The Latest Breaking News from Benedict XVI

Fifteen questions on general knowledge and topical trivia plus a few jokes every Thursday – how will you fare?

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict’s footsteps, given his increased mobility problems that have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano — a controversial Vatican power broker for more than a quarter of a century who was accused of covering up one of the Catholic Church's most notorious sex abusers — dies at the age of 94.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a controversial Vatican power broker for more than a quarter of a century who was accused of covering up one of the Catholic Church's most notorious sex abusers, has died at the age of 94.

Pope Francis has a unique therapeutic treatment for dealing with a bad knee: a shot of tequila.

On Jan. 3, 1865, the Kingdom of Hawaii, then a sovereign state, enacted “An Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy.” Any person suspected of having the ancient disease – which is mentioned as far back as the Bible – would be inspected and, if deemed incurable, permanently exiled to…

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI turned 95 this past weekend

Pope Francis apologized on April 1, 2022, to First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegations, acknowledging the harm done by residential schools in Canada and marking a crucial step in the church admitting its role in the abuse of Indigenous communities and children. Yet this apology, as important as it is,…

Pope Francis’ two-day visit to the tiny European country of Malta, a strongly Catholic island just south of Sicily, in April, 2022 put a spotlight on Malta’s complicated history and important contemporary concerns. Chief among these is the sharp increase in the number of asylum-seekers from Africa and the Middle…