Just in time for the fifth anniverary of his election as Pope, a special book has been released looking back at Pope Benedict’s first five years in the See of Peter. The book was released in Italian and German only – fitting, since it was put together by Msgr. Georg Gänswein, the Pope’s personal secretay ...read more

Jack Valero, a senior representative of Opus Dei, is defending the record of Pope Benedict in the pages of The Guardian. Valero addresses then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s handling of laicization cases, including his efforts to more strongly enforce abuse investigations by bringing them under the purview of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in ...read more

Pope Benedict XVI embarks on his first of five Apostolic Voyages for 2010 this weekend. Before he heads to Portugal, Cyprus, Britain, and Spain, he starts it all off with Malta. The visit will celebrate the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul’s shipwreck on the island that, according to tradition, occurred in the year 60 A.D., ...read more

On Tuesday, S+L’s production team was visited by Charlie Lewis, lead religion reporter for the National Post. Lewis asked each of us, as young Catholics in the media, how we feel about the Church’s response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, as well as how we’ve perceived the sometimes questionable mainstream media coverage. Today on ...read more

As Pope Benedict XVI nears the fifth anniversary of election as the Successor of Peter, the Knights of Columbus are inviting the faithful to join in a novena for the Holy Father.  It begins April 11th, this Sunday (Divine Mercy Sunday), and ends April 19th, the anniversary of his election. Please find the novena prayer ...read more

As we’ve said many times, the Easter Triduum is the peak of the liturgical calendar.  The Triduum — and Holy Week — also provide some excellent homilies and messages to reflect upon.  You may want to check out the following: Pope Benedict’s Urbi et Orbi Message and Blessing: “The Church is the people of the ...read more

Every year, Pope Benedict XVI celebrates the Via Crucis (the Way of the Cross) from Rome’s Coliseum. Tonight on Perspectives, S+L’s Vatican correspondent Alicia Ambrosio retraces the history of the Stations of the Cross, and how it came to be that the Holy Father would lead this devotion in a former site of Christian persecution. ...read more

Archbishop Anthony Mancini, the Archbishop of Halifax and Apostolic Administrator of Yarmouth, and Archbishop Richard Smith of Edmonton are among the bishops of Canada who have commented on the abuse scandals.  Like Toronto’s Archbishop Thomas Collins, both mentioned it in their Chrism Mass homilies. The Archbishop of Halifax admitted that the Church is facing her ...read more

As we enter into a particularly focused period of prayer with the beginning of the Easter Triduum today, let us keep our Holy Father’s intentions in our prayers this month. Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for April is: That every tendency to fundamentalism and extremism may be countered by constant respect, by tolerance and by ...read more

The official newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the Catholic San Francisco, has published a letter by Cardinal William J. Levada responding to New York Times’ articles on clergy sexual abuse and Pope Benedict XVI.  The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith defends the Holy Father and chastises the paper ...read more