Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowships in Science & Religion

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican's official newspaper published a prominent yet understated rebuke of the Rev. Hans Kung, the dissident Catholic theologian, for his latest criticisms of Pope Benedict XVI.

Appearing on the front page of the Friday (April 23) edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the article responded to an April 16 open letter that Kung wrote to the world's Catholic bishops.

In that letter, the Swiss theologian accused Benedict of betraying the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and of engineering, when still known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a "worldwide system of covering up cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics."

Responding in L'Osservatore Romano, Pier Giordano Cabra (identified as Kung's first publisher in Italy) addressed the theologian in the form of a letter, under the headline "Dear Hans."

Cabra told Kung that "perhaps if your letter had breathed a bit more of the hymn to charity, it would have turned out to be a more elegantly evangelical gesture of congratulations" for Benedict's 83rd birthday and fifth anniversary as pope, as well as "a more fruitful contribution to the church that is suffering for the weakness of her sons."

Kung and Ratzinger were colleagues on the theology faculty of the University of Tubingen, Germany, in the mid-1960s. The two have long been opponents in theological debates. Pope John Paul II deprived Kung of his license to teach as a Catholic theologian in 1979.

TURIN, Italy (RNS) As hoteliers and souvenir vendors from Lourdes to Mexico City can readily attest, a sacred pilgrimage can quickly morph from a spiritual event into a commercial bonanza.

And although religious tourism has recently become a booming global industry, it's still rare for religious leaders themselves to sanction a pilgrimage for explicitly economic motives.

But the Shroud of Turin has always known how to draw a crowd.

The shroud, long venerated as the actual burial cloth of Jesus, was last displayed to the public in 2000. Its next exhibition wasn't expected until 2025, in part to protect the shroud's mysterious image -- the front and back of a 5-foot-11-inch man -- from the fading effects of light.

But when civic leaders in this automotive powerhouse sought to boost their crisis-stricken economy with an influx of tourism, the Catholic Church was ready to help.

Turin's Cardinal Severino Poletto, who maintains the relic on behalf of the pope in the Turin cathedral, agreed to a special six-week display this spring, which began April 10 and runs through May 23. Officials also hope to showcase other local attractions, including restored historic palaces and a cuisine gastronomes consider Italy's most refined.

This unusual bit of economic stimulus already seems to be working.

Over 1.5 million of the 2 million available free tickets to see the relic have been snatched up, and the city government says even the priciest hotels are booked solid for all weekends during the period.

Pope Benedict XVI himself will come to venerate the shroud on Sunday (May 2).

Over the past decade—as we know too well—the Internet has revolutionized journalism by allowing almost anyone to set up his own virtual news outlet from the comfort of his home-based laptop. But as Daniele Mastrogiacomo reminds us in "Days of Fear," there are still stories that require a willingness to brave fraught circumstances and, at times, to endure unimaginable hardship.

Mr. Mastrogiacomo, a veteran correspondent for the Rome daily La Repubblica, traveled to Afghanistan in 2007 for a promised interview with a Taliban military commander. He ended up spending two weeks in captivity, enduring repeated floggings, witnessing the decapitation of his Afghan driver and more than once coming close to being murdered himself.

Of course this ordeal— shorter yet evidently no less harrowing than the Taliban's later kidnapping of the New York Times's David Rohde— gave Mr. Mastrogiacomo deeper access to his subject than he had ever expected. As Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban commander, told him sardonically when they finally did meet: "You have obtained much more than an interview. You have seen how we live and how we think." The value of "Days of Fear," beyond its tense narrative, is precisely this close look at a far-off tribal society.

As he is taken to a series of squalid hiding places near the Pakistan border, Mr. Mastrogiacomo finds his captors eager to talk about the West, which they see as depraved, selfish and hopelessly anarchic. "Where you're from, the rules are unclear," one tells him. "That's why you are surrounded by murderers, thieves, betrayers." Mr. Mastrogiacomo argues with them, to no avail, in favor of sexual freedom and secular justice. Unable to join in a game of soccer because of his shackles, he ends up in the role of referee. The abductors "follow my instructions and abide by every one of my calls."