News/International

{mosimage}BEIJING - He’s known as “the black pope of China” — a play on the “black pope” title given to the powerful head of the Jesuits — and whether or not people like his methods, they all agree that he is one of the most powerful laymen in China’s Catholic Church.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - After several years of study, the Vatican’s International Theological Commission said there are good reasons to hope that babies who die without being baptized go to heaven.

{mosimage}NAZARETH, Israel - The Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Israel, the Bishop of Nazareth, is very clear in his desires for his local church in the midst of conflict and a declining Catholic population.

LONDON - The head of Great Britain’s military diocese has come under fire from politicians, military leaders and the media after he welcomed Iran’s release of 15 sailors and marines as religiously motivated “good deeds.”

TORONTO - The Archbishop of Canterbury will meet with the American Episcopalian House of Bishops in September in an effort to prevent a schism between Anglicans in the rich, first world and the Anglican majority in the global south.

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II’s intense pastoral ministry, “but even more, the Calvary of agony and the serene death of our beloved pope let all people of our age know that Jesus Christ really was his everything,” Pope Benedict XVI said.

As Zimbabwe suffers another round of brutal repression at the hands of President Robert Mugabe and his henchmen, everybody is offering solutions.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Irish and British church officials welcomed the announcement that political parties in Northern Ireland have agreed to share power again.

TORONTO - A charity established by 12-year-old Catholic school children a dozen years ago has landed a $1.2-million grant from the Canadian founder of eBay, who as a student pumped gas in the neighbourhood.

WASHINGTON - In a sharply worded letter to his religious superior, Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino said that a Vatican document criticizing his work is an effort “to put an end to the theology of liberation.”