News/International

{mosimage}ROME  - Chiara Lubich, the 88-year-old founder and perpetually smiling symbol of the Focolare movement, died early March 14 in her room near the Focolare headquarters in Rocca di Papa, south of Rome.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Four centuries after he was called by church officials to retract theories deemed suspect of heresy, the 17th-century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei will be returning to Vatican City.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI called the kidnapping and death of an Iraqi archbishop "an act of inhuman violence that offends the dignity of the human being and seriously harms the ... co-existence among the beloved Iraqi people."

{mosimage}DUBLIN, Ireland - Although some Catholics still remember the Rev. Ian Paisley's diatribes against Catholics, other praised the progress of the Protestant minister who became the highest official in the Northern Ireland government.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI appealed for peace and security in Iraq after kidnappers abducted Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, and killed the three people who were travelling with him.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY  - In an address to Serbia’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called on all parties to act with “prudence and moderation” in response to “the current crisis in Kosovo.”

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - During nearly 50 years of rule, Fidel Castro had an often-stormy relationship with the Cuban Catholic Church.

{mosimage}LONDON - An English cardinal has rejected suggestions that aspects of Shariah, or Islamic law, might be incorporated into the British legal system.

{mosimage}MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s Catholic bishops have pleaded with the federal government to renegotiate a trade treaty with the United States and Canada that they say is leading to the cultural death of their nation.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Aid workers, church groups and peace activists are deeply disappointed in the Manley panel’s report on Canada’s future role in Afghanistan — which calls for Canada to continue its mission while seeking more troops from NATO — with aid workers worried the panel’s approach to development could result in murders and kidnapping of project staff and Taliban targeting of communities where they work.