The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI greeted with a smile the news that a German citizen had filed a complaint against him for not wearing a seat belt in his popemobile.
The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Nov 30 that the complaint was not being taken seriously at the Vatican.
“It continues to provoke curiosity and smiles of amusements, beginning with the Pope himself,” Father Lombardi said.
Read the article...A German court ruled on Wednesday that a Muslim student in Berlin cannot pray in the corridor of his high school even outside lesson time as it would disrupt the school. Germany’s Federal Administrative Court said in a statement its ruling applied only to this particular instance and took into account special circumstances at the school.
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Amid outrage that the German Catholic church’s publishing business, Weltbild, was distributing risqué titles, the Catholic bishops have agreed to sell the business “without delay.” The bishops decided on the move because Weltbild’s book range includes steamy pulp novels with titles like “Boarding School for Sluts,” “The Lawyer’s Whore,” “The new Kama Sutra” and “Tempted to Sin.” In a Read more
The German Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which represents the country’s Catholic dioceses, will cut its ties with the publisher Weltbild amid outrage that its catalogue included risque titles such as “The new Kama Sutra” and “Tempted to Sin.”
The bishops have ordered the company’s executives to find a buyer for the publisher “without any delay,” a statement said on Tuesday. It had been impossible to “adequately restrict the internet-supported dissemination and production of media that contradicted the ideals of the shareholders.”
The Church has faced a storm of criticism in recent weeks over a number of erotic and esoteric titles published by Weltbild.
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It probably says something about the low-key nature of a papal trip when its biggest news flash involves the shooting off of an air gun – not even a real gun, mind you – two hours before the pontiff’s arrival, in the vague direction of two security agents stationed in the central square of Erfurt Read more
Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday called for Christians to unite against the advance of secularism as she prepared to welcome Pope Benedict XVI on a landmark visit back to his native Germany.
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Berlin authorities have rejected the erection of large election-type billboards to welcome Pope Benedict to Germany. The billboards are already in use by Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in its Berlin election campaign, and the CDU had been agreed they would hand the billboards over for use to welcome the Pope after the election. Local authorities however Read more
Catholic officials are signalling not to expect any ecumenical breakthroughs when Pope Benedict honours the 16th Century Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, during his state visit to Germany this month. Benedict will use the visit to stress ecumenical cooperation, meet Protestant leaders and tour a monastery in Erfurt where Luther once worked and prayed, and while Read more
