Saturday at the Vatican: Who Said Nuncios Don't Get Audiences Anymore???

On his way to Washington to take up his duties as apostolic nuncio in the United States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi was received in audience this morning by Pope Benedict.

When Sambi -- Benedict's hand-picked representative to the American government and its 65 million Catholics -- arrives Stateside sometime in the next week, the Revolution, indeed, comes home.

Don't be surprised if the topics of sex abuse and episcopal appointments dominated the meeting. And (non-ecclesiastical) torture, too -- that's always a keeper.

Elsewhere behind the walls, the 2006 version of the Book of Life -- the Annuario Pontificio, the church's statistical yearbook -- was presented to the Pope this morning by Cardinal Sodano and Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, the Sostituto of the Secretariat of State.

The Annuario is, indeed, a wonder -- a comprehensive listing of every diocese, vital stats of each, all the titular sees, everything and everyone in the Curia, the religious houses, and the name of every monsignor in the world in the Index (they get that as they're members of the Papal Chapel by virtue of appointment).

As my current copy is the 2001 edition, and a lot has changed since then, it is high time for an upgrade.

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