Italy’s leading Catholic magazine apologised to its readers today after running an advert with a woman’s naked backside and promised that in the future its advertisements would follow the weekly's wholesome editorial line more closely.

Pope John Paul II today put more faithful on the path to possible sainthood, including a preacher who helped inspire Christians to defeat Muslims in the 1683 siege of Vienna and a priest-typographer who founded the publishing house behind a top-selling Italian magazine.