Pope and Prince Charles discuss climate change

Prince Charles spent his first audience with Pope Benedict XVI discussing “certain questions of mutual interest” including environmental protection, according to the Vatican.

The Prince was accompanied at the 15 minute reception by his consort, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, who was wearing a black dress and black lace mantilla over her hair.

Monday’s meeting was Camilla’s first visit to the Vatican and Prince Charles’ first private audience with a pope since his divorce from Princess Diana and subsequent remarriage to Camilla.

In an address to the Italian parliament earlier in the day, Prince Charles warned of a “new Dark Age” if action was not taken on climate change.

“If we are to bequeath to our children a world that is fit to inhabit, then I fear we must act now," he said.

He added, "What on earth is the point of procrastinating? History will judge us by how we respond to climate change.”

The Prince warned that the world had the choice of bringing about a “Renaissance that led the world towards a genuinely sustainable existence” or allowing “a new Dark Age to sprawl across our future, plunging us on a course towards catastrophe”.
News
EU mission to review Pakistan’s human rights record
EU mission to review Pakistan’s human rights record

Rights activists urged the European Union to investigate widespread human rights violations in Pakistan, including persecution of religious minorities, ahead of a review starting Monday by a key EU mission monitoring the country’s eligibility for preferential trade terms.

Government urged to support nation's historic churches
Government urged to support nation's historic churches

The Church of England is urging the government to step up financial support for historic churches and cathedrals after a new poll by Savanta found that many people use and appreciate them. 

The decades long exodus of Anglican clergy into Catholicism
The decades long exodus of Anglican clergy into Catholicism

Women priests and a papal visit in 2010 all helped ease the path to Rome.

VAT may crush struggling churches
VAT may crush struggling churches

Having already managed to close down at least 50 private schools via VAT, concerns are mounting that a similar financial assault will take its toll on the nation’s churches.