Papal Visit - Yay, Birmingham here we come!

Number One Son will be pleased when he hears the good news. Our diocese has been allocated enough places for the Beatification at Cofton Park to enable all those who've signed up to be able to attend. I guess this might be because we are quite a long way away and more people have probably opted for the Hyde Park venue.

Mind you, the said son might not be quite so pleased to hear that departure time may well be between 3am and 5am!

Seriously though, I think he'd probably be prepared to go without sleep altogether to be able to see His Holiness during his visit.

We haven't been quite so lucky with places for Hyde Park but it looks as if quite of lot of those in our parish who said they were definitely interested in attending will be able to do so. It will probably come down to drawing names out of a hat in the end - a biretta, naturally!

Papal approval for one of my greatest weaknesses!

Thanks to A Catholic Cappuccino, Please! for the information on the history of the cappuccino coffee.

On April 27, 2003, Pope John Paul beatified Padre Marco d'Aviano, a 17th-century friar credited with halting a Muslim invasion of Europe and in the process discovering the frothy coffee-drink cappuccino.
History books also show that with a vast Ottoman Turk army beating a path to Vienna in 1683, d'Aviano was sent by the then-pope to unite the outnumbered Christian troops, spurring them to victory. As the Turks fled, legend has it they left behind sacks of coffee, which the Christians found too bitter, so they sweetened it with honey and milk. The drink, now supped by millions around the world, was called cappuccino after the Capuchin order of monks to which d'Aviano belonged.

I shan't feel quite so self-indulgent as I sit and enjoy my cappuccino now I know a little of the history of the drink. It's a very Catholic drink, after all!