Actually, a blog post from CNS previewing the first volleyball rally ever to be played in St. Peter’s Square. Three hundred kids aged eight to 11 were to play on 16 makeshift courts in the square between 8:30 and 10 a.m., writes Carol Glatz, before Pope Benedict XVI began his weekly general audience at 10:30. The event was to promote the 2010 Men’s Volleyball World Championship, which will be held in Italy.

No subsequent coverage that I’ve yet seen, but the photo with Carol’s post is an eye-catching shot of history–a basketball game in St. Peter’s Square played in the presence of Pope Pius XII in 1955.

I covered a general audience in the 1980s when John Paul posed for a shot with the Harlem Globetrotters. “Yes, I have been to Harlem,” the pontiff told them. And he had. But there was no play that day. besides, Karol Wojtyla would likely have been called for goaltending, given his childhood soccer hobby.

The question here: Who’s defending Pope Pius?