The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) can now no longer be relied upon as a "neutral and nonpartisan electoral umpire", according a statement from the Justice and Peace Commission of the Zimbabwean Catholic Bishops' Conference.

In a message sent to all of Scotland's 500 Catholic parishes for the 42nd World Communications Day, Bishop Philip Tartaglia claims that "a fundamental disconnection between the provider and the consumer" has occurred in the media

The election of former Roman Catholic bishop Fernando Lugo as president of Paraguay is a further sign of a left-wing shift in Latin America, according to long-term observers of the region's sometimes volcanic political scene.

Controversial Scottish Catholic leader Keith O'Brien, accused of making intemperate and inaccurate remarks over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, has vowed to keep the pressure on PM Gordon Brown.

A deep-rooted caste divide among Christians in India's southern Tamil Nadu state has come to the fore after two Catholics were killed at Eraiyur due to police firing during a clash between upper-caste and Dalit church members.

Michael Heller, a Polish Roman Catholic priest and cosmologist whose intellectual and religious life has been grounded in the insights of of physics, cosmology, theology and philosophy, has won the 2008 Templeton Prize.

Faith groups in Northern Ireland and America have been seeking to learn from one another about making peace in the human and the physical environment together. Earlier this month a US interfaith group visited the province.

A parish in Croatia has opened the world's first "prayer café" for young people, where food and drink can be purchased not with money but with prayers popular with Catholics, such as the Our Father (Lord's Prayer) and the Hail Mary.

The French cleric who heads the main grouping of Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant Christian denominations in Europe has proposed the creation of a Council of European Churches that would also include the Roman Catholic Church.

As Cubans absorbed the news that communist leader Fidel Castro had stepped down, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, prepared to welcome Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, as he visits the country.