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The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday made his most outspoken challenge to the Roman Catholic Church since the Pope invited disaffected Anglicans to switch to Rome. Speaking before he meets Benedict XVI tomorrow, Dr Rowan Williams told a conference in Rome that the Catholic Church’s refusal to ordain women was a bar to Christian unity. “For many Anglicans, not ordaining women has a possible unwelcome implication about the difference between baptised men and baptised women,” he said. The Anglican provinces that ordain women had retained rather than lost their Catholic holiness and sacramentalism, he said. Addressing an ecumenical conference at the...

Twilight Is A 'Deviant Moral Vacuum': Vatican Slams Blockbuster New Moon Film By NICK PISA 20th November 2009 The latest movie in vampire saga Twilight is a 'deviant moral vacuum', the Vatican said yesterday. New Moon, which opens in Britain today, is a 'mixture of excesses aimed at young people and gives a heavy esoteric element', a spokesman added. The blockbuster opened on Wednesday in Italy and took £1.8million at the box office. 'Deviant': The Vatican claims vampire flick New Moon, which stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (pictured), occupies a 'moral vacuum' Monsignor Franco Perazzolo, of the Pontifical Council...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To really see the Sistine Chapel, it's more important to have a Bible in your hands than mini-binoculars, said Msgr. Roberto Zagnoli, an official of the Vatican Museums.The Italian monsignor is the principal author of "The Painted Word," a new series of books published by the Vatican Museums and the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. In the four-part series, the Italian monsignor quotes and explains the biblical passages that inspired the famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. The first volume focuses on Michelangelo's work on the Sistine ceiling. "Fascinating the eyes and the spirit,"...

Some pro-life Catholics reacted with shock to the news that the Vatican warmly greeted the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, who is pro-abortion. They don't seem to understand that the Vatican and Obama agree on most major international issues. This is the untold story-how Obama and the Vatican accept major ingredients of what has been called a New World Order. Another untold story is how, despite a disagreement over abortion, the U.S. Catholic Bishops and the Obama Administration agree on major aspects of so-called health care reform. These topics are mostly taboo in the liberal and...

div class="noticia_imagen_contenedor" style="width: 250px;"> John Paul II Rome, Italy, Nov 17, 2009 / 11:22 am (CNA).- Vatican analyst Andrea Tornielli reported this week that the first step toward the beatification of John Paul II has already been completed.  He explained that officials at the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints have given the green light for the proclamation of the late Pope's heroic virtue.Tornielli added that only the signature of Pope Benedict XVI is needed for the proclamation to become official, noting that it “could come during Christmas, when the prefect for the Congregation for the Causes of the...

A Vatican/SSPX Discussion Can Vatican II's Teaching on Religious Liberty Be Reconciled with Tradition? John Salza, J.D. REMNANT GUEST COLUMNIST   Pope Benedict, Cardinal Hoyos, Bishop Fellay (Aug. 2005)(POSTED 11/17/09 www.RemnantNewspaper.com) As the long-awaited dialogue between the Vatican and the Society of Saint Pius X gets underway, one of the more contentious issues that will be on the table is the Second Vatican Council's teaching on religious liberty found in Dignatius Humane (DH).  Following is a brief critique of DH in light of the traditional teachings of the Church. The fact that volumes have been written evaluating whether DH is compatible with tradition demonstrates that...

Meet the men who passed through the Iron Curtain in this fascinating program about the priests trained by the Vatican to infiltrate the USSR and minister to the people suffering under communist oppression. Sun 11/15/09 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT Tues 11/17/09 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT Fri 11/20/09 4 AM ET / 1 AM PT PT

ROME, November 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - If an embryo is human, it is a person - this is the golden rule for bioethics if it wants to uphold the full dignity of the human person, said the secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on Tuesday. The "concept of person" and its application to all human beings at every stage of their development is the key to understanding the Catholic teachings on the life issues Archbishop Luis Ladaria told a conference in Rome.  Archbishop Ladaria was speaking to an audience of students at a...

Come visit Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome! I am warning you, if you go to this link you may be stuck on this website for hours, as I was yesterday: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/vr_tour/Media/VR/Lateran_Apse/index.html A map of the project is here: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_giovanni/vr_tour/index-it.html An article about the project is here: http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/inside-scoop-on-vaticans-groundbreaking-virtual-tour/#comment-10076 And the real reason I am posting this is my question. When will the other Vatican related buildings pictorial projects be finished? I cant figure this out. How will we know? Where will they be posted? Is there a good site out there that we can use to find out the...

The official Vatican guide to the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass has arrived on YouTube, where you can find long sections of Ecclesia Dei’s DVD about the Extraordinary Form. The clip below shows a priest saying the canon of the Mass. Coming soon to a church near you? Not if certain bishops can help it.

I'm a movie guy. I love going to the movies. Don't get there often but I still check out all the trailers online and plot strategy to get out of the house for those movies I really want to see. So I just saw the trailer to the new movie 2012. When I first clicked on it my first thought was aren't we all getting tired of big budget disaster porn but then I paid attention to what I was seeing in the preview and something seemed a little...well you decide: At the 20 second mark we've got the arms...

Four hundred years after Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for his belief in the "plurality of worlds" (aliens), scientists and religious leaders gathered this week at a seemingly more open-minded Vatican for a conference on astrobiology (aliens). The meeting focussed on current science, rather than the theological quandaries thrown up by the possibilty of other life forms beyond this planet. But that hasn't stopped debate spilling over outside the conference. Yesterday I spoke to Paul Davies, a cosmologist from Arizona State University, just after he addressed the conference. In his view, the possibility of other civilisations...

VATICAN CITY — As a participant in Villanova University’s Vatican internship program, I had the opportunity to be a part of a groundbreaking project.This Monday, in celebration of the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Vatican website launched a state-of-the-art virtual tour of the basilica.Paul Wilson working on the virtual tour of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in October. (Photo by Villanova intern, Heather West) The tour of St. John Lateran is only a small part of a monumental project in which a team of Villanova University professors and students photographed the...

Media experts will join bishops from across Europe to tell them how best to communicate the Catholic Church's message in the 21st century.Steeped in history, the Church often struggles to explain its outlook and Pope Benedict XVI has in recent months been mired in controversy over remarks about the role condoms can play in halting the spread of Aids and his decision to rehabilitate a Holocaust-denying British bishop.During a four-day conference which starts on Thursday, representatives from the social network Facebook, the search engine Google, the YouTube video sharing website and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia will explain the importance of...

Fr. Jose Funes S.J., director of the Vatican Observatory Vatican City, Nov 10, 2009 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- The Vatican Observatory and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences have just concluded a week-long gathering of scientists to examine the origin of life and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. “These questions offer many philosophical and theological implications,” said Fr. Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory.After bringing their Nov. 6-10 talks to a close, four of the scientists held a press conference at the Holy See's press office on Tuesday.Participating in the press conference were Fr. Jose Funes S.J., director of...

VATICAN CITY – E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church. "The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory. Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists...

Vatican City, Nov 9, 2009 / 12:33 pm (CNA).- Anglicans who wish to enter into communion with the Catholic Church received the path for doing so today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published the papal declaration “Anglicaoranum coetibus.” The document clears up questions about married priests and the power of the ordinariates' bishops among other issues.The president of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, welcomed the publication of the Apostolic Constitution and accompanying norms saying, “This now makes clear the provision made by the Holy See and enables those who...

As the son of Cuban immigrants, Miguel Diaz was drawn to Barack Obama for his ability to cross cultures and engage people from different backgrounds. Now, plucked from the relative obscurity of central Minnesota to be President Obama's envoy to the Vatican, the St. John's University theologian finds himself in the vortex of an unwelcome battle over what it means to be a Catholic in the service of a president who supports abortion rights. All sides say the debate was inevitable, no matter whom Obama sent to the Holy See. But for Diaz, the swirling debate seems as confining as...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict will hold talks with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Nov 21 in their first meeting since a Vatican initiative making it easier for disaffected Anglicans to convert to Catholicism. Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said on Friday the spiritual leader of the 77-million member worldwide Anglican communion will meet the pope while he is in Rome for a conference at a Rome pontifical university. The meeting will take on great significance because it is their first since the Vatican announced a new structure on Oct 20 to welcome conservative Anglicans who want to...

Rome, Italy, Nov 6, 2009 / 02:58 pm (CNA).- Speaking to Vatican Radio on Tuesday, Cardinal Franc Rode shed more light on the reasons behind the ongoing apostolic visitation of female U.S. religious orders, saying that a “secularist mentality” and a “feminist spirit” evident in the communities were among the factors leading to the visitation.The apostolic visitation was launched earlier this year with the stated aim of helping strengthen religious communities in the U.S., which are suffering from a sharp decline in vocations.In his Tuesday interview with Vatican Radio, Cardinal Rode said “some criticism arrived from United States and...

Rodé: "Feminism" Drove Visitation Following up on his Tuesday clarification concerning the Apostolic Visitation of US womens' communities, the Vatican's Religious Czar amplified his thought-process on the evaluation yesterday in an interview with Vatican Radio. Shown above greeting sisters of a more traditional stripe on a March visit to an Italian seminary specializing in the "extraordinary form" of the Roman rite, Cardinal Franc Rodé's significant points were summarized by The Tablet's Rome correspondent, Robert Mickens, in a dispatch e.mailed around earlier today: The official that initiated the Vatican's investigation of women religious in the United States admitted this week...

Vatican City, Nov 5, 2009 / 02:41 pm (CNA).- The Vatican post office has issued it's first ever Braille stamp to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, who created the universal reading and writing system for the blind. The stamps feature a portrait of Louis Braille, the inventor's name, the Vatican City State and the price written in the raised dots of the Braille system. Valued at $0.96 each, 300,000 stamps have been issued and will go on sale at the Vatican's post offices near St. Peter's Basilica, according to the Canadian Press.Born in France...

ROME – The Vatican has denounced a ruling by the European court of human rights that said the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools violates religious and educational freedoms. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi says the crucifix is a "fundamental sign of the importance of religious values" in Italian history and culture. He says the European court had no right intervening in such a profoundly Italian matter .. .. In Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday ordered Italy to pay a euro5,000 ($7,390) fine to a mother who wanted crucifixes removed from her children's classrooms. The Italian government said it...

Ghana’s first Catholic Cardinal, Peter Appiah Turkson is closer to becoming the first black pope ever of the Catholic Church. Saturday October 24, 2009, Pope Benedict appointed Cardinal Turkson to head the Vatican’s justice and peace office. This position is a high-profile one that cements his reputation as a possible future candidate for the papal office, according to the Associated Press. The justice and peace office is responsible for promoting the church’s social teachings on justice issues, such as war, the death penalty and human rights. Turkson told reporters three weeks ago there was no reason there couldn’t be a...

Vatican City, Oct 31, 2009 / 12:13 pm (CNA).- In an extensive clarification released on Saturday by the Vatican press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. made clear, on behalf of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Levada, that there is no “celibacy issue” delaying the publication of the Constitution that will establish the context in which Anglicans can be received into the Catholic Church.In a statement released in English –breaking the common use of Italian- Fr. Lombardi explained that “there has been widespread speculation, based on supposedly knowledgeable remarks by an Italian...

Following their exchange in July, author Moyra Doorly and Aidan Nichols discuss the merits of post-Vatican II liturgical reform Dear Fr Aidan, In your kind reply to my first letter you made the point that I was drawing "unnecessarily sharp" contrasts between a theology of "propitiation and supplication" on one hand, and teachings on the "fruits of Communion" on the other. But what I was trying to demonstrate is that the pre-Conciliar sources give ample teaching on both, whereas the documents of Vatican II ignore the theology of propitiation and supplication. Now, to me this represents a doctrinal discontinuity of...

In the wake of Vatican plans to make it easier for Episcopalians to become Catholic, the Episcopal bishop of Maryland would like to make one point clear: The door swings both ways. Lost in talk of the splintering of the Anglican Communion, Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton says, is the appeal that the 45,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has held for former Roman Catholics and others looking for a big-tent church. While attention focused on the conversion en masse last month of a Catonsville-based order of Episcopal nuns to the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has received...

VATICAN CITY — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, will meet Pope Benedict XVI on November 21, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi confirmed Friday. Lombardi told AFP that Rowan's visit to the Vatican was "already planned" before the Vatican's October 20 announcement of a structure for welcoming Anglican converts into the Roman Catholic Church. Williams will be on hand for celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johannes Willebrands, a Dutch cardinal who was a pioneer in Catholic ecumenism and who died in 2006. The Vatican announced last week that Pope Benedict XVI has...

Remnant Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - OCTOBER 20, 2009CONTACT: H. M. OWEN (U.S.), noevolutioninfo@gmail.com or PETER WILDERS (Europe), wilderspeter@gmail.com The Scientific Impossibility of Evolution November 9, 2009 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. St. Pius V University (Rome) In Response to Pope Benedict XVI’s Call for Both Sides to be Heard The 150th anniversary of Darwin’s "Origin of the Species" in November 2009 will be the occasion for a unique conference at Pope Pius V University in Rome presenting a scientific refutation of evolution theory. According to Russian sedimentologist Alexander Lalamov...

ROME (CNS) -- Dissident theologian Father Hans Kung criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his recent opening to discontented Anglicans, charging the pope was "fishing" for the most conservative Christians to the detriment of the larger church. Father Kung said the invitation to traditionalist Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church went against years of ecumenical work on the part of both churches, calling it instead "a nonecumenical piracy of priests." The pope's basic message is: "Traditionalists of all churches, unite under the dome of St. Peter's!" Father Kung wrote in an editorial Oct. 28 in the Rome daily La Repubblica....

Bishop John Broadhurst London, England, Oct 26, 2009 / 05:13 pm (CNA).-  Members of the traditionalist Anglican group Forward in Faith recently concluded their annual gathering, which was dedicated to discussing Pope Benedict's overture to Anglicans. The general impression left by the conference was the “Anglican experiment is over,” a mood that was reinforced by Bishop John Hind officially announcing he is ready to become Catholic.The 2009 National Assembly of Forward in Faith was held in the Emmanuel Centre, Westminster, London, October 23-24. The Assembly was originally scheduled before the Vatican announced its unprecedented move, but the issue dominated...

The Vatican has now released a statement concerning the meeting this morning between Church officials and the SSPX. It reads: “On Monday, Oct. 26, 2009, in the Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio, headquarters of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Pontifical Commission ‘Ecclesia Dei,’ the study commission made up of experts from ‘Ecclesia Dei’ and from the Society of St. Pius X held its first meeting, with the aim of examining the doctrinal differences still outstanding between the society and the Apostolic See.“In a cordial, respectful and constructive climate, the main doctrinal questions were identified. These will...

Our Church of England bishops can be such flirts. They were at it again over the weekend, as traditionalists met to consider Pope Benedict XVI's bombshell decision to welcome disaffected Anglo-Catholics, even the married ones, into Roman Catholicism, while keeping some of their Anglican ways. Since the Vatican's announcement last week, Anglo-Catholic bishops and priests have been lifting the hems of their copes to show Rome a glimpse of silk-gartered ankle. But they're coy and demure, too; they make it clear that they'll want a decent dowry from the Archbishop of Canterbury before they throw themselves into the arms of...

In recent years, the Vatican has taken another look at some historical figures and begged "Mea culpa" for what they have viewed during the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Galileo, Charles Darwin, and Oscar Wilde have all been reappraised by the Church, and now it appears that Karl Marx has joined the list.

Pope Benedict has sure gotten the ball rolling and it seems others want to get into the ecumenical action! Thanks to A Catholic Knight on this one: A Bulgarian Orthodox prelate told Benedict XVI of his desire for unity, and his commitment to accelerate communion with the Catholic Church. At the end of Wednesday's general audience, Bishop Tichon, head of the diocese for Central and Western Europe of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, stated to the Pope, "We must find unity as soon as possible and finally celebrate together," L'Osservatore Romano reported. "People don't understand our divisions and our discussions," the...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Parishioners at Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio, the largest Anglican-use Catholic parish in the U.S., have plenty to talk about these days. "Everyone is excited, but they have lots of questions," said the pastor, Father Christopher Phillips, about the Vatican's Oct. 20 announcement of a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Catholic Church. Father Phillips -- once an Episcopal priest and now a Catholic priest who founded Our Lady of the Atonement 26 years ago -- doesn't have detailed answers yet for the parish's 500 families. He...

Santiago, Chile, Oct 22, 2009 / 01:03 pm (CNA).- In an interview with the Chilean daily, “El Mercurio,” the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, Bernard Fellay, acknowledged that the Vatican is considering the possibility of converting the Lefebvrist group into a personal prelature as part of the discussions aimed at bringing about reconciliation. Fellay, who visited members of the SSPX movement in Chile, is one of four bishops whose excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI last January. Asked about the speculation that the Society of Pius X could be made into a personal prelature similar...

Amid the worst recession in generations, Karl Marx, who famously described religion as “the opium of the people�, got a thumbs up from the Vatican overturning a century of Catholic hostility to his creed. Marx, who predicted that capitalism would be destroyed by its internal contradictions, has joined Galileo, Charles Darwin and Oscar Wilde on a growing list of historical figures to have undergone an unlikely reappraisal by the Roman Catholic Church, The Times newspaper said on Thursday. The British daily, quoting the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, said Marx’s early critiques of capitalism had highlighted the “social alienation� felt by...

400,000 former Anglicans worldwide seek immediate unity with Rome Ruth Gledhill, Sophie Tedmanson, Giles Whittell and Richard Owen Leaders of more than 400,000 Anglicans who quit over women priests are to seek immediate unity with Rome under the apostolic constitution announced by Pope Benedict XVI. They will be among the first to take up an option allowing Anglicans to join an “ordinariate” that brings them into full communion with Roman Catholics while retaining elements of their Anglican identity. The Pope’s move is regarded by some Anglicans as one of the most dramatic developments in Protestant christendom since the Reformation gave...

  There was a T-shirt on the market last year for converts to the Catholic faith. Emblazoned on the front were the words, "Member of the Tiber Swimmers Club." After today's amazing announcement from the Vatican, Anglicans no longer need to change into their swimming trunks. Trembling toes no longer need to be dipped in the chilly waters of the Roman river. Anglicans needn't take the plunge: Benedict has built a bridge.   The "personal ordinariate" is a structure whereby Anglicans will be able to come into full communion with the Holy See. Individuals, congregations, parishes, religious communities, whole...

I have a slew of emails and telephone calls asking what I think of this latest development. Herewith a few thoughts for starters. (1) It represents a huge indictment of the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Many people question Rome's motivations, but I believe Rome, which has been watching Anglican developments like a hawk in recent years, wanted Anglicanism globally to succeed. Their response to the Windsor Report, for example, was quite favorable. This move to me shows they do not believe the Anglican moment in history to help global Christianity can take place sufficiently under Rowan Williams. (2)...

You may remember a game from childhood called 'Pick Up Stix'? A collection of colourful sticks that looked like big toothpicks would be dropped on the table and each player had to remove them one by one and place them back in the can. You had to pick up the stick in such a careful and delicate manner that you would not disturb any of the other sticks. This is not a bad analogy for the Vatican's attempt to pick up the increasingly disordered chaos that is the Anglican Communion. It is common to think of the Worldwide Anglican Communion...

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- The Vatican said Tuesday it has worked out a way for groups of Anglicans who are dissatisfied with their faith to join the Catholic Church. The process will allow groups of Anglicans, including bishops and married priests, to join the Catholic Church some 450 years after King Henry VIII broke from Rome and created the Church of England. The number of Anglicans wishing to join the Catholic Church has increased in recent years as the Anglican church has welcomed the ordination of women and openly gay clergy and blessed homosexual partnerships, said Cardinal William Joseph Levada,...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has established a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while preserving aspects of their Anglican spiritual and liturgical heritage, said U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada. The cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said a new apostolic constitution would establish "personal ordinariates" -- similar to dioceses -- to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church with them. Anglican priests who are married will be ordained Catholic priests,...

The Vatican has made it easier for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church, responding to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions. Pope Benedict XVI approved a new church provision that will allow Anglicans to convert while maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions, Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's chief doctrinal official, told a news conference Tuesday. In the past, such exemptions had only been granted in a few cases in certain countries. The new church provision is designed to allow Anglicans around the world to access...

Pope Benedict approves decree setting up new worldwide institution to receive Anglican communities More than half a million Anglicans are set to join the Roman Catholic church following an announcement from the Vatican today that Pope Benedict XVI had approved a decree setting up a new worldwide institution to receive them.

Vatican City, Oct 19, 2009 / 06:41 pm (CNA).- Several Italian newspapers speculated today that the Vatican may possibly welcome a large number of members from the Traditional Anglican Communion into the Catholic Church on Tuesday. The group previously separated from the Anglican Communion due to issues such as the ordinations of both women and sexually active homosexuals. According to Giacomo Galeazzi from the Italian daily La Stampa, the press conference to be held tomorrow at the Vatican press office by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, Secretary...

Now what can this be all about? I get an email from my Li’l Bro Thom (who likes show tunes, a lot, and is often peppering his emails with Broadway lyrices) “Could be, who knows? There’s something due any day, I will know, right away…soon as it shows…” He was writing about this bit of a blurb from Deacon Greg, who got it from American Papist, who got it from Damian Thompson: *** We inform accredited journalists that tomorrow, Tuesday 20 October 2009, at 11am, in the John Paul II Hall of the Press Office of the Holy See, a...

The Vatican has surprisingly welcomed a proposal to teach Islam in Italian schools. Adolfo Urso, an ally of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said the subject should be taught for an hour a week to "avoid Muslim youngsters being drawn to the ghettos of madrasse (Islamic schools) run by fundamentalists" and was backed by deputy prime minister Gianfranco Fini. Cardinal Renato Martino, of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said: "This would avoid radicalism and should be considered - obviously with some form of control." But the proposal rocked Fini's Right-wing coalition and was slammed by the anti-immigration Northern League.

... the High Mass according to the old rite will be celebrated tomorrow in St. Peter's Basilica. The celebrant, reports Robert Moynihan of Inside the Vatican, will be Archbishop Raymond Burke: When I returned home, I found an email from Alberto waiting for me. Here it is: "Normally conferences and symposiums are relevant for the message their organisers intend to convey to the public through the speeches and lectures of their speakers, but in the case of the 2nd Conference on the Motu prorio Summorum Pontificum (16-18 October 2009), entitled The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum by Benedict XVI: A Great Gift...