By Patricia Zapor Catholic News Service HAVANA (CNS) — The Catholic Church that Pope Benedict XVI will visit March 26-28 is, to put it simply, more. Since Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1998, the church is more unified, more public, more likely to work with the government in accomplishing specific goals, more involved in ...read more

At first impact the phrase “the Cuban Church” sounds like an oxymoron, or a misnomer and thoughts of an underground catholic presence might spring to mind. That might have been true at some point. However, Pope Benedict XVI’s planned visit to the Island nation later this month shows that is not the case today, and ...read more

On the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe Pope Benedict XVI announced he will visit Mexico and Cuba in 2012.  Today the Mexican Bishops’ Conference and the Cuban Bishops’ conference each released a preliminary itinerary of the Holy Father’s visit to their nations. Pope Benedict will arrive in the Mexican city of  Leon on ...read more

Benedict XVI included a big announcement in his homily on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but it was hardly a surprise. For weeks, journalists had speculated that plans for a trip Mexico and Cuba would be unveiled at the special Mass for Latin America. The bishops of Cuba had essentially confirmed the trip ...read more

Tonight on Perspectives: Pope Benedict may be making a trans-Atlantic voyage next year — we’ll tell you where he may be heading. We also preview next week’s papal visit to Benin and take a look at events happening across Canada. ...read more