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.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Rocco Palmo publishes the liturgical texts for the feast of John Henry Newman, rumoured to be October 9.

Every Catholic should be a disciple of St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Benedict XVI said at his general audience yesterday (full text).

The Pope received some 20,000 text messages of support after the general audience.

Bishop Walter Mixa has reportedly agreed to stand by his decision to resign.

Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark has said he hopes the Lautsi case will not force “all European countries to conform to a model of secularism that is antagonistic to any manifestation of religion in the public sphere”.

The registered number of Catholics in Japan has fallen by half a per cent in a year.

John Allen discusses Christian-Muslim relations with Cardinal Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice.

William Van Ornum asks if the Church is losing good potential priests because of psychological testing.

The Saint Barnabus’ Blog says it is now too late for Anglo-Catholicism to survive.

Fr Dwight Longenecker reflects on the “brilliantly annoying style” of GK Chesterton.

Patrick Madrid says Marcial Maciel is to the Legion of Christ what the Deepwater Horizon rig is to the Gulf of Mexico.

And Rome Reports showcases the worst-dressed priests in the world (video).

Morning Catholic must-reads

Benedict XVI described priests as “a gift from the heart of Christ” before the Angelus in St Peter’s Square yesterday.

The Age suggests that Cardinal Pell’s appointment as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops was “blocked by elements in the Vatican”. Rorate Caeli considers the other candidates for the post.

A Slovenian student who was tortured and killed by Communists during World War II was beatified on Sunday.

Danish police are hunting a Dutch nun in relation to the death of an elderly Sister in 1993.

Some 2,000 people have taken part in a march accusing Kerala’s Catholic bishops of political “meddling”.

Rome Reports examines preparations for the beatification of Cardinal Newman (video).

Mark Miravalle reflects on Benedict XVI’s “turn towards Mary”.

Maureen Mullarkey challenges the “popular myth” of idyllic coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews in Spain.

And Bishop Crispian Hollis of Portsmouth has laid the foundation stone of one of the world’s first environmentally friendly parish churches.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Rome Reports describes the Bolivian President Evo Morales’s audience with Pope Benedict yesterday as “spontaneous and impolite” (video).

The Belfast Telegraph claims that Cardinal Seán Brady has asked Pope Benedict to appoint an “archbishop in waiting” to succeed him as Primate of All-Ireland.

The Irish National Board for Safeguarding Children has asked Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to produce evidence that parishes are not adhering to abuse guidelines.

A village postmaster fears that he will lose 95 per cent of his business if he is forced to close his post office during the Pope’s visit to Coventry in September.

Cardinal Pell has called for tougher action against abusers after the Church confirmed that two Irish priests accused of molesting girls were still performing priestly duties in Australia.

A group of Catholic scholars has argued that attempting to break trade unions is a mortal sin.

The Pope has given permission for a married father of six to be ordained a Catholic priest.

Fr Donald Cozzens says it’s foolish to expect bishops to be held accountable for their actions.

Alma Guillermoprieto of the New York Review of Books examines the Maciel case.

Fr Rob Johansen asks whether the new English translation of the Mass is a disaster or an opportunity.

Simon Rowney wonders if the 83-year-old Pope Benedict “can drag Richard Dawkins into the modern world”.

And Rima Fakih, reportedly the first Muslim Miss USA, attended a Catholic school in New York.

Morning Catholic must-reads

On the third day of his four-day visit, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at the shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, addressed charity workers and met the Portuguese bishops. His visit concludes today with Mass in Porto and a farewell speech before he flies back to Rome.

Fr Federico Lombardi says he is surprised by the number of people turning out to see the Pope in Portugal.

The BBC reports that businesses affected by the papal Mass at Coventry Airport in September have been told they will not get compensation.

Rome Reports speaks to Sister Bernadette Sangma who is raising awareness of human trafficking at next month’s World Cup (video).

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York says he was filled with “dread and revulsion” when he saw the head of Our Lady of Nagasaki.

Andrew Brown of the Guardian says this is turning out to be a “very much less conservative papacy than anyone expected”.

Ross Douthat of the New York Times demands the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, responds to his critics at the National Catholic Reporter.

And Greg Burke marvels at the wax body parts on sale in Fátima.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has publicly criticised Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s comments about the abuse crisis on Easter Sunday.

Cardinal Walter Kasper says the talks between the SSPX and the Holy See are “not easy”.

President Doris Leuthard of Switzerland discussed the abuse crisis with Pope Benedict yesterday (video).

The Pope has appointed Mgr Liam MacDaid as the new Bishop of Clogher.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec has told a group of physicians that no one is the “ultimate arbiter of life“.

Fr Federico Lombardi says Benedict XVI’s trip to Portugal next week will have a strong Marian dimension.

The Catholic Truth Society is organising a spiritual bouquet to be presented to the Pope when he visits Britain.

Comedy Central is planning a new cartoon featuring Jesus living in New York City to escape his “powerful but apathetic father”.

Sandro Magister and Fr Joseph Komonchak discuss how the Church can be holy when its members are sinners.

Hubert Wolf at Foreign Policy asks how much the wartime Church knew about the Holocaust.

Russell Shaw argues that Pope Benedict is an innovative social thinker.

John Zogby crunches the numbers of a recent poll of American Catholics about the abuse crisis.

Russell Moore wonders why the Catholic novelist Walker Percy didn’t kill himself.

Rome Reports asks people on the streets of the Eternal City how to encourage people to go to church.

And Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo will receive an honorary doctorate from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis today.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his general audience yesterday to two Italian priests who served the needy (video).

The five bishops who conducted an apostolic visitation of the Legion of Christ will present their report to the Pope on Friday.

The US bishops respond to Nicholas Cafardi’s claim that they led the Church into a “cul-de-sac” during the heathcare debate.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach gives a candid account of his audience with Benedict XVI yesterday.

An American mother is hoping Pope Benedict will intervene to prevent the execution of her son by the state of Texas.

John Smeaton and Mulier Fortis continue to question the wisdom of appointing former Labour MP Gregory Pope as deputy director of the Catholic Education Service of England and Wales.

The Vatican has lent its support to a new equities index.

Rome Reports looks at how seminarians at the Pontifical North American College are screened for the priesthood (video).

Writing in L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago sums up the first five years of Benedict XVI’s pontificate.

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has produced a film about John Paul II’s 1979 visit to Poland.

Gerry O’Hanlon SJ unveils a blueprint for the renewal of the Irish Church.

The Huffington Post publishes an extract from Fr James Martin SJ’s new book, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything.

And the bookmaker Paddy Power has sponsored a confessional box in a church in Suffolk.

Morning Catholic must-reads

The leaders of the three main parties all gave their support to Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain in yesterday’s television debate (live blog at 8.46pm).

Benedict XVI has encouraged sick people to offer their sufferings for vocations.

Vatican Archbishop Agostino Marchetto has criticised European countries for turning away Africans fleeing persecution.

The Premier of Ontario has abandoned a plan to alter the province’s sex-education curriculum after publicly funded Catholic schools said they wouldn’t implement the changes.

Anglican George Pitcher applauds yesterday’s statement on abuse by the bishops of England and Wales.

Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco asks why any man would want to become a priest today.

Rome Reports profiles an 18-year-old member of Focolare who will be beatified in September (video).

David Gibson and Fr James Martin SJ consider what penance is and how we can do it.

Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart says New Atheism is destined to go the way of “pet rocks, disco, prime-time soaps and The Bridges of Madison County”.

Rod Dreher wonders if sometimes there is a religious obligation to kill others.

David Goldman at First Things welcomes South Park’s commitment to lampooning all the major world religions equally.

And Woody Allen discusses “the overwhelming bleakness of the universe” with Fr Robert Lauder.

Morning Catholic must-reads

The Vatican has issued a guide “to understanding the procedures of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on sexual abuse allegations”. For the first time in a Vatican document it includes an explicit directive to comply with civil laws requiring bishops to report abuse to the police.

John Allen reports on what happened when the editor of L’Osservatore Romano met the Vatican correspondent of the New York Times.

Austen Ivereigh says coverage of the abuse crisis “has now moved into a new, irrational phase”.

The National Catholic Reporter has published the second part of Jason Berry’s exposé of Fr Marcial Maciel.

Hong Kong diocese’s Justice and Peace Commission has urged Beijing to release the human rights activist Hu Jia.

Scot McKnight says scholarly attempts to discover the “real” Jesus have failed – and that’s a good thing.

Rome Reports profiles a social networking site exclusively for priests (video).

And an archbishop’s family recipe has become a runaway hit in Japan. The pork dish is said to be “especially attractive to women and those getting on in years”.

Morning Catholic must-reads

Benedict XVI returned from Castel Gandolfo for a few hours yesterday to address more than 21,000 pilgrims in St Peter’s Square (video).

Cardinal Sodano has given an interview to L’Osservatore Romano explaining why he made an outspoken defence of the Pope on Easter Sunday.

The New York Times reports on a bishop in Norway who resigned in May after admitting he had abused a boy.

NPR investigates whether the Vatican can be sued in US courts.

Rome Reports defends Benedict XVI’s record on battling sex abuse in the Church (video).

George Weigel attempts to separate truth from falsehood in the abuse scandal.

AP suggests that future popes will be closely vetted following the crisis.

The Pew Research Centre finds that Protestants are more critical than Catholics of the Pope’s handling of the crisis.

The wrong actions of some do not justify the vilification of all, Archbishop Donald Wuerl argues in the Washington Post.

Sholto Byrnes of the New Statesman wonders what has happened to the Catholic Church he grew up in.

Austen Ivereigh is shocked by claims that the Legion of Christ bribed senior Vatican cardinals. His colleague, Michael Sean Winters, isn’t.

Tim Drake speculates on Archbishop Gomez’s priorities as the future head of Los Angeles archdiocese.

Kathryn Jean Lopez clashes with Maureen Dowd over the status of women in the Church.

Ross Douthat wonders why the number of Americans who believe in the Resurrection is falling.

And Westminster Auxiliary Bishop George Stack gives the thumbs up to a new film about a Carmelite community in London.