Today is the Feast of the Assumption all over the Christian world, a feast day first instituted by Emperor Maurice in 600 AD and bigged up by Pope Nicholas 1 around 850 AD to rival Christmas and Easter.

IN his Christmas message, Pope Benedict XVI called for the Child Jesus to “bestow upon political leaders the wisdom and courage to seek and find humane, just and lasting solutions” to world conflicts, including “the whole of the Middle East — especially Iraq”.