Senior Roman Catholic clerics from Africa meeting in Rome this month are confronting the problem of priestly celibacy on the continent, according to sources close to the Vatican.

The appointment of a Catholic nun as dean of San Francisco Theological Seminary marks a significant new stage in inter-church cooperation in the United States, say observers.

Orthodox leader Bartholomew I of Constantinople has become the first ever Ecumenical Patriarch to speak to the General Assembly of the Synod of Catholic Bishops in Rome, following years of tension between the churches.

Many Catholics object these days to the appellation 'Roman', but it is still widely used by other 'publics, observes Martin E. Marty. Naming tells us a lot about the way our history and that of others has been constructed, and by what kinds of power.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the spiritual leader of the Roman catholic Church in England and Wales, has used his New Year message to stress the importance of marriage and what are thought of as "traditional family values".

A senior Vatican official has said the Roman Catholic Church welcomes a new Global Christian Forum which has been hailed as the most representative gathering of Christians from many diverse traditions ever held. It is taking place in Kenya.

German Catholics and Mennonites gathered in September for a conference on the “Healing of memories”. Representative of the two Christian traditions are meeting again in Rome right now, and the agenda is once again peace and reconciliation.

Catholic and Orthodox Christians are moving towards unity, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics declared at the end of his recent general audience in St Peter's Square, Rome. The Pope announced an international commission on the issue.

African religious leaders meeting in the Libyan capital Tripoli from 27 to 30 August 2007 have praised a more than 25-year-long dialogue between Libya and the Vatican as a positive contribution to good relations between Christianity and Islam.

Polish parliamentarians have voted to ban trading on Roman Catholic feast days after complaints that foreign supermarkets, such as British-owned Tesco, are ignoring the religious needs of workers.