The push to predict when the world will end has gained momentum recently with the end of the Mayan calendar. And even if they're wrong, there are those already looking at other dates to fulfill their apocalyptic theories. Even though we have reached the supposed 'end of the world' on 21 December 2012, experts assure that the world's end is not just very unlikely, but nearly impossible for the Earth to cease to exist as we know it.

When Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” in 1842, the holiday was nearly dead in modern England. Christmas was celebrated by the rural and poor, but frowned upon by employers. It took an American, Washington Irving, to praise Christmas to the highest, mourning the loss of the great traditions in this new modern age.

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The story of the birth of Jesus told by the people of Bethlehem. Made by St Paul's Church, Auckland, New Zealand.

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The University of Notre Dame has announced a pastoral plan “for the support, holistic development and formation of students who identify as GLBTQ [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning], as well as their heterosexual friends and allies.”

The reviewers of the Portico Good Reading Guide present a selection of titles from 2012 considered to be well worth a reader’s time. The favourites cover Fiction, Nonfiction, Young Adult and Children's books, and also a list of those that were not enjoyed so much.

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It is always inspiring when you hear of charities bringing dignity to people around the world... and this is one of those occasions. Charity Water has raised 3 million dollars which will go towards helping 80, 000 people drink clean water.

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The Pope met with Olympic and Paralympic medalists from Italy at the Vatican on Monday. Benedict XVI emphasized many of the positive aspects of athletics and emphasized how, even in the competitive world of sports, the work of the new evangelization can be carried out.

Christmas time is in full swing as the Vatican as officials illuminated the traditional Christmas tree in St. Peter's Square over the weekend! The Christmas tree was a gift to the Pope and the Vatican from the region of Molise, in central Italy.

"One sees clearly only with the heart, what is essential is invisible to the eye,” a phrase taken from Le Petit Prince, one of the most prominent books of the 20th Century. It is a reminder that beauty is not tangible. Author, Enzo Romeo, the biographer of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, says the writer of the golden-haired prince, who dedicates his life to caring for a fragile rose, is a story about the search for God. He was a dreamer, who wanted to fly.

Listen to this beautiful and lively rendition of the popular Christmas carol "We Three Kings" - played in the middle of a busy ice rink in New York!

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