Morning Catholic must-reads: 04/01/13

A group of European and North American bishops known as the Holy Land Co-ordination will visit Syrian refugees in Jordan next week.

Almost 2.5 million pilgrims saw Benedict XVI at the Vatican in 2012, the same number as in 2011.

A scholarly journal has delayed further the publication of an article on an ancient papyrus fragment apparently referring to “Jesus’s wife”.

The National Portrait Gallery in London has discovered an image of the Virgin and Child under a painting of the ruthless persecutor of Catholics, Sir Francis Walsingham.

A book written by a 96-year-old Canadian nun offering lifestyle advice based on the gospels has sold 19,000 copies in Japan.

Fr John Zuhlsdorf, Catherine Pepinster, Fr Tim Finigan, Fr Ray Blake, George Conger, Andrew Brown and Dylan Parry comment on Archbishop Vincent Nichols’s decision to end the “Soho Masses”.

And the Catholic News Service tells you 10 things you should know about new head of papal household, Archbishop-designate Georg Gänswein.

Follow me on Twitter @lukecoppen for updates throughout the day.