Pope Benedict XVI praised new communications technologies like Twitter on Tuesday (Jan. 24), saying that even “concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible,” can convey “profound thoughts.”

Benedict did not explicitly refer to Twitter in his yearly message for World Communications Day, but Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, told reporters that “it’s safe to say that a reference to ‘tweets’ is there.”

Benedict wrote that in today’s world, “various types of websites, applications and social networks” can help people “find time for reflection and authentic questioning.”

A number of high-ranking churchmen already use Twitter. Cardinals Sean O’Malley of Boston; Odilo Scherer of Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, have thousands of followers. According to Celli, most of the visitors to the Vatican’s online news portal, www.news.va, arrive from social networks.

In his message, the pope also focused on the value of silence in communication, saying that without it, meaningful messages “cannot exist.”

“When messages and information are plentiful,” he wrote, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary.”

VATICAN CITY — After a 15-year process, the Holy See on Friday (Jan. 20) gave its final approval to the Neocatechumenal Way, a lay movement that has been criticized for its unorthodox liturgical practices but that has been successful in attracting followers.

The movement relies on tightly knit small groups, modeled on early Christian communities, that share a decade-long spiritual growth path under the guidance of a priest.

Pope Benedict XVI told around 7,000 members of the movement that Neocatechumenal communities could continue in their tradition of celebrating a special Saturday evening Mass, as long as the local bishop approved and the celebrations remained open to the public.

Nevertheless, he encouraged the movement’s members not to remain “separate” from their parish community.

The pope praised the Neocatechumenal Way as a “special gift” of the Holy Spirit for modern times, especially as secularism “has eclipsed the sense of God and obscured Christian values.” The movement, he said, can help Christians rediscover the “beauty” of their faith.

The Way’s founder, Kiko Arguello, said Friday’s approval was a “historic moment” after the “many troubles” the movement had faced in the process of receiving the Vatican’s approval.

The movement’s focus on preaching in secular contexts resonates with Benedict’s recent focus on “re-evangelizing” Western countries where the faith has grown weak.

At the end of the audience, Benedict sent out 17 new teams of Neocatechumenal missionaries, who will work mostly in Europe and in the U.S. Each team is made up of three or four families accompanied by a priest.

PARIS — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed.

But the clergy abuse scandals rocking Europe, coupled with Pope Benedict XVI’s conservative stances on contraception, hardened Lebouvier’s views. Last October, a court in Normandy ruled in favor of his lawsuit to have his name permanently deleted from church records — making the 71-year-old retiree the first Frenchman to be officially “de-baptized.”

“I took the judicial route to get myself de-baptized because of the church’s excesses,” said Lebouvier, speaking by telephone from his village of Fleury, near the D-Day beaches.

“It’s a sort of honesty toward the church because they have a guy on their register who doesn’t believe in God.”

Lebouvier’s case is among a growing wave of de-baptisms in Europe, one of the most visible manifestations of the continent’s secular drift. Websites offering informal de-baptism certificates have mushroomed. Other Christians are formally breaking from the church by opting out of state church taxes.

“The movement is happening across Europe,” said Anne Morelli, who heads a center studying religion and secularity at the Free University of Brussels. “It was very apparent during 2011 — in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Austria. It is obviously related to the scandals of pedophile priests, but it has been going on for some time.”

While there are no official statistics, experts and secular activists count the numbers of de-baptisms in the tens of thousands. It’s a phenomenon that has touched Protestant as well as Catholic communities.

In France, the de-baptism drive affects a relatively tiny proportion of Christians, experts say. Still, Lebouvier’s case may create a precedent.

The local bishop of Coutances, Stanislas Lalanne, has appealed the court ruling, a process that could take years.

“Baptism is a spiritual gift, it’s bigger than we are,” said Bernard Podvin, spokesman for the French Bishops Confederation, who would not comment on the specifics of the Normandy case. “It can’t be confined to a purely administrative framework.”

But if Lebouvier wins, de-baptism could become standard practice here, and trigger copycat lawsuits across Europe.

“The church is afraid the movement might amplify,” said Marc Blondel, president of the Paris-based National Federation of Freethinkers, who says he will launch another de-baptism drive if Lebouvier prevails.

Lebouvier’s split from the church took decades. Born in a deeply conservative and religious community, he went to Catholic school. But instead of becoming the priest his mother had wished, he became a baker, moving to Paris and joining a leftist trade union.

“I changed 180 degrees, “ he said. “It took time, but it happened.”

Change is afoot elsewhere. In neighboring Belgium, which has been hit hard by the church sex scandals, de-baptism requests in the French-speaking region alone soared to roughly 2,000 in 2010, compared to 66 two years earlier, according to the Brussels Federation of Friends of Secular Morality. The numbers of people reportedly leaving the Dutch church reportedly shot up 25 percent.

In Britain, a de-baptism certificate offered as a joke by the National Secular Society has since turned serious after tens of thousands of people downloaded it.

“Some people actually do feel actively hostile toward churches,” said society president Terry Sanderson. “And they want to express that by saying, ‘I’m not one of your members.’”

In Germany, a record 181,000 Catholics formally split from the Catholic Church in 2011 — the first time that Catholic defections outpaced Protestants leaving. Rather than requesting de-baptisms, Germans fill out government paperwork saying they no longer want to pay church taxes.

“I don’t think they want to get rid of their belief, their connection to Jesus and the baptism, but they don’t want to be connected with the church hierarchy,” said Christian Weisner, German spokesman for the international lay reform movement We are Church.

At stake for many cash-strapped European churches is not just faith, but euros.

“It’s not by chance that in Germany, Austria and Belgium that the movement is strongest,” says Belgian researcher Morelli, noting countries that levy church taxes, which France does not. “It’s also a struggle about subsidies the population must pay for a church that doesn’t represent them.”

The bigger worry, experts say, are plummeting rates of new baptisms. Half a century ago, for example, 90 percent of French children were baptized, said Sorbonne University religion professor Philippe Portier. Today, roughly one in three are.

“The church considers de-baptisms a very marginal phenomena and its strategy right now is to resist it,” Portier said. “It is much more active when it comes to reversing the drop in (new) baptisms — there it’s put in place a new evangelizing strategy.”

The parish at Paris’ historic Saint-Germain-des-Pres, for example, is offering a myriad of activities, from ski retreats to support networks for young professionals. At a recent evening youth Mass, the church was overflowing.

The parish priest, the Rev. Benoist de Sinety, is counting on faith, not numbers.

“What is striking today is that those who want to be Christian really want to be Christian,” he said. “I rejoice in the fact that people are free to choose.”

A Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop from Los Angeles has resigned after admitting he is the father of two children, both now teenagers.

Europe’s economic and financial crisis is the consequence of an “ethical crisis” and a “crisis of faith,” Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Dec. 22), resulting in the triumph of selfishness over social responsibility.

Benedict made his remarks in his annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administration at the Vatican.

The pope acknowledged that “such values as solidarity, commitment to one’s neighbor and responsibility toward the poor and suffering are largely uncontroversial,” but said the “motivation is often lacking … to make sacrifices.”

While the remedy for selfishness lies in “proclamation of the gospel,” the pope said Europe is now undergoing a crisis of faith evident in the troubles of the Roman Catholic Church.

“Regular churchgoers are growing older all the time and … their number is constantly diminishing,” and “recruitment of priests is stagnating” while “skepticism and unbelief are growing.”

Benedict drew a contrast between Europe’s anemic religious life and Africa’s “joyful passion for faith,” which he experienced last month during a three-day visit to the West African country of Benin.

“None of the faith fatigue that is so prevalent (in Europe), none of the oft-encountered sense of having had enough of Christianity, was detectable there,” the pope said.

Benedict noted the benefits of religious faith to African society, which he said provides the “strength to serve Christ in hard-pressed situations of human suffering, the strength to put oneself at his disposal, without looking round for one’s own advantage.”

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed today that he will travel to Cuba and Mexico next year.

“Supported by divine Providence, I have the intention to make an apostolic trip to Mexico and Cuba before Easter,” he said at the end of his homily during a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the independence of Latin American countries.

According to reports in South American news outlets, the visit will occur March 23-29.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the trip would coincide with the 400th anniversary of the image of the Virgin of Charity, the patroness of Cuba.

Lombardi had also warned that the pope would not travel to Mexico City as the city’s high altitude made it an “inadvisable” destination for the 84-year-old pope.

Benedict said he hoped his trip would contribute to the construction of a society “rooted in the development of the common good, the triumph of love and the spread of justice.”

After a historic visit by the late Pope John Paul II in 1998, relations between the Vatican and Cuba’s communist regime have improved in recent years. This year church officials helped secure the release of 115 political prisoners who left Cuba to go into exile in Spain.

The Vatican ambassador to Cuba, Monsignor Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a key figure in Vatican dialogue with the Castro regime, was promoted last May to the No. 2 position in the Vatican’s Secretariate of State.

A Catholic nun who worked with lepers is on the verge of becoming Hawaii’s second canonized saint, after Vatican officials attributed a second miracle to her intercession.

Mother Marianne Cope, a German-born Franciscan nun who spent 30 years caring for lepers on the island of Molokai, died of natural causes in 1918. She succeeded St. Damien de Veuster, a Belgian priest known as “Father Damien,” who died of leprosy in 1889. Damien, who was canonized in 2009, is considered the patron saint of Hawaii and of HIV/AIDS patients.

Pope John Paul II declared Marianne “Blessed” in 2004, after recognizing as miraculous the 1993 cure of a teenage cancer patient in Syracuse, N.Y., who was dying of organ failure until a Franciscan nun prayed for Marianne’s intercession. A second miracle, occurring after beatification, is required for canonization.

On Tuesday (Dec. 6), the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, based in Syracuse, announced that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints had recognized another healing as both medically “inexplicable” and due to Marianne’s intercession.

The canonization still requires the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, expected sometime next year, and the sisters say they will not reveal the details of the miracle until then.

“For little Hawaii, with our population and we’ve come up with two saints,” Sister Joan of Arc Souza of Honolulu told the local KHON2 television station. “This is spectacular.”

Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from New York state that “all other institutions” in society should be held to the same “exacting standards” as the Roman Catholic Church in preventing and reporting sex abuse.

Benedict spoke on Saturday (Nov. 26), one day before New York’s Syracuse University announced that it had fired its associate men’s basketball coach, Bernie Fine, over charges that he had sexually abused young boys.

Speaking to a delegation led by New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, the pope praised the bishops’ “honest efforts” at protecting children against sex abuse, and dealing “appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise.”

“It is my hope that the church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community” to understand and respond to sex abuse, Benedict said.

The pope also encouraged the bishops in their efforts to confront the “grave challenges … presented by an increasingly secular society,” including “attempts to still the church’s voice in the public square.”

U.S. Catholic bishops, concerned about Obama administration policies on birth control and gay rights that they say see as an unprecedented “assault” on the rights of religious groups, recently established a watchdog panel to combat threats to “religious liberty.”

Pope Benedict XVI’s recent words of praise for Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant reformation, has set abuzz speculation on the possible “rehabilitation” of the spiritual leader as the Lutherans’ 500th anniversary approaches.

Bishop Nikolaus Schneider, Germany’s top Protestant bishop, was so elated by the Pope’s words on Benedict that he told journalists that Luther had, in effect, been rehabilitated.

“Luther has experienced a de facto rehabilitation today through this appreciation of his work,” Schneider, who also heads the Evangelical Church in Germany, said, according to Reuters.

Schneider, who had just come from a private meeting with the pontiff, said, “We heard this very clearly from the mouth of the pope. What follows now formally is another question … but that’s not so important for me,” Reuters reported.

Exaggerated

Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican Spokesman, disagreed. “To say that would be exaggerated. What this is about is having deep faith and I think it emphasizes the commonalities we have in our love of faith,” Reuters reported.

With the pending celebration of the 500^th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses of 1517, some Protestants are hopeful Luther will not be viewed by Catholics as a heretic, but as a leading Christian theologian.

Erfurt’s Bishop Ilse Junkermann told Reuters, “It would be nice if they could declare him a doctor of the Church.”Erfurt’s Augustine Monastery is where Luther once served as a Catholic monk and later became a theologian.

Other Lutherans are irked at the thought that their founder should need to be “rehabilitated,” and argue that they do not need to have a stamp of approval from the Vatican.

Pope visits Luther’s monastery

When the Pope visited Germany, one of his stops was a historical visit to the Erfurt Augustine monastery where Luther was a monk. Thies Gundlach, a deputy of the German Lutheran Church told the AP, “Leaders from both sides of the church were quick to underline that the pontiff’s mere presence in the heartland of the Reformation was a key signal to how vastly relations have improved.”

Gundlach told the AP, “It must be recalled that the pope has come to this monastery in Erfurtas, a gesture that is an indication that he is fully aware of its meaning.”

Luther was ordained in Erfurt and later became a professor of theology. However, he began to dispute some teachings of the Church in 1517, sparking the Protestant Reformation which later became the Lutheran church.

This led Pope Leo X to excommunicate Luther in 1521 as he issued a decree where he said Luther was “the slave of a depraved mind,” and that his followers were a “pernicious and heretical sect.”

Things have changed in recent decades. Today, some Lutherans and Catholics are seeking the formation of a joint commission to examine Luther’s excommunication and the Reformation.

First pope to read Luther

Benedict, who is German, is the first pope who has read the writings of Luther and has expressed admiration for Luther’s focus on Jesus, his highlighting of the Bible, and deep faith.

When Benedict was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he played a leading role in navigating the 1999 Catholic-Lutheran accord which reached agreements on some theological issues and enhanced relations between the two faiths.

Benedict, during an ecumenical service that was held in the chapel of the Augustine monastery, praised Luther’s “deep passion and driving force” in his beliefs, even though he did not outline any concrete plan on how to better unify Christians – to the disappointment of some.

There still remain obstacles to a more congenial accord, even though Schneider said the Lutherans would be amenable to meeting the Catholic Church halfway by not insisting that Luther is presented as “an untouchable hero who never did anything wrong,” Reuters reported.

On the side of the Vatican there is a traditional hesitation to officially undo the work of a previous pontiff. However, some Vatican officials suggest that there is no need to rehabilitate Luther because upon his death, the ban had expired.

Cardinal Edward Cassidy, a top 1999Vatican ecumenical official had a different suggestion saying, “One cannot do anything for Martin Luther now because Martin Luther, wherever he is, is not worried about these condemnations,” Reuters said.

During the ecumenical service, Schneider said to the pontiff, “It is time to take real steps for reconciliation,” and suggested that Catholics celebrate alongside Protestants during the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation which will take place in 2017.

Schneider told Reuters that he has yet to invite Benedict personally to the 2017 Lutheran commemorations. “I have not reached that point, but I invited [Benedict] to take a different view of our celebration as one of the power of the Gospel and the theology of God.”

Pope Benedict XVI expressed regrets last Friday, during a visit to a Spanish monastery, over the “amnesia” that prevails about God, on the second day of his visit to the country.

The pope, who will be in Spain until Sunday for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Youth Day, was greeted by hundreds of nuns who waved flags and cheered as he spoke at the 16^th-century El Escorial monastery.

At the UNESCO world heritage site Benedict said, “This is all the more important today when we see a certain eclipse of God taking place, a kind of amnesia which albeit not an outright rejection of Christianity is nonetheless a denial of the treasure of our faith, a denial that could lead to the loss of our deepest identity,” the AP reported.

As pope, it has been a priority for Benedict to seek to revive Christianity, particularly in previously, staunchly Catholic Spain, where he has already made three papal visits.

The pope’s speech was also significant because El Escorial was the seat of power of King Philip II in 1559 when Spain was an international force bent on defending Catholicism from the Reformation and Protestantism.

Benedict also met withSpain’s royal family earlier in the morning. He is scheduled to have lunch with youth volunteers, talk to university educators, meet the prime minister and head the Way of the Cross, which re-enacts the crucifixion and death of Jesus.

Economic recession

The day before, upon the pope’s arrival, Benedict encouraged the youth to stay faithful amid Spain’s economic recession. He also said the government must consider the common good and protect the least fortunate when forming economic policy.

Benedict slammed economic structures that prioritize profits over people saying, “The economy cannot be measured by the maximum profit but by the common good. The economy cannot function only with mercantile self-regulation but needs an ethical reason in order to work for man,” Reuters reported.

Protests

The pope said this even as elements have protested the pontiff’s visit. On Wednesday night, prior to the arrival of the pope, 5,000 rallied in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Plaza. Eleven people were injured and eight were arrested in clashes with pilgrims and the police.

On Thursday, only 200 congregated at the Plaza. Four demonstrators experienced light injuries in a skirmish with police. No arrests were made. Meanwhile, thousands of pilgrims were at Plaza Cibeles, waving flags and cheering as the pontiff arrived.

The pilgrims came from 190 participating countries. Just before Benedict arrived, he met with Madrid’s mayor, who gave him the keys to the city.

There was a much smaller crowd of demonstrators on Friday, but the gathering also ended in a clash with police with more injured and some detentions.

Economic recession

Spain has an unemployment rate of some 21 percent, or one out of five unemployed, and its economy is in recession. People are upset about the anti-austerity measures of the government, and angry at the $72 million cost for World Youth Day.

A young protest movement, Los Indignados, was joined in by lesbian and gay organizations, secularists and even Catholic priests to protest the cost of the pontiff’s visit.

The church says it is shouldering part of the cost, with the remainder coming from participants and donors.

In his speech, Benedict expressed support for the youth and sympathized with their unpredictable future in terms of employment. At the same time, he spoke out against consumerism, hedonism and those who “create their own gods, believe they need no roots or foundations … letting themselves be led by the whim of each moment,” Reuters reported.