Pope Benedict XVI held a private meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro during his three-day tour to Cuba on Tuesday.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church and the president of the island nation held an hour-long meeting in the Cuban government's Palace of Revolution. Raul's brother Fidel was not on hand for the meeting.

Prior to the meeting the pope held a prayer service in the Eastern city of Santiago at a shrine to the Virgin of Charity, Cuba's patron saint. He prayed for freedom and a renewal of faith and hope in Cuba. more >>

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Mexico Friday as tens of thousands in the world's largest Roman Catholic country lined up along the streets to greet him with cheers and tears. He encouraged the nation and the church to fight the evils of drugs, violence and idolatry of money.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon and first lady Margarita Zavala received the pope at the Guanajuato International Airport, where he landed Friday to begin his first visit to Mexico and Cuba. "Your visit fills us with joy in moments of great tribulation," Calderon said as he welcomed the pope.

"This is a proud country of hospitality, and nobody feels like a stranger in your land," The Associated Press quoted the pope as saying upon landing. "I knew that, now I see it and now I feel it in my heart." more >>

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedict XVI will come together in prayer this coming Saturday in a symbolic gesture of solidarity and unity after years of tension over Anglicans shifting to the Roman Catholic Church.

Tensions between the Anglican and Catholic churches were heightened in 2009 when the Vatican launched a controversial program to allow disaffected Anglicans to join the Catholic Church.

The churches have divergent perspectives with regard to the ordination of women, homosexual bishops, and same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church has maintained a traditionalist stance on gender and homosexuality. Meanwhile, homosexual and female priests have been ordained in the Anglican Communion, which has been undergoing intense internal debate on those issues, leaving some of the church's 77 million members worldwide distressed. more >>

The Vatican announced that it will be co-hosting a major science exhibition in Pisa, Italy, the hometown of astronomer Galileo Galilei, who four centuries ago was branded a heretic by the Church.

The project, which is being organized by Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Physics Department of Pisa University and the Vatican Observatory, is called "Stories from Another World. The Universe Inside and Outside of Us."

The "stories" will be based on scientific findings and will examine how the physical universe developed. Some of the interesting objects on display will be original copies of books by Sir Isaac Newton and rock fragments from the moon and Mars, our closest planetary neighbor, The Washington Post shared. more >>

Pope Benedict XVI announced on Friday that he will hold a formal ceremony in February elevating 22 new cardinals he has named.

Soon-to-be cardinals include prelates from some notable Vatican offices, Hong Kong, Berlin, Toronto, Prague, Florence, and New York.

The Pope announced the names of the prelates during the last mass of the Vatican’s Christmas celebrations. more >>

In his message for World Peace Day 2012, Pope Benedict XVI re-asserted his fight against moral relativism, which he has previously blamed for Britain’s summer riots.

In his new message for the upcoming World Peace Day, to be marked Jan. 1, Pope Benedict focused his attention on the youth, urging them to observe their morals and work for the common good of society.

“Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of educating is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires,” Pope Benedict said in his message Thursday, as reported by Vatican Radio. more >>