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Vatican: Tube Withdrawal an Execution By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press Writer VATICAN CITY - The Vatican (news - web sites) pressed its campaign to keep Terri Schiavo alive Tuesday, saying that removing the brain-damaged American woman's feeding tube amounted to capital punishment for someone who has committed no crime. In a front-page editorial, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano criticized U.S. District Judge James Whittemore's refusal to order the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube and disparaged a "society incapable of appreciating and defending the gift of life." It said Whittemore had condemned Schiavo to an "atrocious death: death from hunger and...

Here are pages with music for Easter as well as other Holy days: Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music - The Musical Offering in MP3 Hymns for the Celebrations of the Liturgical Year, Pontifical Musical Chorus of the Sistine Chapel

Alongside predictable exchanges on Iraq, the Middle East and religious liberty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in her Feb. 8 visit to the Vatican also received an unexpected request -- to intervene in a U.S. lawsuit naming the Holy See as the defendant in a sex abuse case. Church sources told NCR that Rice was asked by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, whether the United States government could stop a class-action lawsuit currently before a United States District Court in Louisville, Ky., that seeks to hold the Vatican financially responsible for the sexual abuse of minors....

TWO CARDINALS VISIT THE HOLY FATHERVATICAN CITY, MAR 2, 2005 (VIS) - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, met yesterday with the Holy Father for a brief work session in his room at Gemelli Hospital and, upon leaving, spoke with journalists, telling them that the Pope "spoke to me in German and Italian. He was very alert and will work on the material that I brought him. I am very happy to see the Holy Father fully present mentally and capable of saying a few essential things in his words." The cardinal told...

Please click on this link to go to the 'start page' for the presentation:Redemptoris Mater You are about to visit the "Redemptoris Mater" Chapel of our Holy Father John Paul II. The chapel is precious to the Holy Father as it is used during his annual spiritual retreats as well as for the homilies given during Advent and Lent. The chapel was completely redone with over 600 square meters of mosaics on the walls and ceilings as a gift to the Holy Father for his 50th anniversary of ordination to priesthood. It was designed to incorporate the theological essence of...

I don't know if this has already been posted at FR, (a search of "Best Wishes for the Holy Father" brought no results)but I thought that well-wishers might appreciate an opportunity to send a kind word during a difficult time. Here is the address in case the above link doesn't work: john_paul_ii@vatican.va

FOX NEWS: Pope has been taken to operating room. Doctors preparing to operate.

Just heard it on CNN now...

Pope John Paul II, recently hospitalized with the flu, is being returned to the hospital, wire services report. Details soon.

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See opened a special section on its Web page, ranging from John Paul II's meditations to liturgical hymns, to help the faithful live Lent. In addition to the Pope's 2005 Lenten Message, the special section offers "Lenten stations," a series of meditations linked to various churches in Rome for each day of this season. Sacred music may also be downloaded from the Web page for this period, offered by the Sistine Pontifical Musical Chapel, as well as the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said Monday Pope John Paul would remain in hospital for a few more days as his top aide spoke openly about the possibility of the frail Pontiff eventually retiring for the good of the Church. In its latest health bulletin the Vatican said that although the 84-year old Pope was improving, he would stay in Rome's Gemelli hospital at least until Thursday as a precaution. He was rushed there just before midnight last Tuesday with acute breathing problems brought on by a bout of influenza. The Vatican originally said he would spend just a...

THE words of Pope John Paul II's Angelus blessing today were "probably recorded" after his voice faltered when he started to deliver the traditional blessing from his hospital window, Italian media reported. In an exercise designed to show the Pope was recovering from the severe breathing difficulties and throat infection that caused him to be hospitalised last week, the Vatican appears to have resorted to a tape as the pontiff seemed to choke on the first few words of his blessing. TV station Sky Italia said in a report the Pope's brief blessing was "probably recorded". There was no immediate...

Rome (AsiaNews) – Mgr John Gao Kexian, unofficial Bishop of Yantai died in the evening of January 24 2005 in a hospital in the city of Bingzhou (Shandong). He had been in prison for the previous five years. His body was cremated and buried the day following his death in the presence of police officers. No relative or faithful were allowed to attend the event. The Bishop died without any religious comforts and his body was not blessed. Because of the news blackout surrounding his case and concerns about his health rumours about his death had already appeared in September...

Since midsummer, the Senate Intelligence Committee has been attempting to solve the biggest mystery of the Iraq war: the disparity between the Bush Administration’s prewar assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and what has actually been discovered. The committee is concentrating on the last ten years’ worth of reports by the C.I.A. Preliminary findings, one intelligence official told me, are disquieting. “The intelligence community made all kinds of errors and handled things sloppily,” he said. The problems range from a lack of quality control to different agencies’ reporting contradictory assessments at the same time. One finding, the official went...

  2003           2002 2001           2000 Christmas Music: Pontifical Musical Chorus of the Sistine Chapel Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music  

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 16, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See manifested publicly its readiness to mediate to save Najaf, the Shiite holy city in Iraq. In an interview on a news program of Italian public radio, GR RAI, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said that "if requested, the Pope will allow this mediation." "The objective is that all parties sit around a table and talk," the cardinal said. "The whole endeavor of the Pope and of the Holy See is an endeavor of mediation, although not always in the technical sense, provided by international law, for which mediation can...

WASHINGTON - A Republican congressman who is Roman Catholic said Thursday the Vatican (news - web sites) has no right to criticize the United States for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners because of the Catholic Church's history of abusing children and covering up its actions. "If there's anyone in the world who has no right to speak on sexual abuse, it's the Vatican," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "This is the height of hypocrisy." In an interview published Wednesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo described the prisoner abuses as "a tragic episode in the relationship with...

NEW YORK, FEB. 14, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Last year's debate over the U.S.-led military intervention in Iraq left some Catholics wondering why the Church seemed so supportive of the United Nations. How is it, they asked, that an organization that promotes abortion, artificial birth control and radical feminism is viewed so favorably by the Church? In fact, the Church has criticized the United Nations on numerous occasions, particularly on family-related themes. But it also has a long history of support for the organization. John Paul II recently reaffirmed this. "The Holy See," the Pope said last Saturday in his words of...

VATICAN CITY, FEB 10, 2004 (VIS) - Tomorrow is a holiday in the Vatican as this tiny city-state celebrates its 75th anniversary as a sovereign entity. February 11, 2004, in fact, marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Lateran Pacts on the same date in 1929. Signed in the Popes' Room of the Lateran Palace by Benito Mussolini, the representative of the King of Italy, and by Cardinal Pietro Gasbarri, the Secretary of State of Pope Pius XI, the Pacts were a triple agreement: a political treaty, a financial convention and a concordat. This agreement ended the famous...

The following is a copy of an e-mail sent to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on Dec. 16, 2003: ------------------------------- This is the title I gave to this e-mail: UNHOLY ALLIANCE - CARDINAL RENATO MARTINO AND SADDAM HUSSEIN. Contents: International News - December 16, 2003 Cardinal Backs Trial for Saddam Hussein December 16, 2003 02:51 PM EST VATICAN CITY - A top Vatican cardinal said Tuesday Saddam Hussein should face trial for his crimes, but stressed the Vatican's opposition to the death penalty and criticized the U.S. military for portraying him "like a cow" having his teeth checked....