he Holy Father said that he is “profoundly convinced that peace is promoted by respecting the person.”
The Pope said that peace is not only a gift but also a task, a “gift that must be invoked with prayer, a task that must be carried out with courage, without ever tiring.”

Benedict XVI hopes that the “unforgettable experience” of his trip to Turkey will contribute to further cooperation and dialogue with Orthodox Christians and followers of Islam.

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Christmas Midnight Mass in the splendor of St. Peter’s Basilica with an appeal for abused children around the world, including child soldiers, beggars and others deprived of sustenance and love.

It is also being attended by 550 exhibitors from 33 countries and regions. Included in the list of exhibitors are U.S. plane maker Boeing, its European rival Airbus, French military giant Dassault and Russia’s Tupolev.

The visit by the leader of 1.1 billion Roman Catholics was meant to be a
mostly Christian event but it has taken on wider ramification in Western-
Islamic relations, Catholic-Muslim relations and Turkey’s own desire to
be part of Europe.

Chinese appear not to have warmed to a “free hugs “ campaign aimed at cheering up strangers by hugging them on the street, with some huggers even being hauled away by police for questioning.

Pope Benedict XVI successfully completed his top objective in Istanbul, joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in celebrating one of the most solemn feast in the Orthodox calendar.
Both the Ecumenical Patriarch and Holy Father offered words, Pope recommitted himself, during his homily seeking the reunification of the two Churches.

The latest figures, from 2001-03, show that 854 million people were undernourished. Most, some 820 million were in developing countries.
The World Food Summit, held in Rome in 1996, set the ambitious target of halving world hunger by 2015 relative to 1990-92.

Benedict XVI visited the Blue Mosque, the largest and beautiful in Istanbul, as a public gesture of his esteem for Muslim faithful.
“We hope to find together paths of peace and fraternity to help humanity,” the Pope said when thanking the Grand Mufti of Istanbul, for allowing him to make the visit.

The Holy See told a U.N. committee that religion is a vital force for peace and understanding among peoples in an age of globalization.
The Holy See’s permanent observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, made that point when he addressed a committee of the General assembly recently.