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State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said on Friday that if a request were to "come forward" that the papal election be monitored by an international organization called the Organization for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the U.S. government “would take it very seriously.” Nuland made the remark only after she did some “digging” on the issue because Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee had questioned her at Thursday's briefing about whether the administration believed the papal election had met international standards. At both Thursday’s and Friday’s briefings there was more than a little jocularity in the way Nuland handled Lee’s...

After the election of Pope Francis I on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement talking about the importance of Catholicism to him personally and how much he is looking forward to working with the pope. As vice president, Biden has advanced causes directly contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church—favoring, for example, the legalized killing of children in the womb and legalized same-sex marriage.“Jill and I want to offer our congratulations to His Holiness Pope Francis, and extend our prayers as he takes on this holy responsibility,” said Biden. “I am happy to have the chance to...

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has changed the rules for electing a new pope, returning to the traditional requirement that two-thirds of the cardinals in the conclave agree on a candidate, the Vatican said Tuesday. ADVERTISEMENT Pope John Paul II had altered the voting process in 1996, allowing the pope to be chosen by an absolute majority if the cardinals were unable to agree after several days of balloting in which a two-thirds majority was needed.In a document released Tuesday, Benedict said he was returning to the traditional voting norm, essentially reversing John Paul's reform of the centuries-old process.The...

BEIJING -- Seven priests of China's underground Roman Catholic Church have been detained for attending an unauthorized retreat following the election of the new pope, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Thursday. The priests were detained early Wednesday at the retreat led by Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo in China's northern city of Jinzhou, the Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement. China allows worship only in state-supervised churches that reject Vatican authority over their operations. Leaders of the underground church, which remains loyal to the pope and has several million followers, are routinely arrested and harassed. The government said it hoped...

The headline-from Agence France Presse-says it all !

Many Africans think it's time for an African pope. They say having a black at the top would anchor the Roman Catholic Church among the world's poor — signaling that the Vatican aims to lead the fight against inequality and disease, offering a hope of salvation in this world as well as the next. And, they add, it would recognize that the church is gravitating away from the ailing parishes and empty pews of Europe to focus on vibrant congregations to the south. Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria is among those mentioned most often around the Vatican as potential successors...