Free Republic

A new international sports team may have a supernatural boost: Vatican representatives announced last week that the city-state has launched a national track and field team. The group will start with about 60 members, pending official clearance and a health examination required by the Italian government, Father Melchor Jose Sanchez de Toca y Alameda, team president and the head of the Vatican’s sports department in the culture ministry, told Runner’s World. Those members range in age from 18 to 62, and have a variety of professions within the Vatican. “There’s all types of people—it cuts across the Vatican world. There...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Involvement in politics is a role reserved to laypeople, but Catholic Church leaders must explain and promote the moral principles that will contribute to the common good, Pope Benedict XVI said. "The church, while recognizing that it is not a political agent, cannot abstain from taking an interest in the good of the whole civil community in which it lives and works," the pope said in a message published Oct. 18. The papal message marked the 100th annual celebration of a week dedicated to studying Catholic social teaching sponsored by the Italian bishops' conference. Working for...