The bishops of England and Wales asked Catholics to carry out acts of penance to help atone for clerical abuse crimes.

Pope Benedict XVI is planning to create a department charged with overseeing the “re-evangelization” of traditionally Christian countries.

More than 3,500 attended the first traditional Latin Mass in decades at the National Shrine.

An election victory for Iraq’s more secular parties is not tempting Iraqi Christian refugees to return home,

The pope was “deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have suffered.”

An Irish government spokesman said that amount, even added to the large sums already paid by religious orders, was still insufficient.