Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against HIV, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients. ...more

March 17, 2009

Feb. 21, 2009 ...more

February 21, 2009

Feb. 16, 2009 ...more

February 16, 2009

The children's choir at Saint Anne Roman Catholic Church, Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte Anne, which means "Saint Anne's Little Singers" in French, sang and signed "Silent Night" at a special Mass for families on Christmas Eve. Wayne Warren, director of music, conducted them, with the help of Cindy Cyman, director of religious education. Parishioner Bridget Cassese taught the kids sign language. ...more

January 28, 2009

Paul Cicarelli believed he would get his miracle. In May 2000, I interviewed the 53-year-old St. Petersburg man from his bed. He was under hospice care during the last stages of lung cancer. ...more

January 24, 2009

Nov. 24, 2008 ...more

November 24, 2008

A new drugstore at a Virginia strip mall is putting its faith in an unconventional business plan: No candy. No sodas. And no birth control. ...more

October 22, 2008

This week, the Pinellas County School Board named Julie Janssen superintendent of schools. The post had been vacant since June, when Clayton Wilcox gave up the superintendent's job and headed off to New York and a job with an educational publishing firm. In his four years in the superintendent's job Wilcox tried to shake up the School District, ruffling a lot of feathers in the process. ...more

September 20, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI urged ailing pilgrims to accept death "at the hour chosen by God," reasserting the Vatican's opposition to euthanasia today at an open-air Mass for the sick. Benedict administered the sacrament of the sick to pilgrims in wheelchairs and on gurneys, many bundled in quilts against the chill. ...more

September 15, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI, in Australia for World Youth Day, called on religious leaders of all faiths Friday to find common ground and to unite against those who resort to violence to achieve their ends. ...more

July 19, 2008