Dr Matlary was the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs for Norway and a member of the Christian Democrat Party between 1997 and 2000. She is a convert to Catholicism and already serves on the Pontical Council for Justice and Peace and is a consultor on the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Readers will remember the fuss, last year, over Cherie Blair giving a talk at the Angelicum in December. The event was a conference on Women and Human Rights, in honour of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mrs Blair’s high profile and controversial talk, garnered all the media/blogging attention. Dr Matlary’s talk was very good but went largely unnoticed.

She sets the fundaments for her debate, by arguing that human rights are absolute and unchanging, not to be changed by political will. “They are inborn, pre-political and apolitical, not given by politicians, not to be taken away or changed by politicians.”

Later she speaks about abortion, in the context of women’s rights–in the context of equal rights.

If the musical tone was upbeat, Pope Benedict struck a more sober note in his homily this morning. The pope praised the dynamism of the faith in Africa, where the Catholic population grew during the second half of the twentieth century by some 7,000 percent, soaring from 1.9 million Catholics to an estimated 160 million today.

The pope called Africa “an immense spiritual ‘lung,’ for a humanity that appears to be in a crisis of faith and hope.” Later, during his midday Angelus address, Benedict praised the «extraordinary human wealth» of Africa.

Nonetheless, in his homily Benedict warned that Africa faces two serious threats, suggesting that the synod should carefully ponder responses to both.

The first threat, Benedict said, is a “practical materialism, combined with relativistic and nihilistic thought.” Those philosophical currents, he suggested, are reaching Africa from the West.

“The so-called ‘first world’ has exported and is still exporting its toxic spiritual refuse,” the pope said, “which infect the populations of other continents, especially in Africa.”

“Colonialism is finished in a political sense,” the pope said, “but it’s not completely gone away.”

The second threat Benedict identified is “religious fundamentalism, mixed with political and economic interests.”

“Groups with diverse religious affiliations are spreading themselves throughout the African continent,” the pope said. “They do so in the name of God, but according to a logic opposed to that which is divine. They’re not teaching and practicing love and respect for liberty, but intolerance and violence.”

The pope also made clear reference to the social ills that continue to scar Africa, citing “exploitation, conflicts and corruption,” as well as “poverty, injustices, violence and wars.” He called upon the church in Africa to be a source of “prophecy and ferment of reconciliation among the various ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, within individual nations and across the entire continent.”

Members of the Leadership Conference embrace modernity and the work of the council as the Holy Spirit breathing new life in the church. They fall under what Father Radcliffe identifies as the Concilium group, who focus on the Incarnation as the central point of renewal. Members of the Conference of Major Superiors, by contrast, are Communio Catholics, who emphasize communion through proclamation of the faith, a clear Catholic identity and the centrality of the cross. (Concilium and Communio are the names of two periodicals founded in the postconciliar era. The first stressed conciliar reforms; the second stressed the continuity of the council documents with the community of the faithful through past centuries.) Thus, one group focuses on doxology and adoration (Communio), the other on practice and experience (Concilium). One sees Christ as gathering people into community (Communio); the other sees Christ as traversing boundaries (Concilium). The C.M.S.W.R. recently held its eucharistic congress under the title “Sacrifice of Enduring Love,” while the L.C.W.R. continues to work on systemic change. The former sees religious life as divine espousal with Christ; the latter sees Christ in solidarity with the poor and justice for the oppressed. … »

There is more to it however. Therese also said on her deathbed that she believed God had granted all her desires. Well, one of her most fervent desires was to be a missionary. She longed to travel to every country of the earth singing the praises of God and proclaiming his mercy to the nations. In God’s strange providence we see this desire coming true through the regular pilgrimages of her relics around the world. They say ‘if stones could speak’. They might as well say, ‘if bones could speak’ for in this young girl they do.

The pope’s commitment to affirmative orthodoxy over these three days seemed to embody a deliberate effort to get back “on message.”

In many ways, Benedict’s surprisingly positive tone was the early storyline of his papacy. It seemed to go into eclipse in early ’09, however, with a furor over lifting the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops, including one who’s a Holocaust denier, and controversial comments on AIDS and condoms during a trip to Africa. Pundits hinted that the “real Ratzinger,” the hard-line figure familiar from his years as the Vatican’s top doctrinal enforcer, was finally coming to the fore. …

* that alleged messages and commentaries on them are not to be published;

* that prayers from the apparitions are not to be used publicly;

* the parish church is not to be called a «shrine», even privately;

* that foreign priests may not give conferences or retreats without permission of the bishop;

* foreign priests wishing to offer Mass must present a celebret from their diocese or order, and the information is to be recorded;

* a privately-built church has already been closed and is not to be used;