Vatican slows sainthood process
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The Vatican has issued tough new rules making the route to sainthood more difficult.
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The Roman Catholic Church on Monday began the sainthood procedure for a Vietnamese cardinal who was imprisoned by the communists for some 13 years.
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A hearing into whether Catholic Church files can be handed over to an inquiry into child abuse is delayed.
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Pope John Paul is not yet strong  enough to read his entire traditional noon message on Sunday  and looks set to miss Ash Wednesday services for the first time  in his papacy.
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CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II warned in a statement released Sunday that humanity&#39;s speedy progress in science and technology risks overlooking moral values, citing with particular concern experiments in human cloning.
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The Vatican issues new guidelines on the creation of saints to make the process more rigorous.
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As Iraq's nationwide elections near, the clergy has led an unprecedented mobilization of the Shiite majority population. The momentum they have created has made a delay in the ballot difficult, if not impossible.
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Pope Benedict XVI named four new saints Sunday from France, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland at a ceremony in St. Peter's Square attended by several heads of state and thousands of faithful.The presidents of Ireland, Malta, Poland and the Philippines attended the canonization Mass for the three priests and a nun, whom Benedict praised as models for Catholics to emulate.'Let us be attracted by their example, let us be guided by their teachings,' he told the crowd, which filled St. Peter's Square for the two-hour Mass despite rain. Read more
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Pope John Paul II will declare two controversial Roman Catholic figures blessed at a Vatican ceremony on Sunday. Beatification is the last step on the road to sainthood.
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VATICAN CITY Pope John Paul is returning centuries-old relics of two Orthodox Christian saints in an effort to bridge the divide between the two churches.
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A frail Pope John Paul II traveled to a hilltop shrine near the Adriatic Sea on Sunday, putting three more Catholics on the road to sainthood during an open-air Mass attended by some 200,000 pilgrims.
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Pope John Paul has declared two controversial figures blessed - the last stage of beatification before sainthood. One of them is Emperor Karl of Austria, a devout Catholic, who has been criticised for authorising
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By lifting restrictions on a rite out of favor since the 1960s, Benedict is signaling the limits on Catholic reform
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The number of men and women belonging to religious orders worldwide continues to decline sharply, but there has been an increase in priests assigned to dioceses, the Vatican said.
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VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican is becoming increasingly alarmed at what it regards as official anti-Roman Catholic sentiment and secular trends in Europe, as government after government approves measures on abortion, family law, and scientific study that run counter to Catholic teaching.
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While visiting his predecessor's hometown, Benedict gives hope for John Paul II's rapid rise to sainthood. But nothing at the Vatican moves that fast
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Description: NPR&#39;s John Ydstie talks with John Allen, Vatican correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter, about Sunday&#39;s beatification ceremony for five new Catholic saints.