Two weeks after it started to be accessible on the Internet, the first daily on-line news service dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI is already being accessed by 130,000 visitors a day, to the joy of its founder and director Gianluca Barile.

The on-line news service is called Petrus and can be accessed at www.papanews.it.

While understandably, the bulk of those who access it come from Italy, 80.65 per cent, it is rather surprising to note that visitors from Malta, 1.79 per cent, are even more numerous than those who access it from inside the Vatican (0.82 per cent of visitors).

There are only three countries with a higher percentage of visitors than Malta: Switzerland (4.71), Uruguay (2.61), and US (2.51). France (0.92), Poland and Brazil (0.87) and Portugal (0.72) rank after Malta.