ROME (AFP) — One of Italy’s leading animal rights groups said Monday it was launching an Internet petition to demand Pope Benedict XVI stop wearing fur during religious ceremonies at the Vatican.
Lorenzo Croce, chairman of the Italian Association for the Defence of Animals and the Environment (AIDAA), denied being provocative or wanting to make an anti-religious statement.
“We just want to ask him in a message of love and peace to give a strong signal towards the protection of animals and the environment through a small but very significant personal sacrifice,” Croce told the Italian news agency ANSA.
Since his election Pope Benedict has taken to wearing a number of traditional religious garments, including a small red velvet cape with a white ermine border, which he wears in winter along with a hat the same colour.
The association has created a website to accept signatures and Croce wants to present the petition to the pope in September.
Pope Benedict returned late on Monday to Rome after a nine-day visit to Australia marked by his historic apology for the scourge of paedophilia in the Catholic church.
{sigh}
July 26, 2008
Well, there have been a few bugs, [scratch, scratch] but we’ve moved into our new web home. Finally. Go to overheardinthesacristy.net. Yay!
Mi Casa Es Su Casa
July 24, 2008
UPDATE
This wordpress blog will be blended with my personal website soli-deo.net. New posts will be found at the new domain soon.
Mark 4:20
July 24, 2008
“Et hii sunt qui super bonam seminati sunt qui audiunt verbum et suscipiunt et fructificant unum triginta et unum sexaginta et unum centum.”
Since the publication of “Extraordinary Anniversary” in the July 16 edition of the Phoenix diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Sun, attendance at the weekday offering of the Traditional Latin Mass at St. Charles Borromeo parish has more than doubled.
Catholic and Cool in Sydney
July 23, 2008
World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney was a triumph for the Catholic Church and its 81-year-old head, Pope Benedict XVI. About 400,000 people attended a final Mass on Sunday (July 20), briefly making the pilgrims’ destination bigger than the nation’s capital, Canberra. Some baffled journalists described it as a Catholic Woodstock – the 1969 orgy of, drugs and sex and rock ‘n roll which became an iconic moment for baby-boomers. But 40 years later, the world has moved in an unexpected direction. WYD, the biggest youth event in history, is an anti-Woodstock, a repudiation of the materialism and secularism of the baby-boomers.
After years of being booed offstage, the curtains have again opened and God is being greeted with tumultuous applause. As a young woman commenting the event on Australian TV said, with unabashed confidence, it used not to be “trendy” to be a Catholic in Sydney, but now “it’s become cool again”. No wonder the news that Madrid will host WYD 2011 was greeted with such jubilation.
[…]
Ermine Schmermin, Who Cares?
July 22, 2008
Final WYD08 Images
July 19, 2008
Sydney Vigil
July 19, 2008
Pilgrims hold candles during the evening vigil for World Youth Day prayer ceremony with Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney. The World Youth Day celebrations are the world’s biggest Christian festival as well as the largest religious gathering ever held in Australia headed by Pope Benedict.
Evening Vigil
July 19, 2008
Pope Benedict XVI blesses those in attendance with the Blessed Sacrament during a World Youth Day evening vigil Saturday, July 19, 2008.
Saint Mary’s Cathedral | Sydney
July 18, 2008
Safeguard the Truth of the Gospel
July 18, 2008
Actors re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ during the Stations of the Cross for World Youth Day in Sydney July 18, 2008.
Pope Benedict XVI has warned Christian leaders that the push to unite Christian churches was at a “critical juncture” and called on people of all religions to join together against violence.
Overheard in the Sacristy 
