Just Another Papal Wednesday

At this morning's General Audience, the Pope announced that, having concluded the meditations on the Psalms begun by l'amato Papa Giovanni Paolo, he has chosen to devote the upcoming series of catecheses to "the mystery of the relationship between Christ and the Church, considering it from the experience of the Apostles, in light of the charge entrusted to them."

As the Wednesday audiences have returned to St. Peter's Square from their winter confinement in the Nervi, and given the still-chilly nature of Roman March, Benedict XVI wore his "First Communion" outfit (the white, double-breasted grecca overcoat) for his weekly encounter with the packed (singing, screaming) Piazza.

Elsewhere on the VatBeat, the British press is all abuzz with screaming declarations that a papal trip to the Isles is in the offing in September next year....

While officials at the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales are doing their darndest to donwplay the speculation, their task wasn't aided by the news that today's sole visitor in audience was Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, the apostolic nuncio accredited to the Court of St. James.

Coincidence?


PHOTO: REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico

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