Oh, I see that the new more bloggy John Allen page is up at NCR(eporter) and he’s been posting items all week – which means that the Friday column is much shorter – this week a look at Benedict and Islam.

Highlights from the week:

What’s going on with saints:

In terms of cases involving candidates who were either born in the United States or who spent time in America, Vatican officials said three seem to be heading for significant steps forward:
• A miracle attributed to Blessed Damian of Molokai, the famed Belgian priest who worked with lepers in the Hawaiian Islands in the late 19th century, is under examination. If approved, it would clear the way for canonization. Damien was beatified by John Paul II in 1995.
• A miracle attributed to Fr. Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, is also awaiting consideration in Rome after having been studied and approved at the diocesan level. If accepted by the congregation, the miracle would set the stage for McGivney’s beatification.
• What one official described as an “excellent miracle case” is under study for Pierre Toussaint, who was born into a Haitian slave family in 1766 and who lived most of his life in New York. The miracle would move Toussaint towards eventual beatification.

One Vatican source said that of these cases, none is likely to be ready for 2007, although if Toussaint’s miracle is authenticated, he may stand a good chance of reaching beatification in 2008.

His take on the rumors:

Though several sources have confirmed that a text is on its way – generally held to be a motu proprio, or an exercise of the pope’s personal authority – there are varying accounts of what it might contain. Whether it will amount to a “universal indult,” meaning blanket permission for any priest to celebrate the older Mass at any time and in any place, remains to be seen, though most observers seem to believe the authorization will be somewhat more circumscribed, perhaps dependent upon a minimum number of faithful who request it.

And then, back to today: Benedict and Islam:

The picture may come quickly into focus on an island off Istanbul, where the storied Orthodox seminary of Halki sits shuttered for 35 years by order of the Turkish government. Halki has become a global emblem of the "reciprocity" issue, meaning the tendency of Islamic states to deny their minorities the same freedoms that Muslims receive in the West.

What — if anything — the pope chooses to say about Halki will therefore reveal a great deal about the temper of his trip.