Dictators boast that they will change the world but they just bring destruction, Benedict XVI said yesterday in off-the-cuff remarks while celebrating Mass at St Massimiliano Kolbe parish in Rome (video).
The season of Advent draws on the "inner toughness" of those who observe it, the Pope said in his Angelus address yesterday (full text, video).
The Wikileaks cables relating to the Vatican have prompted comment from David Quinn, Damian Thompson, Joanna Bogle, Archbishop Cranmer, Paul Moses, Austen Ivereigh, Edward Pentin and John Allen.
Zenit publishes the full text of Fr Raniero Cantalamessa's Advent reflection for the Pope and the Roman Curia on "the Christian response to secularism".
Michael Slackman argues that secularism is gaining ground in Poland.
Victor L Simpson and Nicole Winfield look into the new crisis facing the Vatican Bank.
Sandro Magister reports on the continuing reverberations followings the Pope's remarks on condoms.
The American Chesterton Society has launched its new website.
And Joe Carter muses on reports that the Pope's summer residence will be heated by horse flatulence.
