“The rich vitality of faith today is seriously under threat… Faith seems just a repetitive reality, tired, drawn out, dull and inward looking,” Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, “Italy’s leading candidate to become the next pope,” according to La Republica.

“Children…don’t even know how to make the sign of the cross,” Tettamanzi said in a lengthy document released as he marked his first anniversary as Cardinal of Italy’s financial capital Milan.

“The (wedding) ceremony has become a social custom based on aesthetics: the dress, the presents, the guests, the photos and the meal,” he said.