Yahoo! News: Religion News

Pope's anti-mafia stance stokes tensions, prosecutor says
President and pope urge Italy's politicians to tackle crisis
Pope shuns presidential escort for state visit
Officials: Suicide bomber targets Shiites marking religious ritual in eastern Iraq, killing 22
Iraqi officials: Twin bombing kills at least 9 Shiites marking sombre religious ritual
Bombs in Iraq kill 9 Shiites at religious ritual

Pope's anti-mafia stance stokes tensions, prosecutor says

Posted: 14 Nov 2013 09:31 AM PST

By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis's anti-mafia rhetoric and financial reforms at the Vatican are stoking tension between the mob and the Church, an Italian prosecutor said in an interview with Reuters. Nicola Gratteri, the leading Calabrian mob prosecutor, dismissed headlines that said the mafia wanted to kill the pontiff following another interview the senior investigator gave to an Italian newspaper on Wednesday. Instead, Gratteri said he was simply pointing out that the pope's efforts to break historic ties that the 'Ndrangheta, as the Calabrian mafia is known, has maintained with the Roman Catholic Church is angering mob bosses. "Since the mafias need popular consensus to control their territory, they need to be seen as close to the Church," Gratteri told Reuters on Wednesday night.

President and pope urge Italy's politicians to tackle crisis

Posted: 14 Nov 2013 09:00 AM PST

By Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano warned on Thursday of a "poisoned and unstable" climate in Italy as he joined Pope Francis in urging an end to deadlock in efforts to resolve the most serious economic crisis since World War Two. Napolitano's stark tones and the pope's own call for harmony and renewed efforts to resolve the crisis underlined concern at the incapacity of Italy's political class to deal with its deep-seated economic problems. Prime Minister Enrico Letta's unwieldy coalition of left and right has struggled to agree on meaningful reforms, with even passage of next year's budget held up by bickering over thousands of amendments tabled in parliament. Italy is "riven by exasperated divisions in a poisoned and unstable political climate", Napolitano said, lamenting the "difficult times, dominated by intense pressures amid the gravity of the country's problems".

Pope shuns presidential escort for state visit

Posted: 14 Nov 2013 04:55 AM PST

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis shunned a presidential guard escort for his first state visit to the Italian president Thursday in yet another breach of protocol and security, even though some people have expressed concerns for his safety as he ramps up his reform of the Vatican.