The Vatican secretary of state said Pope Benedict XVI's recent encyclical was not calling for government control of the economy or the market.
New disclosures have prompted a debate about how government-sponsored assassination should be viewed in light of the Catholic moral tradition.
A lack of will and finger pointing have contributed to the international community’s failure to stop present-day mass violence.
Cardinal óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga denied that the church supported the coup détat.
The local archbishop welcomed the prison sentences a court has given to five people convicted of taking part in the August 2008 anti-Christian violence in Orissa.
In addition to giving Obama a copy of his latest encyclical, the pope also presented a copy of a recent Vatican document on biomedical ethics.
Eddie Panlilio, a Catholic priest, has requested a dispensation from his priestly duties so that he may run for president of the Phillipines.