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LONDON (CNS) -- The British government has removed from its website a petition protesting Pope Benedict XVI's Sept. 16-19 visit to England and Scotland. The petition had urged the British prime minister to dissociate the government from the pope's "intolerant views" and not to support the state visit financially. The secularist coalition Protest the Pope sponsored the petition, which had attracted more than 12,300 signatures. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who drafted the petition, said July 16 that the government had removed the petition three months before it was due to close, and that it had not allowed signatures since...

FORMER boxing champion Mike Tyson, who converted to Islam while in jail in the 1990s, is visiting the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina on pilgrimage.Tyson, who was world heavyweight champion from 1986 to 1990, arrived on Friday in Medina with the Canadian Dawa Association for the umrah, or minor pilgrimage, the newspaper Okaz said. From Medina he will travel on to Mecca and plans to visit other Saudi cities, it reported. Tyson, 44, converted to Islam while serving a 10-year prison sentence, later commuted to three years, for raping a US beauty queen in 1991.

Deacon Greg Ihm, a seminarian from the Diocese of Madison, Wis., prays during an early morning Ash Wednesday Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome Feb. 17. (CNS/Paul Haring) By Father Matthew GamberCatholic News Service ROME (CNS) -- For seminarians at the Pontifical North American College, Lent did not begin with receiving ashes in the warmth of the seminary chapel; it began with a long, cold walk in morning darkness down one hill and up another to the Church of Santa Sabina. Once inside the fifth-century basilica, they received their ashes Feb. 17 and began the college's...

SALAH AD DIN – Shi'a Muslims here will soon begin their pilgrimage to religious shrines in observance of Arba'een. Meaning “40” in Arabic, Arba'een is the 40th day after Ashura, or the death and martyrdom of Iman Husain ibn Ali, the 3rd Imam and grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The religious observance is known to some as the Muharram ritual and has many variations around the world. During this time, observers make their pilgrimage to the Husyan and Abbas shrines in Karbala, Iraq, by traveling on roadways that, in the past, have had threats imposed on them from improvised explosive...

The heaviest rain to hit Islam's annual hajj pilgrimage in years soaked the faithful and flooded the road to Mecca, snarling traffic as millions of Muslims headed for the holy sites. The downpours add an extra hazard on top of intense concerns about the spread of swine flu. Pilgrims in white robes holding umbrellas, some wearing face masks for fear of the flu, circled the black cube-shaped Kaaba in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, the opening rite for the hajj. But the shrine — Islam's holiest site — and the nearby rain-soaked streets did not see the usual massive,...

Mecca, 25 Nov. (AKI) - The grandmother of US president Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the 'Hajj' or Islamic pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, a Saudi daily said on Wednesday. Sarah Obama, 87, is being accompanied by a nephew and Obama's cousin, Omran. On Wednesday Sarah Obama was in the valley of Mina with an African delegation, according to the Saudi daily Okaz. Obama, the mother of the American president's father, lives in a village in Kenya and is one of the many guests of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud....

AMMAN, Jordan, MAY 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is in the Holy Land as a self-defined "pilgrim of peace," but he hopes to bring the region more than an absence of conflict, says a Vatican aide following the weeklong pilgrimage.Father Caesar Atuire, the delegate administrator of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, spoke with ZENIT about the Pope's trip, which began today in Jordan.The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi is the Vatican institution whose mission is to evangelize through pastoral tourism and the ministry of pilgrimage.This trip is important, Father Atuire said, "because he is arriving in a moment in which this land is trying...

Rome, Italy, May 9, 2009 / 12:33 am (CNA).- During the Papal Mass on May 10 in Amman, Jordan, Pope Benedict XVI will give First Communion to 40 Iraqi children, according to the Secretary of the Chaldean Diocese of Jordan, Msgr. Raymond Moussalli. The SIR news agency reports that Msgr. Moussalli, who is in charge of welcoming Iraqi refugees in Amman, said Jordan children would be among the group as well. "Their desire is to pray with the Pope for reconciliation and peace in Iraq. It will be an important moment for us faithful not only in Jordan but also...

JERUSALEM — With just 400 faithful, the Hebrew-speaking Vicariate is dwarfed by the much larger Palestinian Christian community, estimated at some 180,000 in Israel and the Palestinian territories, which will be the main focus of the pope's eight-day visit starting Friday.Established in 1955 by a small group which included several converted Jews, some of them Holocaust survivors, the vicariate largely keeps to itself in a country founded as a Jewish state in which Christians are often suspected of being missionaries.Hebrew prayers reverberate through the humble Catholic chapel in Jerusalem where whitewashed walls are adorned with a metal cross and pictures...

Vatican City, May 4, 2009 / 10:27 am (CNA).- Members of the Papal Foundation met with Pope Benedict on Saturday and heard him speak about his trip to the Holy Land later this week. He told the foundation that he will go as "a pilgrim of peace" to a land that has been marred by violence and injustice for 60 years.Pope Benedict began the audience by greeting Cardinal William Keeler, the other cardinals and bishops present and the lay members of the foundation with St. Paul’s words-- "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus...

Egyptian members of parliament and activists are campaigning to prevent thousands of Israeli Jews from flocking to Egypt every year to visit the grave of a famous rabbi. Thousands of Israelis make annual trips to neighboring Egypt to celebrate the birthday of Rabbi Ya'aqov Abu Ha'seira, a 19th-century Moroccan Jew who was considered a holy man and is buried in Egypt about 156 kilometers north of Cairo. Locals say Israeli visitors behave in a way they find offensive. Campaigners say the visitors dance and wear provocative clothing and that the locals suffer from the tight security measures applied throughout the...

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will pray at the feet of Our Lady of Lourdes for the Church, the sick and for peace in the world when he visits the Marian shrine this weekend. The Pope said this at the end of today's general audience in a message directed to the people of France. The Pope will travel Friday-Monday to Paris and Lourdes. His visit to the Marian shrine takes place in the context of the 150th anniversary of apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous."I go as a messenger of peace and fraternity," he said in...

Last December, more than 2 million Muslims from around the world converged on Saudi Arabia to participate in the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy site of Mecca. The Hajjis spent a month performing religious rituals, mingling with Muslims from all walks of life, and, in some cases, taking part in communal chants of "Death to America" led by Islamic extremists. This was understandably unnerving to the 10,000 or so Americans who made the pilgrimage, not to mention those who didn't. Such behavior raised concerns that the Hajj is a breeding ground for anti-Western sentiment—or worse. Then again, the...

VATICAN CITY, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- The Vatican's new airline got off the ground Monday with plans to fly 150,000 pilgrims a year to shrines in Europe and the Middle East. Mistral Air officials said they plan to fly Roman Catholic pilgrims to shrines in France, Poland, Spain and the Middle East and later add Mexico to the schedule, BBC News reported. Mistral Air officially opened Monday with the first flight planned from Rome to Lourdes in France with a senior Vatican cardinal aboard to inaugurate the low-cost charter service, the BBC said. Mistral Air has signed a five-year agreement...

The Vatican may have territorial limits, its own post office and even a football tournament, but it has hitherto lacked what all real states offer: an airline.That will be put right this month as the Vatican launches its first charter flights for pilgrims from Rome to Lourdes, with some of the world's top religious destinations to follow, including the shrine of Fatima in Portugal and the shrine of the Madonna of Guadalupe in Mexico."The spirit of this new initiative is to meet the growing demand by pilgrims to visit the most important sites for the faith," Father Cesare Atuire at...

BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed at least eight people in a northern Kurdish area Friday, but Baghdad remained largely calm with a driving ban still in effect and thousands of Shiite pilgrims headed home. U.S. military officials praised the performance of Iraqi security forces during the pilgrimage Thursday, which saw hundreds of thousands of Shiites march to a northern Baghdad shrine, undisturbed by any major violence. The driving ban and curfew imposed on Baghdad for three days was to lift at dawn Saturday. "They have done an absolutely amazing job," said Col. John Castles, commander of the 2nd Brigade...

Poland's pilgrims 06.08.2007 In a run up to the August 15 Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, hundreds of thousands of people from all over Poland set off on walking pilgrimages, marching hundreds of kilometers across the country to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, Poland's major Marian Shrine. Report by Joanna Najfeld Every year at the beginning of August, hundreds of thousands of people in Poland set off on an exhausting march, lasting even two weeks to pay homage to Our Lady of Czestochowa at Poland's most revered religious and national pilgrimage destination - Jasna Góra. Days...

Administration of the city Kazan, which is considered the Muslim hub of Russia, has extensive plans of turning the city into an influential centre of business and religious tourism and to attract pilgrims from around the world, like Mecca.

As a silver member of "Hilton HHonors," I receive the odd discount from the hotel chain but today's offer really caught my eye. It was not to swing in Las Vegas or spend April in Paris, but to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. I've posted the webpage here. Some salient excerpts: Between February 1 and March 31, 2007, GCC nationals who stay a minimum of two consecutive nights at the Makkah Hilton & Towers earn double Hilton HHonors® Base points. Please note: During this period, Makkah is accessible only to Muslims and visas are issued to nationals of Bahrain, Oman,...

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 12, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican press office has published a general outline of the itinerary and agenda for Benedict XVI's upcoming apostolic trip to Turkey. Vatican Radio, directed by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, who also heads the press office, completed details of the program for the Nov. 28-Dec. 1 trip. The Pope will leave from Rome's Fiumicino airport at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 28. He will arrive at the Esenboga airport at Ankara, the Turkish capital, at 1 p.m., local time. The Holy Father will first visit the Mausoleum of Ataturk, "Father of the Turks," who...