Morning Catholic must-reads

Benedict XVI has named Swiss Bishop Kurt Koch as the new president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (video).

Cardinal Marc Ouellet has said he was surprised to be named the new prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Communio has posted links to his articles.

Rome Reports profiles Archbishop Rino Fisichella, first president of the new Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation (video).

The Economist pontificates on the “Popeshuffle”.

Nine governments have challenged the European Court of Human Rights ruling on crucifixes in Italian public schools.

The Catholic Church has given £350,000 to the needy in London.

Vatican Radio talks to the Holy See’s lawyer Jeffrey Lena.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark looks ahead to the papal visit to Britain (audio).

Thinking Faith talks to the Catholic chaplain to Manchester United about football chaplaincy.

Fr Michael Gollop asks what Pusey would have made of the Pope’s offer to Anglicans.

Michael Sean Winters signs off at America magazine.

And comedy writer Jane Bussmann explains why a visit to Uganda cured her anti-clericalism.

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Morning Catholic must-reads

Pope Benedict XVI described the pallium as a sign of the bond that protects the Church from evil when he presented the woollen band to 38 new archbishops yesterday (video).

The Vatican has loaned the world’s oldest Hebrew book to the Jewish Museum in London.

A website has inspired the faithful to pray 28,000 rosaries for over 250 bishops in six months.

A Vatican website is aspiring to become “the Yellow Pages of the Catholic media“.

The Trumpet accuses Pope Benedict of launching “a new crusade”.

Peter Bingle says Peter Bingle’s appointment as British ambassador to the Holy See would be inspired.

Joseph Bottum takes Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to task over partial-birth abortion.

Michael Sean Winters is leaving America magazine for the National Catholic Reporter.

And a woman in Coventry has invited the Pope to examine her drainpipe during his visit to Britain in September.

Morning Catholic must-reads

AFP reports that a man verbally abused the Pope at the general audience yesterday. CNS reports that an unidentified man urged the Pope to excommunicate Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden before being escorted out of St Peter’s Square (full text of Pope’s remarks in English, video).

John Allen provides the most thorough analysis yet of Pope Benedict’s struggle to confront child abuse in the Church.

Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds has welcomed the High Court ruling in favour of Catholic Care over gay adoption. America magazine reflects on the ruling.

The Bishops’ Conferences of Scotland, England and Wales have composed a prayer for Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain.

Boston College has received a $20 million gift from the co-founder of a supermarket chain to help train Catholic teachers.

Salon writer Mary Elizabeth Williams concludes that leading exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth is “NUTS”.

And a canon lawyer explains why Catholics can enjoy pepperoni pizza this Friday.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Fr Tim Finigan asks whether Catholic state education in Britain has entered its “endgame”. Damian Thompson, John Smeaton, Mulier Fortis, St Mary Magdalen, and Sunday Morning Soapbox also reflect on the latest developments in the battle over sex education.

Forward in Faith UK is supporting a Day of Prayer today, the feast of the Chair of St Peter, in response to Anglicanorum Coetibus. Thinking Anglicans rounds up the latest developments. And Christian Campbell says that, despite claims to the contrary, groups of Anglicans around the world are preparing to respond to the Pope’s offer.

Two of the Vatican’s most senior officials have raised the issue of reducing the number of dioceses in Ireland.

Pope Benedict XVI began his traditional Lenten retreat on Sunday evening (audio). Shortly before, he gave the Angelus address in which he compared Lent to “a long retreat” (video).

Pope Benedict has confirmed that he will visit a Lutheran church in Rome next month.

The Pope has not yet received a letter from members of the Pontifical Academy for Life criticising their president, Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

The Guardian suggests that the Pope has condemned intrusive body scanners at airports.

No Hidden Magenta wonders if Europe is heading for its own Roe vs Wade.

Australian and Quebec will gain their first saints on October 17 (video).

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago will speak at Brigham Young University tomorrow on the topic “Catholics and Latter-day Saints: Partners in the Defence of Religious Freedom”.

A Marian statue damaged during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki will meet its counterpart in Guernica as part of a “peace pilgrimage” marking the 65th anniversary of the bombing.

America magazine examines the trends in the latest Annuario Pontificio and Rocco Palmo notes that the Catholic Church in America is still growing.

Robbers have shot dead a priest in Mexico.

The BBC reports that a monastery near Vienna is offering men the chance to “be a monk for a weekend“.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, asks whether John Paul II was “crazy or holy“.

Zenit meets the Polish twin brothers who both felt called to the priesthood in the Salesian order.

And Da Mihi Animas marvels at the skills of the skateboarding friar (video).

The Church and the ‘vampire industry’

In this video Fr Robert Barron discusses the enduring fascination with vampires in Western popular culture.

Meanwhile, Jake Martin at America magazine criticises the popular HBO series True Blood, which is now screening in Britain on Channel 4:

Is it any wonder that after a century of vampires sweeping across the celluloid we are still left with the same stock, embarrassingly pseudo-sexual portrayals? The continual insistence upon romanticizing and eroticizing the vampire without acknowledging the violence at the genre’s core makes for contrived viewing that appeals primarily to teenage girls or fans of soft-core pornography.

True Blood has very little truth about it. It attempts to follow in the large footsteps of shows like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under by amping up the sex and violence quota while missing the very best things those shows had to offer: smart, artistic and honest work.

For those who want to know more about the origins of what Martin calls the “vampire industry”, Ignatius Insight has a link to the essay “The Catholic Aesthetic in Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Eleanor Bourg Donlon.