Contributions help keep Vatican in black
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The Vatican released details of its financial report Friday, saying increased contributions from dioceses and individuals &#151; primarily from the United States &#151; helped keep it in the black despite rising labor costs and a falling dollar.
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Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury committed their Churches to the quest for unity on Thursday but acknowledged that issues such as women priests and gay bishops in the Anglican Church were obstacles.
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Â· Archbishops to draw up historic covenantÂ· Conservatives see chance to crack down on dissent
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The Vatican issues new guidelines on the creation of saints to make the process more rigorous.
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How to maximize your charitable contributions.
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Papal observers are again remarking on the dual role of the pope's flesh and blood person. They see in this double existence the key reason why the suffering pope, at age 84, will persevere in office until death.
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Â· Benedict tries to row back on 'colonial' speechÂ· Former colleagues sign petition against Vatican
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As the Roman Catholic Church struggles to repair its image in the wake of sex abuse scandals, one issue church leaders face is what to do with priests accused of abuse.
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"Education is the starting point for autonomous and sustainable development"  VATICAN CITY, June 6 Pope Benedict XVI took time from his weekly general audience Wednesday to ask Group of Eight members to keep promises of increased aid to Africa. via Earth Times
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Pray or pay. At dozens of Italian churches struggling to preserve art treasures from Byzantine mosaics to Baroque paintings, that is the choice many visitors must make.
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Some new rules to keep in mind while donating your money and goods.
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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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Roman Catholic officials urged the faithful to fill St. Peter's Square on Sunday to show support for the hospitalized pope.
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Church, academic and cultural experts will work together to gather documentation on religious and civil trials for witchcraft, heresy and other crimes against the faith during the Inquisition, the Vatican said Tuesday.
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(InfoWorld) - When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as pope last year, some Internet users who logged onto Wikipedia to see what he looked like found a rather different image: that of the evil emperor from "Star Wars." The prank lasted only a minute or so before someone fixed it, but it highlighted one of the chief problems faced by the online encyclopedia: How to remain open enough that anyone can contribute entries and edit them while alsoÂ keeping pranksters at bay. In the coming days Wikipedia will begin using a new system at the German version of its Web site that it hopes will fix that problem. If successful, the system is likely to be introduced at Wikipedia sites in other languages. At the German site, users who have been registered for four days or more will be able to flag a recent entry as being correct and unvandalized, effectively locking it for a period of time. People will be able to update the entry with new material, but it won't be visible as part of the main entry until another trusted contributor has flagged the updates as being correct. Four days may not seem a long time to become "trusted," but it should be enough to deter troublemakers who come up with an idea to deface the site on a whim, said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, at the IDC European IT Forum in Paris on Tuesday. The idea isn't to flag all of the half million or so entries on the German site, just the contentious or topical ones likely to attract attention-seekers, he said. People who visit the entry will be able to see that it's flagged as vandal-free, and have the option to click through and see the recent additions that have not yet been vetted. HeÂ unveiled the German planÂ in August at the Wikimania conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it's likely to go live any day now. "I'm just off to look at the software to see if it's ready," Wales said Tuesday. The exact details are still being worked out and the flagging system may be updated even after it goes live, depending on what works best, he added. It's one of several measures that Wikipedia has taken to improve the quality of its content, some of which have drawn criticism for making the encyclopedia less open. At Wikimania, Wales also talked about creating "stable" or "static" pages for entries that are considered complete, to help people who want to cite them in published works. The plan being tested in Germany appears designed to root out mischief, as opposed to inaccuracies that may be harder to detect. The question of accuracy spurred Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger to unveil plans last week for a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia called Citizendium (a compendium created by citizens), which will enlist so-called experts to resolve disputes and verify that entries are correct. The experts will have to publish their credentials online to verify they are who they claim to be. Citizendium will begin life as a mirror of Wikipedia, the contents of which can be used by anyone under its GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). But articles that have been updated at Citizendium will remain that way in the future, according to a descriptionÂ available here. Wales noted that the content of Citizendium will also be available under the GFDL, so if the new site is successful, Wikipedia will be able to incorporate the changes back into its own site. Asked about Citizendium in Paris, Wales said that he and Sanger had a "difference of vision," but he said the two men are "still friends." Some animosity seems to exist, however. One of the entries flagged as "disputed" at Wikipedia is Sanger's biography. Sanger calls himself a co-founder of Wikipedia, a claim that Wales disputes. "He used to work for me," Wales said in Paris. "I don't agree with calling him a co-founder, but he likes the title."
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The row over Italian commissioner Rocco Buttiglione highlights the Vatican's struggle for influence in Europe.
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ROME -- The Vatican deployed diplomats to capitals of Muslim states yesterday in an effort to contain anger over Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam, as shadowy threats against the pontiff and Christianity multiplied.