Pope to Angolans: Convert Witchcraft Believers

(NEWSER) - Two teenage girls were killed in a wild stampede as people rushed to view Pope Benedict in Angola yesterday, reports the Times of London. Some 30,000 people raced into a stadium where the pope spoke at a youth rally. The teenagers died at the scene and dozens were injured. "There were too many people and the temperatures were too high," said an injured woman. The pope said today he deeply regrets the deaths and intends to visit the injured, reports AP. More»

(NEWSER) - In his short reign, Pope Benedict has managed to insult Muslims, women, and Holocaust survivors, writes Robert S. McElvaine, a professor at Millsaps College in Mississippi. But his latest controversy, telling Africans that condoms increase the spread of AIDS, is the last straw. "I am a Catholic and the idea that such a man is God's spokesperson on earth is absurd to me," writes McElvaine in the Washington Post. More»

Excommunications to be lifted at Madrid's World Youth Day

(NEWSER) - The Vatican is marking World Youth Day celebrations in Madrid by offering women who have had abortions an easy way to become Catholics again, reports the Guardian . Abortion is punishable by instant excommunication and "normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power," explains a spokesman for Pope Benedict XVI. More»

This time, the problem isn't rebels, it's corrupt governments

(NEWSER) - The diamond industry says 99% of its gems for sale these days are "conflict-free," meaning it has wiped out the so-called "blood diamond" trade. A visit to Angola by Michael Allen of the Wall Street Journal knocks a big hole in that claim. "A violent economy prevails in which thousands of peasant miners eke out a living searching for diamonds with shovels and sieves," he writes. "Because they lack government permits, miners and their families say they are routinely beaten and shaken down for bribes by soldiers and private security guards—and, in extreme cases, killed." More»

Pontiff keeps his silence on sex abuse scandals

(AP) - A senior cardinal defended Pope Benedict XVI from "petty gossip" today, praising his "unfailing" leadership, even as the pontiff maintained his silence on mounting accusations of sex abuse cover-ups during his Easter message. At the end of the two-hour long ceremony, a weary-looking Benedict delivered the papacy's traditional Easter "Urbi et Orbi" message, analyzing humanity's failings and hopes. More»