Scottish Catholic Observer

POLISH PRESIDENT AND POPE DISCUSS CANONISATION

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski (above) met Pope Benedict XVI last Saturday on the 32nd anniversary of the election of Pope John Paul II.

The process leading to sainthood for late Polish Pope has recently been accelerated, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said after talks with Pope Benedict XVI.

“We expressed our hope for a continuation of the process and the latest signals show that this process has been recently speeded up,” Mr Komorowski told reporters after the talks on the anniversary of John Paul II’s election. Mr Komorowski also attended a Mass in honour of John Paul II in the Vatican. Italian daily Il Giornale this week reported that initial medical confirmation of John Paul II’s first miracle—a vital step towards Beatification and eventual Canonisation—could come ‘in the next few weeks.’

HOLY FATHER UNVEILS NEW EVANGELISATION AGENCY

Pope Benedict XVI has unveiled a new Vatican agency to promote ‘new evangelisation’ and assigned it the task of combating the ‘de-Christianisation’ of countries that were first evangelised centuries ago.

In an apostolic letter released on October 12, the Pope warned of a progressive detachment from religious faith, especially in countries marked by scientific and economic progress. The new council, he said, will encourage a clearer understanding of the faith and help ‘remake the Christian fabric of human society.’

One of the specific tasks of the agency, called the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, will be to favour the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Pope said.

FRENCH PRESIDENT’S WIFE TOLD TO AVOID VATICAN VISIT?

Pope Benedict XVI told President Nicolas Sarkozy of France that his wife Carla was not welcome on his recent visit to the Vatican as Italian media might publish racy photos of the French first lady, it has been reported in France.

Vatican officials are said to have sent the French ambassador an unambiguous message concerning the Italian-born supermodel’s presence during her husband’s 30-minute audience with the Pontiff earlier this month, namely: “Carla Sarkozy is not welcome in the Vatican.”

Le Canard Enchaîné, the satirical weekly said the Pope was concerned that her presence would spark a rash of nude and scantily-clad photos from her modelling career being published in Italian newspapers.