Vatican admits using Wikipedia for Cardinal biographies

The Vatican has admitted using Wikipedia to compile biographies on 22 newly appointed Cardinals.

In some cases, the entries on the new Cardinals, announced by Pope Benedict last week, were copied word-for-word from the user-edited online encyclopedia.

Suspicion was raised after a number of the Cardinals were described as being "catholic".

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has defended the use of Wikipedia, saying his staff had not been given advance notice of the names of the new appointees and had been in a hurry to compile the biographies and distribute them to the media.