Vatican

Listen to this BosNewsLife report via Vatican Radio: By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife BELGRADE/BUDAPEST(BosNewsLife)-- A 60-year-old war veteran has killed 13 people in a shooting spree near Serbia's capital Belgrade,including his own son, mother and a two-year-old cousin, local police said.

By BosNewsLife News Center VATICAN CITY (BosNewsLife)-- Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, from Argentina has been elected pope. As Pope Francis, as he will be known, appeared in front of a huge crowd packing St. Peter's Square, he asked the faithful to pray silently for him at a time of turmoil in the church.

By BosNewsLife News Center VATICAN CITY (BosNewsLife)-- A new pope was elected Wednesday, March 13, with white smoke rising from Sistine Chapel. White smoke – produced by mixing the smoke from burning ballots with special flares – indicated that a new head of the Roman Catholic Church has been chosen at a time of turmoil in the church. Cardinals had gathered since Tuesday, March 12, for the conclave after Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to retire in some 600 years.

By BosNewsLife News Center with additional reports from Rome, Vatican City and reporting by BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos ROME/VATICAN CITY/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)-- As the doors closed and the Swiss Guards left his summer residence, Benedict XVI became the first pontiff to retire in some 600 years, following a moving farewell address to thousands in which he urged the Catholic Church to remain united in one of the most challenging times in its history.

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent BosNewsLife with additional reporting from Vatican and BosNewsLife Research VATICAN CITY (BosNewsLife)-- Pope Benedict XVI, who oversaw the Catholic Church through nearly eight turbulent years, says he will resign on February 28 because of health reasons. "Before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are [no] longer suited to an adequate exercise" of his position as head of the world’s one billion Roman Catholics, he said in a statement Monday, February 11.

By BosNewsLife News Center VATICAN CITY/ABUDJA/TEHRAN (BosNewsLife)-- Pope Benedict XVI on Easter Sunday condemned discrimination and persecution of Christians around the world, just as news emerged that dozens of people were killed in an attack near Nigerian churches.

By BosNewsLife News Center VATICAN CITY/BUDAPEST (BosNewsLife)--  The Vatican's missionary news agency says more than two dozen priests, nuns and lay Catholics were killed worldwide in 2011, BosNewsLife monitored Monday, January 16.

By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (BosNewsLife)-- Pope Benedict XVI has urged the creation of a "true world political authority" to "guarantee the protection of the environment" and to manage the global economy, BosNewsLife learned Tuesday, June 22.

By Sabina Castelfranco reporting from Rome ROME, ITALY (BosNewsLife)-- Pope Benedict delivered his traditional Christmas Day "blessing" Friday, December 25, just hours after being knocked to the ground by a woman at the start of Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. The Vatican said the 82-year-old Benedict XVI was unhurt and that his busy Christmas schedule would remain unchanged.