Free Republic

The head of the all-male Swiss Guard who defend the pope said Wednesday that women could be recruited to the elite force. The comment was made by Swiss Guard commander, Colonel Daniel Anrig, as the latest 32 recruits were sworn in. "That could be possible," said Anrig in a television interview when asked about women joining. "Personally, I can see them accomplishing certain tasks." Cohabitation in the Vatican's barracks might present some problems, but every problem had a solution, he added. Anrig's predecessor, Colonel Elmar Moeder, who he replaced in August, categorically rejected the idea back in 2004. The Swiss...

Dear brothers and sisters: I would like to speak today about John Damascene, a prominent personality in the history of Byzantine theology, a great doctor in the history of the universal Church. He is above all an eye witness of the passage from the Greek and Syriac culture, shared in the eastern part of the Byzantine Empire, to the culture of Islam, which took over space with its military conquests in the territory ordinarily recognized as the Middle or Near East. John, born to a rich Christian family, took on while still young the post -- perhaps also held by...

Vatican City, May 6, 2009 / 10:24 am (CNA).- Days before he heads to the Holy Land, Pope Benedict taught the crowd of 20,000 at his weekly General Audience about the reason that Christians venerate images. Drawing from St. John Damascene, he explained the theology behind the use of material objects and the difference between adoration and veneration. In recalling the figure of seventh century St. John Damascene, who is of “primary importance” in the history of the church, the Pope focused on his “three discourses on sacred images against those who sought to slander them.” The Holy Father explained...

This Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI will include in the canon of saints of the Catholic Church the great warrior, holy patriot, and humble Christian: Nuno Alvares Pereira. As we mentioned last year, in an age of so many disgraceful individuals involved in public life, the life of the Holy Constable of Portugal, Nuno Alvares Pereira (1360-1431), is perhaps the most surprising of them. One of the greatest statesmen and military leaders in the history of the Iberian Peninsula, he was always a most faithful son of the Church. After becoming a widower, and despite having all the fortune, power, and...

Vatican City, Apr 22, 2009 / 12:11 pm (CNA).- Today at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope focused his attention on the monk Ambrose Autpert. Drawing on the monk's teachings, the Pope pointed to greed as the root of the global economic crisis. Continuing his series of teachings on the great writers of the Eastern and Western Churches in the middle ages, the Holy Father explained that Ambrose Autpert "is a little-known author of the eighth century.  Born to a high-ranking family in Provence, France, Autpert was tutor to the future emperor Charlemagne before traveling to Italy...

It seems almost silly to say I am bringing coverage of Benedict XVI’s extraordinary sojourn in America to a close (actually, my final final thoughts are here) because the truth is I will likely be reading all of his addresses more closely and bringing them up in coming weeks, but the wall-to-wall writing will end here. I do want, though, to end with a thought that blipped through my head when Benedict was in DC, and again as he addressed the United Nations.

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 30, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff published the calendar of ceremonies to be presided over by Benedict XVI during Holy Week. On Sunday, April 5, the Pope will preside at the Palm Sunday celebrations, which also coincides with the 24th World Youth Day. The theme for the youth event is "We Have Placed Our Hope in the Living God." The liturgy will begin at 9:30 a.m. in St. Peter's Square with the blessing of palms, then the procession and Mass. The Holy Father will preside at two liturgies on Holy Thursday,...

The three largest mainstream media wire services all agreed that supporters of Pope Benedict XVI who dared to stand up to anti-Catholic leftists in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Sunday were extremists of the right of some sort. The Associated Press used the “right-wing” label to describe the faithful Catholics. Both Reuters and the French Agence France-Presse both used the term “far-right youths,” with the AFP going so far as describing the pro-Benedict protesters as “far-right militants” in another report.... None of the press reports went into any detail as to why the pro-Benedict demonstrators would be...

Thursday March 19, 2009 Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope is Correct on Condom Distribution Making AIDS Worse By John-Henry Westen   March 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, has said that the evidence confirms that the Pope is correct in his assessment that condom distribution exacerbates the problem of AIDS.  "The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."  "There is," Green added, "a consistent association...

Pope Benedict XVI told Muslim leaders on Thursday that true religion rejects violence, and he held up peaceful coexistence between Christianity and Islam in Cameroon as "a beacon to other African nations." In Cameroon's capital, a clapping, swaying crowd of 40,000 faithful from Africa's expanding, vibrant Catholic flock later welcomed him to a football stadium where he celebrated Mass. There, he delivered a message of encouragement for Africa and expressed compassion for the children being forced by paramilitaries to fight in some countries. To these children he said: "God loves you, he has not forgotten you." Child soldiers, often kidnapped,...

"I ... encourage you to look to Saint Joseph. When Mary received the visit of the angel at the Annunciation, she was already betrothed to Joseph. In addressing Mary personally, the Lord already closely associates Joseph to the mystery of the Incarnation. Joseph agreed to be part of the great events which God was beginning to bring about in the womb of his spouse. He took Mary into his home. He welcomed the mystery that was in Mary and the mystery that was Mary herself. He loved her with great respect, which is the mark of all authentic love. Joseph...

Pope Benedict will not visit Israeli museum which denigrates Pius XII Pope Benedict XVI Rome, Italy, Mar 7, 2009 / 07:18 pm (CNA).- The Israeli ambassador to the Holy See on Friday said that Pope Benedict XVI will not visit Israel’s Holocaust Museum which accuses Pope Pius XII of inaction on the Holocaust. The news comes as a researcher announced on Friday that he had discovered a message from Pius XII that ordered monasteries to give refuge to Jews. During the Pope’s May 8-15 trip, the pontiff will attend a memorial ceremony at the Yad Vasdhem site but will not visit...

The large mass that Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate during his May visit to Israel will be held in Nazareth, and not in Haifa, as had been proposed. Haaretz has learned that the Vatican made the decision last weekend following a visit by a Vatican delegation that met here with representatives of the two cities. The Christian historical associations with Nazareth tipped the scales in its favor despite some Vatican preference for Haifa. Israel was notified Sunday about the plans for the mass, which is expected to attract tens of thousands of worshipers, although a formal announcement of the pope's...

From the Italian news agency ANSA, this news (ht: National Catholic Register):The Society of Saint Pius X whose ultratraditionalist bishops were recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI will not accept the reforms introduced by the Second Vatican Council, the head of the order has told a Swiss paper. Monsignor Bernard Fellay told the daily Le Courier on Thursday that the Council has caused the Catholic Church ''only damages''. ''The aftermath of the Council has been to empty seminaries, nunneries and churches. Thousands of priests have left their orders and millions of faithful have stopped being practicing Catholics and have joined...

From the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: It is with great joy that my husband, Paul, and I met with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, today. In our conversation, I had the opportunity to praise the Church’s leadership in fighting poverty, hunger, and global warming, as well as the Holy Father’s dedication to religious freedom and his upcoming trip and message to Israel. I was proud to show His Holiness a photograph of my family’s papal visit in the 1950s, as well as a recent picture of our children and grandchildren. From the Press Office of the...

***Pope Rebukes Pelosi, Tells Her Catholic Legislators Obligated to Protect Life: No Pelosi/Pope photos permitted*** ### The Vatican Press Office released a note this morning detailing part of the conversation which Pope Benedict XVI had with Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Pelosi also released a statement on the meeting which ignored the one and only crucial issue mentioned in the Vatican note. Pelosi presented the meeting as a fully positive encounter while the Vatican indicated the Pope reminded her of the requirement of Catholic politicians to defend life. It is also noteworthy that, contrary to normal...

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday told U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic who supports abortion rights, that Catholic politicians have a duty to protect life "at all stages of its development."

The Catholic Church is experiencing an unprecedented moment in her recent history. A sacerdotal act of the Pope – the removal of the excommunication of four bishops who had been consecrated contrary to the prohibition of his predecessor in the Petrine office – encounters an outraged lack of understanding not only of the non-Catholic public but also of many Catholics and even bishops, who have openly renounced their loyalty to the pope. Forty years after the Second Vatican Council, which attempted an “opening of the Church to the World”, the Catholic Church has been struck dumb - as if she...

ROME – Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that all human life must be protected, especially that of the weak and suffering, making a last-minute intervention in a right-to-die case that has convulsed Italy. Groups of protesters — both for and against keeping Eluana Englaro alive — held demonstrations across the country on Saturday. Outside the clinic in the northern city of Udine where Englaro is being cared for, a few dozen people shouted "Eluana Viva!" or "Eluana Lives!" Englaro, 38, has been in a vegetative state for 17 years after a car crash. On Friday, after a decade-long court battle,...

In his homily at his inaugural Mass as Pope, Benedict XVI asked Catholics to “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.” The media firestorm over Benedict’s decision to lift the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated without papal approval in 1988 by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre provides a perfect illustration of how modern wolves attack and what they attack, and thus might be of interest to non-Catholics as well as Catholics. Lefebvre, the former archbishop of Dakar, Senegal, became increasingly disenchanted by the doctrinal confusion that followed in the wake of the Second...

This is the upshot of the lifting of the excommunication for four Lefebvrist bishops. The isolation of Pope Benedict, the ineptitude of the curia, and the misfires of the secretariat of state ROMA, February 4, 2009 – A few days after the events, the lifting of excommunication from the four Lefebvrist bishops is increasingly manifesting itself at the Vatican as a double disaster, of governance and of communication. In the disaster, Pope Benedict XVI found himself to be the one most exposed, and practically alone. Both within and outside of the curia, many are blaming the pope for everything. In...

The MSM (mainstream media) is having a field day at the expense of the pope and the Catholic Church over the lifting of the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of Pius X.  In an interview on Swedish television in November 2008, Bishop Williamson denied the existence of gas chambers in the Holocaust and maintained "two to three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps . . . but none of them by gas chambers."As pointed out by Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, most of the news coverage has been inaccurate. None of the bishops of...

Pope Benedict XVI is set to announce a new Archbishop of New York to replace Cardinal Edward Egan, an informed Vatican source tells Newsmax. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source says the decision was made today and an announcement is expected “within the next week to ten days”. He says Cardinal Egan’s successor is from the “conservative and orthodox” wing of the Church. Speculation on the next leader of the New York Archdiocese, one of the most important posts in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, has been going on for some time among church-watchers. Cardinal Egan, 76, submitted his...

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that euthanasia is a "false solution" to suffering, adding his voice to a bitter debate in Italy over the fate of a comatose woman whose father wants to remove her feeding tube. During his Sunday blessing, Benedict said that love can help confront pain and that "no tear, from those who suffer and those who are with them, is lost before God." Benedict didn't mention Eluana Englaro by name, but it was clear he was referring to her case, which has made headlines in Italy for months.

A sharp call from head of the first Orthodox center to engage in religious dialogue with Rome: Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, reacting to the uproar over Pope Benedict's reinstatement of four right-wing schismatic bishops, one of whom is a Holocaust-denier, took the battle to the pope's own turf--Catholic sacramentality: "...The Pope has muddied the waters of truth and compromised his own religion, specifically the Gospel of John 8:32, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," Riskin, Chief Rabbi of Efrat in Israel, said in a statement released today. Riskin recently founded Ohr Torah Stone: Center for...

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2009 / 11:40 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI has launched himself into the digital age today with the Vatican announcing that a YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/vatican dedicated to his activities and events at the Vatican is now online. The Vatican’s announcement of its new partnership with Google’s YouTube coincides with the release of the Pope’s annual message for the World Day of Communications, which this year focuses on how to utilize new technologies to promote a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.Fr. Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See’s press office, described the Vatican’s YouTube Channel...

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two newspapers say Pope Benedict XVI has decided to lift the excommunications of four bishops consecrated 20 years ago by the late French ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.Lefebvre rebelled against the Vatican's modernizing reforms of the 1960s, including replacing Latin with local languages at Mass.Benedict has already reached out to the rebels in the hopes of bringing them back into the Church by making it the old Mass more readily available.The Italian newspapers Il Giornale and Il Riformista said Thursday that Benedict has now decided to meet their demand that the excommunications be lifted. The newspapers said,...

According to multiple reports from reliable Vatican-watchers, Pope Benedict XVI will soon lift the decree of excommunication imposed upon four traditionalist bishops who were consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. Italian journalists report that the Pope's action will be made public within a matter of days. The move would be a major step toward reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). SSPX leaders-- including the bishops living under the decree of excommunication-- have consistently stated that before ending their break with the Holy See, they would insist on the removal of that excommunication and the...

This is an AP article and I don't think we can show any of it The new ArchBishop of Detroit is Bishop Allen Henry Vigneron Of Oakland, CA Does anyone have some good news on him????

The UK Times must have realized suddenly that they hadn't besmirched Pope Benedict XVI in weeks so they quickly cobbled together a ridiculous piece claiming essentially that nobody goes to see poor Pope Benedict anymore. Why? Oh it's because he might as well be called Pope Meany Pants because he always says "No." And then to be fair they called upon some critics of the Pope to confirm that nobody liked the Pope and that's why nobody goes to see him. THE crowds turning out for Pope Benedict XVI’s preachings and blessings at the Vatican are dwindling fast as the...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With a series of recent appointments and several more expected in coming months, the Roman Curia's "Team Benedict" is finally coming into focus. Naming top Vatican administrators is a task Pope Benedict XVI has tackled with patience and deliberation. For a number of key positions, he has turned to people he knows best -- old colleagues from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The pope made it clear after his election in 2005 that he would not be cleaning house at the Vatican, and for the most part he's let the officials appointed by...

Book of homilies by Pope Benedict available soon in Spanish and English Rome, Dec 3, 2008 / 04:01 pm (CNA).- “Omelie,” the new book of homilies by Pope Benedict XVI published in Italian, will soon be available in Spanish and English, according to the publishers of the work.After the General Audience last Wednesday, the Holy Father greeted the book’s publishers—who also publish the largest financial daily in Italy, ‘Il Sole 24 hore”—and Vatican analyst Sandro Magister, who selected the homilies and wrote the prologue for the book.During the exchange, Magister was accompanied by his wife Anna and his daughters Sara...

Time magazine’s Jeff Israely compared Pope Benedict XVI to the most famous Charles Dickens character in his latest column, which focuses on the “tough line on Church doctrine” the pontiff has taken: “...[T]here is growing proof that the 82-year-old Pope is...quite willing to play the part of Scrooge to defend his often rigid view of Church doctrine.” Israely later put Scrooge’s characteristic anti-Christmas exclamation in the mouth of the Holy Father: “...[O]ne can imagine Benedict flashing that gentle smile, tilting his head ever so slightly and declaring: Bah Humbug!” The correspondent’s Thursday column on Time.com, titled “The Pope’s Christmas Gift:...

Those nicknames from the past — God's Rottweiler, the Panzercardinal — don't seem to stick anymore. After acquiring a reputation as an aggressive, doctrine-enforcing Cardinal, Pope Benedict XVI has surprised many with his gentle manner and his writings on Christian love. But with the Christmas season upon us, there is growing proof that the 82-year-old Pope is also quite willing to play the part of Scrooge to defend his often rigid view of Church doctrine. Benedict's envoy to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, has announced that the Vatican will oppose a proposed U.N. declaration calling for an end to...

Our friends at the New Liturgical Movement have done a great service in bringing photos of the the newly-rediscovered "Benedictine" arrangement of altar candles and crucifix to the fore. Pope Benedict is rightly given credit for the revival of this arrangement which had its original inspiration in the Liturgical Movement before the Council. I recently ran across these pictures from the Mass offered at the 1947 National Liturgical Week in Portland, Oregon which give some roots to today's newly flowering altar arrangement. The proceedings from the Liturgical Week explain that the "Holy Sacrifice was celebrated in the same hall as...

President-elect Barack Obama's plan to pass the Freedom of Choice Act is setting up a showdown with the Vatican. "The first thing I will do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act," he said at an address before Planned Parenthood on July 17, 2007. And if he does, it will trigger a harsh response from Pope Benedict XVI, as well as a political revolt among practicing American Catholics. Mr. Obama signing the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) "would be the equivalent of a war," a senior Vatican official told Time magazine last week. "It would be like saying,...

The trip, which the sources said would most likely take place in the spring, would be Benedict's first to the Holy Land since his election in 2005. Two of his predecessors in modern times, John Paul II and Paul VI, visited the Holy Land.It also would help to ease recent tensions between Catholics and Jews over the role of wartime Pope Pius XII, who some Jews have accused of turning a blind eye to the Holocaust.The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the pope had accepted an invitation by Israeli President Shimon Peres to visit in May.A Vatican spokesman said he could...

Stephen Hawking, the cosmologist and author of the bestselling A Brief History of Time, is to take part today in a conference at the Vatican on Darwin, evolution and intelligent design. Pope Benedict XVI this morning opened the conference, organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which will last until next Tuesday. He said that like modern Popes before him, he saw no contradiction between the Christian concept of Creation and science. He cited Galileo, whom, he said "saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author." He added:...

Cue the Zaire Rite music -- 2009's first PopeTrip will take B16 to Africa: [In March] the pope will attend the African Episcopal Conference in Cameroon to prepare for a second African bishops' synod to take place in Rome next October, Benedict told bishops wrapping up a synod at the Vatican that began October 5. "From there, if it pleases God, I will go to Angola to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the evangelisation of that country," Benedict added.His first African jaunt, the visit will be the 11th overseas tour of B16's pontificate.PHOTO: Reuters

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- One of the topics mentioned in a good number of the synod presentations was that of the saints and blessed who offer the Church concrete examples of lives rooted in the sacred Scriptures and the living Word of God. When Archbishop Angelo Amato, the new prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, addressed the synod Tuesday, he offered a very graphic image of lives rooted in the sacred Scriptures: For more than 2,000 years men and women, old and young, wise and ignorant, in the East as in the West, applied themselves to the...

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, patriarch Bartholomew, at far right seated, prays with Pope Benedict XVI, at far left, in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, Saturday Oct. 18, 2008. Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew is calling it "an historic event," after being the first to speak to the bishops of the Catholic Church gathered for a synod. For his part, Benedict XVI said, "Your fathers are also our fathers, and ours are yours: if we have the same fathers, how can we...

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).-The big news today was Pope Benedict's lesson at this morning's session of the synod of bishops. After listening to the first round of 11 cardinals and bishops deliver their five-minute talks, we heard the solemn pronouncement "Fiat intervallum." (Let there be a break!), which we have heard many times over the past 10 days. While many of us are used to hearing "Fiat lux" from the Genesis account of creation, or responding with "Fiat mihi senundum verbum tuum" (Be it done to me according to your word) during the Angelus, the words "Fiat intervallum"...

A Jewish cleric has addressed a worldwide gathering of Roman Catholic Bishops for the first time.Shear-Yashuv Cohen, chief rabbi of the Israeli city of Haifa, explained to the Pope and his bishops the importance of the Bible to Jewish believers. He also used the occasion to denounce the Iranian president for his comments about Israel at the UN last month. The first day of the Vatican Synod saw some strong opinions expressed, the BBC's David Willey in Rome says. Not only did the bishops cover the role of the Bible in the modern world - the official theme of the...

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI sent a personal message to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II saying that modern times call for a hastening of the journey toward Christian unity. The Sept. 22 message was hand-delivered to Alexy II by the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, on an official visit to Moscow at the invitation of the patriarch. The cardinal gave the message to the patriarch in a meeting that lasted a little more than an hour last Thursday. "I have a deep affection for all the Orthodox brethren, and I am particularly close to them in...

Pope Benedict XVI / Msgr. Georg Ratzinger Rome, Sep 30, 2008 / 10:58 am (CNA).- In an interview by Andrea Tornielli for the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Pope Benedict XVI’s brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, revealed several unknown details from the childhood of the Pontiff, such as when he said one time that Benedict would be a good name for a pope, and that he never attended Hitler Youth meetings he was obliged to sign up for.During the interview in Ratisbona, Germany, Msgr. Ratzinger said his brother was “a lively child, but not an earthquake. I remember him as always...

Vatican City, Sep 29, 2008 / 10:29 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI will complete his stay at the papal summer residence tomorrow, and as final preparations are being made for his return to Rome, he addressed the local bishop, religious, local civil authorities and security personnel on the topic of angels. Today marks the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the Pope pointed out to Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano (the diocese in which Castelgandolfo is located) and the assembled crowd. With this Feast in mind, he prayed, "let us trustingly invoke their help, and the protection of...

LOURDES, France (CNS) -- Being pope is not a one-dimensional job, a fact that was clearly evident during Pope Benedict XVI's four-day visit to France. Arriving in Paris Sept. 12, the pope first engaged in an important political encounter that attempted to build on the new openness shown the church by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Next, in a brief meeting with Jews, he managed to capsulize in 20 graceful lines the church's respect for Judaism and its firm rejection of anti-Semitism. That evening, the pope slipped into his academic role and delivered a lecture on monasticism's influence on Western civilization to...

Dear friends, we are gathered in a historic place, built by the spiritual sons of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and which Your predecessor, the late Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, desired to be a centre of dialogue between Christian Wisdom and the cultural, intellectual, and artistic currents of contemporary society. In particular, I greet the Minister of Culture, who is here representing the Government, together with Mr Giscard d’Estaing and Mr Jacques Chirac. I likewise greet all the Ministers present, the Representatives of UNESCO, the Mayor of Paris, and all other Authorities in attendance. I do not want to forget my colleagues...

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will pray at the feet of Our Lady of Lourdes for the Church, the sick and for peace in the world when he visits the Marian shrine this weekend. The Pope said this at the end of today's general audience in a message directed to the people of France. The Pope will travel Friday-Monday to Paris and Lourdes. His visit to the Marian shrine takes place in the context of the 150th anniversary of apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous."I go as a messenger of peace and fraternity," he said in...

CAGLIARI, Sardinia — Pope Benedict XVI, who has said he is living out his own old age serenely, met in Sardinia with some of the Mediterranean island's "super old" faithful Sunday, including a 105-year-old woman who wished the pontiff a life as long as hers.Benedict was making a one-day pilgrimage to the port city of Cagliari to mark the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Virgin Mary of Bonaria as the island's religious patron.While some 150,000 faithful braved muggy air outside the sanctuary's basilica, inside the church waiting to meet the 81-year-old pontiff were about 30 centenarians.Scientists and sociologists...