News/International

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - A Vatican cardinal beatified Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian farmer who was beheaded in 1943 after he refused to fight in Hitler's army.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is publishing a collector’s edition of documents on the Knights Templar, the medieval crusading order that became the focus of legends and mysteries.

{mosimage} WASHINGTON - For the first time, more than 100 senior Muslim leaders from around the world sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders proposing theological similarities as a basis for peace and understanding.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI named 23 new cardinals at the end of his weekly general audience Oct. 17 and said he would formally install the cardinals during a special consistory at the Vatican Nov. 24.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - Canadian Council of Churches (CCC)  executive director Karen Hamilton grilled the Iranian president during a recent meeting in New York, telling him his threats to wipe Israel off the face of the map were “unacceptable.”

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Anglicans and Roman Catholics should witness to the faith they share and work together to promote Christian values in the world, but they also must be realistic about issues still dividing them, said a recent document by Anglican and Catholic bishops.

{mosimage}ROME - Pope John Paul II’s personal physician has vehemently denied an Italian doctor’s claim that the late pope refused nutritional support that would have prolonged his life.

{mosimage}UNITED NATIONS - Addressing the United Nations, a Vatican official said climate change demands a new co-operative international strategy in order to avoid a “bleak future.”

{mosimage}WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic health care and ethical groups thanked the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for clarifying its stand on artificial nutrition and hydration for patients in a persistent vegetative state in a pair of Sept. 14 documents.

{mosimage}VIENNA, Austria - On a three-day pilgrimage to Austria, Pope Benedict XVI brought a core theme of his pontificate to Central Europe, warning that a drift away from Christian values is leaving society unfulfilled, less charitable and without a real future.