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• Pope Francis: Is the people's pontiff a revolutionary?
• Ouster of 'Bishop of Bling' puts heat on wealthy German Catholic Church
• Nigeria church stampede kills 24 people: Red Cross
• Nigeria: 24 die in church stampede over politics
• Nigeria: 17 die in church stampede over politics

Pope Francis: Is the people's pontiff a revolutionary? Posted: 03 Nov 2013 09:16 AM PST When Italian journalist Gianni Valente traveled to Argentina to cover the country's economic collapse in 2002 for a Roman Catholic magazine, he came away not with just a story in his notebook but with the seeds of a friendship with a man who struck him as a singular priest – a man with a broad-spectrum empathy, whom the journalist continues to this day to call "my priest." Mr. Valente says that Jorge Mario Bergoglio – then-cardinal of Argentina – seemed particularly close to the people; Cardinal Bergoglio's ability to see "the heart of each individual," says Valente, became clear in his own life, as a friendship formed between the two men, over the phone and through letters. It's a small detail about the priest who became Pope Francis, but it is a clue to how a relatively unknown religious leader of South America has become a global sensation in the first six months of his leadership of the Catholic Church.

Ouster of 'Bishop of Bling' puts heat on wealthy German Catholic Church Posted: 03 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST As a scandal-ridden bishop withdrew to a monastery in deep Bavaria for a "spiritual time of recovery" this past week, Germany continues to debate how symptomatic Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the so-called "Bishop of Bling," is of the German Catholic Church. "The wealth of the German Catholic Church is not a new problem, as the vow of poverty is an integral part of the faith," says Markus Thurau, a theology professor at the Free University of Berlin. Pope Francis is also putting theory into practice. Straight after his election in March, he symbolically shunned the red velvet mozetta preferred by his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, in favor of a more modest white vestment, and can currently be spotted driving around the Vatican in a gifted second-hand, decades-old jalopy.

Nigeria church stampede kills 24 people: Red Cross Posted: 03 Nov 2013 04:54 AM PST At least 24 people died during a stampede at an overcrowded church gathering in eastern Nigeria, the Red Cross said on Sunday. Nineteen women were amongst the dead at the stampede in the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Uke, Anambra state on Saturday, where around 100,000 worshippers had gathered for All Souls Day, Red Cross spokesman Peter Kachi said by telephone. "There were too many people and the place was so overcrowded," Osmond Okoli, who narrowly survived being squashed in the crowd, told local station Channels TV. "We were too compacted so people fell and they were being pushed on us and then we all began to shout from the ground." Religious services gathering several hundred thousand people are common in Nigeria, a country of around 170 million split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.

Nigeria: 24 die in church stampede over politics Posted: 03 Nov 2013 04:07 AM PST LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A stampede at an all-night church vigil disrupted by politicking over a contentious gubernatorial election has killed 24 people and injured 17 in Nigeria's southeast Anambra state, the Red Cross and government officials said Sunday.

Nigeria: 17 die in church stampede over politics Posted: 03 Nov 2013 02:27 AM PST LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Officials say at least 17 people died in a stampede at an all-night church vigil disrupted by politicking over a contentious Nov. 18 gubernatorial election in Nigeria's southeast Anambra state.

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