Saint Peter's Square will be restored to its 17th-century Baroque glory with a major renovation project due to be completed in 30 months, the Vatican's official daily said on Friday.
Italian clothing giant Benetton said Wednesday that it was pulling a photo montage of the pope kissing a leading imam that was part of a new global ad campaign and that had outraged the Vatican.
The Vatican celebrated the 50th anniversary on Thursday of a Council that changed the face of Catholicism, as it tries to rekindle the religious fervour of the time amid rising secularism.
Filipinos in Rome were deeply saddened by the decision of Pope Benedict XVI to renounce the papal office, said Vatican Ambassador Mercedes Tuason.
When I conduct leadership seminars, one exercise I sometimes use is to ask what the participants think are the three important things for a leader to do when he/she assumes an office of leadership.
Nobody knows what the measurements of the next pope will be so Gammarelli -- tailors to the papacy since the 18th century -- have produced vestments in small, medium and large just in case.
In his first public Mass as the new head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis signaled a striking liturgical difference with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI by facing the people, not turning his back, which the retired Pontiff had done in a controversial attempt to bring back the Latin Mass banished by Vatican II.
When news of the new Pope broke out in the early morning of Thursday, it was greeted with much joy and hope.
Vanity Fair in Italy on Wednesday named Pope Francis its "Man of the Year," saying the pontiff's first 100 days at the Vatican had already made him one of the world's top leaders.
