VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI issued a Christmas Day appeal Tuesday to political leaders around the globe to find the "wisdom and courage" to end bloody conflicts in Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Congo.

Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus, a U.S. prelate and former Vatican bank chief who was linked to a huge Italian banking scandal in the 1980s, has died in his Sun City home, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix said Tuesday. He was 84.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has lifted the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including that of a Holocaust denier whose rehabilitation sparked outrage among Jewish groups.

April 2, 2005

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II, who helped topple communism in Europe and left a deeply conservative stamp on the church that he led for 26 years, died Saturday night in his Vatican apartment, ending a long public struggle against debilitating illness. He was 84.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday in his first encyclical that the Roman Catholic Church has no desire to govern states or set public policy, but can't remain silent when its charity is needed to ease suffering around the world.

“I read Mike McClellan’s commentary in Wednesday’s Trib. It sounds like Gilbert is becoming another Colorado City. Christians take heed.”

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II set an example of how to live life, a dynamic preacher who traveled the world, battled communism and proclaimed his moral code opposing abortion, casual sex and consumerism.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he supported excommunication for politicians who backed Mexico City's decision to legalize abortion, giving a strong message about core church teachings at the start of his first trip to Latin America as pontiff.

April 13, 2005

VATICAN CITY - Clutching rosaries, medals and flowers, thousands of people filed past the simple white marble tomb of Pope John Paul II on Wednesday, as the Vatican reopened the grottoes beneath St. Peter's Basilica for the first time since the pope died.

January 18, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials announced Tuesday they will seal the country's borders, extend a nighttime curfew and restrict movement to protect voters during the Jan. 30 vote, which insurgents are seeking to ruin with a campaign of violence.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his first Easter Sunday as pontiff, praying for peace Iraq, negotiated solutions to the world's nuclear disputes and dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians.

ROME - The world's Catholics looked to the College of Cardinals to begin the difficult task of choosing a worthy successor to John Paul II, while hundreds of thousands of weary pilgrims who flooded Rome for the pontiff's funeral began their journeys home on Saturday.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI formally began his stewardship of the Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, reaching out to Jews, other Christians and "non-believers alike," and asking for prayers from the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and dignitaries gathered in St. Peter's Square as he assumed "this enormous task."

January 18, 2005

ASUNCION, Paraguay - Former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo won a historic victory in Paraguay's presidential election Sunday, ending more than six decades of one-party rule with a mandate to help the nation's poor and indigenous.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is the first ever from the Americas, an austere Jesuit intellectual who modernized Argentina's conservative Catholic church.

April 8, 2005

Olympians Represent The Best of Our Team Efforts

Two fugitive Catholic priests, in Ireland and Mexico, say they will ignore Archbishop Michael Sheehan’s appeal to return to Maricopa County to face sexual abuse charges, saying they would fear for their safety in the county jail.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli warplanes rained more than 100 tons of bombs on security sites in Hamas-ruled Gaza Saturday and early Sunday, killing at least 230 people in one of the Mideast conflict's bloodiest assaults in decades. The government said the open-ended campaign was aimed at stopping rocket attacks that have traumatized southern Israel.

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