In the beginning there was … Madonna. Now you can also download Pope Benedict XVI into your iPod. The Holy See’s official broadcaster, Vatican Radio, is ”podcasting” audio content to any of the world’s one-billion-plus Catholics who own a portable MP3 player.

Two large images of the late Pope John Paul II tower over Lisena inside her take-away pizza shop near the Vatican. Below and to the right, a postcard-sized photo of his successor struggles to make itself seen between slices of Spicy Salame and Margherita pizza.

Transubstantiation has always been a difficult concept to come to grips with. Even many of Jesus’s first listeners left in disbelief upon hearing the words: ”He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”