Israeli chief rabbi Yona Metzger on Monday praised Pope Benedict’s inter-religious outreach and said relations between Israel and the Vatican had never been better. “During his period (as pope) there were the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate and we hope that this trend will continue,” a spokesman quoted Metzger as…
Pope Benedict surprised the world on Monday by saying he no longer had the mental and physical strength to cope with the demands of his ministry, becoming the first pontiff to step down since the Middle Ages and leaving his aides “incredulous”. The 85-year-old German-born Pope, hailed as a hero by conservative Catholics and viewed…
Pope Benedict tweeted in Latin for the first time on Sunday, taking his mission to revive the Catholic Church’s official language to a very 21st-century medium. “Unitati christifidelium integre studentes quid iubet Dominus? Orare semper, iustitiam factitare, amare probitatem, humiles Secum ambulare,” the pontiff wrote. Baffled? So were many Twitter users. “Benny, nobody understands a…
Pope Benedict said in his New Year’s message on Tuesday he hoped 2013 would be a year of peace and that the world was under threat from unbridled capitalism, terrorism and criminality. The 85-year-old pope rang in the new year with a mass for about 10,000 people in St Peter’s Basilica on the day the…
Pope Benedict, leading the world’s Roman Catholics into Christmas, on Monday urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets. The 85-year-old pope, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn Christmas Eve mass in St Peter’s Basilica, during which he appealed for a…
Pope Benedict told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday the Vatican hoped the recent de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations would spur the international community to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Abbas, who is on a tour of Europe to thank countries that supported the Nov. 29 resolution by…
Israel’s President Shimon Peres welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Twitter with a tweet extolling Israel-Vatican ties. “Your holiness, welcome to Twitter. Our relations with the Vatican are at their best and can form a basis to further peace everywhere,” Peres tweeted Tuesday. Peres’ tweet to the pope came a day after the Vatican announced the…
Pope Benedict on Wednesday urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make “courageous decisions” to end the Gaza conflict, saying it risked spilling over into the rest of the Middle East. He told pilgrims and tourists at his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square that he backed efforts to negotiate a ceasefire. “I appeal to…
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