Last week Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the fifth year of his pontificate. What does the future hold? Catholic News Service’s Carol Glatz and John Thavis look ahead in this week’s Vatican Report. To download Flash Player please click here ...read more

Over the weekend, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the participants of a national conference in Rome entitled “Digital Witnesses: Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age”. This is not the first time that the Holy Father has addressed the double-edged sword nature of the internet and social networking. The Holy Father urged his listeners to overcome ...read more

This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday.  As Fr. Rosica explained in this week’s Biblical Reflection, all three liturgical cycles for the Fourth Sunday of Easter offer “a passage from John’s Gospel about the Good Shepherd.”  Traditionally the Church has also identified this Sunday as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.  Pope Benedict XVI’s message ...read more

At this week’s general audience Pope Benedict XVI discussed his Apostolic Journey to Malta.  The Holy Father recounted the events he participated in over the two-days, including his moving meeting with abuse victims: “I shared with them their suffering and, overwhelmed, I prayed with them, assuring them of the Church’s action.” He also highlighted the ...read more

As Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the fifth anniversary of his Papacy this week, Catholic News Service takes a look at the Holy Father as a communicator. John Thavis reports from Rome. To download Flash Player please click here ...read more

I remember rumours that white smoke had been seen, and based on that information me and my friends quickly gathered around the television to see if this was in fact the case. Yes, there was white smoke, and yes Habemus Papam! Moments later, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger emerged on the balcony as Pope Benedict XVI ...read more

A “very intense” meeting with eight Maltese victims of sex abuse led one victim to say that he had “made his peace with the Church” and reported that the meeting left the Holy Father with “tears in his eyes” . This highly-anticipated meeting which took place at the nunciature in Rabat, Malta, today, had not ...read more

Below is the Holy Father’s homily from this morning at the Granaries in Floriana, Malta. The italicized text in brackets was translated from the original Maltese. APOSTOLIC VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI TO MALTA Mass at the Floriana Granaries 18 April 2010 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ, [My dear sons and ...read more

This evening in Malta, a well-rested Pope Benedict XVI was greeted World Youth Day-style in Rabat, Malta by thousands of cheering faithful, the majority of whom were young people. “In our hearts we already know who you are: you are our Head Shepherd representing the Lord Jesus Christ in our midst”, said Archbishop Paul Cremona, ...read more

The Holy Father received the warmest of welcomes from Maltese dignitaries upon disembarking the Alitalia flight this evening in Malta. Despite concerns that the flight would not take place due to residual hovering ash clouds from Iceland’s volcano eruption this past Thursday, The Holy Father’s plane landed right on schedule with dozens of journalists, Vatican ...read more