Forget coffee, says the Vatican, which is too busy defending the pope’s heralding of an anti-Muslim crusader to be much interested in Starbucks prehistory. In his beatification speech, the pope said D’Aviano is a symbol that Europe’s “unity will be more stable if it is based on its common Christian roots.” A Vatican spokeswoman defends the impolitic choice of D’Aviano for public exaltation in late April, and asserts that he has been slated for “some time now.” But John Allen, Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, thinks the timing was calculated, noting that the Vatican has insisted that the EU’s constitutional document include a specific reference to the Christian identity of Europe as the basis for its value system. Not surprisingly, delegates from some countries, including France and Sweden, balked.
