Pope Benedict Xvi

LONDON — Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who stepped down as Britain's highest-ranking Roman Catholic cleric last week amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with priests, backed away from earlier denials and admitted Sunday to committing acts of sexual misconduct. The admission was a blow to the church's hierarchy even as cardinals prepare to meet in Rome on Monday to select a date for the conclave to pick a new pope . In Britain, the admission was considered a confirmation of what observers have called a prime example of church...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has denounced the global financial system, blasting the "cult of money" that he says is tyrannizing the poor and turning humans into expendable consumer goods. In his first major speech on the subject, Francis demanded Thursday that financial and political leaders reform the global financial system to make it more ethical and concerned for the common good. He said: "Money has to serve, not to rule!" It's a message Francis delivered on many occasions...

Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would step down as head of the Catholic Church, citing age and waning energy. Anthony Faiola and Michelle Boorstein report : Recognizing what he described as the failing strength of his "mind and body," Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would step down as head of the Catholic Church, the first pontiff to give up his duties since 1415. "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age,...

VATICAN CITY — The number of Catholic priests in Africa and Asia has shot up over the past decade while decreasing in Europe, mirroring trends in the numbers of Catholic faithful that helped lead to the election of Pope Francis as the first non-European pope in over a millennium. The Vatican on Monday released statistics on the state of the Catholic Church in the world, showing a 39.5 percent increase in the number of priests in Africa and a 32 percent hike in Asia from 2001 to 2011.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Friday (Dec. 7) promoted his personal secretary to head of the papal household, giving Monsignor Georg Gaenswein even larger influence in organizing the aging pontiff's schedule and meetings. Gaenswein has been Benedict's closest aide since his election in 2005, and also served as secretary when then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Vatican's doctrinal office. The German-born Gaenswein was appointed prefect of the papal household, replacing American Archbishop...

VATICAN CITY — Despite differences over women's ordination and a controversial Vatican initiative to woo back disgruntled Anglicans, Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will pray together in Rome on Saturday (March 10). The heads of the Roman Catholic Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion will celebrate vespers to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the Camaldoli monastery in Italy, which is revered by both Catholics and Anglicans. Benedict and...

LONDON — Citing failing strength of "mind and body," Pope Benedict XVI stunned his closest aides and more than 1 billion Catholics by resigning on Monday, becoming the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years and ending the tenure of a formidable theologian who preached a gospel of conservative faith to a fast-changing world. In keeping with his reputation as a traditionalist, Pope Benedict delivered his resignation — effective Feb. 28 — in Latin, to a private...

In 2001, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger urged Pope John Paul II to create a central system to further the Vatican's investigations of sexual abuse under priests. He shifted control of the disposition of the cases from the Congregation for the Clergy, where little action had been taken, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger then headed. And every week he examined the grueling cases — coming chiefly from the U.S. "He used to call that weekly...

VATICAN CITY — In his first public comments since his surprise retirement announcement, Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday (Feb. 13) asked Catholics for support and prayers to support him "in these days which are not easy for me. " As he does every Wednesday morning, Benedict presided over the weekly general audience in the Vatican, speaking in front of around 3,500 faithful and tourists. But before broaching the topic of Lent and Jesus'...

HAVANA — Standing at an altar in the Plaza of the Revolution, at an open-air Mass attended by several hundred thousand of the faithful, or the merely curious, Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday appealed to Cuban authorities for greater freedom for the Catholic Church here and asked specifically that the government allow religion to be taught in schools and universities. It was a day of dueling symbols and a diplomatic push and shove between the pope and his Communist hosts. ...

Reports this week that the late Pope John Paul II may be on the verge of sainthood after a second miracle was credited to his intercession aren't a huge surprise: When he died eight years ago, crowds were already clamoring for his canonization, and Pope Benedict XVI quickly waived the usual five-year waiting period to get the process rolling. But the news that Pope Francis, just six weeks on the job, has cleared the way for the long-stalled canonization of martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero is a stunner...

WASHINGTON — He has been Pope Francis for less than a month, but the keep-it-simple prelate from Argentina is a wow with American Catholics — at least for now. The tables may turn on Francis once media attention moves from his no-fuss style to his substantive actions, said a Vatican expert Wednesday (April 3). The former archbishop of Buenos Aires has an 84 percent favorable rating among U.S. Catholics, including 43 percent who hold a very favorable view of him, according to a...

Sean Hudgins and Danielle McMonagle are not the first Villanova students to intern at the Vatican, but they may be the luckiest: The junior communications majors began working with the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications only one day after Pope Benedict XVI resigned, throwing them into the middle of a historic -- and "very hectic" -- papal transition. Previous college interns have helped set up the pope's Twitter account ...

ROME — Baked skinless chicken, salad, fruit and a glass of simple wine hardly seems like food fit for a king. But it does seem to be a meal fit for a pope. Pope Francis is becoming well known for his simple tastes: As Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, he carried his own bags when traveling, preferred public transportation to chauffeur-driven limousines, and, the stories go, cooks meals for himself. His humble lifestyle extends to the kitchen, a stark contrast with his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who before becoming...

VATICAN CITY — Inside a vast hall in the Holy See on Saturday, Pope Francis was greeting a procession of well-wishers when a visually impaired radio journalist with a guide dog approached. Without skipping a beat, the new pontiff smiled, leaned over and blessed the golden retriever, eliciting surprised chuckles from the crowd. The moment captured the emerging story line of a papacy in the early stages of transformation by the first New World pope. As he eschews the trappings...

South America, a continent known to many Americans largely for roiling politics, economic turmoil and good beaches, now finds itself in possession of the global image trifecta: a World Cup (in 2014), a Summer Olympics (2016) and a new pope (Francis). When the College of Cardinals decided to go to the Western Hemisphere for a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, they didn't choose the archbishops of Boston or New York or a cardinal from Quebec. They tapped the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge...

VATICAN CITY — The papacy of Benedict XVI came to a quiet end at 8 p.m. on Thursday (Feb. 28), making him the first pope in 600 years to voluntarily leave office. While there was no formal ceremony to mark the historic passage, the end of Benedict's papacy and the beginning of the "sede vacante" interim period was clear when the Swiss Guards left their post at the gate of the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. The Swiss Guards are charged with protecting the pope. When Benedict ceased to...

VATICAN CITY — A hierarchy looking to make a clear statement about where the troubled church is headed chose on Wednesday (March 13) the first member of the influential Jesuit order to be the next pope. Yet they also chose Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, a humble man who lives simply and took the name Francis (also a first) that evokes the founder of another great religious order. The College of Cardinals picked the first non-European in modern times, as well — yet he is the son of Italian immigrants and grew up in...

I n winning election as Pope Francis, Jorge Mario Bergoglio defied the papal pundits, even though they should have seen him coming . His rise marks the decisive shift within Roman Catholicism toward Latin America and the developing world. In theological terms, he represents continuity, yet he is the first non-European pope in more than 1,000 years, and also the first Jesuit. He is a doctrinal conservative who battled gay marriage in Argentina and fellow Jesuits who were more liberal.