Benedictions: The Pope in America

Associated Press VATICAN CITY – The Vatican’s No. 2 official says Pope Benedict XVI recognizes the damage and pain caused by the clergy sex abuse crisis and will seek healing during his U.S. trip next week. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that Benedict will deliver a message of…

Yes, he do. The Vatican has released both a statement and a video message to the United States ahead of Benedict’s trip next week–the latter has been posted on YouTube. It’s not exactly great theater. One can see that English is not Benedict’s best language (though I can’t say my name in German) and that…

Associated Press NEW YORK – In his visit this month to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI will find an American flock wrestling with what it means be Roman Catholic. The younger generation considers religion important, but doesn’t equate faith with going to church. Many lay people want a greater say in how their parishes…

Chicago Tribune CHICAGO – Most Americans awaiting Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the U.S. this month likely know little about him beyond his fluffy white hair, his taste for red Prada shoes and his reputation as a hard-nosed church enforcer. But since the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elevated to pontiff three years ago,…

Associated Press VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has expressed its respect and esteem for Jews despite tension over a Good Friday prayer. The Vatican issued the assurances Friday, shortly before Pope Benedict XVI begins a visit to the United States that includes a stop at a synagogue in New York. The Vatican acknowledged that some…

Following on a previous post about a U.S.-based petition to convince Pope Benedict to ban smoking in the Vatican (yeah, right), Vatican Radio did a bit of snooping around the Eternal City and discovered that in the nineteenth century, Pope Pius IX built a papal tobacco factory to make cigars and such. Poor Pius IX…

The obituaries for Charlton Heston tend to play up his larger-than-life roles, such as the fearsome, bearded Moses or the powerful, bare-chested Ben-Hur, or the noble, doomed El Cid. I always think of him as the passionate, difficult genius Michelangelo, playing opposite Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II (now there’s a pope) in “The Agony…

The Vatican has issued a clarification of its revision of the old Good Friday prayer that was re-authorized by Pope Benedict as part of his effort to re-introduce the old Latin Mass. Confused? You’re not alone. The Vatican today tried to assuage Jewish concern over just what the Pope meant with the redacted text, which…

Media mogul and self-professed Big Mouth, Ted Turner, has done a 180 on Christianity, which he once famously described as “a religion for losers.” (Actually, the phrase has a certain theological validity, though I don’t think that’s what Ted meant.) Now Turner tells the AP that “I regret anything I said about religion that was…

In a development sure to be welcomed by the Jewish community, Pope Benedict has added a stop during his New York leg and will visit the Park East synagogue, long headed by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor and champion of interreligious dialogue. The visit to the synagogue will take place on the afternoon of…

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