Pope Benedict celebrates the 400th anniversary of the former heretic Galileo’s use of the telescope.

UPDATE: More here in the International Herald Tribune.

Too much rain in Italy. Bibically speaking, 50 days is really 10 days too much, don’t you think?

Months before I had this web site and blog, John Thavis, the Vatican bureau chief for the Catholic News Service, got to read an advance copy of My Cousin the Saint. Back in February, three months before it was released, here is what John had to say on his blog.

Excerpt: “Being handed an uncorrected proof of a book with the words, “A relative of mine wrote this,” does not always augur well. But I began paging through it after the dinner and today found myself reading big chunks of it at the office.”

In June 2006, I interviewed a most extraordinary doctor, Giuseppe Bolignano (above), a virologist at the metro hospital in Reggio Calabria. A few years earlier, he had given up on a patient who seemed to have been defeated by an awful case of meningitis. He advised the family to pull the plug. Instead, they prayed overtime to Padre Gaetano Catanoso. When this patient arose from her coma, her inexplicable recovery was later deemed by the Vatican, and Pope John Paul II, as a miracle — the miracle which led to Padre Gaetano’s canonization on October 23, 2005.

During my interview with Dr. Bolignano, I asked him about the line between science and religion, between the cold facts of biology and the mystical nature of the supernatural. His response: “There is a line that is incredible and unexplainable, and when you cross it, there is nothing else left but faith.” Bolignano’s faith is strong, even for an accomplished scientist. While his colleagues at the hospital are skeptical, he is not. He believed he witnessed a miracle.

This story came to mind when I heard about this survey, which reports that fewer doctors believe in the importance of every day prayer.

The New York Times today reports: VATICAN CITY — The Vatican issued the most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research.

 
The Vatican reports that nine Catholic heroes are closer to sainthood as the result of recent declarations by Pope Benedict XVI. The story is here. This is interesting insofar as Benedict was seen by many upon becoming pope in 2005 as dramatically slowing down the number of saints and blesseds named. This does not appear to be the case; at the very least, he seems to be looking favorably among those in the long pipeline filled by his predecessor (and prodigious saint maker) Pope John Paul II.

Now the big question is: when will JPII make the list? A miracle has been credited to him, which would clear the way for beatification, but it has not yet been approved. What’s the status?

Photo by Len Catanoso Jr. during the canonization of Padre Gaetano Catanoso

PARIS (AP) — An international doctors’ panel appointed by the Roman Catholic Church says it’s getting out of the “miracle” business at Lourdes. The panel will no longer judge whether pilgrims to the French shrine could have benefited from “miracle” healing — a huge shift from the centuries-old way of deciding what makes the cut as a divine cure.

Full story here.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, as I discuss in my book, still makes use of a panel of independent and well-regarded doctors from Rome who review the medical records of individuals purported to have been healed miraculously. These doctors do not determine whether a miracle has occurred, rather they decide (by a majority vote on a panel of five) whether a cure is “medically inexplicable.” If the doctors decide that, a panel of clergy researches who was prayed to and then make a judgment about whether a miracle had taken place.

The Vatican’s leader of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Bishop Angelo Amato, shares his thoughts on the meaning and importance of saints in this letter.

An excerpt: “The Saints themselves are these ’seeds of newness,’ people who have fully realized the greatest projects, to live the perfection of love. The Saints are, therefore, precisely the ones who can enlighten the minds of the men and women of our age, who ran reignite in them the faith, who can sustain in them the prospective of the good, who can propose to them generous impulses which can overcome the paralysis of mediocrity, who can help them renew their interpersonal relationships in truth and justice, in such a way that no-one is left marginalised or overcome by despair and distress.”

John L. Allen Jr of the National Catholic Reporter profiles Garry Wills, whom he says “Wills is hardly just a ‘Catholic writer,’ but one of America’s most distinguished nonfiction writers, period, whose horizons are far broader than the church.” The profile is here.

The BBC reports today: “A Vatican newspaper has forgiven the late English singer John Lennon for saying four decades ago that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. In an article praising The Beatles, L’Osservatore Romano said Lennon had just been showing off.” Story and archival video here.