News/International

VATICAN CITY  - Pope Benedict XVI's remarks on Islam in Regensburg, Germany, opened a new chapter in the Vatican's 40-year dialogue with the Muslim world and brought the Pope's own views on Islam into clearer focus.

VATICAN CITY - The head of the Vatican's justice and peace office and an editor of a Vatican-approved Jesuit journal said it would be wrong to carry out the death penalty against Saddam Hussein.

Pope Benedict XVI said priestly sexual abuse of minors was a "heart-rending" tragedy that requires an effort of purification by the church.

VERONA, Italy - Navigating the murky waters of Italian ecclesial politics is no easy task, so interest was high when Pope Benedict XVI addressed the country’s most important Catholic gathering in 10 years.

VATICAN CITY - International Islamic scholars published an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI, taking issue with what they described as mistakes and oversimplifications of Islam in a recent papal speech to German academics.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said he hopes Pope Benedict XVI's November trip to Turkey will help calm recent tensions with Islam and advance his church's struggle for religious rights.