Pope summons Cristina Odone

BY ANDREW M BROWN
CRISTNA OtioNE, the novelist and former editor of the Catholic Herald, is to present a ten-page paper on "writing as a vehicle of Christian values"at the Vatican next January.
The Pontifical Council for Culture has invited her to join a group of experts, chosen as representatives of Europe's rich cultural variety, who will address a symposium in preparation for the 1999 Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Europe.
The theme is "Christ the source of a new culture for Europe, on the threshold of the new Millennium". The Pope intends that the symposium should offer preparatory reflections for the Special Synod of Bishops for Europe,
which takes place in the autumn of 1999, on the threshold of the Jubilee.
Ms Odone told the Catholic Herald this week that she was thrilled and honoured at the invitation. Ms Odone was recently appointed deputy editor of the New Statesman magazine.