Slovakia stops Hungarian president from honouring saint

Slovakia and Hungary are embroiled in a diplomatic dispute, after the Hungarian president, László Sólyom, was prevented by Slovakia from entering its territory on 21 August.

Sólyom had been planning to visit Komárno, a Slovakian city with an ethnic-Hungarian majority, in order to take part in the unveiling of a statue of the first king of Hungary, St. Stephen. Since Hungary and Slovakia are both members of the Schengen Zone, there aren't supposed to be travel restrictions between the two.

However, the Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, who leads a coalition that includes a radical anti-Hungarian party, has remained unapologetic, saying that Sólyom's visit would have been a "violation of international law and Slovakia's sovereignty".

One reason that the Slovak government has cited for its take on the event is that 21 August happened to be the anniversary of the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by five members of the Warsaw Pact, including Hungary. On top of that, as the Slovak foreign minister, Miroslav Lajčák, pointed out, the organisers of the unveiling of the statue had not invited anyone from the Slovak government to participate.

The Hungarian foreign minister, Péter Balázs, has called his president's denial of entry into Slovakia "unprecedented and unacceptable".

Perhaps the most interesting thing in all this is that both Hungary and Slovakia are Catholic countries, with Catholics accounting for 55% of Hungarians and 69% of Slovaks. St. Stephen, meanwhile, was canonised in 1083. Just a glimpse of how modern nationalism tampers with long-established religious tradition.

Alexander Nevsky's remains arrive in Minsk

The remains of St Alexander Nevsky (d. 1263) have arrived in Minsk. The Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Vladimir of Tashkent and Central Asia accompanied the remains to Belarus. A "round-the-clock adoration of the relic" is taking place at the St Euphrosyne of Polack (Polatsk) Church in Minsk.

Nevsky is the Orthodox patron saint of soldiers and diplomats (Белорусские новости).

Volunteers look for tampered Santa Claus letters

After 15 children in Ottawa recieved letters from Santa Claus containing vulgarities, 12 volunteers got together at the Canada Post headquarters in the Canadian capital to inspect 1,500 letters written by other volunteers and due to be sent to children in response to the letters they write to Santa Claus. No new letters containing unfriendly messages or swear-words were found.

A million Canadian children get letters from Santa Claus, written by volunteers across Canada, each year (Ottawa Citizen).

Dozens killed, injured in pilgrim bus crash in France

Twenty-six Polish pilgrims on their way out of France were killed when their bus fell 15 m off a highway between Grenoble and Gap. They had been visiting the Catholic shrine of Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, where the Virgin Mary was reportedly seen in 1846. About 20 other pirlgrims were injured in the fall (BBC).

Pope in Brazil

Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Brazil, the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world. He is due to canonise Brother Antônio Galvaão, who is set to become the first Brazilian-born Catholic saint. Catholics account for 64% of Brazil's population.

On 13 May, the Pope is scheduled to open a meeting of about 200 bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean. The main topic under discussion is expected to be the church's steady and large-scale loss of members to various evangelical denominations. Abortion is likely to be another topic under discussion, as politicians in Mexico and Brazil have made several moves to weaken their countries strict anti-abortion laws (BBC).

Man whose eye was "miraculously" healed meets Pope

Six years ago, Phil McCord, facilities manager at a convent near Terre Haute, Indiana, had his eye healed by a miracle, or so he believes. He prayed to Mother Théodore Guérin (1798-1856), who founded the convent. After his prayer, his eye was healed, and 12 different doctors who subsequently examined him were unable to explain the recovery scientifically.

As a result of this reported miracle, which was the second claimed for Mother Théodore, the Catholic Church canonised her in 2006. St Théodore's remains have been disinterred, and placed in a shrine at the convent.

For his part, McCord is planning to convert to Catholicism. He recently met briefly with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Unfortunately, however, his dry cleaner had given him the wrong pair of trousers, and so he had to meet the Pope wearing trousers that were two inches too short (BBC).