Vatican, Bishops of England and Wales distances themselves from Cardinal Bertone’s comments,

The Vatican has distanced itself from the Secretary of State Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone’s comments yesterday.

The Associated Press reported that the Italian Cardinal told journalists: “Many psychologists and psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relation between celibacy and pedophilia. But many others have demonstrated, I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. That is the problem.”

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At Easter, the faithful still flock to church…

Amidst the darkness of the sexual abuse scandal (which continued to escalate over the Triduum despite the Vatican moratorium on commenting during Holy Week) tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked to Rome to spend Easter in the Eternal City.

The pouring rain during Urbi et Orbi didn’t deter the faithful from coming to St Peter’s Square to receive the Papal blessing. According to the presenter on the Bayerische Rundfunk which was showing it live yesterday, there were far more pilgrims than expected in Rome this Easter.

Other places report a surge in people taking part in Triduum/Easter celebrations.

In Austria, the Stefansdom, the main Cathedral in Vienna saw a surge in Mass attendance ove Holy Week and Easter as well as did parishes in Vienna, despite a general decline in Mass attendance and growing numbers of active defections from the Church.

Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that several London churches also saw larger numbers of faithful come for Holy Week celebrations and Easter than have in past years.

What Gorby said to the Pope…

In December 1989 Pope John Paul II met Russia’s President Mikhail Gorbachev behind closed doors in the Vatican. Today, Vatican Radio in German has the transcript of the 76-minute conversation. At the moment there is no English translation…

JPII wanted to speak to Gorby about perestroika and asked him when there would be freedom of conscience in the Soviet Union. He said: “We are waiting with longing and great hope that your country will pass a law for freedom of conscience. Man believes/ becomes faithful through a free choice. It is impossible to force someone to believe.”

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.

Academic who stood opposite Cherie Blair at Angelicum made member of Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Janne Haaland Matlary, professor of international politics at the department of political sciences of the University of Oslo, Norway has been made a member of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences

Dr Matlary was the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs for Norway and a member of the Christian Democrat Party between 1997 and 2000. She is a convert to Catholicism and already serves on the Pontical Council for Justice and Peace and is a consultor on the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Readers will remember the fuss, last year, over Cherie Blair giving a talk at the Angelicum in December. The event was a conference on Women and Human Rights, in honour of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mrs Blair’s high profile and controversial talk, garnered all the media/blogging attention. Dr Matlary’s talk was very good but went largely unnoticed.

She sets the fundaments for her debate, by arguing that human rights are absolute and unchanging, not to be changed by political will.

“They are inborn, pre-political and apolitical, not given by politicians, not to be taken away or changed by politicians.”

Later she speaks about abortion, in the context of women’s rights–in the context of equal rights.

She said: “In the case of the abortion debate, the fierce struggle which continues and
which will continue is about the terms of the debate: if the question is “under which conditions can human life be taken?” one has to consider the constitutional norms of right to life and the international instruments of human rights that state this as the highest norm. If the debate is cast in pragmatic terms, e.g. as a women’s issue, this is not necessary.

“The abortion issue was decided when the terms of the debate were decided. But abortion represents a water-shed in Western politics precisely because it exhibits a total cleavage in views on what is legitimate democratic politics and procedure. “

For the full text of her speech at the Angelicum, please follow this link