NEW YORK – Lidia Matticchio Bastianich has cooked for her fair share of VIPs, including first lady Laura Bush and the presidents of Japan and Chile. Nothing, however, comes close to cooking for Pope Benedict XVI.Read More

LONDON – A leading Catholic bioethical institute has welcomed the decision of a European court to ban the patenting of any medical treatment derived from destructive experiments on human embryos.Read More

For someone who relished the great outdoors, the late Pope John Paul II would certainly be pleased with the outdoor prayer garden that is being carved out of the corner of Charles and Franklin streets in downtown Baltimore.Read More

CATONSVILLE – The crowd was markedly different in size, but the passion was just as fervent.Read More

PITTSBURGH – In America and the world today, many people perceive religion and intellectual life as adversaries, but a major task of a Catholic university is to counteract this view by revealing the depth and riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition, according to Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago.Read More

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderon inaugurated the new Plaza Mariana Oct. 12 adjacent to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but credit for rescuing the project from budgetary and political problems went to the world’s richest man, Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu.Read More

Pope Benedict XVI’s revised prayer for the Jews for use in the Tridentine-rite Good Friday liturgy does not indicate any form of stepping back from the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the Vatican said.Read More

VATICAN CITY – Endless news, noise and crowds have made people afraid of silence and solitude, which are essential for finding God’s love and love for others, Pope Benedict XVI said.Read More