Forums: Pope Alexander VI

Rome, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI is monitoring the case of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning and has not ruled out getting involved through diplomatic channels, the Vatican said Sunday. As he has in the past in humanitarian cases, the pope would intervene if asked by authorities in another country and would do so through proper diplomatic channels, not publicly, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.

Ahead of the Pope’s upcoming visit to Great Britain, there’s been a vigorous debate in some sections of the British press over whether the UK is the centre of the ‘culture of death.’ The discussion was sparked by a timely interview in Zenit with the director of pastoral affairs for the Westminster archdiocese, Edmund Adamus, and in particular this comment he made near the beginning: “Whether we like it or not as British citizens and residents of this country—and whether we are even prepared as Catholics to accept this reality and all it implies—the fact is that historically, and continuing...

Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit the UK this September The public is being urged to back a campaign to scrap a 300-year-old law which prohibits Catholics ascending the throne, ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain next month. The Coalition Government is currently asking voters to nominate laws which they think restrict civil liberties and should be abolished or amended.The suggestions will form the basis of the so-called Freedom Bill, announced with much fanfare by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, earlier this year.At the same time, however, ministers have said that they have no plans to...

A quarter-century since Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's watershed Report on the state of the church twenty years after the close of Vatican II, this morning the Holy See announced that B16's first book-length interview since becoming Pope will appear before year's end. In a Roman Noon statement, the director of the Holy See Press Office, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, relayed that the pontiff sat for a full week of on-record conversations last month with Peter Seewald -- the German journalist whose prior no-holds-barred sessions with the then-CDF prefect were released in 1996 under the title Salt of the Earth, with...

First it was contraception, then abortion. Now the Pope wants to ban something else...Vuvuzelas. News reports indicate that Pope Benedict XVI,a former Nazi Youth and former head of the office formerly known as the Inquisition, is now banning the popular musical instrument which brought millions joy during the World Cup. When Pope Benedict XVI visits England he is expected to draw large crowds but the Vatican's ban of vuvuzelas has not come without considerable controversy. (In case you don't know what vuvuzelas are click here) "Is the Catholic Church just against all fun?" asked one devout Catholic who said he...

Editor: the meeting is interesting, as we've said before, in light of the talks currently taking place each month with the Society of Pius X. It is hard to see, given the previous statements about statements which appear to capitulate the Church's previous positions to the modern world, will square with the resistance shown to the Society's representatives. The fact is, we don't know what is being said about Vatican II, but there is almost no doubt that the concerns that were realized by the Society of Pius X will be dealt with in this meeting and that whatever the...

Featured Term (selected at random):VICAR OF CHRIST The Pope, visible head of the Church on earth, acting for and in the place of Christ. He possesses supreme ecclesiastical authority in the Catholic church. This title for the Pope dates from at least the eighth century and gradually replaced the former title, "Vicar of St. Peter." Its biblical basis is Christ's commission of Peter to "feed my lambs, feed my sheep" (John 21:15-17). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral visit to Great Britain next month will unfold along a pilgrim’s path metaphorically strewn with landmines. Headline-grabbing new atheists like Richard Dawkins, along with their allies in the international plaintiff’s bar, may try to have the pontiff arrested as an enabler of child abuse. More subtly, but just as falsely, homosexual activists and their allies will portray John Henry Newman, whom the Pope will beatify, as the patron saint of gay liberation. No challenge facing Benedict in Britain, however, will be greater than the challenge of re-framing the Anglican-Catholic ecumenical dialogue, which is on the verge...

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to embark on a tour of England next month, Vatican officials are taking pains to make sure his followers know that the massive, open-air events planned on the trip should not be viewed in the same light as rock concerts or sporting events. On Monday, organizers released a list of banned, as well as sanctioned, items of which papal revelers need to be advised. Surge Desk has a round-up: Forbidden Vuvuzelas: That annoying drone heard at the World Cup 2010 will be silenced for England's papal masses. Wine: It may represent the blood of Christ,...

Over the past couple of weeks elements of the media have cynically  manufactured a lie about Pope Benedict XVI. Through sheer, monotonous repetition and daily coverage they have sought to fix this lie as an established truth in the minds of their readers and in the collective memory of the news. In two weeks there are hundreds of websites churning up the lie.The unfounded lie that they have sought to engineer is that the Holy Father is a homosexual. The tissue of this most flimsy of  lies is drawn from  the fact that the Holy Father is celibate, has a celibate...