By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Speaking to the press enroute to Portugal yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI said the Church has always suffered from problems of its own making, but “today we see it in a truly terrifying way” in priest sex abuse scandals.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A Vatican spokesman has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will deliver an “intense message” during his four day visit to Portugal May 11-14.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
After praying before the famous Shroud of Turin on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI described it as being an “icon written in blood” that wrapped the remains of a crucified man “in full correspondence with what the Gospels tell us of Jesus.”
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Pope Benedict XVI may use the occasion of the June climax of the International Year for Priests as the time to make the first general apology for the abuse of children and minors by Roman Catholic priests.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
During what was described as a “very emotional” meeting with eight men who were abused by homosexual priests in Malta, Pope Benedict XVI was said to have had tears in his eyes as he expressed his deep “shame and sorrow” over the behavior of the clerics involved.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Bavarian birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI was vandalized last night with an “obscene” phrase spray painted above the main door, police say.
by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Reflecting on the theme of the Israelite’s exodus from slavery to the Egyptians, Pope Benedict XVI’s Urbi et Orbi message delivered yesterday in St. Peter’s Square calls for each of us to experience our own “exodus” from slavery to sin into the promised land of faith in Jesus Christ. He also prayed for peace in the world and a “resurrection” from the despair and mourning in earthquake ravaged Haiti and Chile, the conflicts in Africa and the violent drug wars afflicting so many in Latin America and the Caribbean.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Journalists from the mainstream media have launched an all-out effort to discredit Pope Benedict XVI by trying to tie him to a number of sex abuse scandals.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
The Vatican has denounced “aggressive attempts” to link Pope Benedict XVI to sex abuse cases that occurred during his tenure as Archbishop of Munich, saying that all attempts to “personally involve the Holy Father in the question of the abuses” have failed.
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Vatican officials fear that the investigation of sexual abuse claims in the Catholic Church in Germany could create a major crisis for the Pope who was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
