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The Vatican said Monday that President Barack Obama was clearly looking for some common ground with his speech at the University of Notre Dame about abortion. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Obama's speech at the leading Catholic university on Sunday confirmed what he had said at a recent news conference — that signing the so-called Freedom of Choice Act in the U.S. Congress wasn't his highest legislative priority. The bill would protect a woman's right to have a child or end a pregnancy. Obama's stance on the issue is that he supports abortion rights but says the procedure should...

JERUSALEM, MAY 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI left Jerusalem for Bethlehem early this morning amidst further carping from the locals; I couldn't help but raise my heart to God in gratitude for this gentle, German Pope. I realized just how unique his mission is in this faction-torn land of continual squabbles over everything from land to doctrinal minutiae. The fact is that the Holy Father didn't come to the Holy Land to play party politics, not even for his own "party." He didn't come merely as a representative of the Catholic Church, but truly on behalf of everyone involved, on behalf...

On Wednesday 13 May 2009, after making a private visit to the Grotto of the Nativity, the Holy Father visited the Caritas Children's Hospital and the Aida Refugee Camp. At the Camp he gave the following address. Mr President, Dear Friends, My visit to the Aida Refugee Camp this afternoon gives me a welcome opportunity to express my solidarity with all the homeless Palestinians who long to be able to return to their birthplace, or to live permanently in a homeland of their own. Thank you, Mr President, for your kind greeting. And thank you also, Mrs Abu Zayd, and...

JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican spokesman is clarifying that young Joseph Ratzinger's mandatory enrollment with Hitler's youth organization "had no role in his life."Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, responded to a flurry of criticism that arose in the Israeli press after the Pope's visit Monday to the Yad Vashem. Among the issues dredged up was Joseph Ratzinger's relationship with the Nazis. Even an Israeli government official was quoted as making much of the Holy Father's nationality: "The Pope [at Yad Vashem] spoke like a historian, as somebody observing from the sidelines, about things...

Vatican stumbles in defense of Pope Benedict A spokesman, stung by criticism of the pope during his Holy Land trip, inaccurately says Benedict never belonged to the Hitler Youth. Benedict presses ahead with his visit, calling for peace. By Richard Boudreaux May 13, 2009 Reporting from Jerusalem -- Pope Benedict's pilgrimage to the Holy Land veered Tuesday into controversy over his past when the Vatican, stung by Israeli criticism, denied and then acknowledged his membership in the Hitler Youth during World War II. The conflicting accounts came in response to Israeli leaders who faulted the German pontiff for not mentioning,...

On 11 May 2009, during his apostolic journey to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict visited the Jewish memorial to HaShoah, the Holocaust, and offered the following reflections. I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name … I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off" (Is 56:5). This passage from the Book of the prophet Isaiah furnishes the two simple words which solemnly express the profound significance of this revered place: yad – "memorial"; shem – "name". I have come to stand in silence before this monument, erected to...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Vatican had to play down Pope Benedict's teenage membership of the Hitler Youth on Tuesday as Israeli disappointment at a lack of emotion in his remarks on the Holocaust dogged his tour of the Holy Land. The speaker of the Knesset, echoing many of his compatriots, accused the German-born pope of showing detachment on Monday from Jewish suffering under the Nazis. He referred to Benedict as "a German who joined the Hitler Youth and ... Hitler's army." The Vatican spokesman at first flatly denied that Benedict, 82, was ever in the Nazi youth movement. But when...