Varia...

You can listen to the 'O-Antiphons' courtesy of the choir of the North American College. Incidentally, I understand that the Anglophone community in Rome was very disappointed in the fact that the NAC cancelled their Advent service of Lessons and Carols this year. What gives, chaps?
There's an interesting news story in the Telegraph about the design of a new cap badge for a regiment of the British army:

Patrick Mercer, a Tory MP and a former commanding officer of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, said he was "partly pleased" that the badge had been rejected because it looked like a "ghastly strangled chicken". He added: "The badge is not attractive but it is probably the best compromise."

There's also a piece about how Google Earth may be being used by Iraqi insurgents.
The old chestnuts about Pope John I of happy memory are coming to the fore again:

LISBON (AFP) - Pope John Paul I, who died from an apparent heart attack just 33 days after becoming pontiff in 1978, was in fact assassinated over his plans to radically reform the Catholic Church, a novel to be published worldwide next year charges.
Portuguese author and television scriptwriter Luis Miguel Rocha, 29, said he based "The Last Pope" on documents he obtained through an undisclosed Vatican source, which he will make public once the novel is published in April.

Ah yes! The novel... the cathechism of a religiously illiterate age.
Pictures of the Vatican Christmas tree.
And from the crazy schismatic file:

MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A Roman Catholic bishop here has excommunicated members of a communal sect whose leader allegedly claims to be a manifestation of the late Pope John Paul II.
Sect leader Edwin Gonzalez Concepcion and his followers can no longer receive communion or participate in church activities, according to the order issued by Mayaguez Bishop Ulises Casiano Vargas.
Gonzalez, a former firefighter in the town of Aguada, has told his followers that he became a manifestation of John Paul when the pope died in April and that Pope Benedict XVI is the "antichrist," according to the order, which priests in the diocese read to their congregations Sunday.
Members of the group couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The bishop also alleged that another sect leader, Gladys Miranda, claims she is the Virgin Mary, and that followers of the group make it hard for parishioners to receive communion by lying face-down in the aisle.