Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of The Church on earth.

Thanks to Yahoo!News for these links:

Pope tells Catholics to multiply

Pope Benedict XVI told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates.

"Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society," he told about 15,000 people at his weekly audience in the Vatican, to which he arrived by helicopter from his summer residence southeast of Rome.

He said the decline in the number of births "deprives some nations of freshness and energy and of hopes for the future incarnate in children."

The Pope also spoke of "the security, the stability and the force of a numerous family."

Although the Vatican bans all forms of artificial contraception, this is widely ignored even in predominantly Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain, which have some of the lowest birth rates in the world.

Unholy editorial in an alleged news story, Batman!

The pontiff regretted that God is "unhappily often excluded or ignored" in many societies.

"A sound society certainly is born out of the commitment of all of its members, but it also has a need of the blessing and support of God," he said.


Pope Benedict XVI meets ‘rebel’ cleric

Pope Benedict XVI, who has made reconciliation among Christians a priority of his pontificate, will on Monday meet the leader of a schismatic group of ultra-traditionalists, according to a statement by the group.

The Vatican has neither confirmed nor denied that the meeting will take place, but if it does it could be the first step to bringing the defiant traditionalists back into the Catholic fold, observers said.

Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, based in Econe, Switzerland, will meet the Pope at his country residence here, the Fraternity said in a brief communiqué August 24.

Fellay was one of four men illegally consecrated as bishops by the late leader of the ultra-traditionalists, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

That led to the excommunication in 1988 of Lefebvre, Fellay and the other three illegal bishops and anyone who follows them, meaning that the Vatican considers the breakaway traditionalists to be heretics.

The meeting has taken place. Please Lord, help us heal this wound in Your Church.


Pope Benedict XVI praises Poland's Solidarity movement
and Pope Benedict XVI to Visit Poland

Pope Benedict XVI praised Poland's Solidarity movement Wednesday as a "breath of a new spirit" that changed Europe as he marked the trade union's 25th anniversary by sending out a special prayer for all those who work for social justice and workers' rights.

Benedict referred to Solidarity's anniversary in comments in Polish to the tens of thousands of tourists and faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for his weekly general audience.

Benedict's predecessor, the Polish-born Pope John Paul II, was a firm backer of Solidarity and has been credited with helping inspire the movement, the AP reminds.

"I thank Divine Providence for the breath of a new spirit that this movement brought to the events of contemporary Europe," Benedict said. "May God bless all those who are committed to promoting social justice and the good of workers."

On Aug. 31, 1980, 18 days of strikes at the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk, Poland, and elsewhere culminated with the communist regime making unprecedented concessions to the workers, including allowing the Soviet bloc's first free trade union.

Solidarity went on to negotiate a peaceful end of communism in Poland in 1989, which in turn helped hasten the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

World dignitaries and communist-era dissidents were gathering in Gdansk on Wednesday for a day of festivities and a Mass honoring John Paul.

Please, Lord, bless and protect the people of Poland and help them to remain faithful to Thee.

Have mercy, Lord, on the brave souls of those who died fighting for freedom from godless materialism.


Pope Prays for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he was praying for victims of Hurricane Katrina and urged rescue workers to persevere in bringing comfort to survivors.

In a telegram of condolences, Benedict said he was "deeply saddened" to learn of the catastrophe caused by the storm, which slammed into the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday.

The telegram, sent by the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said Benedict was praying for the victims and offered consolation to their families.

"His Holiness likewise prays for the rescue workers and all involved in providing assistance to the victims of this disaster, encouraging them to persevere in their efforts to bring relief and support," the telegram said.


Pope meets controversial critic of Islam

Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a strident critic of Islam,
Vatican sources confirmed.

The 76-year-old writer, who describes herself as an atheist Christian and was sued in Italy for insulting the Muslim faith in one of her books, asked to meet the pope, a source said.

The meeting on Saturday between Benedict XVI and the former war correspondent became public only after Fallaci's associates let slip that the meeting took place.

Based in the United States where she is being treated for cancer, Fallaci once said in a newspaper interview that she was comforted by the writings of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope after the death of John Paul II.

"Europe is no longer Europe, it is 'Eurabia,' a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense," Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal on June 23.

"Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty," she said.

"I feel less alone when I read Ratzinger's books," the journalist added.

But writing in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera three weeks later, she said integrating Muslims in Western society was a "nightmare" and criticised the pope's call for dialogue with Muslim leaders after the July 7 London suicide bombings.

Before becoming pope, Ratzinger outlined his opposition to Turkey joining the European Union and his concerns about the West's "inner disarray" at a time when "history's soul is awakening once again".

But he has since rejected the clash-of-civilisations scenario and this month met a Muslim delegation at the Catholic World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne.

In 2002, Fallaci was sued in a French court over her book "Rage and Pride", a post-September 11 diatribe against the dangers of Islamic extremism. She was accused of violating anti-racism laws, but the case was dismissed on a technicality.

An Italian judge in May this year ordered Fallaci to stand trial for "insulting religion" over her latest book, "The Force of Reason".
But the journalist told The Wall Street Journal she was so riddled with cancer she would probably die before the matter is heard in June 2006.

Have mercy on her, O Lord.

And, finally, this:

If Only Pathetic PETA Pinheads Would Listen to the Pope

The new Pope has spoken movingly about the exploitation of all beings, particularly of farmed animals. When he was asked about the rights of animals in a 2002 interview, he said, "That is a very serious question. At any rate, we can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God's creatures . . . Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible."

Cardinal Ratzinger was echoing official church teachings, as laid out in the Catholic Catechism, which states clearly that “Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals. . . . It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.” (Emphasis mine.)