FaithWorld

(Pope Benedict XVI, wearing the white fur-trimmed red bonnet reserved to Popes and called camauro, arrives to celebrate his general audience in St. Peter’s square at the Vatican December 21, 2005.REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico)

And so it came to pass that in the eighth year of Pope Benedict’s reign, some tabloid and social media decreed that he had cancelled Christmas.

The day after Benedict’s latest book “The Infancy Narratives – Jesus of Nazareth” – was published on November 20, Vatican officials found some headlines they were not expecting.

“Killjoy pope crushes Christmas nativity traditions,” read one tabloid headline, claiming that Benedict had snubbed traditions such as animals in nativity scenes and caroling.

“Pope sets out to debunk Christmas myths,” ran another.

Holy Scrooge! Some blogs unceremoniously branded Benedict the new Grinch that stole Christmas and one rocketed him to the “top of the grumpy list for 2012.”

(Italian-language copies of Pope Benedict XVI’s book “The Childhood of Jesus” are seen during a presentation in the Vatican November 20, 2012.  REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)

Pope Benedict published the last part of his trilogy on the life of Jesus on Tuesday, delivering an early childhood narrative which strongly reaffirms the doctrine of the virgin birth as an “unequivocal” truth of faith.

The book, 137 pages in its English version, is titled “The Infancy Narratives – Jesus of Nazareth” and will be published around the world in some 20 languages. It goes on sale on Wednesday.

A visitor uses a touch screen to view a digital detail of a fresco by Giotto in the basilica of St Francis in Assisi October 6, 2012. REUTERS/Handout

St Francis of Assisi, who called the sun “brother” and the moon “sister,” might have referred to it as “uncle technology”.

Visitors to the monumental basilica-convent complex where St Francis is buried in the Umbrian hill town of Assisi will now be able to enjoy a touch-screen and 3-D experience to help them better appreciate the art, history and spirituality inside.

(A closeup of the illuminated letter P in the 1407AD Latin Bible on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England..)

“Pro Dei amore Latinam linguam discite”.

If you don’t know what that means, Pope Benedict is on your case.

In fact, he’s not only on your case, he’s on your declension, your conjugation, your tense, your person, your voice and your mood.

“Pro Dei amore Latinam linguam discite” means “For the love of God, study Latin!” And that is what the pope wants to see more of.

(Pope Benedict XVI leads a special meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican November 21, 2009. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano )

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes turned 500 on Wednesday with the Vatican warning it may eventually limit visitors to protect one of the wonders of Western civilisation.

On October 31, 1512, only 20 years after the discovery of America, Pope Julius II said an evening vespers service to inaugurate the room where Michelangelo toiled for four years, much of it on his back, to finish his ceiling frescoes.

(Start of the trial of Pope Benedict’s former butler Paolo Gabriele (3rd L, in grey), accused of stealing and leaking the pontiff’s personal papers, at the Vatican September 29, 2012. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano)

Pope Benedict’s former butler stole highly sensitive papers the pontiff had marked “to be destroyed” and compromised Vatican security through his actions, the Holy See’s police told his trial on Wednesday.

On the third day of Paolo Gabriele’s trial, testimony depicted a man fascinated by the occult, Masonic lodges, secret services and past Italian and Vatican scandals.

(Pope Benedict’s former butler Paolo Gabriele (R), accused of stealing and leaking the pontiff’s personal papers, sits at the start of his trial at the Vatican September 29, 2012. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano)

The court trying Pope Benedict’s former butler on charges of aggravated theft ruled on Saturday that the results of a sensitive separate investigation carried out by cardinals for the pope will not be admitted as trial evidence.

At the first hearing of the long-awaiting trial of Paolo Gabriele, charged with stealing and leaking sensitive papal documents alleging corruption in the Vatican, the court rejected a defense request to include the cardinals’ probe.

(Jesus and the woman of Canaan, Codex Egberti, Fol 35v, dated to between 980 and 993)

An ancient Coptic papyrus whose scribe quotes Jesus referring to “my wife” is the first clear recorded statement of a claim that he was married, the Harvard scholar who unveiled the 1,700-year-old fragment said on Wednesday.

But Karen King, Professor at Harvard Divinity School, said the landmark discovery of the fragment still provided no definitive historical answer to the question of whether Jesus had a spouse.

(A poster of Pope Benedict XVI is installed at a highway in the suburbs of Beirut September 12, 2012. Pope Benedict makes a religiously delicate and potentially dangerous trip to Lebanon this weekend to appeal for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East as civil war rages next door in Syria. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi )

Pope Benedict makes a religiously delicate and potentially dangerous trip to Lebanon this weekend to appeal for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East as civil war rages next door in Syria.

The 85-year-old pope, making his 24th international trip and fourth to the Middle East, will spend three days preaching unity among Christians and peace between Christians and Muslims during his time in the Lebanese capital Beirut from Friday to Sunday.

(Workers hang a poster of Pope Benedict XVI in preparation for his arrival for a three-day visit to Lebanon, in Jounieh, north of Beirut September 4, 2012. Pope Benedict XVI will visit Lebanon from September 14-16. REUTERS/ Jamal Saidi)

The civil war in Syria will cast a long shadow on Pope Benedict’s trip to neighboring Lebanon next weekend but the Vatican is “tranquil” about his security after receiving guarantees from the country’s fractious religious groups, the papal envoy to Beirut said on Monday.

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia told Reuters he hoped the situation in Syria would not drown out the main purpose of the trip – to focus attention on the problems and aspirations of the entire Middle East.