This study analyzed the age of monks in different monasteries and found that on average, monks live 4 years longer than other men.
The expert admitted that he still does not know why monks live longer. His hypothesis is that monks smoke less, have a regular daily routine, and do not cease working at age 65. He also believes that monks’ spiritual lives help them to deal with daily stress.

Large numbers of immigrants pouring into Europe are increasing the number of marriages between Catholics and Muslims.
This topic and its effects on the family were discussed recently at the seventh annual meeting of the presidents of the bishops’ conference of southeastern Eurpoe.
The bishops recognized that within these marriages of diverse religions there is also a diversity of ethnic origin. Ethnicity is frequently the “more decisive issue and the one generating the most problems,” they concluded.

President Chen told the cardinal that his visit would make migrants to Taiwan”sense the warmth, compassion and concern of the Vatican.” He also thanked the local Church for its work running schools and hospitals, and caring for the marginalized, foreign brides, the rural poor, and migrants.

The Holy See encouraged the Unites Nations to get to the roots of discrimination and violence against women.
The Holy See’s permanent observer to the UN said “women bear the brunt of the world’s child prostitution, sexual exploitation, abuse, domestic violence, child labor and human trafficking. In order to put an end to the violation of human rights of trafficked women and girls, it is not enough to sensationalize their tragic plight, rather there is needed to trace the question back to the market that exist due to the demand which makes such trade possible and profitable.”

Now in China, the biggest obstacle is the fact that the patriotic church has been “tamed” by the regime, especially on themes such as birth control, and the Gospel is shaped and manipulated by social need.

Benedict XVI paid tribute to Pope Paul VI, saying he was a protagonist in a difficult historical period.
Paul VI was the first modern Pope to journey to Jerusalem in January 1964; the visit “had a clear symbolic meaning” and “indicated to the Church that the path of its mission consists in reiterating the footstep of Christ.”

Pope Benedict has indicated that the book is a personal effort—not an authoritative doctrinal statement—which he has undertaken because he is concern about growing confusion on the identity of Jesus, both within and outside the Church.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI received the President of the Republic of Korea, Roh Moo-hyun.
The Holy Father offered to the president his prayers and greetings for all the people of the Korean Peninsula, encouraged greater respect for the sanctity of life and marriage, and urged peace and an end to the nuclear arms race in North Korea.

Pope Benedict XVI spent his 80th birthday quietly at the Vatican, receiving a special delegation of various from his native Germany in the morning and a luncheon with members of the College of Cardinals.
Later the Pope was to be presented with a portrait of him, commissioned by the Vatican and done by a Russian artist.

The archbishop of Fuzhou, who spent nearly one-third of his life in prison, has died of throat cancer. He was 94.
Benedict XVI, upon hearing of the archbishop's illness, had sent him a letter and a bishop's ring from the Holy See as a sign of communion with the Pope.