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Video: Muslim demonstrators shouted “Pope Benedict, you will pay, Islam is on its way”, “Sharia is on its way”, “Justice is on its way” (a lot is coming our way, it seems) and threatened that Sharia would be “declared” against all who insult Muhammad. They shouted to the Pope, “Watch your back,” swore that he will “burn in hell” and claimed that he “deserves the death penalty.”

Only a few days ago we were being assured by many voices on the BBC that Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain might well turn out to be a damp squib. It was widely predicted that few would turn out to see him. Some even suggested that protests against the heinous crimes of child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church might so dominate and disfigure his visit that there would be no room for the Pope to talk about anything else, or for us to listen. In the event, the crowds were larger than had been forecast, if not as...

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday stopped to give a police dog an unexpected pat while thanking some of the 2,000 members of the West Midlands Police who had helped to protect him during his visit. After meeting the seminarians of England, Wales and Scotland at Oscott College, Sutton Coldfield, the Pope saw Jake, a black Springador who acts as an explosives sniffer for the police. Wading through a crowd of public servants the Pope was greeted by the dog, who appeared to enjoy the attention....

Noted New Testament Scholar, Michael Bird, my Australian friend over at Euangelion, kindly sent an article my way that I have to share here. This is a piece that deserves wide circulation. Scott Stephens, a writer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has written a piece defending the pope against the scurrilous charges that have been made against him and has essentially lowered the boom on those who have recklessly propagated them: his message, "You've Got the Wrong Man!". Check this out . . . I've put certain parts of the story in bold for emphasis. YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN!...

Imagine six Israelis had been arrested in the US and charged with possibly plotting against a visiting ayatollah. Rhetorical question: would Today have mentioned their nationality and/or religion? But when reportedly six Algerian Muslims were arrested in the UK and charged with possibly plotting against visiting Pope Benedict XVI, Today breathed not a word of their identity. Reporter Nina Dos Santos spoke only of "the specter of terror" having reared its head in London, and of "yesterday's arrests." But Dos Santos never said what form that specter took . . . or who was arrested. View video here.

Fame and fortune do not bring happiness, the Pope told thousands of schoolchildren in a warning about Britain’s celebrity culture.The Pope said he hoped there were “future saints of the 21st century” among the audience at an event celebrating Roman Catholic education in Twickenham. He encouraged them to develop skills and admitted that money is useful, but told the pupils that pursuing worldly success alone would not give meaning to their lives. The pontiff, speaking on the second day of his historic state visit to Britain, also said to the schoolchildren that they should not “narrow” their education to exclude...

Five men were arrested Friday by British police over a potential threat to Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of his four-day visit to the U.K. Police confirmed the arrests in a statement Friday, which revealed the men were detained by Scotland Yard detectives about 5.45am local time "on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism." The statement continued: "The men are aged 26, 27, 36, 40, and 50, and were arrested ... at [a] business premises in central London." The men -- reported to be of Arabic origin by Sky News -- were taken...

The hostility that many British are voicing toward Pope Benedict XVI has shocked church officials in Rome as they prepare for the first formal state visit to Great Britain by a reigning pontiff. The four-day papal visit, which begins Thursday, has prompted negative reactions by far exceeding anything the Pope has encountered when traveling even to non-Christian countries such as Turkey or Israel. The protests have ranged from the mean-spirited and the tasteless to the vehemently ideological. Some even called for the Pope's arrest upon his arrival in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Queen Elizabeth II is to greet him. At the...

Supporters of Protest the Pope posted a thread yesterday on the Reddit atheism group in which they discussed wanting to commit violent attacks against Pope Benedict during his state visit to the UK. The title of the thread is ‘Protest the Pope’ and it is headed by a link to the Protest the Pope website. The Reddit atheism groups has 81,803 readers.Contributors to the thread express their sick desire to assassinate Pope Benedict, obscenely comparing him to ‘war criminals who have been executed for less’. They go on to discuss wanting to breaking ‘a few ribs at least’.Here are excerpts from their ‘Protest the...

Mormon talk show host Glenn Beck has added an event called “Divine Destiny” to his Washington, DC rally schedule where “nationally-known religious figures from all faiths will unite to deliver messages reminiscent to those given during the struggles of America's earliest days.” Beck continues: I have met with the biggest leaders of faith in the country privately and I have asked them to help me put differences aside and to reach out with one another so we can remind people to get down on their knees for our brothers' shield in our danger's hour.You will fully understand on 8...

[Radio Vatikan]The Abbot Primate of the Benedictines, Notker Wolf, warns of a slanted view of the Church. He said this to a group of mass servers from his Bavarian homeland on Tuesday from the Benedictine Center of Saint Anselmo. "What has bothered me the whole time: everything depends on the Pope and Mixa -- I don't believe either in the Pope or in Mixa, rather Jesus Christ, and that is final! That the Church is human, let us not be mistaken -- it was always thus. And we are indeed only human. But I believe, it is completely important that...

Wardrobe malfunction? no velcro? :-} A gust of wind blows Pope Benedict XVI's mantle as he leads the weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican June 16, 2010.REUTERS/TMax Rossi

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 11 - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday issued a public apology for the sex abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church. "We insistently ask for forgiveness from God and the persons involved," the pope told some 15,000 priests from all over the world at a Mass in St Peter's marking the end of the Year of the Priest. The 83-year-old pontiff vowed to "do everything possible to make sure such abuse can never happen again". Looking back on the Year of the Priest, the pope said that while being cause for celebration of the...

Pope Benedict called for redoubling efforts for middle east peace. Helen Thomas should have listened. see video here...

VATICAN CITY, 19 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Holy See Press Office today announced that at 10.30 a.m. on 24 June Benedict XVI will visit the Don Orione Centre located in Rome's Monte Mario district to bless a statue of the Virgin "Salus populi romani". The statue, which looks out over the city, has recently been restored and replaced on its tower. The great statue of Our Lady, nine metres high and made of gilded copper, fell from its nineteen-metre pedestal in a storm and high winds on 12 October last year. The fall of the statue elicited a great...

Pope Benedict XVI took a break from the relentless news about the sex-abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church and flew to Portugal this week to worship at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, one of the world's most venerated shrines with over 5 million visitors a year. The devout pilgrims who have come to Fatima to see him – many camping in cars and tents in the fields around the shrine – are mostly Portuguese, although dozens of different countries are also represented, judging by the flags waved by the crowds. Fatima has had an important role...

(ANSA) – Rome, May 13 – Two Moroccan students expelled from Italy for security reasons last month wanted to kill Pope Benedict XVI, an Italian newsweekly claims in a report coming out Friday.The Panorama weekly says it has obtained a copy of the expulsion order in which one of the pair, Mohamed Hlal, was allegedly quoted in a police wiretap saying he was “ready to assassinate (the pope) to earn a place in Paradise”.After the April 29 order against Hlal and his fellow Perugia University student Ahmed Errahmouni, an interior ministry statement suggested that the pair were planning suicide-bomb...

For an explanation of the Port Arthur Icon of the Triumph of the Theotokos, go here.The Virgin Mary is she who more than any other contemplated God in the human Face of Jesus. She saw Him as a newborn when, wrapped in swaddling clothes, He was placed in a manger; she saw Him when, just after his death, they took Him down from the cross, wrapped Him in linen and placed Him in the sepulcher. Inside her was impressed the image of her martyred Son; but this image was then transfigured in the light of the Resurrection. Thus in Mary's...

Pope Benedict is targeting the abuses in the liturgy as his Reform movement rolls along.

The last month has seen a blizzard of new sex abuse accusations against the Catholic Church from across the United States. Almost all of them--and the intense media attention they've garnered--can be traced to one man: a Minnesota lawyer named Jeff Anderson. Last week, an alleged victim of priest abuse in Wisconsin announced a lawsuit against the Vatican itself. Anderson is representing the alleged victim. A couple of days earlier, a Mexican man who alleged abuse by a priest years ago filed suit against Mexico's top Catholic cleric in a U.S. court. The plaintiff is another Anderson client. And throughout...