Roman Catholic social justice advocates have joined in widespread criticism of new laws restricting protests during World Youth Day in Sydney this month, which Pope Benedict XVI will attend in his first visit to Australia.

As the summer holiday season draws near for many, the Vatican has issued a set of guidelines offering advice on how to make vacations more environmentally responsible and friendly.

The leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, visiting Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, has spoken of the "genocide" suffered by his compatriots in the Ottoman empire, and said that those with power should ensure that justice prevails.

The international Catholic movement 'We are Church' has expressed its numerous concerns about the actions of Pope benedict, ahead of the visit by the Pontiff to the US.

In advance of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the US, three prominent gay Catholics have urged the pontiff to enter into a dialogue with lesbian and gay Catholics. They addressed the pontiff through open statements about their lives, loves, and hopes for the church at a press conference at the end of last week.

A small number of fficials from the Vatican and senior Muslims are holding a two-day meeting in Rome this week, with the intention of laying the foundations for a major global Catholic-Islamic exchange later in 2008.

The Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, seen as required reading for those wanting to know the standpoint of the Holy See, but also known for an austere black and white layout, is appearing in colour for the first time.

Christian activists will make symbolic acts of commitment at the Ministry of Defence in London and at other venues in Scotland and the north of England tomorrow, urging a shift from waging war to waging peace in a divided world.

For the first time, a general secretary of the World Council of Churches has taken part with a pope in a Rome service to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which ended last week, recalling the centenary of this initiative born in the United States in 1908.

Pope Benedict XVI has told a gathering of academics that science should serve rather than enslave humanity, warning that the reduction of human beings and nature to mere 'objects' is not good for the spirit of reasoned enquiry.