Egypt. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports.
A policeman fatally shot a Christian man and wounded five other Christians Tuesday in an attack on a train in Egypt, officials said.
Worshippers attend a Coptic service in Cairo, after an earlier attack killed several in Alexandria.
Egyptian Muslims attended Christmas services Friday in a show of solidarity with Coptic Christians days after a bombing killed 23 congregants in the country's north.
Egyptian authorities beefed up security Thursday as Coptic Christians warily ushered in Christmas Eve after a New Year's Day bombing in front of a church that killed nearly two dozen of their members.
Hundreds of supporters of Egyptian Christians protesting a New Year's bombing that killed nearly two dozen of their members marched Tuesday night on a church in a Cairo suburb, where they were met by an equal number of security officers in riot gear.
Coptic churches around Europe are expressing fears for their safety following a New Year's Day attack on a church in Egypt that had been listed on an Islamist website.
Speaking hours after a terrorist attack killed 21 people in a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would hold an interreligious meeting in October in Assisi, Italy, to discuss with other religious leaders how religion can promote world peace.
The Vatican celebrates Christmas with a traditional midnight mass.
The Christmas season encourages us to think of Jesus, so highly revered and loved by both Christians and Muslims. So it is even more tragic to contemplate relations between the two religions today -- and particularly the plight of Christians in the Muslim world.
A high-ranking New York priest has been found guilty by a church tribunal of sexually abusing a minor in the 1970s, according to a statement obtained Saturday from the Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
The Holy See's press office Saturday urged the public to read the latest Vatican-related diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks with "great prudence," claiming the allegations cited in the documents reflect only the view of their writers.
Relations between the Vatican and Ireland deteriorated sharply as the Holy See appeared to ignore a commission looking into complaints of physical and sexual abuse of children by Irish priests, according to U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Pope Benedict XVI said that the use of condoms may be acceptable in some cases to prevent the transmission of AIDS.
If you were to ask a group of Quakers or Mennonites whether it's OK for police or soldiers to use rubber bullets against rock-throwing children, you wouldn't be surprised if they said, "Absolutely not!" They are well-known for their commitment to pacifism.
Pope Benedict XVI's possible shift on condom use is a "significant and positive step forward," the head of the United Nations anti-AIDS campaign said, welcoming the potentially historic remark.
Pope Benedict XVI will be making his third trip to Germany next year, a church official confirmed on Friday.
She lives in a paralyzing state of "constant and fear" and it's forcing her to keep her children indoors and out of school.
Pope Benedict XVI to consecrate architect Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, unfinished church in Barcelona. Al Goodman reports.
Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, said Saturday that death threats and continued worldwide controversy about his selection contributed to his decision to retire in January 2013.
The Catholic Church opened its first seminary in Cuba in more than 50 years on Wednesday, with President Raul Castro in attendance.
Mexican federal authorities are investigating whether a Roman Catholic priest received money from a top narcotrafficker to build a chapel, a church official said Monday.
Roman Catholic bishops for the Middle East concluded a two-week conference with a call for the international community, especially the United Nations, to work "to put an end to the occupation" of Palestinian territories.
Pope Benedict XVI announced Wednesday that he would create 24 new cardinals -- putting his stamp on the body that will select his replacement when he dies.
Australia got its first Catholic saint Sunday, a feisty 19th-century nun who was briefly excommunicated when her colleagues exposed an abusive priest.
Australians are celebrating the canonization of their nation's first Catholic saint, Mary MacKillop of the Cross.
CNN's Atika Shubert reports on the pope's visit to Britain amid concerns over abuse within the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI praised Britain Sunday for standing up to the Nazis, a remark that could rekindle controversy over the pope's past -- reminding listeners that he was forced as a young man to join the Hitler Youth.
CNN looks at the challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong and Spain.
Pope Benedict XVI met with five clergy abuse victims while on his official visit to the United Kingdom, the Catholic Communications Network said Saturday, the same day the pope expressed his "deep sorrow" for the scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church.
Investigators in Britain arrested six men on suspicion of terrorism Friday and reviewed security arrangements for Pope Benedict XVI's trip there, authorities said.
CNN's Phil Black reports from Scotland, where Pope Benedict XVI began a four-day visit to the United Kingdom.
"It's something I've always dreamed of," says the singer, who helped welcome the pontiff on his visit to Scotland
As a democrat, I defend the right of Pope Benedict XVI to visit Britain and to express his opinions. But people who disagree with him also have a right to protest against his often harsh, intolerant views.
If you invited a friend to dinner would you escort them to the door at the end of the evening and present them with a bill for steak, cake and a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape?
The Roman Catholic Church has not been vigilant enough or fast enough in responding to the problem of sexual abuse by priests, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday.
Two-thirds of respondents to a recent poll say they're unhappy about pope's visit to the U.K. Atika Shubert has more.
Sue Cox was 10 years old when she says she was raped by a priest in her family home on the eve of her Confirmation, a sacrament which signifies the cementing of bonds between baptised believers and the Church.
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