In an editorial for tomorrow’s edition, the newspaper suggested that the victims of the phone tapping scandal were not just those directly affected but also the general public and the communication industry itself.

Public opinion suffered because it was “deprived of truth in the information to which it was entitled”, the newspaper said. But it added the industry was also a victim “because it takes away the prestige and credibility of journalism which is essential to free and democratic societies.”

“This incident confirms the need and urgency, underscored by the Pope in his message for 42nd World Day of Social Communications, to require greater ethical consideration in the media, which cannot only submit to the dictates of economic and political strategies,” read the editorial, penned by Spanish media specialist, Fr José María Gil Tamayo.

He quoted the message in which the Pope said it was “essential” that social communications “should assiduously defend the person and fully respect human dignity.” The Pope noted in the message that “many people” now think “there is a need, in this sphere, for “info-ethics”, just as we have bioethics in the field of medicine and in scientific research linked to life.”

The Vatican newspaper said that civil society and especially the media need to “introduce a real code of ethics” that respects the “authentic natural and inviolable dignity of the human person”. In today’s “complex, pervasive and decisive” media environment, it said, only a society that takes such ethical considerations seriously would be able to properly exercise the “right of information”.

It proposed that such a code of conduct needs to be translated into “forms of self-control and legal protection, a true “ecology” (or ethical health) of social communication which is essential for a proper and free democratic coexistence.”

But the Vatican newspaper stressed in closing that an injection of ethics cannot happen without taking into account the moral state and health of society, which the media informs upon, and whose beliefs and behaviour it contributes to shaping.

“The ethical weakness of a society, fed also by moral relativism, has always had harmful consequences in all areas of human life,” the editorial said. It creates “a weakness from which social communications is unable to free itself,” but is instead worsened by a lack of a code of ethics which “makes the consequences even broader”.

“The anthropological and ethical deficiencies that certain ideologies have left behind are a sad legacy to contemporary society which can be overcome only with a sincere and humble return to the true moral and legal reality.” Fr Tamayo wrote.

And this, he said, must come from God who, “being the foundation, can not be ruled out.”

Known only as Andreas C, the 53-year-old lost part of his left hand in the explosion which was thought to have been the work of an anarchist terrorist group.

A native of Stalden near Zermatt, Andreas C. served 27 years in the Swiss Guard and became one of John Paul II¹s most trusted bodyguards. He was present during one of the pontiff’s most difficult visits, to Berlin in the mid 1990s, when protesters threw missiles at the Popemobile.

Since 2004, he has been the caretaker and head of security at the Swiss embassy in Rome.

According to the Swiss newspaper Blick, Andreas C tried to examine the parcel when it exploded, shredding his ring finger. The ambassador’s wife, Maria Regazzoni, tended to his wounds until emergency services arrived.

Earlier a former captain of the Swiss Guard had confirmed to me that the victim was one of his most respected colleagues.

Another parcel bomb was sent to the Chilean embassy in Rome, injuring an official. A further bomb sent to the Greek embassy was intercepted yesterday.

The 63-year-old archbishop, who will leave his current post as apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation early next year, is “famous” for the good work he did there, according to one Vatican official. “He’s easy to work with and is able to do great work.”

Another described his appointment as “very significant” for both the Church and the government. “He comes to the position with tremendous ecclesiastical and political skill and this makes it a really strong appointment,” he said. “He has a reputation of someone who’s going places.”

The Holy Father’s recent visit to Britain is said to have been an important factor in choosing Archbishop Mennini who is seen as highly capable on thorny matters relating to Church and state. He’s well regarded for the way he handled the very delicate relationship with Moscow, where he is credited for improving relations “dramatically” with the Russian Orthodox.

Archbishop Mennini has been the Pope’s representative to Russia since 2002, with Uzbekistan added later. He previously served as nuncio to Bulgaria and also worked in Turkey and Uganda after entering the diplomatic corps in 1981.

Although he has no experience of Catholic-Anglican relations, most of his predecessors didn’t either, but his eight years of dealing with a church closely linked to the state is expected to put him in good stead.

It’s too early to say how he will deal with a nuncio’s other important role: that of recommending names to Rome for episcopal appointment. He was involved in only a few appointments in Russia – notably Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of the Mother of God Archdiocese in Moscow in 2007, and in 2003, Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz of St Joseph in Irkutsk – geographically the largest diocese in the world. But he’ll be continuing his contacts with a recently overhauled Congregation for Bishops, now with a new prefect and secretary.

Born to a father who was a senior lay official in the Vatican, the archbishop is regarded as a “key Vatican insider”. He will be the first Italian to hold the position since 1997 and only the second since 1973.

Il Velino reports that Manuela was hit by a car yesterday at 11.40pm in a Rome suburb while returning from a dinner with friends. Rescued by the driver of the car, doctors operated on her head injuries but could not save her.

Manuela was part of a team of “guardian angels” who take care of the Pope. They include Loredana, Cristina and Carmela – the three other “memores domini” – and Msgrs. Georg Gaenswain and Alfred Xuereb.

Prior to working at the Apostolic Palace, she served the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, when he was Bishop of Tunis.

The Pope refers to his close team of helpers in the book “Light of the World” as his “papal family”. As well as Mass and Evening Prayer, he says they also dine and watch movies together, as well as celebrate and exchange gifts at Christmas and on feast days.

Members of the association “memores domini”, part of the Communion and Liberation movement, follow a vocation of total dedication to God while living in the world.

Mr Seewald, a German author and former magazine editor, has shared these brief comments about the book – the first ever to contain verbal interviews between a pontiff and a journalist.

Mr Seewald, how important do you think the book will be in helping people become better acquainted with the Pope?

Benedict XVI is still always falsely portrayed. Fundamentally, he is a very dear man and extremely lovable. Here is someone who is inexhaustible, a great giver. And if I’m honest, I know of few young people who are so fit, so productive, so alive, so curious and in a certain sense so young and as modern as this seemingly old man on the throne of Peter. This book contains not only an analysis of the crisis in the Church and society, but it is in some ways also a portrait of the Pope.

How much has the Pope changed since your last conversations with him?

Well to begin with, he’s quite simply gotten older. Aged 83 and leading the universal Church with 1.2 billion members is no trifling matter. Of course, this office has a tremendous aura, but the Joseph Ratzinger of earlier times is also the Joseph Ratzinger of today. He is like hard wood when it comes to the basic tenets of the faith – but he is also a shepherd, even more sensitive, humble and wiser now. Above all, he has kept his beautiful, subtle humor. Basically he is a very dear man, extremely lovable and his willingness to help others is positively touching.

You have said that some people will be upset by the book. What did you mean by this, and might this harm his pontificate?

This book will not fit well for many people, some because they will feel uncomfortable, their critical attitude to this Pope won’t change, and for others because this man does not correspond to their image of him as a reactionary. Conversely, Light of the World will make many people sit up – through his clarity, his truth, and ultimately through his prophetic words. It’s inconceivable to me that it would harm his pontificate. On the contrary, it will give us a new, unobstructed view of the Pope’s work and his great achievements so far. And it can help us in a world where so often the blind lead the blind, looking to find guidance. There is no doubt Pope Benedict is not only one of the greatest theologians, but also one of the greatest intellectuals and thinkers of our time. This book is a message to the world and the Church. And I think, as rarely before, it helps us come to understand not only the times in which we live, but also the core issues of the faith.

That was the advice I received from an informed source at the Vatican this morning. As with all such speculation, of course, it’s never certain until the official notice. But the rumours of the past few weeks do seem to be accurate, and the expected date of the consistory is likely to be November 20-21 in Rome.

One source excitedly pointed out that apartments near the Vatican are already being readied for the occasion.

The announcement, which is likely to be made either tomorrow or on Wednesday – at the Pope’s weekly general audience – will reveal the names of roughly 20 candidates who will become cardinals next month.

Many of them are likely to be Italians, but about half will be from elsewhere, including at least two of Americans and quite possibly Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, although the Holy Father is likely to stick to tradition and avoid naming a new cardinal in an archdiocese where the retired cardinal-archbishop is still under 80.

According to speculation, many of the names are expected to be Italians because Benedict XVI has appointed a substantial number of them to senior positions (one reporter has pre-announced it as the “Charge of the Italians”). At the moment these include Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli, prefect of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, Archpriest of St Paul Outside the Walls, Archbishop Paolo Sardi, Patron of the Knights of Malta, Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo and Archbishop Giuseppe Betori of Florence.

Among the Americans are Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, and Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington DC.

From other countries: Swiss Archbishop Kurt Koch, recently appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya (Kinshasa), Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith (Colombo), Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz (Warsaw), Archbishop Reinhard Marx (Munich), Archbishop André-Joseph Leonard (Brussels), Archbishop Willem Jacobus Eijk (Utrecht) and Archbishop Thomas Christopher Collins (Toronto).

The Pope may also appoint some elder distinguished figures of the Church, as he has in the past. According to Italian Vaticanists, these could be Mgr Domenico Bartolucci, Maestro Emeritus of the Sistine Chapel Choir, who is regarded as an admirer, friend and collaborator of Benedict XVI; Bishop Elio Sgreccia, until fairly recently president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and the German Mgr Walter Brandmüller of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.

Expect a possible surprise or two as well.

The Holy Father’s address to the Queen in Edinburgh will perhaps be equally historic, but it’s the one at the Palace of Westminster which is designed to have a lasting impact.

Freedom of conscience, faith and reason, and the positive contribution to society of the faith are the expected themes of the speech the Pope will deliver in the ancient chamber, perhaps most famous for being the place where St Thomas More was tried and condemned in 1535.

Westminster Hall has also been the site many other historical events, highly significant to British Catholics and to the nation as a whole. Originally constructed by William II (Rufus) in 1097, it was the venue for the coronation banquets of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth I. Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators were tried there, as were Charles I and Sir William Wallace.

More recently, it was where Edward VII, George V, George VI, Queen Mary, Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother all lay in state. It is also reserved for the most important addresses: Charles de Gaulle delivered a speech in the Hall on a visit to Britain in 1960, and Nelson Mandela did so in 1996.

For the government, Westminster Hall will be a crucial event, but so too will be the working dinner at Lancaster House on the Friday, attended by officials although not the Holy Father. “It’s not the point of the visit, but they [the government] are very interested in this [dinner],” one Vatican official told me. Common issues of concern will be international development, the environment, disarmament, education, HIV/Aids care and interreligious dialogue.

In his speeches, Benedict XVI will also raise matters which might make political leaders wince, namely those relating to marriage, life and the family, but he will apparently do this in a “delicate way”.

Whatever happens, expectations are “very high”, according to the official who’s been involved in some of the visit’s preparation. “Everything is well prepared, and it will be a very special moment. True, there have been difficulties, some people are not so happy with the visit, but it’s very important that ordinary people recognise he’s not just going for Catholics but for everyone, and with an important message to transmit.”

He predicted that it will in fact be “better than expectations” and hoped that “prejudices will fall”.

“It’s about the presence of the Pope,” he said, “and that changes everything.”

In 1961 she made her first official visit to the Vatican to meet John XXIII. In 1980 she made another state visit to meet John Paul II.

Not every visit the Queen makes is a state one: in the Jubilee Year she met John Paul II as a courtesy after travelling to Rome to meet President Carlo Ciampi on a state visit to Italy.

But as diplomacy is all about reciprocity, it was only natural that the Pope would be invited to make a state visit to Britain.

The question which perhaps really should be asked, therefore, is: why has it taken so long?

Tony Blair is scheduled to meet Benedict XVI next week to discuss interreligious dialogue.

Although the date and time of their meeting isn’t known, it’s possible the former Prime Minister will join religious leaders when they meet the Holy Father next Friday at St Mary’s College in Twickenham. Some reports say he will also accompany the Pope for some of his trip.

Through his Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which he created after leaving Downing Street, Mr Blair has been trying to promote respect and understanding about the world’s major religions and show them as a force for good.

However, the organisation faced some criticism last year when a member of the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, Mgr Michel Schooyans, claimed the organisation was an instrument to further Mr Blair’s “messianic” revision of human rights, moulding all religions into his own idea of truth.

A foundation spokesman strongly denied the charge, saying it was “definitely not looking to discover or create a lowest common denominator among faiths”. On the foundation website Mr Blair insists that the aim of his organisation is not to “supplant or undermine” other religions, but rather “allow people to respect and value the other person’s beliefs, to understand what those beliefs really are, and to let those of different faiths see the values they often share”.

But there is also the serious problem of Mr Blair’s voting record on life issues. Among other policies, he voted to retain the 24-week limit on abortion and championed civil partnerships legislation. He has yet to publicly repudiate any of these since he was received into the Church in 2007.

Yet were it not for Mr Blair, this state visit may not be taking place.
According to sources, he was one of the first to support inviting the
Pope after paying three visits to the Vatican while he was the nation’s
political leader. Cherie Blair also had her own private audience with
Benedict. Their visits were followed by Gordon Brown who met Benedict
XVI twice at the Vatican, once as Prime Minister last year when he
invited the Pope on behalf of the Queen.

His predecessor, John Major, on the other hand, never visited the Vatican.

Nearly all of the names being bandied around are well-known and none of them from the ranks of the diplomatic service. Such is the prestige and stature of the role, transformed largely thanks to Campbell’s efforts, the ambassadorial role has become a political appointment that warrants someone of particularly high stature and experience.

The question is would they be willing to do the job and feel they could do it.

The names being mentioned naturally depend somewhat on the views and preferences of the persons naming them, but at the moment the current leading contenders are:

Lord Patten of Barnes:
The 66 year-old Chancellor of Oxford University is considered to be the “logical choice” having had a wealth of foreign policy experience as EU Commissioner and the last Governor of Hong Kong. Combining the job with his chancellorship wouldn’t be impossible (the Duke of Edinburgh is Chancellor of Cambridge). He is described as a ‘liberal Catholic’ but some think he would still fit the ambassadorial role “like a square peg in a square hole”.

The Earl of Ancram:
Michael Ancram, 65, the 13th Marquess of Lothian, is a former Conservative minister who stood down at the last election. Born in London but of Scottish descent, the Ampleforth-educated peer was once Shadow Foreign and Defence Secretary. He supports multilateral nuclear disarmament, an important point of convergence with the Holy See.

The Lord Deben
Better known as John Gummer, Lord Deben, 70, became a peer in June after a distinguished parliamentary career in which served most notably as Secretary of State for the Environment (1993-1997). A convert to Catholicism from the Church of England and a former columnist for The Catholic Herald, his strong environmental credentials would tie in well with Benedict XVI’s repeated calls for responsible stewardship of creation.

Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank
A convert to Catholicism and a Knight of Malta, Lord Guthrie was Chief of the Defence Staff (1997-2001) and head of the British Army (1994-1997). Like Michael Ancram, Lord Guthrie, 71, is a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation (TLG), a cross-party parliamentary group.

Lord Camoys
The 7th Baron Camoys was the first Catholic Lord Chamberlain since the Reformation (1998-2000). A banker by trade and former deputy chairman of Sotheby’s, Lord Camoys, 70, was made a papal knight in 2006 by Benedict XVI. In June 2009, he was appointed chairman of the Tablet Trust.

Lady Powell
Born in Italy, Lady Powell (nee Bonardi) is the wife of Margaret Thatcher’s former Downing Street advisor, Lord Powell of Bayswater. Friends with David Cameron and Tony Blair who have both stayed at her Rome home, Lady Powell is very well connected and described by some as “the ultimate compromise candidate”. A leading Rome socialite and recently appointed papal correspondent on The Spectator, it’s said there are few gatherings with cardinals where Lady Powell is not present. One government source said she is “a wonderful lady who would do the job extremely well.”

John Battle
A former Labour Member of Parliament for Leeds West (1987-2010), Battle, 59, once spent three years in seminary. Strongly pro-life, he was opposed to the 1991 Gulf War, has keen interests in international development and has been a longstanding champion for East Timor. He was made a papal knight in 2006.

Other Labour Catholics are also being mentioned as potential candidates. They include former ministers Helen Liddle, now Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke, Paul Murphy MP, a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Ruth Kelly, a former Secretary of State for Education and member of Opus Dei who stood down at the last election.

To be ambassador to the Holy See is not a standard Foreign Office position: it has a very large international dimension coupled with a very strong domestic component. It therefore requires someone with knowledge of foreign affairs as well as established and direct links with the government of the day.

When Campbell took up the post in 2006, he had worked four years as Tony Blair’s EU policy adviser in Downing Street. He therefore already knew many key figures and had privileged access to members of the cabinet and civil service.

But it’s also important to have someone with gravitas. Some very delicate issues have to be confronted and in the past four years, the ambassador has had to deal with the gay adoption issue, human-animal hybrid embryo legislation, and controversies over education.

“It needs someone who knows the issues, which ones to navigate, and how to keep and maintain the diplomatic relationship despite tensions,” said one source. “It’s delicate because it’s got a huge domestic constituency, so to do that you have to get ringing round.”

Each of the above candidates would therefore fit the bill, but whether they would step up to the plate is another question and so far no candidate other than Miss Widdecombe has shown such enthusiasm for the role.

“We’re struggling to come up with anyone who would probably do it,” said one government source. “We’ve now probably only got Francis until the New Year so we’d better get cracking.”