Remembering the earthquake that devastated the Italian town of L'Aquila in the Abruzzi region, US Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori marked Easter Day in Florence.

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.