In his speech to Congress tonight President Obama has to juggle many objectives some of them seemingly contradictory For example he must continue to reach out to Republicans cite one or two of the ideas they brought to the table that he is endorsing himself and hold out the hope that the event

Nervous church authorities are preventing Napolitans from kissing the phial containing the blood of San Gennaro during his festival later this month because of swine flu fears Reuters has the story In one of Italy s best-known festivals Saint Gennaro s dried blood is said to liquefy twice a yea

A report from today s New York Times offers a reminder and I think one may have been necessary that there remain far worse things in the world to worry about than our own many problems in the United States Distracted as we are by deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan how the nation is going to

Really I did The service is offered by the Roman parish of Santa Maria Regina Pacis in Ostia where Fr Ludovico Barbangelo has created a web page that enables people to post a prayer alongside a virtual candelina And yes the flames flicker The idea has been ldquo well received by the faithfu

Sadly this weekend brought more evidence that there are some people in this great nation of ours who have lost their faith in democracy The furor over President Obama rsquo s speech to schoolchildren is ridiculous of course But it is more pernicious than that too The chairman of the Republica

There is serious talk of forming a new centre-right Catholic party in the wake of the clash between the Church and the philandering Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi according to this interesting report by the Times in London At the centre of the attempt to create a new Christian Democrat bloc is