Vocations, Pius, and the Shroud

- Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a friend of the pope's, says he believes Francis will open up the Vatican archive material on Pius XII. I hope he's right. I've had numerous posts on Pius XII and how he shouldn't be made a saint (like Catholic scholars write B16 about Pius XII) and the info in the archives might make clear why Pius is not canonization-worthy (or not - would the Vatican save incriminating material?). Here's Rabbi Skorka, who is more charitable about Pius than I am ...



- The UK Catholic public relations group, Catholic Voices, mentions there's a rise in religious vocations in the UK, 41 men wanting to be priests. This sounds good from a conservative pov (you know, married men and women need not apply) until you compare it with the number of people wanting to be priests in the Church of England ... I don't know the figures for this year, but in 2010, Andrew Brown wrote that the C of E had 600 men and women training to be priests in the UK.

- I missed that the pope had made a short video about the Shroud of Turin. There was a post about it at the Episcopal Cafe - Shroud of Turin and physics of resurrection. I've been intrigued by the shroud since I read a science fiction trilogy years ago about it.