Christians in the Middle East should be "courageous and steadfast" and avoid the temptation to join an exodus that has seen their population sharply decline across the region in recent years, Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Thursday afternoon. The meeting kicked off the process of establishing official diplomatic relations between the communist country and the Holy See, to the delight of Vietnamese Catholics. From Hanoi, Matt Steinglass has more.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday said the church will pursue efforts to form diplomatic ties with Beijing as it tries to help its "suffering" faithful there. Church officials are holding a summit at the Vatican to map out the church's strategy with China since it broke off diplomatic relations with the country in 1951. For VOA, Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.

Pope Benedict in his traditional Christmas message Urbi et Orbi says that while the humanity has advanced in technology and science people continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty. Pope also spoke against consumerism and says that our world needs the savior Jesus.

Pope Benedict XVI urged the world to love children more and wished peace for our world during his Christmas homily of the Midnight Mass On December 25, 2006. At St. Peter's Basilica the pope issued a special call to protect children who are abused, forced to beg and are unloved. Read the full text of the Christmas Homily of His Holiness.

Three Indian TV networks are telecasting live the Pope's Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, and two of them will be linked via satellite to the Pontiff's traditional 'Urbi et Orbi' message and blessing which he delivers from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at noon on Christmas day, Dec. 25. India's state television, Doordarshan, as well as NDTV and Jeevan TV are telecasting live the Pope's Christmas Eve midnight Mass.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against the legal recognition of unmarried couples during his Christmas address to Rome clergy. He also spoke of Europe and of his visits to Turkey and the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz earlier this year. The pope this week has also been urging to defend the spirit of Christmas against secular trends. For VOA, Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a parting message of goodwill to Muslims at the end of his first papal trip to a predominantly Muslim nation, said Friday that the Vatican wishes to "impose nothing on anyone."

Pope Benedict and the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians Patriarch Bartholomew held a solemn prayer service together on Thursday and re-committed their Churches to the quest for unity to patch up a nearly 1,000-year-old schism.

On a traffic-choked boulevard in Ankara, in central Anatolia, the bleeping of car horns and the rattle of buses mix with the muezzin's airy call to evening prayer. Is this the sound of a new Europe? Perhaps. But for Pope Benedict XVI, who arrives in the city today for his first visit to a Muslim-majority country, that's a problem.