A senior leader of the Russian Orthodox Church met last week with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, a visit seen as adding credence to reports of a thaw in relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Roman Catholic Church.

A senior Vatican official has said the Roman Catholic Church welcomes a new Global Christian Forum which has been hailed as the most representative gathering of Christians from many diverse traditions ever held. It is taking place in Kenya.

The Vatican has sent a message urging cooperation between Christians and Hindus in anticipation of their celebration of Diwali on 9 November. Shared by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs across the world as the 'Festival of Light,' Diwali marks the triumph of life over death.

Mennonites have welcomed the opportunity recently presented to their 1.2 million strong world body to dialogue officially with the Roman Catholic Church on peace and theological concerns, as part of a historic visit to the Vatican.

Christian-Muslim relations and the rights of the minority Christian community are among the likely discussion points when Pope Benedict XVI meets with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah next week - after his controversial UK state visit.

Archbishop Celestino Maggiore, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, has said, in a UN debate on development in New York,that global sustainability should be a priority for the nations of the world.

The End is Night - or then again, perhaps it isn't. That is the message of "Apocalypse: the Final Revelation", an art exhibition inaugurated this week in the Sistine Hall of the Vatican Museums which aims to cast new light on a controversial biblical book.

Kenyan Catholics are celebrating the announcement that 63-year-old John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi, will become a cardinal after years of expectation that he would follow in the footsteps of Kenyan Cardinal Maurice Otunga, who died in 2003.

The outing of Vatican high-flier Monsignor Tommaso Stenico in a secretly filmed TV sting offers a real insight into the struggle the Roman Catholic Church is having in its home country over homosexuality.

There is a continuing row between Amnesty International and the Vatican over access to abortion by women who have been abused and raped. Here AI explains its policy and contests representations of it by some critics and campaigners.