Twelfth (eleventh?) pontifical academy to be Pontificia Academia Latinitatis

The Vatican's next pontifical academy is to be one devoted to the Latin language. I'm uncertain whether this is the twelfth or the eleventh one - the article says this one adds to the existing eleven, but according to this page on Wikipedia (taken directly from the Dictionary of Popes and the Papacy) the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy (listed after ten others) is not one of the pontifical academies but is one of the Roman colleges...but perhaps that information is out of date and there actually is an eleventh.

Not that that is of any great importance - the upcoming establishment of one for the Latin language is. The members will be "eminent academics of various nationalities, whose aim it will be to promote the use and knowledge of the Latin language in both ecclesiastical and civil contexts, including schools", and it is said to be in response to the large volume of requests for the Vatican to play a role in promoting the language.

One more related article - Latin is said to be enjoying a boom in German schools as well.

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Pope gets 26 new Swiss guards

Perhaps not much geopolitical importance here, but interesting nonetheless:

26 new Swiss Guards will take the oath on 6 May this year: 16 German, 5 French, and 5 Italian speakers (Canton of Ticino - the only canton in Switzerland where Italian is the sole official language).

Ticino is also where Hermann Hesse lived.

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Vatican news (News.va) soon to be available in French and Portuguese

From here yesterday in Italian:

News.va, the the site that collects sources of information of the Vatican, will soon be available in Frenche, and in a month in Portuguese. This is in addition to the three languages already available: Italian, English and Spanish.

With this, a year after its birth, the site will have five languages. This was announced to journalists today by Msgr. Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Counsil for Social Communications.

According to him, News.va has 8,000 to 10,000 hits a day, with points up to 16,000.

Of the 180 countries that visit the site, 27% are from the US, followed by Europe (Italy, Germany, Spain), Canada, and Brazil. 52% of the total are new visitors, while 47% are frequent visitors who come regularly. Entrance to the site is usually through social networks: 65% come through Facebook, 30% through Twitter.

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