In the depths of decline, who will lead the Belgian Church

The Italian journalist and Vaticanista Paolo Rodari has an interesting post up about Cardinal Godfried Daneels, the archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and head of the Belgian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Daneels handed in his resignation last year when he was 75, the normal age at which bishops retire, but the Vatican hasn’t accepted it yet.

Rodari says the Holy Father will make his decision over Christmas. The Belgian Church is in a major crisis. Decline is serious, the seminaries are empty and practicing Catholics are hard to find.

What did you dream of doing?

The French bloguer Edmond Prochain has posted a great vocations video from the Communaute Emmanuel for the Year for Priests:

In a voice-over a man speaks: “I wanted to save lives. I wanted to heal people. I wanted to help grow. I wanted to help others be free. I wanted to have loads of children. I wanted to get closer to the sky. I wanted to find treasures. I wanted to become a man. And now, I am all those things.”

Is Pope Benedict a secret rap lover? No.

The Daily Mail has an article entitled ““The Pontiff’s play list: Is the Pope a secret rap lover” which claims “If his playlist is any indication, the Pope has the most catholic of musical tastes”. Ho. Hum. Apparently the Holy Father listens to Tupac Shakur and Beyonce. Really?

Of course seven paragraphs later, we find out that in fact, this has nothing to do with poor Papa Benny, but rather with Fr Giulio Neroni, artistic director of St Paul’s Multimedia, the brain behind the recently released Alma Mater CD. The album spliced the Pope’s voice over other music–from the sounds of it rather a weird sort of thing–but in his latest wheeze, Fr Neroni has created a 12 song play list for the “Vatican” which includes Tupac and Shirley Bassey.

World AIDS Day

Pope Benedict XVI’s message for World AIDS day from ZENIT: ” My thought and my prayer go to all persons affected by this sickness, in particular children, to the poorest and to those who are rejected. The Church does not cease to combat AIDS, through her institutions and the personnel dedicated to it. I exhort everyone to make their own contribution with prayer and care, so that those who are affected by the HIV virus will feel the presence of the Lord who gives support and hope. Finally, I hope that, by multiplying and coordinating efforts, this sickness will be halted and eradicated.”