Popes

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI said knowing that Catholics around the world pray for him has given him strength and confidence since his election seven years ago.

"From the first moment of my election as the successor of Peter, I always have felt supported by your prayers, by the prayers of the Church, especially in the most difficult moments," he said May 9 at his weekly general audience.

Interrupted by the applause of the estimated 10,000 people gathered for the audience in St. Peter's Square, the pope told those who pray for him, "I thank you from the depths of my heart."

SOTTO IL MONTE GIOVANNI XXIII, Italy -- When the freshly named patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo G. Roncalli, chose 37-year old Father Loris F. Capovilla as his personal secretary in 1953, a skeptical adviser told the cardinal that the priest looked too sickly to bear the strain of his new job.

"Then he'll die as my secretary," replied the future pope, now known as Blessed John XXIII.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In what the Vatican described as an encouraging "step forward," the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X has revised its response to a Vatican document laying out certain basic doctrinal principles and criteria for interpreting Church teaching.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's 85th birthday, April 16, and the seventh anniversary of his election, April 19, are obviously occasions for wishing the pope well and reflecting on the events of his reign thus far. Inevitably, however, these milestones also prompt speculation about what Vatican officials and observers refer to diplomatically as "papal transition."

Amid tfhe intense nation-wide public debate over the Department of Health and Human Services Mandate requiring all employers to pay for insurance policies covering contraceptives, sterilization and abortifacient drugs, there is no little confusion as to how the mandate relates to human rights, and in particular, the right to religious freedom.

St. Louis University, Washington University and the Missouri History Museum will host an international conference on “The Enlightenment Pope: Benedict XIV, 1675-1758” Monday-Wednesday, April 30-May 2.

The conference will feature science and religion scholars from U.S. universities as well as international scholars from the University of Rome Tre, the University of Cagliari, the University of Bologna, Oxford and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The programs also will include speakers from the Getty Museum and the St. Louis Art Museum.