Pope Benedict has used the occasion of the official receipt of the credentials for the new Italian ambassador to the Holy See to issue a defence of the alliance of church and state, an arrangement facing increasing criticism in a plural, post-Christendom Europe.
The peace and tranquility associated with religious life has been rudely punctured in a convent in Italy, which is being shut down after a fight between its last three remaining nuns - in a dispute which has resulted in a letter to the Pope.