Religion In Italy

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 11 - Catholics worldwide keen on a Vatican-approved 2010 photo calendar of Pope Benedict XVI can now order it from a website, the Catholic news agency Zenit said on Wednesday.

The calendar was the brainchild of the Vatican daily Osservatore Romano's photo service which assembled pictures taken during the pontiff's trips abroad, including to Australia and Africa.

It will be available at www.hdhcommunications.com, which sells Catholic and Vatican publications and media products.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 11 - Alien life is perfectly plausible even though there is no evidence yet for its existence, according to the Vatican's top astronomer.

Speaking at the end of a weeklong conference on astrobiology, Father Jose Gabriel Funes said extraterrestrial life was a valid area of study.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Migration is a growing issue worldwide but should be seen as an opportunity rather than a problem, Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday.

Addressing the first session of the Vatican's World Congress on Migrants, the pontiff said migration was ''a bigger issue than ever before, both in terms of size and complexity''.

''It now affects nearly every country in the world and is part of the vast process of globalization,'' Benedict said.

''Many migrants leave their countries to escape living conditions that are humanly unacceptable but without finding the welcome they hope for elsewhere''.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Bishops from across Europe are to be immersed in the fast-moving, instant world of the Web generation this week, with a four-day conference on Internet communications and the Catholic Church.

Representatives from social networking site Facebook, search engine giant Google, video-sharing site YouTube, microblogging Twitter-rival Identi.ca, and the collaborative online encyclopaedia Wikipedia will be among those attending the event.

Organized by the Vatican's 'communications ministry', the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the conference will focus on a range of popular websites, communication tools and security-related issues.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Migration is a growing issue worldwide but should be seen as an opportunity rather than a problem, Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday.

Addressing the first session of the Vatican's World Congress on Migrants, the pontiff said migration was ''a bigger issue than ever before, both in terms of size and complexity''.

''It now affects nearly every country in the world and is part of the vast process of globalization,'' Benedict said.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Bishops from across Europe are to be immersed in the fast-moving, instant world of the Web generation this week, with a four-day conference on Internet communications and the Catholic Church.

Representatives from social networking site Facebook, search engine giant Google, video-sharing site YouTube, microblogging Twitter-rival Identi.ca, and the collaborative online encyclopaedia Wikipedia will be among those attending the event.

(ANSA) - Ancona, November 9 - Churchgoers around Italy are being asked to skip the sign of peace handshake and settle for a smile as a precaution against the H1N1 flu virus, priests said Monday.

Amid rising fears over the virus, which has claimed 35 victims in Italy so far, Ancona Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli told parishioners on Sunday that ''this is one way we can keep the virus from spreading''.

During a mass at the city's Cathedral, Menichelli said a friendly smile was as acceptable a gesture of peace as a handshake and less likely to spread the flu.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - Pope Benedict XVI is not trying to lure Anglicans into the Catholic Church, the Vatican said Monday.

A new section of the Catholic Church in which converted Anglicans can gather "is not an initiative that came from the Holy See" but "a generous response by the Holy Father to the legitimate aspirations of some Anglican groups," said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 9 - The Vatican's decision to make it easier for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church will not change the Holy See's rules on celibacy, the Vatican said Monday.

Unmarried Anglicans will have to abstain from sex just like Catholic priests do, the Vatican said.

The statement came as the Vatican published a detailed guide to the new body for Anglicans who want to convert, called the Apostolic Constitution.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - A landmark European Court ruling against crosses in classrooms doesn't oblige Italy to take them down, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Friday.

"It is not a coercive sentence and there's nothing stopping us keeping the crucifixes in the classrooms," the premier said.

Therefore, he said, a proposed referendum to keep the crosses was not needed.

Nonetheless, after almost a week of popular outrage, Italy is appealing the sentence by the European Court of Human Rights.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 4 - Pumpkins will be more common than crosses in Italian classrooms if a European court ruling is confirmed, the Vatican's top official said Wednesday.

''This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us with Halloween pumpkins and takes away our dearest symbols,'' said the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

Bertone, the Vatican's equivalent of an interior minister, said he had not yet spoken to Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday's ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordering Italy to remove crosses from classrooms.

''I'll see (the pope) tomorrow,'' Bertone said.

(Corrects court's acronym from 'ECtHR' to 'ECHR'). (ANSA) - Vatican City, November 4 - Pumpkins will be more common than crosses in Italian classrooms if a European court ruling is confirmed, the Vatican's top official said Wednesday.

''This Europe of the third millennium only leaves us with Halloween pumpkins and takes away our dearest symbols,'' said the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

(ANSA) - Rome, November 3 - Italy has appealed a landmark European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruling against crucifixes in Italian classrooms that sparked a storm Tuesday in this heavily Catholic country.

The appeal was announced by Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini who stressed that crosses were ''a symbol of Italian tradition'' and did not signify affiliation to the Catholic Church.

(ANSA) - Vatican City, November 3 - Immigrants living in Italy should be entitled to Italian citizenship, the Vatican's 'migrant minister' Antonio Maria Veglio'' said on Tuesday.

Presenting the Vatican's upcoming 6th World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, Archbishop Veglio' said he saw ''no reason'' why immigrants who respect Italy's laws and boost its wealth should not be granted citizenship.

(ANSA) - Brussels, November 3 - Italy's new opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani said a European court ruling against crosses in Italian schools trumped common sense.

''I think that on delicate issues like this, sometimes common sense falls victim to the law,'' said Bersani, who was recently elected head of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD).

''I think a longstanding tradition like the crucifix can't be offensive to anyone,'' said Bersani, a former Communist.