| March 20, 2009 | - Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa. In Angola he warned against witchcraft, corruption, and condoms, and two girls were trampled to death at a stadium where he appeared. “I entrust them to Jesus,” he said, “so that he welcomes them into his kingdom.” Pygmies in Cameroon built a ceremonial hut outside the apostolic nunciature in Yaounde and presented the Pope with a basket, a cloth mat, and a turtle.
| Source 1:
BBC
Source 2:
New York Times
Source 3:
Agence France Presse
Source 4:
Catholic News
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| April 17, 2008 | - The Senate and the House took half a day off so that more than 100 members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senator Edward Kennedy, could take a bus to Nationals Park, in Washington, D.C., to hear the Pope deliver Mass.
| Source:
Washington Post
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| April 17, 2008 | - Baker Liturgical Art, LLC, the Connecticut-based clothing company hired by the Vatican, revealed that more than 150 artisans (including 50 seamstresses), and 1,500 yards of fabric were necessary to outfit the Pope and his entourage in new vestments for their 6-day stint in the United States. Brian Baker, the company's president, also created a one-size-fits-all flex-miter for the occasion.
| Source:
Hartford Courant
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| March 30, 2008 | - Pope Benedict XVI toured the United States. Kathleen Battle, Harry Connick Jr., and Kelly Clarkson serenaded him, President George W. Bush gave him a crystal cross and a birthday cake, Placido Domingo threw him a birthday party (but forgot to invite him), Jews welcomed him into a Manhattan synagogue, and fans at Yankee stadium performed the wave in his honor. Three Girl Scouts fainted in his presence.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
New York Times
Source 4:
BBC News
Source 5:
Sundries…A Sweatshop of Moxie
Source 6:
United Press International
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| September 18, 2007 | - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who recently was denied an audience with the Pope, went to Jerusalem to bring peace.
| Source:
BBC News
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| September 9, 2007 | - The Pope demanded more respect for Sundays.
| Source:
BBCnews.com
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| July 11, 2007 | - Pope Benedict XVI decreed that, by definition, Protestant churches are not churches.
| Source:
Guardian
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| May 9, 2007 | - The Pope traveled to Brazil, where he canonized a nineteenth-century friar who healed people by giving them written prayers in pill form.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo
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| February 22, 2007 | -
Kentucky Fried Chicken president Gregg Dedrick wrote a personal letter to Pope Benedict XVI asking him to bless the company's 99-cent Fish Snacker.
| Source:
Restaurant News
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| September 25, 2006 | - The pope met with Muslim diplomats at his summer palace near Rome.
| Source:
AP via Yahoo! News
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| September 16, 2006 | -
Pope Benedict XVI apologized for the reactions to a speech that quoted Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus's description of Islam as “evil and inhuman.”
| Source:
The Telegraph
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| August 13, 2006 | -
Benedict XVI complained that being pope is “really tiring” and emphasized that “seeing the funny side of life” is crucial to his ministry.
| Source:
Yahoo! News
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| July 10, 2006 | - The prime minister of Spain snubbed the pope.
| Source:
Times Online
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| February 22, 2006 | -
The Pope named 15 cardinals.
| Source:
RTE.ie
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| December 25, 2005 | -
The Pope was worried that "intellectual and technical achievements" were leading to "spiritual barrenness and emptiness of heart."
| Source:
BBC News
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| November 30, 2005 | - A theological commission planned to ask Pope Benedict XVI to eliminate limbo—where unbaptized infants are thought to go after death—from the catechism.
| Source:
Reuters
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| November 23, 2005 | - The Vatican announced that men with “deep-rooted homosexual tendencies” may not become Roman Catholic priests. Men who experienced “transitory” homosexual tendencies at least three years ago, however, may.
| Source:
The Lost Angeles Times
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| November 18, 2005 | - The Vatican announced that Intelligent Design was not science and did not belong in science classrooms.
| Source:
KSAT.com
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| September 14, 2005 | -
Pope Benedict XVI spoke to an exorcists' convention, encouraging the audience to "carry on their important work."
| Source:
IOL.co.za
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| May 13, 2005 | -
Pope Benedict XVI called for Pope John Paul II to be beatified; investigators are now looking for a miracle.
| Source:
BBC News
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| May 6, 2005 | - An online casino bought the pope's old Volkswagen for $244,800.
| Source:
Reuters
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| April 23, 2005 | - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who belonged to the Hitler Youth before he became a priest, won the papacy by a landslide and styled himself Benedict XVI. The new pope dislikes homosexuality (he moved quickly to condemn a Spanish bill that would permit gays to marry), abortion, and the death penalty, but he loves little kittens. In 2001, he ordered Catholic bishops to hide allegations against pedophile priests from the public.
| Source 1:
BBC News
Source 2:
New York Daily News
Source 3:
The Observer
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