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Europe' Smallest Countries: - THE VATICAN

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Bianca
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« Reply #90 on: December 31, 2008, 08:41:26 am »









                                                  Vatican divorces Italian laws


                                   They are too numerous and unstable, Holy See says






 (ANSA) -
Vatican City,
December 30, 2008

- The Vatican will no longer automatically adopt Italian laws as its own when a new statute comes into effect on Thursday, according to Vatican daily Osservatore Romano.

Jose' Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Vatican Law, said the move was motivated by the ''exorbitant number'' of Italian laws, as well as their ''instability'' and frequent contrast with ''the irreversible principles of the Church''.

Although the Vatican is an independent city-state, its residents are largely recognised as Italian citizens.

Under the current statute signed by Pope Piux XI in 1929, Italian laws are accepted by the Holy See except in cases where there is ''radical incompatibility'' with the basic principles of canon law, Ruiz said.

But the new statute signed by Pope Benedict XVI will mean all Italian laws will have to be examined by Vatican authorities before they are adopted as part of the city-state's own legislation.

Italian Parliament Relations Minister Elio Vito said Wednesday that he agreed ''from a technical point of view'' with some of the criticism published in Osservatore Romano.

''There's no doubt that there are too many laws, they are often written badly and they are sometimes not very understandable,'' he said.

But he pointed out that Simplification Minister Roberto Calderoli has been working to cut more than 36,000 laws, most of which were passed before Italy's Constitution went into effect in 1948, from the Italian code.

Vito added that an ad hoc committee in the Chamber of Deputies was at work to eliminate ''those mysterious references and paragraphs and articles with which everyone has come unstuck at least once'', while the government also plans to publish laws online to improve accessibility.

Opposition Democratic Party Senator Giorgio Tonini meanwhile leapt to the defence of Italian law in daily newspaper La Stampa, expressing surprise at what he described as the Vatican's ''peremptory failing'' of the democratic Italian system. ''Parliament produces laws based on the changeable course of public opinion, there is a continuous political discussion and the general vision changes according to whether the centre-right or centre-left are in power,'' he said.

The Vatican's new statute also states that the Holy See will scrutinize international treatises before deciding whether to sanction ''the explicit admission of conformity of the Holy See'' - a measure that has been implicit in the past.

The move comes in the wake of a flap over a French proposal that the United Nations approve a declaration decriminalising homosexuality, which was backed by Italy but which the Vatican partly condemned, enraging gay rights groups.

The Vatican delegation at the UN urged countries around the world to decriminalise homosexuality but criticised the wording of the proposal, saying it went too far in an attempt to place different sexual orientations on the same level.
« Last Edit: December 31, 2008, 08:41:56 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #91 on: January 08, 2009, 08:35:59 am »









                     Pope deplores Gaza violence - Military option 'not a solution' says Benedict






 (ANSA)
- Vatican City,
January 8, 2009

- Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday deplored the violence in Gaza, saying that the military option was not a solution for Israel or the Palestine Islamist group Hamas.

The pope's comments came a day after his pointman for peace and justice, Cardinal Renato Martino, angered Israel by calling Gaza ''a concentration camp''.

Israel responded Wednesday night by accusing Martino of using the same kind of language as Hamas.

The pope was speaking Thursday to 177 ambassadors at the Holy See in a traditional New Year's address.

He said: ''I should like to repeat once again that the military option is not a solution and that violence, whatever side it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned''.

Benedict urged the international community to help reach a truce in the Gaza Strip, ''indispensable for restoring acceptable living conditions for the population,'' and called for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would respect both sides' ''legitimate aspirations and rights''.

The pope also reaffirmed the need for dialogue between Israel and Syria, and urged support for ''the ongoing consolidation'' of institutions in Lebanon.

As the conflict escalated with the first exchange of missiles between Israel and Hezbollah, the pope also voiced the hope that upcoming elections in the Middle East would produce ''leaders capable of taking the peace process forward with determination''.

Elections are due in Israel on February 10 while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently said he would call elections ''soon'' unless the rift between Hamas and his more moderate Fatah group is sealed. Lebanese elections are set for June 7.
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« Reply #92 on: January 08, 2009, 08:38:39 am »









CREDIT CRUNCH, DISARMAMENT, ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE.



In other remarks, the pope called for a more effective strategy to combat hunger and the increasing poverty caused by the global credit crunch. He said the current world economic crisis has created difficulties and uncertainties for many families, and ''increased the percentage of poor people living in rich countries''. The food crisis and global warming have worsened the situation, said Benedict, stressing the ''urgency'' of finding ''an effective strategy to combat hunger and boost agricultural development''.

The pope also said there was a ''serious crisis'' in global disarmament efforts and military spending was draining resources sorely needed for the world's poor.

Benedict said: ''The Holy See must continue to stress that we shall not be able to build peace when military spending diverts huge human and material resources from development projects, especially for the poorest peoples''.

He called for a negotiated solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme ''in a way which would satisfy the legitimate needs of the country and the international community''. ''Achieving this result would greatly promote regional and world detente,'' said Benedict.

The pope went on to cite a catalogue of global woes including natural disasters, ''bloody national or regional conflicts'' and terrorist attacks which ''have sown death and destruction in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Algeria''.

He also called for ''reconciliation'' in Kosovo.

The pope urged an end to intolerance and persecution against Christians, recalling victims of violence in Iraq, India and some Asian countries. Anti-Christian fanatics killed 20 Catholic missionaries and volunteers in 2008, the Vatican news agency Fides said in its annual report last week. photo: pope arriving for the diplomatic gathering
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« Reply #93 on: January 09, 2009, 07:34:07 am »









                                             Will the Pope Cancel His Holy Land Trip?






Jeff Israely –
Time.com
JAN. 9, 2009

Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's election, a Vatican Cardinal close to the pontiff predicted a Holy Land pilgrimage would be the first or second trip on the new papal itinerary. "It will happen soon," the Cardinal told me privately. "He very badly wants to go."


Nearly four years and 10 trips later, the visit was finally confirmed last month, even though some prickly bilateral issues between the Holy See and the Israeli government remained unresolved. But as Israel's assault on Gaza reaches the two-week mark, Vatican diplomats now say the long anticipated voyage (with planned stops in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan) is increasingly at risk of being cancelled. (See pictures of Benedict XVI's first year.)


Following the first rounds of air strikes on Hamas targets, chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi had cautioned that it was "premature" to say whether the conflict would scuttle the trip. But Church insiders now acknowledge that hopes for the planned visit are growing dimmer as the conflict deepens with Israel's all-out air and ground assault on Gaza growing bloodier. "At the beginning, you could imagine [the war] not forcing the Pope to change his plans," says one well-placed Vatican insider, who often travels to the region. "But it's clear now that everything would have to be reconsidered for [the trip] to happen." (See pictures from the Pope's 2007 visit to America.)


The Palestinian death toll has topped 700, according to U.N. and other sources in Gaza, while 11 Israelis have been killed, eight of them soldiers. Meanwhile, worldwide calls for a cease-fire - including repeated pleas from Benedict himself - have been for naught. On Thursday, during his annual address to the international diplomatic corps assigned to the Holy See, the Pope said that "military options are no solution and that violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned." The Vatican has long called for a negotiated settlement, and wants Israel and the United States to engage other regional players, including Syria and Iran, to find what the Pope on Thursday called a "global approach" to finding a lasting Middle East peace.


Complicating matters for the planned papal trip was a remark by Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Office for Justice and Peace, who likened the situation in Gaza to a "concentration camp." Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman responded bluntly on Thursday. "We are astounded to hear from a spiritual dignitary words that are so far removed from truth and dignity," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor was quoted as telling Reuters. "The vocabulary of Hamas propaganda, coming from a member of the College of Cardinals, is a shocking and disappointing phenomenon."


The issue of the Holocaust had already been a sticking point during negotiations for a possible papal visit. Church officials have demanded Israel remove a photograph caption at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial that criticizes Pope Pius XII's conduct during World War II. Jewish leaders and some historians argue that Pius failed to use his moral power to denounce the atrocities. Catholic leaders are pushing for Pius to be made a saint of the Church, saying he was one of the 20th century's great popes, and that he did what was possible during Nazi occupation. Benedict has given mixed signals as to whether he will forge ahead with the cause for beatification, the last step before sainthood.


The debate over these historical matters may become moot if the current conflict continues, and the trip to Israel gets shelved. Less politically oriented than his immediate predecessor, Pope John Paul II, Benedict finds his comfort zone when reflecting on Church history and digging into Christian theology. Having already written a best-selling scholarly treatise on Jesus during his papacy, Benedict had envisioned his trip to the holy sites in the Middle East as above all a pilgrimage to the birthplace of his faith. Such was the case in 1964 when Pope Paul VI visited holy sites on the first papal visit to Israel, long before the Vatican and the Jewish State had established diplomatic relations. When John Paul II went in 2000 it was a mix of pilgrimage and politics, with an inevitable emphasis on inter-religious relations.


If the violence does end soon enough, and the papal trip can be salvaged, Benedict's arrival in the region would inevitably be much more political than he may have initially hoped. "He wanted to make a voyage of faith. But the context has changed," says the Vatican source. "Now the focus would be on peace. It could give him the chance to leave a legacy there." First, though, he must pray for the chance to even make such a complicated pilgrimage, as the Middle East's collision of faith and politics grows bloodier by the day.


View this article on Time.com
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« Reply #94 on: January 09, 2009, 07:53:34 am »









                                                Vatican- Israel tension downplayed


                                Relations unchanged after Gaza 'concentration camp' comment
 





(ANSA)
- Vatican City,
January 8, 2008

- The Israeli ambassador to the Holy See on Thursday downplayed tensions between Israel and the Vatican after Pope Benedict XVI's pointman for peace and justice, Cardinal Renato Martino, likened Gaza to ''a big concentration camp''.

Ambassador Mordechai Lewy dismissed Martino's comments, saying that the cardinal was not in charge of the Vatican's diplomatic relations and had ''never seen a concentration camp in his life''.

''The relationship between Israel and the Vatican is as good as before,'' Lewy said.

He praised the pope for condemning violence in Gaza and appealing to both sides for peace in a traditional New Year's address on Thursday.

Lewy added that a hope voiced by the pope that upcoming elections in the Middle East would produce leaders capable of taking the peace process forward was not a criticism of current leaders nor aimed exclusively at Israel, where elections are due on February 10.

''There are elections coming up in other countries, such as Iran,'' he said.

Lewy also confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would be ''welcome'' if he decides to go ahead with a visit to the Holy Land that was being planned before Israel began its military offensive in Gaza 12 days ago.

According to leaks from both Israel and the Vatican the visit had been scheduled to take place in May.

''The Vatican will decide if and when the trip will take place, but there is still time,'' Lewy said.

Martino angered Israel on Wednesday by calling Gaza ''a big concentration camp'' in which the ''defenceless population'' paid for ''the consequences of egoism''.

Israel responded by accusing Martino of using the same kind of language as Hamas.

On Thursday Martino defended his comments.

''They can say what they want, but the situation in Gaza is horrible - people are living in conditions that offend human dignity,'' he told daily La Repubblica.

''There was nothing that could be interpreted as anti-Israeli in my words,'' he said. ''Hamas's rockets are certainly not sugared almonds. I condemn them. Both sides have to shoulder the blame''.
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« Reply #95 on: January 20, 2009, 08:25:48 am »










                                          Pope praises Galileo, celebrates the Solstice



                                                             Galileo magnifico?






By Joe Fay •
Posted in
Science,
22nd December 2008

The Pope tipped his hat to long-time Vatican bugbear Galileo this weekend as he helped kick off the 2009 International Year of Astronomy.

Pope Benedict also gave some comfort to pagans by acknowledging the connection between the date of Christmas and the Winter Solstice.

Pope Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, formally apologised for the Church's hounding of Galileo for pointing out that the Earth - and therefore man - was not at the centre of the Universe, never mind the solar system. But the relationship between Benedict and the sciences in general and astronomy in particular, has been somewhat pricklier.

So, it might have seemed perverse that the pope this weekend decided to highlight Unesco's International Year of Astronomy, which marks 400 years since Galileo first used the telescope. Still, the occasionally surprising Benedict - he wears Prada after all - rose to the occasion, paying tribute to Galileo and his ilk for promoting further understanding of the laws of nature.

Of course, in the Vatican's world, it doesn't stop there. Understanding the laws of nature therefore stimulates an appreciation of God's work. This would normally be the point at which we kick off an unholy row by asking whether the pope is then saying the laws of nature were laid down by God, and are not independent of him, whether he exists or not.

But instead, we're going to marvel at how Benedict, after veering into science, then seems to have swerved into Dan Brown territory. After pointing how Christmas uncannily coincides with the Winter solstice, he gave an account of how astronomy, and the solstice, underlie the very architecture of the Vatican.

According to AsiaNews.it, Benedict pointed out that "not everyone knows that St Peter's Square is also a meridian: the obelisk, in fact, casts its shadow along a line that runs along the pavement toward the fountain under this window, and in these days the shadow is at its longest of the year.

"This reminds us of the function of astronomy in marking out the rhythm of prayer. The Angelus, for example, is recited in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, and with the meridian, which was used in ancient times to identify 'true noon', clocks were adjusted."





Of course, this is what the Pope wants you to think. As any good conspiracy theorist knows, he is clearly trying to distract attention from the fact that the obelisk naturally points to the grave of Mary Magdalene, who is interred with the Templar's gold, the Ark of the Covenant and the outline for Dan Brown's next novel. ®
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« Reply #96 on: January 24, 2009, 08:07:57 am »









                                           Vatican: Pope makes YouTube debut



                                    Social networking represents new venue for Church






 (ANSA) -
Vatican City,
January 23, 2009

- Pope Benedict XVI made his official debut on YouTube on Friday with a number of video clips prepared by the Vatican media service posted on the video sharing website.

Pope Benedict's clips can be viewed at: www.youtube.com/vaticanit.

The event was announced by Vatican Radio Director Father Federico Lombardi during the presentation of the pope's message for Social Communications Day.

At the same time the Vatican's website reported the news and said the pope's debut on YouTube ''writes a new page in the history of the Holy See''.

''We are convinced that there are people interested in the pope's message and that they, in their search for the meaning of life, are among the many who surf the Web. It for them that we have opened a YouTube channel,'' Father Lombardi explained.

The videos posted on the site will include clips of papal audiences, the pope's meetings with important world figures, celebrations in St Peter's Square ''and daily events which we cover and that we think could be video news,'' the head of Vatican Radio said.

Father Lombardi added that he will have the final word on the content posted given his position as head of Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center (CTV).

All the material will copyrighted by the Holy See and prepared by Vatican Radio and CTV and it will not be possible to download the clips, he explained.

While the original clips will be in Italian, ''thanks to collaboration with H2onews many videos will also be available in English, German and Spanish,'' the Vatican Radio chief said.

H2onews is a worldwide Catholic multimedia news service which focuses on the life of the Church and events regarding Catholics living in the world.

''We are starting off with 12 video clips which center on the events of recent weeks and then added to these every day,'' he added.

The YouTube site also includes a number of links with Vatican Radio, CTV, the Vatican daily Osservatore Romano and H2onews ''because we are well aware that the Vatican and the pope are not the whole Church, which is present and operates throughout the world. Thus Catholic TV channels the world over will be called on to contribute video news,'' Father Lombardo said.

The church's foray into social networking will also include a number of interactive options including the possibility of sending a message and sharing as well as placing a document in the archive of IGoogle.

''Interaction is a path we have embarked upon, we'll see where it leads us. In the future we hope to expand the range of contributions and the languages used, Father Lombardi said.

''The Holy Father was personally informed about our project and we feel very encouraged because he was very pleased with it,'' he added.
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« Reply #97 on: January 29, 2009, 06:08:27 pm »









                                               Galileo Vatican statue 'shelved'


                                         But 'time is ripe' for 'fresh reconsideration'






 (ANSA)
- Vatican City,
January 29, 2009

- The Vatican has shelved plans to put up a statue to Galileo Galilei, the Italian astronomer famously forced to recant his discovery that the earth moves around the sun.

''The project has been shelved for the moment,'' the Vatican's culture chief Msgr Gianfranco Ravasi told reporters as he outlined events for World Astronomy Year.

Confirming press reports, Ravasi said a preparatory sketch for the statue had been made before it was decided not to make the statue.

He did not elaborate on the decision apart from saying that there was a sponsor who was then told to spend the money on a scientific project in Africa.

The statue to Galileo was to have stood outside the Pontifical Academy of Science, according to reports. Ravasi went on to say that the Church was ready to ''further reconsider the Galileo case'', 17 years after Pope John Paul II admitted it had erred in condemning him.

''The time is now ripe for a fresh reconsideration of the figure of Galileo and the whole Galileo case,'' he said, presenting a conference that will take place in Florence later this year.

''Galileo deserves all our appreciation and gratitude,'' Ravasi said.

The conference, entitled The Galileo Case, An Historical, Philosophical and Theological Re-reading, will take place at Florence's Stensen Institue on May 26-30.

Galileo (1564-1642), is regarded as the father of modern astronomy.

He created his first telescope in 1608 and discovered three of Jupiter's moons and the various phases of Venus.

The two sets of observations played a crucial role in his conclusion that the sun was at the centre of the universe, rather than the Earth, as was commonly believed at the time.

Church opposition to Galileo's sun-centred model flared up immediately in 1612 and would dog Galileo for the rest of his life.

In 1633 he was tried and convicted of heresy and a ban was imposed on the publication or reprinting of any of his works. He was then placed under house arrest, where he spent the remaining nine years of his life as the world returned to the comfortable idea of an immovable earth.

Galileo is said to have muttered the famous phrase 'Eppure si muove' (''But it does move'') as he left his trial.

In 1992, after a 13-year reconsideration of the case, Pope John Paul II admitted that the Church had made a ''tragic mistake'' in rejecting Galileo's heliocentric views.

But he also exculpated the astronomer's chief accuser, who was later canonised, as only doing his duty.

Pope Benedict XVI, who succeeded John Paul in 2005, last year had to cancel a visit to Rome University after a protest by academics against his defence, while still a cardinal, of Galileo's trial.

Speaking in Parma in 1990, Benedict said the trial was ''reasonable and just''.
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« Reply #98 on: February 04, 2009, 08:52:32 am »








                                 Bishop must retract Holocaust statement: Vatican





 
Feb. 4, 2009
ROME
(AFP)

– Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Williamson must "unequivocally" distance himself from his statements before he can be admitted to episcopal office in the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

It also said that Williamson's remarks denying that the Nazis used gas chambers to eliminate millions of European Jews in World War II were not known to Pope Benedict XIV when he decided to lift the excommunication of four renegade bishops last month.

The Vatican statement also said that the rebel Priestly Association of Saint Pius X, to which the rebels belonged, must recognise the reformist Vatican II Council of 1962-65 and the popes who followed it.
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« Reply #99 on: February 06, 2009, 10:24:05 pm »










                                  Holocaust denial: Vatican shifts into damage control





         
Robert Marquand
– Fri Feb 6, 2009
Reuters

– After unprecedented outcry in Pope Benedict XVI's home country of Germany by Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders worldwide, the Vatican this week clarified efforts to reconcile with an ultra-right-wing set of bishops excommunicated in 1988, one of whom denies that the Holocaust, or the Shoah, took the lives of 6 million Jews during Nazi rule here in World War II.

Bishop Richard Williamson of the hard-right St. Pius X Society "must absolutely, unequivocally and publicly distance himself" from statements denying the Shoah, stated the Holy See.

The Vatican has been in serious damage control for at least a week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked the Vatican Monday to clarify its position – amid some of the most open dissent and dismay by Catholic bishops in Europe under Pope Benedict, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

The crisis underscores the difficulties the pope faces in his project of reestablishing traditional Christianity in Europe and rolling back the liberal influences of Vatican II inside Catholicism – in a world more diverse and secular, a religious landscape more ecumenical, a church divided over doctrine and approach, and papal authority seemingly more subject to outside opinion, as in this week's virtual censure of the pope by Ms. Merkel.
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« Reply #100 on: February 06, 2009, 10:28:07 pm »










Seeing revival in traditionalism



"Benedict wants the restoration of European Christianity, that's at the heart of this." says Catholic theologian Frank Flinn, of Washingon University in St. Louis. "He wishes to nullify the left, the liberation theologians. The Vatican seems to buy the theory that right-wing churches attract members, along the growth model of Evangelicals. A church making demands with stricter rules – the call of traditionalism – is seen as reviving the church in Europe."

Germans in particular – having spent decades confronting the Holocaust, fighting to end its legacy, making Holocaust-denial a crime – were unable to ignore a German-born pope who, in trying to promote church unity, nonetheless opened the door to misunderstandings about a central emotional project of postwar Germany. This week, the Bishop of Mainz, the Archbishop of Berlin, the leading theologian Hans Kung, and a host of German newspapers strongly and openly disagreed with the pope's decision to start restoring the St. Pius group.

The Bavarian-born pope has been especially popular in Munich, a heartland of German Catholicism. But the shine has been wearing off. "I am a Protestant and my wife is a Catholic, and we were both very proud to have a German pope," says Friedemann Losch, a retired professor. "But now we are unhappy with the mistakes Benedict is making. The church is split between modern Catholics and traditionalists, and Benedict is making it worse. We don't understand why."

Pope Benedict is known for a theological brilliance rooted in a traditional conception of Catholicism as the true church. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he held the highly influential post of "Head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith" and was known informally among liberals as "the Pope's Rottweiler" for his purges of Vatican II advocates. The Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, helped Ratzinger rise to the papacy, saying it was his destiny to restore the church, particularly in a Europe viewed as in spiritual decline and increasingly pagan. Benedict's project is to bring back some of the more devout faithful, such as the Pius X group – whose vision hearks back to a medieval period of stability, certainty, authority, and papal infallibility.

Yet Benedicts efforts are perceived, rightly or wrongly, as reversing the ecumenical focus of his predecessor, the popular John Paul II – and setting up "clashes" between faiths. The current outcry in the Jewish world comes in a context of other moves by the Vatican to step up to controversial religious lines: In 2006, at a speech in his academic hometown of Regensburg, the pope angered the Muslim world by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said that Islam and the prophet Muhammad had brought only "evil and inhuman things." In 2007, he irritated Protestants by pronouncing their churches illegitimate and in need of reconciliation with Rome, in order to live fully in Christ. Even early efforts by Benedict to harmonize with the Eastern Orthodox world have run into criticism by Russian and other orthodox prelates for a lack of follow up and for aggressive missionizing in their lands.

Wilton Wynn, a long-time Vatican observer and writer who was close to Pope John Paul II, said in a phone interview from Rome that Benedict had been emerging as a strong proponent of "right-wing Catholicism, almost reactionary," when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, but that when Ratzinger become Pope Benedict, "there was almost no discussion about this. Now we are beginning to see the differences.

"I think the papacy is moving to the right more and more. He [Benedict] may even rather have a small dedicated following than a broad, less dedicated community."

Last week, Benedict angered the German Catholic hierarchy by appointing – without traditional consultation – a bishop in Linz, Austria, who had said that hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for sin, and a cleansing of nightclubs and abortion clinics.

This week, amid the furor, Benedict made a series of affirmative statements about St. Paul, Martin Luther, and the Catholic church's need to learn the lessons of the Protestant reformation.

Yet on Thursday, the Financial Times Deutschland quoted Georg Brunnhuber, a lawmaker from Merkel's Christian Democratic Party, who spoke to the pope this week and said the Vatican "is horrified by the discussion in Germany.... The impression there is that all of the anti-Catholic resentments hiding under the surface in Germany are now coming to the surface."

The St. Pius X group is also known as the Lefebvrist sect after its founder, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who led attempts in the 1970s to renounce Vatican II. Vatican II brought new efforts to modernize and open the church, to shift away from the use of Latin in services. It corresponded with a rise in liberation theology that stressed in poor nations that individuals had a right to challenge repressive regimes. The group was finally excommunicated under John Paul II. 
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« Reply #101 on: February 06, 2009, 10:30:07 pm »









The Latin mass



The Lefebvrists favor the old Latin mass, which contains a statement in its texts regarding the "perfidious Jew" – though current St. Pius X leader Bernard Fellay affirmed in an interview last week the importance of good Catholic-Jewish relations.

The Vatican stated that Benedict had been unaware of the Holocaust denial of Mr. Williamson, who said in an interview this month on Swedish television that historical evidence was "hugely against 6 million having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers.... I believe there were no gas chambers."

Yet given the long history of relations between the Pius group and Ratzinger, such an explanation is not entirely satisfying.

Mr. Fellay congratulated the Vatican for elevating Ratzinger to the papacy, calling it a "gleam of hope" in a letter written to the Vatican at the time. He wrote that "His Excellency Bishop Fellay implores Our Lord Jesus Christ, Head of the Mystical Body, that the two-thousand-year-old Tradition of the Church, forgotten and mistreated during the last forty years, may regain its place during this Pontificate, and that the Traditional Holy mass may be reestablished in all its rights, without restrictions."

In 2007, Benedict made headlines by restoring the Latin Mass in churches wishing to use it. 
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« Reply #102 on: February 06, 2009, 10:31:35 pm »










Crisis of confidence?



In France, Jérôme Anciberro, writing in Christian Testimony, a progressive Catholic review, echoed German dismay, describing a crisis of confidence: "It's as if something has been broken since the lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops.... The reactions, commentaries, petitions, protests are multiplying in the Catholic world. Bishops, left in the dark during several days, do not hesitate to dismiss the announcements of the Vatican, even the Curia as a whole."

The Holocaust discourse is weighted more heavily in recent years in Catholic and European circles after a biography of Pope Pius XII, titled "Hitler's Pope," by Roman Catholic scholar John Cornwell – charging a deeply anti-Semetic sentiment and complicit policy with Berlin before the war. The book has spawned many counterbiographies and views.

While the current crisis may bring the Vatican to examine its communication to the outside world, observers like Mr. Wynn say the inner workings of the church do not easily conform to pressure.

"The pope seems to say all the right things to put the fires out ... but I am not sure if this will be a crisis in the Vatican. [Pope] John Paul once told me that you can't try to apply American democratic politics to the faith."
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« Reply #103 on: February 07, 2009, 11:33:53 am »









                         Holocaust denying bishop to examine 'historical evidence': report
         





BERLIN
(AFP)
Feb. 7, 2009

– A bishop under fire for denying the Holocaust wants to examine the historical evidence before any possible renunciation of his belief that not a single Jew died in Nazi gas chambers, a report said.

"If I find proof I would rectify (earlier statements)... But all that will take time," Bishop Richard Williamson was quoted as saying by the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel.

The British-born bishop denied the existence of the gas chambers in an interview with Swedish television two days the pope lifted his ex-communication last month.

"I believe there were no gas chambers... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers," Williamson said.

"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!"

Meanwhile, the bishop of Innsbruck in western Austria, Manfred Scheuer, said that the Vatican should learn lessons from the episode, which provoked a storm of criticism.

"The Pope's explanations (this week) were more than necessary and I welcome them. But we must now analyse the mistakes that have been made," Austria's Tiroler Zeitung daily on Saturday quoted him as saying.

"On questions as important as the lifting of an excommunication, the episcopal conferences should be consulted," he said, referring to official assemblies of bishops in different regions.

On Wednesday the Vatican said the 67-year-old bishop should "unequivocally" distance himself from his statements.

It also said that Williamson's remarks denying that the Nazis used gas chambers to eliminate millions of European Jews in World War II were not known to Pope Benedict XIV when he decided to lift the excommunication of four renegade bishops, including Williamson, last month.
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« Reply #104 on: February 10, 2009, 01:16:03 pm »










                                               Vatican to re- evaluate Darwin



                             Conference to focus on evolution and the Christian faith






 (ANSA)
- Vatican City,
February 10, 2009 -

The Vatican is preparing to re-evaluate 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin 200 years after his birth and 150 years since the publication of his landmark work, On the Origin of Species.

As opposed to the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church never condemned Darwin's work and next month will examine his theory of evolution in depth from the point of view of Christian faith.

This will be done at a March 3-7 conference sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture to be attended by a host of international scholars and theologians.

''Now more than ever it is necessary to scientifically discuss the various scientific aspects of the theory of evolution, a theory which has been at the center of the history of science for Catholic and non-Catholic scholars,'' said Father March Leclerc, a professor of philosophy at the Gregorian University here who has organised the five-day debate.

The conference was illustrated in Rome on Tuesday by Father Leclerc who said it will begin with discussions on scientific aspects of Darwin's theories and then review its philosophic ramifications.

The seminar will wind up with a theological debate on ''evolution from the point of view of Christian faith, starting with a correct explanation of the Bible's teachings on creation and then moving on to how the Church has viewed Darwin's theory,'' he added.

There will also be some discussion on 'intelligent design' or Creationism, the literal interpretation of Genesis which fundamentalist Christians accept as the truth, ''but this will be impossible to examine scientifically,'' Father Leclerc said.

According to the Vatican's 'culture minister', Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, ''it is important to establish a dialogue which unites science and faith''.

''Neither approach alone is sufficient to fully explain the mystery of man and the mystery of the universe. Problems arise when they overlap to the extent that scientific theory becomes an ideological system applied to reality as a whole, which is the absurd case of social Darwinism,'' the head of the pontifical culture council added.

A well-known Biblical scholar in his own right, Msgr. Ravasi observed how ''the author of Genesis was most certainly conditioned by the scientific truths and limits of his time and did not intend to explain what literally took place but rather focused on a theological question: what meaning does man have in the universe''.

Darwin will be the focus of a two-day conference at Rome's scientific Lincean Academy, Wednesday and Thursday, as well as a major exhibition at the capital's Palazzo delle Esposizioni, which runs from February 12 to May 3.

After Rome the show will move to Milan in the summer and Bari in the Autumn.
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