Sorry, Pope, but this 'proper church' declaration is surreal nonsense
305269
Comment is free: Simon Jenkins: I'm an atheist but still I resent this joker in Rome slighting my community. A residual theological chauvinism is aroused.
170583
The Vatican on Tuesday said Christian denominations outside the Roman Catholic Church were not full churches of Jesus Christ.
439304
What does the Roman Catholic Church really think about the use of condoms to fight AIDS? It seems to depend on who is doing the talking.
453795
The ongoing sexual-abuse crisis. Dioceses declaring bankruptcy. What to do with Catholic politicians who don&#39;t hold to church teachings.
764669
The Roman Catholic Church in Spain moved to quench any notion of a sea-change in its attitude to the use of contraceptives, saying remarks by one of its top people had been misunderstood and that doctrine ...
250866
Forget the new "Exorcist" film, the Vatican is offering the real thing.
88035
The Pope, looking tired and speaking with difficulty, yesterday ploughed into fresh controversy by announcing two startling beatifications.
496592
Viewpoint: Kidnapped journalists converting at gunpoint. The Pope quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor. The sudden focus on forced conversions to Islam reflects a fundamental misreading of that religion's history
658857
Â·  Church landlords accused of speculative frenzy Â·  Conduct 'not in line' with papal stance on housing
624260
The Vatican has begun drafting a document to elaborate on Pope Benedict XVI's recent liberalization of the old Latin Mass because some bishops are either ignoring his move or misinterpreting it, Vatican officials said.
287357
The sudden hospitalization of Pope John Paul was another reminder, if any were needed, that one of the longest and most event-studded pontificates in history may be coming to a close.
26000
Now that it is often treated like a maligned minority, the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe has decided to start acting like one too.
626975
The Vatican is making it tougher to become a saint.
763637
Pope Benedict XVI's challenge to secularism has been met with receptivity during his German visit.
393986
It was one of the most radical reforms to emerge from the Second Vatican Council. The Mass, root of Roman Catholic worship, would be celebrated in the vernacular and not in Latin. Now, little more than a generation later, Pope Benedict XVI is poised to revive the 16th-century Tridentine Mass.
739922
(InfoWorld) - When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as pope last year, some Internet users who logged onto Wikipedia to see what he looked like found a rather different image: that of the evil emperor from "Star Wars." The prank lasted only a minute or so before someone fixed it, but it highlighted one of the chief problems faced by the online encyclopedia: How to remain open enough that anyone can contribute entries and edit them while alsoÂ keeping pranksters at bay. In the coming days Wikipedia will begin using a new system at the German version of its Web site that it hopes will fix that problem. If successful, the system is likely to be introduced at Wikipedia sites in other languages. At the German site, users who have been registered for four days or more will be able to flag a recent entry as being correct and unvandalized, effectively locking it for a period of time. People will be able to update the entry with new material, but it won't be visible as part of the main entry until another trusted contributor has flagged the updates as being correct. Four days may not seem a long time to become "trusted," but it should be enough to deter troublemakers who come up with an idea to deface the site on a whim, said Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, at the IDC European IT Forum in Paris on Tuesday. The idea isn't to flag all of the half million or so entries on the German site, just the contentious or topical ones likely to attract attention-seekers, he said. People who visit the entry will be able to see that it's flagged as vandal-free, and have the option to click through and see the recent additions that have not yet been vetted. HeÂ unveiled the German planÂ in August at the Wikimania conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and it's likely to go live any day now. "I'm just off to look at the software to see if it's ready," Wales said Tuesday. The exact details are still being worked out and the flagging system may be updated even after it goes live, depending on what works best, he added. It's one of several measures that Wikipedia has taken to improve the quality of its content, some of which have drawn criticism for making the encyclopedia less open. At Wikimania, Wales also talked about creating "stable" or "static" pages for entries that are considered complete, to help people who want to cite them in published works. The plan being tested in Germany appears designed to root out mischief, as opposed to inaccuracies that may be harder to detect. The question of accuracy spurred Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger to unveil plans last week for a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia called Citizendium (a compendium created by citizens), which will enlist so-called experts to resolve disputes and verify that entries are correct. The experts will have to publish their credentials online to verify they are who they claim to be. Citizendium will begin life as a mirror of Wikipedia, the contents of which can be used by anyone under its GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). But articles that have been updated at Citizendium will remain that way in the future, according to a descriptionÂ available here. Wales noted that the content of Citizendium will also be available under the GFDL, so if the new site is successful, Wikipedia will be able to incorporate the changes back into its own site. Asked about Citizendium in Paris, Wales said that he and Sanger had a "difference of vision," but he said the two men are "still friends." Some animosity seems to exist, however. One of the entries flagged as "disputed" at Wikipedia is Sanger's biography. Sanger calls himself a co-founder of Wikipedia, a claim that Wales disputes. "He used to work for me," Wales said in Paris. "I don't agree with calling him a co-founder, but he likes the title."
315890
Benedict XVI has been wary of inter-faith dialogue. But now he's making a show of ecumenical unity