News/International

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - In an encyclical on Christian hope, Pope Benedict XVI said that, without faith in God, humanity lies at the mercy of ideologies that can lead to “the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice.”

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - In a liturgy that emphasized the church’s cultural diversity and its unity of mission, Pope Benedict XVI created 23 new cardinals from 14 countries.

{mosimage}BURLINGTON, Ont. - The word “schism” is increasingly being used to describe the state of affairs among Canadian Anglicans in the midst of intensifying disagreements over liberalized theology and a growing acceptance of the blessing of same-sex unions.

{mosimage}LONDON - A British cardinal has criticized proposals to allow lesbians to become joint legal parents of children created for them through in vitro fertilization.

{mosimage}BALTIMORE - Some U.S. policymakers “seem to fail to recognize sufficiently the reality and failures in Iraq and the imperative for new directions,” warned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a new statement on transition in Iraq.

{mosimage} BALTIMORE - Pope Benedict XVI will visit Washington and New York next April 15-20.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - The president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said coming to the Vatican to visit Pope Benedict XVI and curial officials "is always something that energizes us."

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Interreligious dialogue, peace in the Middle East and the life of Christians living in Saudi Arabia were on the agenda of an historic meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and King Abdullah Aziz of Saudi Arabia.

{mosimage}NEW DELHI - The head of the Pakistani Catholic bishops' conference expressed concern over the imposition of emergency rule that has led to widespread protests and a crackdown by the military regime of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president.

{mosimage}TORONTO - When Jesuit Father Peter Henriot arrived in Zambia 19 years ago life expectancy in the landlocked, southern African country was a rather dismal 52 years. Today Zambians can expect to be dead by 37.