The Vatican’s No. 2 official hinted Thursday at a papal visit to Cuba, hours after Pope Benedict XVI said Roman Catholics on the communist-run island still face difficulties and distrust.Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, was...

The Vatican secretary of state’s trip to Cuba Wednesday to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s historic visit comes at a critical moment in the future of the island country, which has had mixed relations with the Roman Catholic...

A senior Chinese official is trying to calm U.S. misgivings ahead of Beijing’s coming Olympic Games about what the Bush administration sees as religious intolerance.In Washington, the director of China’s religious affairs bureau met with U.S. officials...

Pope Benedict XVI will visit the White House on April 16 during his first visit to the United States as pontiff.White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the president and the pope would continue discussions they began during Bush’s trip to the Vatican...

Hundreds of women rallied in Rome and Naples on Thursday to protest police interrogation of a woman after she underwent an abortion and to oppose a campaign push by some conservatives to change Italy’s abortion law.State television said at least one...

Pope Benedict XVI has put Sister Lucia, the last of three shepherd children who claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary during apparitions in 1917 in Fatima, on a fast-track to possible sainthood, the Vatican said Wednesday.The customary waiting period...

Abortion, not usually a major election topic in Italy, is playing an important role in early campaigning for April’s parliamentary elections.Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister and the front-runner to retake the job, recently said he favors the...

Today is Monday, Feb. 11, the 42nd day of 2008. There are 324 days left in the year.Today’s Highlight in History:On Feb. 11, 1858, a French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have experienced the first of 18 visions of a lady dressed in white in a...

The second shortest-lived Parliament in Italy’s postwar history was sent packing Wednesday, and Italians will return to the ballot box in April for an election that could propel conservative Silvio Berlusconi back to power.President Giorgio Napolitano...

Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi hit the campaign trail Friday without waiting to find out if the country faces early elections as a result of Premier Romano Prodi’s resignation, which followed a humiliating defeat in a Senate vote.”I realized I...