Vatican City

The Roman Catholic Church is at the most perplexing time in it's storied, at times sordid, history. For the first time in more than 600 years, a pope has chosen to retire, due mostly to deteriorating health issues. Is that truly the most prominent reason for his very hasty departure? I think not. The church faces myriad pressing issues, most notably worldwide sexual molestation at the hands of Roman Catholic priests. Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland abruptly stepped down amid allegations he had sexual liaisons with young priests 20 years ago. This would have been a perfect and fitting opportunity for the Vatican to begin an immediate and transparent turn-around.

WASHINGTON -- From the moment Shepherd One touches down today at Andrews Air Force Base, Pope Benedict XVI will be afforded all the protection due a man who is both a head of state - Vatican City - and leader of the world's largest church. Airspace will be restricted, waterways blockaded and streets shut down for the pontiff, who is making the first papal visit to the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 - and his first trip anywhere since al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden accused him of leading a "new Crusade" against Muslims.

VATICAN CITY -- With Rome looking more like a city preparing for attack than for the funeral of a pontiff whose tenure was marked by pleas for peace, cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church chose April 18 as the date to begin their secret deliberations to elect a successor to Pope John Paul II. Extraordinary security measures were in place in preparation for the pope's funeral tomorrow morning. Millions of pilgrims and hundreds of international dignitaries -- presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens -- were arriving in the largest influx of visitors in the city's history.

VATICAN CITY - Tomorrow, 115 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will sequester themselves in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel for the beginning of the faith's most private and perhaps most important ritual, the election of a new pope. They will dress in their traditional scarlet cassocks and hats, and, after a Mass and lunch, will file one by one into the 15th-century sanctuary, chanting an ancient ode to God. They will have surrendered cell phones, radios and any other links to the outside, and they will swear on the Gospels never to speak of the proceedings about to transpire.

VATICAN CITY - Tomorrow, 115 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church will sequester themselves in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel for the beginning of the faith's most private and perhaps most important ritual, the election of a new pope. They will dress in their traditional scarlet cassocks and hats, and, after a Mass and lunch, will file one by one into the 15th-century sanctuary, chanting an ancient ode to God. They will have surrendered cell phones, radios and any other links to the outside, and they will swear on the Gospels never to speak of the proceedings about to transpire.

VATICAN CITY - Cardinals met here privately yesterday to prepare for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and their deliberations to choose his successor, while more than a million people made public displays of their adulation for the pontiff, crowding the city in what is shaping up to be the largest pilgrimage to the Vatican in history. Rome and the Vatican have been hit with a wave of pilgrims, with tens of thousands joining mourning Romans yesterday for a procession past the body of Pope John Paul.

VATICAN CITY - Struggling to breathe, Pope John Paul II underwent an urgent tracheotomy late yesterday after being rushed to the hospital for the second time in less than a month. The half-hour surgery, in which doctors inserted a tube through a small hole cut in the pope's windpipe to ease his respiratory crisis, was termed a success by a Vatican official. The pope remained in a 10th-floor suite of hospital rooms. Pope John Paul suffered serious breathing difficulties, complications from a relapse of the flu that sent him to the hospital Feb. 1 for nine days, said the official, reading a statement issued by a Vatican spokesman, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II was resting comfortably and breathing without the help of a respirator yesterday, the day after doctors at a Rome hospital performed a tracheotomy to relieve a recurring respiratory problem. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope's heart and circulatory system remain sound and there was no sign of pneumonia, a major worry for elderly patients in poor health. The tracheotomy involves opening a small passage through the neck to the windpipe and inserting a tube so air can flow directly to the lungs.

Administration negotiating with Congress on torture ban WASHINGTON -- After threatening to cast the first veto of the Bush presidency over efforts to outlaw torture of military prisoners, the White House has backed away from a showdown and is seeking a compromise with Congress. A White House spokesman said yesterday that national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley has met three times over the past month with Sen. John McCain, chief sponsor of an amendment setting new restrictions on the U.S. treatment of war prisoners.

VATICAN CITY - A report on child sexual abuse that the Vatican released yesterday found fault with American bishops' zero-tolerance policy of seeking to remove from ministry any Roman Catholic priest who has abused a child. The 219-page report, titled "Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: Scientific and Legal Perspectives," cast that policy as an overreaction to a public outcry and as a potentially counterproductive way to keep children safe from sexual abuse. The report included expressions of concern that sexually abusive priests who are cast out of ministry and pushed away from the church might be more likely to abuse again because of isolation and a lack of monitoring of their behavior.