VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis has lamented that children are being taught at school that gender can be a choice, adding that his predecessor, Benedict XVI has labeled current times "the epoch of sin against God the Creator."
Francis weighed in with his view on gender and what he said was that of the emeritus pontiff while meeting privately last ( Read more... )

The Holy Father has just concluded his four day trip to Portugal, honoring Our Lady of Fatima and commemorating the ten year anniversary of the beatification of Saints Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Here is a Compendium of the various addresses he gave during the trip:

May 11, 2010:

• Opening Address at Lisbon International Airport
  
• Homily at ( Read more... )

On April 19, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the 265th Pope of the Church of Christ:

Click to view

His words in English ( Read more... )

What a joy it is for me to be with you today on your native soil! On this significant anniversary, we thank God for sending the Apostle Paul to these islands, which were thus among the first to receive the Good News of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

I warmly greet Archbishop Cremona, as well as Bishop Grech whom I thank for his kind words, and all the ( Read more... )

Following is a translation of Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI's Message for World Youth Day 2010:

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
BENEDICT XVI
ON THE OCCASION OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH WORLD YOUTH DAY
(MARCH 28, 2010)

"Good Teacher, what must I do 
to inherit eternal life?" (Mk 10:17)

Dear Friends,

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary ( Read more... )

John Allan has a piece in the New York Times today that I believe is worth reading. It begins:

IN light of recent revelations, Pope Benedict XVI now seems to symbolize the tremendous failure by the Catholic Church to crack down on the sexual abuse of children. Both the pope's brief stint as a bishop in Germany 30 years ago and his quarter-century ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 Message for Lent, dedicated to the practice of fasting:

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one's body. Fasting certainly bring ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical letter, Spe Salvi:

39. To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves-these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself. Yet once ( Read more... )

Regardless of how one feels about Pope Benedict XVI, what is unmistakable is his great gift as a homilist. As with every great preacher, some of his best homilies come during the Christmas season, and especially at the Christmas vigil Midnight Mass. Following is, in my opinion, one of the best homilies I have ever read from this pope, and I've ( Read more... )

Following is Pope Benedict XVI's Message for the World Day of Peace, January 1, 2010:

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
WORLD DAY OF PEACE

1 JANUARY 2010

IF YOU WANT TO CULTIVATE PEACE, PROTECT CREATION

1. At the beginning of this New Year, I wish to offer heartfelt greetings of peace to all ( Read more... )