Great articles, thanks ladies. Its good that someone in the media recognizes that great things are coming out of Papa's mouth. Music of Lorien, I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately newsworthy stuff are headlines like "Pope still against a woman's right to choose." Also nice to know about the vigil to support him.

From the Jakarta Post

NU invites pope to conference

JAKARTA: Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, has invited Pope Benedict XVI to attend the second International Conference of Islamic Scholars (ICIS) it is hosting in Jakarta next week.

The conference, scheduled to take place at the Hotel Borobudur from June 19-22, will feature 113 Muslim scholars from countries including Australia, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.

NU officials were not immediately available to comment about whether the pope had given any response to the invitation. Other dignitaries that NU invited are Jordan's King Abdullah and European Union secretary-general Javier Solana.

Organization of Islamic Conference chairman Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is scheduled to give a keynote speech titled Strengthening Relations between East and West, Reducing Conflict among Muslim Ummah.

"Through the conference, we will promote moderation and tolerance among Muslim countries," NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi said Monday. (JP/05)

The Eucharist is the central event in the history of the world and of every person, the Pope says


Rome, Jun. 15, 2006 (CNA) - Celebrating Mass today, on the Feast of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, the Holy Father told the faithful that the bread and wine used in the celebration of the Mass are not just accidental articles, but speak a truth about mankind and heaven.

Jesus’ actions during the last supper, at which he instituted the Eucharist, are “the central event in the history of the world and the personal history of every person,” Pope Benedict told the crowd of thousands gathered at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Cathedral of Rome.

The Holy Father said that while bread is the “food of the poor”, through bread the Lord chose to make himself present.

The Holy Father went on to explain that while the making of bread is, in one sense, the work of man, it is also a display of heaven, which provides rain for the fields. Therefore, he said, the gift of bread requires a synergy of heaven and earth. “The little bread of the poor,” the Pope said, “is the synthesis of creation.” All creation, he said, yearns to exceed its own strength and spill forth in a union with the Creator.

Bread, which is made up of many grains of wheat, ground together as one, also speaks of the mystery of the passion, the Holy Father said, "only through death can one arrive at resurrection." In this way, Christ was subjected to death in order to bring life for all. With His death and resurrection, Benedict said, Christ brought hope for all of us. And, Pope Benedict said, like the many grains in bread, “although we are many, we must become one body.”

Following the Mass was the traditional procession with the Blessed Sacrament, through the city of Rome to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major.

Pope meets Legionary of Christ after sex claims probe

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI has given an audience to the head of the conservative Catholic group the Legionaries of Christ, whose founding leader retired after facing sex abuse accusations.

The Vatican's press service announced the "private" papal audience granted to the Mexican priest Alvaro Corcuera, head of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, but gave no details of what was discussed.

Corcuera came to the head of the congregation in January after its founder, the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, retired, officially because of old age.

Maciel had denied accusations of sexual abuse by former members of the congregation.

Benedict, who as head of the Vatican's disciplinary body the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 2001 had authorised an investigation into the charges, in May forced Maciel to give up all public ministry.

Maciel founded the congregation in Mexico in 1941. It now counts 500 priests.

From the UN News Center

General Assembly President to confer with Pope Benedict XVI on human rights

16 June 2006 – United Nations General Assembly President Jan Eliasson will meet tomorrow with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican where they are expected to discuss human rights issues.

The meeting, at the Pope’s invitation, comes just two days before the inauguration of the new, strengthened UN Human Rights Council, which replaces the much-criticized UN Human Rights Commission, seen by many as ineffective.

Mr. Eliasson will make a keynote address to the Council on Monday, as will Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Ahead of the meeting Mr. Eliasson noted that the Council’s creation showed that Member States can overcome differences and deliver outcomes relevant to the people of the world. “I expect the members of the Council to address the challenges before them with the same constructive spirit and commitment. We must show the world that the Council means a fresh start in the United Nations’ work for human rights,” he said.

The inaugural session, set to last until 30 June, will bring together high-level representatives from over 100 countries and see delegates begin concrete work to allow the Council to flesh out features that make it a stronger and more effective human rights body than its much-criticized predecessor.

These include its higher status as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, its increased number of meetings throughout the year, equitable geographical representation, and an examination of the human rights records of its own members.

Sex, marriage: Pope discusses love, Vatican official discusses sin

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In early June, Pope Benedict XVI drew favorable attention when he said the church does not want to "suffocate" the joy of love by its teaching on sexuality and marriage.

What many noticed was the pope's positive approach -- his recognition that young people, in particular, feel an "urgent call to love" and his insistence that the church's goal was not to place barriers in their path.

He said the church's teaching should not be seen as one "no" after another, and urged church leaders to implement a pastoral "strategy of intelligence" that takes seriously people's questions and doubts.

The following day, the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family published -- without warning -- a 60-page catalog of modern sins against the family and responsible sexuality.

Signed by the council's president, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, it said that "never before has the natural institution of matrimony and family been victim of such violent attacks." It condemned a long list of practices, including cohabitation, birth control, divorce, gay unions, and the "abusive interference by the state" in some sex education programs.

The document shocked many readers when it said couples who limit their family size to one or two children are, in effect, living in a "marriage willingly made sterile." As for abortion, it said the act itself was an "abominable crime" that should not remain unpunished by civil authorities.

The difference in tone between the pope and one of his top aides did not go unnoticed. The pope was solidifying his reputation as a gentle teacher; Cardinal Lopez Trujillo came off as an ecclesial "Terminator."

"What this document is missing is love," said the Rev. Maria Bonafede of Cardinal Lopez Trujillo's text. The Italian Waldensian's remark deliberately alluded to the theme of Pope Benedict's very popular first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God Is Love").

The contrast illustrated an age-old problem for journalists in Rome: How much weight to give various Vatican pronouncements.

In this case, should the two interventions be taken as complementary sides of a strategy -- the pope extending an open hand to potential allies and the cardinal delivering a knockout punch to opponents?

The pope, at Cardinal Lopez Trujillo's request, will preside over the Fifth World Meeting of Families in July in Spain, a country where church and state are engaged in pitched battles on family issues. While most of the attention will focus on what the pope says at the events, some saw the pontifical council's document as the Vatican's bottom line on the issues.

But the situation is slightly more complicated than that.

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo has a history of issuing documents that are deliberately downplayed by the Vatican press office. And while the Colombian cardinal inevitably makes headlines, there are many inside the Vatican who would not want him to be seen as a spokesman for this pontificate.

Interestingly, the cardinal's latest document was handed out unannounced to reporters, without a press conference. And then the text simply disappeared from view. Ten days later, it still hadn't been released on any of the Vatican's Web pages, including the council's, and it wasn't printed or even referred to in the Vatican newspaper.

The document was dedicated to Pope Benedict. But there was no indication that the text had been approved or even seen by the pope prior to publication.

The pope would probably have found little to disagree with in the text; occasionally in his first 14 months as pontiff he has spoken about these same issues. But he has presented his teachings about marriage, sexuality and the family in the context of a wider discussion about key relationships -- between God and humans, the body and the spirit, and freedom and fidelity.

This approach has won him praise across the spectrum, in Italy and beyond.

The Italian newspaper Libero recently commented, "Up to now, Pope Benedict's magisterium has been aimed precisely at freeing Christianity from the prejudices which have painted it as an oppressive moralism."

The pope has emphasized that Christ came to lighten people's burdens, not add to them, and that the sense of being loved by God is the first thing Christians should communicate to others.

Upon these lovely concepts, Libero commented, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo's document has fallen "like a load of cement."

The cardinal had no regrets about the tone of the document, however. He told the Rome newspaper La Repubblica that unless the church is willing to remind people of uncomfortable truths, its teachings risk being devalued.

"The uproar provoked by the text is a positive thing," he said.

All of which has piqued interest in what Pope Benedict will say in Valencia, Spain, where on July 8-9 he will enjoy his first global platform for expressing the church's teachings on the family.

Costa Rica's President Arias meets with Pope

Jun. 16 (CWNews.com) - Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias Sanchez, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, met with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience on June 16.

After a 20-minute talk with the Pontiff, conducted in Spanish and in English, President Arias held a separate conversation with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State. Later he visited the crypt of St. Peter's basilica to pray at the tomb of Pope John Paul II.

Following what has become the standard practice of this pontificate, the Vatican did not release any statement about the Pope's conversation with the visiting Costa Rican leader.

President Arias began his second presidential term in February, succeeding Abel Pacheco De La Espriella. During his first term, from 1986- 1990, he was instrumental in mediating a dispute between El Salvador and Nicaragua: a service for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1987.

Costa Rica is a Central American country of 4.1 million, of whom half live in the capital city, San José. The country is known for its political stability and its neutrality in international affairs. A country where Catholicism is the official religion, Costa Rica is also known for the fact that it has no armed forces.

From John Allen
National Catholic Reporter


A long-time veteran of Jewish-Catholic relations told NCR this week that the Vatican has confirmed Benedict XVI's intention to visit Israel in 2007, though no date has yet been established for the trip.

According to this source, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo relayed the pope's intention in conversations with Israeli officials.

Lajolo, this source said, expressed two "desires" with regard to the prospective visit. The first is that long-running negotiations between Israel and the Vatican over the tax and juridical status of church institutions in Israel will be resolved before it happens. The second is that no violence will occur during the pope's trip, to avoid it being "instrumentalized" to serve the political ends of any party to the Middle East conflict.

According to this source, however, Lajolo said these were "desires" rather than conditions that must be satisfied before the trip can take place.

Though no itinerary has been discussed, when Benedict XVI met with Israeli President Moshe Katsav last November, he expressed interest in seeing Meggido, a site in northern Israel where archeologists recently unearthed what is believed to be the oldest Christian church yet discovered. Those remains date to the end of the third century.

The veteran of Jewish-Catholic relations said it is also difficult to imagine that Benedict would travel to Israel and not visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

If it materializes, Benedict's trip to Israel would be his third major encounter with Jews, following his visit to the synagogue in Cologne last August and his recent trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The source said he sees a logic to these choices. The Cologne synagogue, he said, is a symbol of Kristallnacht, the outbreak of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany that signalled the first stirrings of the Holocaust; Auschwitz-Birkenau represents the deepest horrors of the Holocaust; and Israel symbolizes the rebirth of the Jewish people in their own state.

* * *
This source said that Benedict's recent visit to Auschwitz has added new ambivalence to what was already a complex relationship between Christians and Jews. Many Jews, he said, were disappointed that there was not more emphasis on the specifically Jewish dimension of the Holocaust.

As one small but telling example, the source pointed to booklets distributed prior to the pope's arrival, which provided background in Polish on the death camps. He said that a word in the booklet had been covered with white-out and something new written in red ink. The point concerned the number of Poles who died at Auschwitz-Birkenau; originally, he said, the booklet said 150,000, but this had been covered over and 75,000 written in its place. Someone, he said, had made an adjustment at the last moment, but the earlier version reflected what this observer saw as a deliberate attempt to downplay the overwhelmingly Jewish character of the victims who perished at the camp.

This observer also said some Jews were angered by the pope's positive mention of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest who died in Auschwitz when he volunteered to take the place of a condemned man. Yet some of Kolbe's writings also contain approving references to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an infamous anti-Semitic tract, which many Jews see as part of the cultural background of the Holocaust.

In that context, this source said, Benedict's comments during a visit to Israel, should it occur, would be especially scrutinized in the Jewish world.

* * *
On Wednesday, Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls released a statement which is also likely to cause some consternation in Israel and among sectors of Jewish opinion. In the wake of Israeli bombings in Gaza and elsewhere that have resulted in civilian casualties, Navarro said:

"The Holy See is following with great apprehension and sorrow the episodes of growing, blind violence which are causing blood to flow in these days in the Holy Land. The Holy Father is close, especially in prayer, to the innocent victims, to their families and to the populations of this land, hostages to those who delude themselves that the ever more dramatic problems of the region can be solved with force or in unilateral fashion."

"The Holy See invites the international community to rapidly activate the necessary means for obligatory humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, and associates itself with calls upon the responsible parties of both peoples that the required respect for human life will be demonstrated, especially unarmed civilians and children, and that the path of negotiation will be taken up anew with courage, the only path that can lead to the just and lasting peace to which everyone aspires."

While the statement is implicitly critical of violence on all sides, diplomatic sources said Wednesday that the denunciation of "unilateral" solutions refers, in part, to Israel's attempt to set the borders of a Palestinian state. The statement would thus represent the first major policy clash between the Vatican and the new Israeli government under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who vowed during Israeli elections to establish permanent borders for a Palestinian state by 2010.

Here is a translation of an unusual news story from the French service of ZENIT. Its tone and impressionistic detail resemble more the 'local color' stories in Avvenire, the Italian bishops' newspaper, than the usual cut-and-dried news agency stuff from ZENIT.
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ROME, 15 June 2006 (ZENIT.org) – Pope Benedict XVI presided tonight at the Piazza of St. John Lateran the Mass of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ and the traditional procession of this feast from St. John Lateran to Santa Maria Maggiore.

A procession which was a confession of public faith in what Benedict XVI told the faithful at the general audience on Wednesday: the Blessed Sacrament is the most precious treasure “of the Chiurch and of humanity.” Forty hours after that, the faithful appeared to be internally prepared for the perpetual adoration at Santa Maria Maggiore.

Preceded and followed by an immense crowd, the Pope led the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, along via Merulana, kneeling on a golden prie-Dieu at the foot of the Sacrament displayed in an ostensorium on a stand draped in gold.

The road led down from the Lateran to via Lubicana, which leads to the Colosseum, then goes up the hill of the Esquiline to reach Santa Maria Maggiore.

The Pope, robed in the heavy gold cope reserved for feast days, was accompanied by two ceremonial masters who were also on their knees.

A white dais had been mounted over an open white vehicle and adorned with leafy branches.

The double row of tall plane trees along the route sheltered the procession under their majestic green vault and kept the route pleasantly cool.

When the Sacrament arrived at Santa Maria Maggiore, the bells rang out in full celebration. The Sacrament was placed on the altar that had been erected in front of the church - the premier Marian basilica in the Western World - and the Pope knelt down in adoration on a red cushion.

To the singing of "Tantum ergo" and an organ accompaniment, the Pope, wearing a white liturgical mantle around his shoulders, raised the ostensorium to bless the crowd.

After the litanies. led by Benedict XVI standing at the foot of the altar, with and echoed by the crowd, the Blessed Sacrament was taken inside the Basilica, and the solemn ceremony was concluded with the chanting of the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen).

Night had fallen – it was 9:30. The light filtered out from the atrium of the Basilica, making the mosaics on the balcony shimmer, while the crowd outside held mutlicolored paper lamps.

An international crowd, multicolored, assembling all ggnerations and ages, families youth groups, Mass servers, lay associations, confraternities around the icon of the Merciful Crhist of st. Faustina or an image of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, equestrian orders, religious congregations – with diverse habits, cassocks, velis, capes, scapulars, saris from all over the world - - priests and deacons, monsignors, bishops and cardinals, canons of the basilicas – some quite aged but with valiant hearts if not feet – each one carrying a lamp, and everyone lit up now and then by cameras taking snapshots as they passed by.

The sides of the avenue were teeming with another crowd – the passersby, shopkeepers, area residents surprised at whatever they were doing to observe a moment suspended in time:

The people of God are on the march. The Pope is passing by. Benedict XVI contemplates and invites us to contemplate the real Presence of Jesus, a living Presence in the Eternal City which mobilized itself to prepare the way for Him.

Legionary Superior Pledges Fidelity to Pope
Benedict XVI Receives Father Corcuera in Audience

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The general director of the Legionaries of Christ renewed his congregation's commitment to serve the Church in a letter he delivered personally to Benedict XVI.

The audience took place this morning, confirmed the Vatican press office.

"With profound humility and veneration," the letter states, "the Legionaries of Christ and members of the Regnum Christi movement want to express, through me, their filial affection, and renew their unconditional support to your person and your ministry, as Vicar of Christ and visible head of the Church."

The text continues: "We are moved by the certainty of faith that only in Peter's bark will we sail toward the sure port of our salvation.

"And we are likewise encouraged by the 'ardent and personal' love for the Successor of Peter (Constitutions of the Legion of Christ, No. 226.2), which we have learned, in the congregation and in Regnum Christi, since the first days of our foundation."

Father Álvaro Corcuera also said the Legionaries and Regnum Christi will "continue to commit our time and persons to the service of the Church, offering our charism to diocesan bishops for the spread of the kingdom of Jesus Christ."

According to sources in the congregation, Father Corcuera revealed that after the audience "the Holy Father, with delicate and paternal benevolence, asked me to transmit his closeness, prayers and blessing to the Legionaries of Christ and the members of the Regnum Christ movement."

[Father Corcuera replaced movement founder Father Marcial Maciel when he retired due to old age. Maciel was recently 'sanctioned' by the Vatican - without a canonical trial in view of his age and poor health - in connection with various charges of sexual abuse made against him by former Legionaries.]

The Turin-based newspaper LA STAMPA, which often gets reliable 'scoops' ahead of the competition did it again today by posting this item on their on-line paper at 12:35 pm today, Italian time, and I would have posted earlier if I had checked the Italian media online earlier!

The Pope has decided: the new Secretary of State will be Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, currently Archbishop of Genoa. This was learned by Apcom [an Italian news agency] from authoritative sources.

The announcement has not been made officially by the Vatican, but the nomination has reporteddly been signed by the Pope.

Bertone, 71, would succeed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who is three years above the mandated age limit of 75 for retirement.

Pope to speak out on prison conditions

VATICAN CITY, June 16 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI is planning to speak out on the conditions of prisons throughout the world, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino revealed the initiative at a press conference in the Vatican Thursday. Although no details were revealed about preparations, the pope is believed to be working on a written document on the subject, ANSA reported.

The pope, who has previously expressed sympathy with certain detainees, is carrying on the message from his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who urged authorities to "ensure that the fundamental rights of man are fully respected in all prisons."

Here's a translation of an article in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale today, written by its long-time Vatican correspondent Andrea Tornielli, who wrote one of the first biographies about Benedict XVI published after his election.
----------------------------------------------------------------

THE RATZINGER CABINET
TAKES SHAPE:
The Pope's slow but sure system
By ANDREA TORNIELLI


Papa Ratzinger does not like decisions made in haste, and above all – contrary to the false label of “inquisititor” tagged on him when he headed what was once called the Holy Office - he has always sought not to wound the sensibilities of others.

One must attribute to this the lack of an official announcement so far, despite an uncontrolled wave of voices raised in all the media, of some important nominations that will completely overhaul the Roman Curia.

The first and most important is that for Secretary of State, who will take over from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, 78, the Vatican’s ‘prime minister’ since November 1990. It is believed that the Pope has, for some time, decided it will be Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, who was his second in command for seven years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

But the nomination is still ‘unofficial’, and no date has been set for its announcement, although it is expected to be made this month.

The delay in replacing Sodano, whose retirement was already decided even in the last months of the previous Papacy, is said to be due to Sodano’s expressed desire to continue working with Benedict XVI at least until November, and due to a reported opposition in the Curia to the appointment of someone like Bertone who has never been in the Vatican diplomatic service.

But Papa Ratzinger’s decision to name a non-diplomat to this post is not unprecedented: Paul VI named Cardinal Jean Villot, a non-diplomat, to be his SEcretary of State.

Contextually, the nomination of a Secretary of State should also be accompanied by the nomination of a new Governor of Vatican City. Possibly replacing the outgoing Cardinal Szoka would be Mons. Giovanni Lajolo, now ‘foreign minister”, who in turn, will be replaced by the current Apostolic Nuncio to France, Mons. Fortunato Baldelli.

Then the following months will see other nominations:
Mons. Angelo Comastri will formally replace Cardinal Marchisano as Arch-Priest of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Mons. Leonardo Sandri of Argentina, currently deputy Secretary of State, may replace Patriarch Moussa Daoud as Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches.

Replacements will be named for other Curial heads retiring due to having reached or surpassed the age limits :
Cardinal Herranz, at the Pontifical Council for the interpretaiton of legislative texts;
Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, at the Congregation for the Clergy;
Cardinal Sebastiani, at the Prefecture for economic affairs of the Holy See;
And Cardinal Poupard, at the recently combined Councils for Culture and Inter-Religious Dialog.

Curial changes could also affect two eminent Polish prelates in the Curia:
Stanislaw Rylko, current president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, may be named Archbishop fo Warsaw to replace the retiring Cardinal Jozef Glemp; and
Mons. Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, who has wanted to be assigned elsewhere, possibly to be Governor of Vatican City (in which case, Mons. Lajolo would be named to head the Prefecture of Economic Affiars).

---------------------------------------------------------------
In a similar article for the newspaper Il Tempo on 6/16/06, Pier Luigi Rodari also reported on Bertone's imminent nomination and other Curial changes. He, too, says one factor for the delayed announcement is the objection by some senior Curia members to having a non-diplomat named to be Secretary of state.:


Ratzinger is someone who is not easily influenced, and doubtless he will soon announce the new Secretary of State – ver likely before his trip to Valencia on July 8-9. The delay has been due to his intention to listen to all sides and then to make sure that his decision is accepted without reservations.

It is likely, as it happened when Cardinal Casaroli was replaced by Sodano as Secretary of State, the Papal decision will be communicated to the two persons most concerned only two days before the official announcement.

This was the case with the recent nomination of Caridnal Ivan Dias to replace Cardinal Cresencio Sepe as Prefect of Propaganda Fide and the consequent nomination of Sepe – who accepted with enthusiasm – to be Archbishop of Naples.

Rodari then lists the other Curial positions due for replacement that Tornielli did in his article, but adds:

Also said to be coming soon are replacements for Croci in the secretariat of economic affairs; Rizzato in the alms office; Marini as chief ceremonial officer, and Nesti at the secretariat for the religious.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/06/2006 16.08]

The Holy Father makes his most significant Curial appointment since he named William Levada to succeed him at CDF, and it is done through this simple announcement in the Vatican Press Office's daily bulletin for today, 6/22, here in translation -

The Holy Father has accepted, under Can. 354 of teh Code of Canon Law, the resignation of His Eminence, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State, but asking him to stay in charge until September 15, 2006.

On the same date, the Holy Father will name Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, to be the new Secretary of State.

On that occasion, His Holiness will receive superiors and officials of the Secretariat of State in audience to thank Cardinal Sodano publicly for his generous service to the Holy See and to present to them the new Secretary of state.

And in a similar move:

The Holy Father has accepted, under Can, 354 of the Code of Canon Law, the resignation of His Eminence Cardinal Edmund Casimir Szoka, president of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City and Governor of the city, asking to remain in full charge until September 15, 2006.

On that day, the Holy Father will name His Excellency Mons. Giovanni Lajolo, titular Archbishop of Cesariana and Secretary for Foreign Relations of the Secretariat of State as Cardinal Szoka's replacement.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/06/2006 16.53]

From Aljazeera.net
Thursday 22 June 2006, 22:48 Makka Time, 19:48 GMT


Pope deplores Christian exodus


Pope Benedict XVI has said violence is forcing Christians to flee Israel, the Palestinian territories and other countries of the Middle East.

The pontiff also called for respect between cultures and religions.

"The serious difficulties encountered by the Christian community" in Israel and the Palestinian territories "because of lack of security, work, restrictions on movements and poverty are a source of anxiety for us", he said on Thursday.

The pope made his remarks at a meeting at the Vatican for assistance to the churches based mainly in the Middle East.

"This situation makes the educational, professional and family future uncertain for the young generations, who are strongly tempted to leave their native lands," he said.

"It is a situation which is repeated in other areas of the Middle East (such as) Iraq and Iran.

"We must find new ways of meeting the needs of these people. I renew my appeal to priests and the faithful, to all those who have a responsibility, to encourage mutual respect between cultures and religions, in order to create in the Middle East the conditions for calm and peaceful coexistence."

Here is a translation of one of the very first reactions in the Italian media to the nomination of Cardinal Bertone.

VATICAN CITY, June 22, 2006 (ASCA) – The nomination of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to be Secretary of State ould be defined as the first big surprise of Benedict XVI’s government of the Church. [Isn't it the second? After Levada, whom no one expected?] It can be explained above all by the fact that Bertone was a congenial choice for the Pope to make.

He wished it, allowed the decision to mature - perhaps even had to defend it - because Bertone, in his eyes, best matches his own theological and ecclesiastic sensibilities.

Almost certainly, the unusual choice of a secretary of state not drawn from the ranks of Vatican diplomats would have encountered resistance in some curial circles. This means that the new secretary, although he enjoys the unconditional confidence of the Pope, will have to earn on the job a larger and more convinced consensus of support among the curia.

It is not by chance that the nomination announced by the Pope today in the context of Sodano’s resignation does not take effect until September 15. A consensus for the new Secretary of State is not an impposible objective within that time, considering his human qualities which derive conspicuously from his Salesian formation, therefore, an openness to dialog and to listening, along with organizational ability.

Benedict XVI’s decision to call Cardinal Bertone to his side as his principal aide certainly breaks the habitual consolidated patterns of writing and talking in the Roman Curia, but also calls for a new and appropriate understanding of the era inaugurated with the Ratzinger Papacy.

With Bertone’s nomination, following his encyclical on love, the Pope has signalled a new season in the Church of Rome, which can be difficult to grasp without recognizing the transition from Wojtyla to Ratzinger.

If by reason of age, Ratzinger could be considered a transitional choice on the part of the College of Cardinals, he is nevertheless adapting the Church to his new style through his sheer authoritativeness and ability to guide and provide new horizons.

The Pope has called on all the elements of the Church to rediscover the primacy of spirituality in order to make more credible its proclamation of the faith in an era that is marked not only by secularization but by globalization and a growing challenge (to the faith) from science and technology.

Benedict asks for a faith that is more aware and more linear, less compromised with political and economic powers or with business. Papa Ratzinger does not think of the Church’s relation to the world at large in terms of defying modernity, but by demonstrating with the example of life in the Church that love is the best way of evangelization, that love can even create a new syntehsis of faith and reason, and open a new season of dialog between believers and non-believers.

In this perspective, the sensibility of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and its priorites, are, in Benedict’s eyes, more important than a worldview that is simply political, or the support that pure diplomatic know-how alone could contribute to the government of the Church.

In the light of his encyclical, one might say that in the matter of working with governments and with the international situation, in the areas of politics and economics, Benedict wants the Church to be perceived for what it really is: a witnessing for Christ more than an institution or a state entity (which the Vatican is) even if only symbolically.

He is more than ever convinced that even in diplomacy the Pauline conviction about charity holds true: even if you speak all the languages and are part of the powers of heaven and earth but do not have charity, you will be like a musical instrument that sounds discordant and hollow.

That is why he has wagered on a Secretary of State who will help him principally to set the Church as a mission, to reform ecclesiastic life and to relaunch the faith in a world that is more modern and secularized than never before.

We shall see from the decisions and proposals which will follow Cardinal Bertone’s nomination if the conversion sought by Benedict within the Church will be a 180-degree turn or something more profound even.

The Salesian Cardinal, who is now Archbishop of Genoa, was the collaborator most in harmony with Ratzinger during his long years at the CDF. Rather than competing, there was full confidence and synergy between the two, and Bertone considered those years with Ratzinger as a privilege because he saw in him a Christian teacher par excellence.

With him, Bertone faced ways and methods of seeing and feeling with the Church, and shared with him the effectiveness of the educative method typical of the Salesian tradition going back to St. Francis of Sales. St. John Bosco had chosen this saint as his model because of the pleasing and gentle way in which he presented Christian doctrine and his amiability in dealing with every kind of person.

The intellectual sensibility that Ratzinger and Bertone share finds its best expression in their common choice of an austere lifestyle that does not renounce joy – the joy that is nourished by a rich spiritual life.

This existential fact perhaps convinced the Pope to override a widespread objection, namely, that if the Pope himself has no diplomatic experience and now, neither does his Secretary of State, how will the Church manage?

When in fact, it is that common characteristic between the two that could help the Church get out of the shoals it finds itself in.

No one, not even laymen, is impressed any longer by the growing numbers of baptisms into the Church or by the potential of mobilizing the organisms and institutions of the Church. In the Church itself, there is a sense of the emptiness behind these big figures and even of the availability of Church resources, because these may not cancel out the damage that has been done by the reproachable conduct of even some of the most authoritative figures of the Church.

On the other hand, the lay world itself and non-believers gladly show themselves approving of Christian examples of justice and charity.

Cardinal Bertone certainly has the cultural preparation to engage other nations in appropriate dialog. For years he taught international rights. His knowledge of Church and worldly subjects is as solid as his cultural background.

But the Pope is more concerned about the humanistic aspect of the Church’s contribution to international politics, with a stress on the primacy of Peter and the extension of human rights as a premise for harmonizing coexistence among peoples without the use of force.

The very social doctrine of the Church, of which Cardinal Bertone possesses a profound knowledge, allows the Church to have a theological as well as political approach to questions of justice, peace and bioethics.

The capacity for dialog of the Pope’s right-hand man is even more critical these days when it comes to relations with Islam, which are widening of necessity but risk being mired in the
quicksands of Islam’s overall relations with the Western world. Again, it is not by chance that the Pope has indicated he wishes to link inter-religious dialog to the antire spectrum of Islamic culture.

But Benedict also wants theology to animate the ecumenical dialog. And the new Secretary of State’s energies could be very valuable indeed if attuned to a specific theological sensibility. Certainly, theology by itself is not enough. He will need to listen to and coordinate with the bishops’ conferences to a far greater extent than has been done before.

In this area of listening to and mediating among bishops called on to ever more ecclesiastic responsibilities, Cardinal Bertone distinguished himself when he was secretary of the CDF on a number of delicate themes.

Cardinal Bertone is certainly not a risky choice for Secretary of State. Rather, his nomination represents an incentive to look with a new sensibility on the big picture of the Church’s relations with the world and with other religions or confessions.

Cardinal Bertone is a measure of how new the language is that the Pope has adopted and that he wishes to transmit to the entire Church, indicating new and different priorities in order to renew the credibility of the Christian mission.

Here is how the Times of London reported the Bertone nomination yesterday, complete with the usual 'liberal' editorializing within the news item (underscored below):


Pope promotes 'hardliner'
in reshuffle of his top team
From Richard Owen of The Times in Rome


Pope Benedict XVI carried out a long-awaited reshuffle of his top team at the Vatican today, naming Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa, as Secretary of State — in effect, the Pope’s deputy.

Cardinal Bertone, 71, led the Vatican campaign last year against Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, saying that it propagated "a sackful of heretical lies" about the history of Christianity and would mislead the gullible.

His campaign was taken up recently by other senior cardinals when the film of the book was released, despite the risk that this would only give The Da Vinci Code more publicity.

The reshuffle had been expected for weeks, but was reportedly held up because of behind-the-scenes doubts among some Vatican liberals over Cardinal Bertone’s reputation as a doctrinal hardliner. [Really!!!- according to the Italian press, the objection was because he has no diplomatic experience.]

The cardinal will take over from Cardinal Angelo Sodano in September. By coincidence both men are from the northern Italian region of Piedmont. The Secretary of State is the Vatican’s prime minister and also oversees its diplomatic relations.

Before going to Genoa, Cardinal Bertone was for seven years second in command to the current Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the successor to the Inquisition, which enforces doctrinal orthodoxy and excommunicates dissident Catholics.

Critics said that putting a Ratzinger-Bertone alliance at the top of the Vatican hierarchy meant that the Church would be in the hands of "arch-conservatives" at a time when many Catholics, especially in the Third World, are calling for reform. [They ARE????]

However, since succeeding John Paul II in April last year the Pope has confounded caricatures of him as an unbending hardliner, reaching out to other religions and holding talks with liberals such as Hans Kung, the Swiss dissident theologian, whom the Pope himself had once banned from teaching theology.

Equally Cardinal Bertone, who became Archbishop of Genoa in 2002 and was made cardinal a year later, has forged a reputation as a genial and approachable churchman alert to modern social problems. He is described as a "rigorous but sensitive" theologian. [Nice to see this paragraph for balance, thanks!]

He is an ardent fan of Juventus football team, and has even acted as commentator on football matches for Genoese television stations. He once observed that although the Vatican opposed human cloning, "an exception might be made in the case of Sophia Loren".

Cardinal Sodano, 78, who had held the post of Secretary of State for 15 years, was already three years past the normal Vatican retirement age when Pope Benedict was elected, 14 months ago. However, the Pope asked him to remain in office to ensure continuity.

The Vatican announced that Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the American governor of Vatican City, would also retire in September and be replaced by Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, at present the Vatican’s foreign minister.

Last month the Pope named Cardinal Ivan Dias of Bombay as head of the Congregation for Evangelisation, the first Asian to head a top Vatican department, replacing Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe.

Cardinal Sepe in turn replaced Cardinal Michele Giordano as Archbishop of Naples, who had reached the retirement age of 75.

The transfer closed an unhappy chapter in the Naples archdiocese after allegations that Cardinal Giordano had been involved in a money-lending operation run by his brother. He was charged in 1999 and cleared, but later given a separate 4½-month prison sentence for illegally dividing up a church property into flats. He is appealing against the verdict.

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And here is how Catholic World News broke the news:


Vatican, Jun. 22 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI has named Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa to be the next Vatican Secretary of State, replacing Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Cardinal Sodano, who has served an extraordinary 15 years in the powerful post, will formally step down on September 15, the Vatican announced on June 22. He will be approaching his 79th birthday - well beyond the ordinary retirement age of 75 - when he leaves the Secretariat of State.

The Secretary of State is the 2nd-ranking official at the Vatican, with broad authority over the internal and external policies of the Holy See. Acting effectively as "prime minister" for the Roman Pontiff, the Secretary of State coordinates the flow of work at the Holy See, and exerts sweeping influence over other offices of the Roman Curia.

In naming Cardinal Bertone, Pope Benedict has made an important move to mold his own leadership team at the Vatican. After his election last April, the Pontiff had re-appointed all the leaders of the Roman Curia who had served under Pope John Paul II. Last May, the Pope had named an American prelate, Cardinal William Levada, to fill the spot he himself had vacated, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The long-awaited Vatican announcement indicated that Cardinal Sodano will remain in his current position, "with all the faculties inherent to that role," until September 15. On that date, the Vatican said, Pope Benedict will receive Cardinal Sodano in an audience to thank him "for his long and generous service to the Holy See."

The appointment of a new Secretary of State had been long expected, and Cardinal Bertone's name had emerged in recent weeks as the Pope's likely choice. (On the basis of reports from contacts in Rome, CWN editor Phil Lawler predicted in May that Cardinal Bertone would be the new Secretary of State.)

A 71-year-old Salesian, Cardinal Bertone served from 1995 to 2002 as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he was deputy to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Unlike most prelates who have served as Secretary of State in recent years, Cardinal Bertone has never been active in the Vatican diplomatic corps; he will be the first non-diplomat to occupy the office since Cardinal Jean Villot was appointed by Pope Paul VI in 1969.

Cardinal Sodano thanked Pope Benedict for the confidence he had shown by extending his appointment as Secretary of State after the death of Pope John Paul II. In his own statement released on June 22, the outgoing Secretary of State offered his best wishes to Cardinal Bertone, his successor.

Noting that he had received many interview requests in recent weeks, as the rumors of his impending replacement spread, Cardinal Sodano told reporters that after completing his term of service in September, he hoped to be able to speak at some length with the media about "the work that has been done over the years at the Secretariat of State and in the different bureaus of the Roman Curia."

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/06/2006 8.27]

Ratzigirl has posted another story from the Italian press (I must ask her for the exact source) purporting to show the behind-the-scenes media manipulation by some quarters in the Roman Curia - which, based on this story, appear to be concentrated in the Vatican Secretariat of State. It is not at all a pretty picture, as it shows prelates - men of God - maneuvering like petty politicians to demonstrate and/or preserve their power and influence.

Let us all pray that Cardinal Bertone may set this house in order, and that the Holy Spirit enlighten the minds of these prelates-turned bureaucrats.
---------------------------------------------------------------

Behind the scenes
of Bertone's nomination

And the curtain falls over the web of indiscretions which anticipated the nomination of the new Vatican Secretary of State by His Holiness. Puzzles remain over the dynamics of communicating the news and on the maneuvers behind the announcements yesterday and the superficial congratulations.

At 10:01 yesterday morning, a flash from ANSA: the new Secretary of State is Cardinal Bertone. And so, a tempest has settled that started months ago with hypotheses, suppositions and indiscretions of varying credibility on the possible curial choices of Benedict XVI.

In the past few weeks, the name of the Archbishop of Genoa was considered a virutal certainty by different journalistic sources. However, for days, the nomination seemed to be at the mercy of pressures, with rumors of postponement and even of being rethought!

In all this, a determining role was the instrumentalization and use of the media, fed on many occasions by institutional sources, who thereafter come back to accuse them of wishful thinking.

The way in which the news on Bertone came to the public domain illustrates it: The highest levels of the Secretariat of State alerted the news agencies, coopting the Vatican Press Office which released the news of the nomination only at 12 noon, as is the usual practice, at which time Cardinal Bertone had already received congratulations from Mayor walter Veltroni of Rome (10:46) amd from Ex-Minister of Productive Affairs Claudio Scajola (11:17).

“Journalists have an itch to always be in search of new sensations,” Secretary of State Sodano told the Eco di Bergamo on Saturday, stigmatizing recent news stories about his imminent substitution.

But how could the press have reported the news two hours before the actual announcement (having known about it definitely from the day before) if not from information provided by the same ‘high levels’ at the Secretariat of State?

So far, we have been speaking about anomaly of form. Passing to the contents itself, we are struck by the fact that the Pope decided to defer signing the nomination till September without an explanation provided, an absolute novelty for pontifical nominations which are usually announced sic et sempliciter (thus and simply).

It is most likely that, without the insistent voices that had been circulating ad hoc, the Papal decision would have been made known only when it was fait accompli, i.e., in September.

“It is not difficult to identify in the Curial underbrush,” writes the Vatican correspondent of the agency AGI, Salvatore Izzo, “those who are interested in blocking Benedict XVI’s decision to place one of his most faithful colleagues at the head of the Vatican machinery, excluding, as he is doing, anyone who is not in line with his thinking. And certainly, the press does not have to be begged to publish indiscretions! There was a risk of other, more forceful maneuvers to stop the Curial overhaul which the Pope intends to carry forward. Therefore, the exceptional decision to announce the designation, which is not yet a nomination, in order to crystallize the situation and place the Pope at the Holy See beyond further attempts to pollute the climate.”

Another aspect of the story comes into play her, beyond the declarations and ritual congratulations: the opposition of an influential branch of the Roman Curia against Bertone’s nomination. Indeed, the usual press sources said that the Pope had weighed the opinions of those who pushed for the nomination of a diplomat as Secretary of State, as well as Sodano’s expressed wish to stay on till November (the decennial conference of Italian bishops in Verona.

A more human reading would be Cardinal Bertone’s complete estrangement from the thirst for power that characterizes those who have been running Vatican affairs [iu.e, the Secretariat of State] who managed to carve out a significant autnomy for themselves in the last years of John Paul II’s Papacy.

“Ratzinger would not disdain [for the post of Secretary of state] someone dedicated to missionary work, a person to whom he could entrust every practical indication with the certainty that it would immediately be acted on,” wrote Paolo Luigi Rodari on June 16 in Il Tempo, almost saying directly “unlike the current situation.”

The words of Sodano himself in the interview published by Eco di Bergamo Sunday, as well as in his statement upon the naming of Bertone, appeared to respond to these words,
commenting on the “team work – mthodical, profound and carried out in a spirit of service” at the Secretariat of State.

It is a fact that Bertone's nomination was opposed by those with different ambitions and plans, with the serious risk, as often happens in politics, of tarring his name and definiteively closing off the road for him.

But with his ‘deferred nomination’, Benedict XVI has given a strong signal, protecting both the decision that he has made as well his prerogative of governing.

Still to be resolved is the problem of the (un)controlled leaks coming from identifiable “deep throats” at the Secretariat of State, who in the last few months have practically made useless the work of the Vatican Press Office (which is one of its own departments), bypassing it on several occasions even in the publication of papal texts!

Latest example: the letter with which Benedict XVI explains to the faithful of the Archdiocese of Genoa his reasons for choosing Bertone. This letter was released not through the official dialy bulletin of the Vatican Press Office but through the news agencies directly and the Osservatore Romano!

The Pope’s communications deserve credibility and reliability. This is something we have often discussed and to which we will be devoting ourselves in the coming days.

Here is a translation of the letter sent by the Pope yesterday to the faithful of the Archdiocese of Genoa. The text was released today by the Vatican Press Office.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Dearest faithful of Genova,
Peace and apostolic blessing to you!

I write you on the occasion when the nomination of your Archbishop to be the new Secretary of State has been made public.

In these three years during which he has guided the Church in Genoa, you have learned to appreciate the gifts and qualities that make him a faithful pastor, with a particular ability to combine pastoral attention and doctrinal preparation.

These are precisely the characteristics, together with ur reciprocal acquaintance and mutual trust, matured during years of service together at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that led me to choose him for the high and sensitive task of serving the universal Church at the Holy See itself.

I know I have asked a great sacrifice of Cardinal Bertone. I know that the sacrifice of the faithful entrusted to his care in Genoa will not be less. But I am sure that his affection and his prayers for your community will be brought with him to Peter’s Seat.

The story of your diocese includes a generous loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, which you now address to me also by virtue of the name that I chose to use in my Petrine ministry: it is the name of the last Genoese Pope, so devoted to the Madonna of Protection, to whom I entrust everyhting in this moment of a sensitive transition which is also full of grace, so that “everything may occur for the good of those who love God” (Rom 8,28).

By virtue of your faithful and obedient generosity towards the Holy See, I will do my best to name as soon as possible a successor to the Seat of St. Cyrus.

I ask you to join me in prayers to the Holy Spirit that He may help us to find the right person. I assure you all of my remembrance and apostolic blessing in praying for the Church in Genoa- for its ministers, families, young people and those who are ailing.


BENEDICTUS PP XVI
Vatican City
22 June 2006
---------------------------------------------------------------

STATEMENT BY CARDINAL SODANO

Earlier, the Vatican press Office also released the following statement by Cardinal Sodano:

Many journalists have asked me these days for an interview about my activites in the service of the Holy See. I will have the occasion to meet their requests in autumn, after I have left my office as Secretary of state. For now, I thank everyone for the interest with which they are following the activities of the Pope and his co-workers, as well as the Church in the entire world.

Today, I wish only to express my graittude to the Holy Father Benedict XVI who, despite my having reached the age limit, wished to renew the trust expressed in me by the lamented John Paul II who called me to this office 15 years ago. I also extend my most fraternal wishes to my future successor, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, with whom for years we have been linked by mutual esteem and friendship.

I hope that in the future, I will have a way of illustrating to our journalist friends the work that I have carried out all these years in the Secretariat of State and in various offices of the Roman Curia. It is methodical and profound work, team work done in a great spirit of service, of which I intend to render grateful testimony.

----------------------------------------------------------------
I am trying to read Cardinal Sodano's statement in the most charitable light possible, but I can't get over the sensation that it tastes of sour grapes, or is, at the very least, rather self-serving and gratuitously defensive. Indeed, I find his recent comments disturbing for someone who was due to retire anyway, regardless of present circumstances or whoever would succeed him. And I note the phraseology "my future successor" instead of simply "my successor". Very strange! God bless him for all his years of service to the Church. .

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/06/2006 13.39]

In naming new Vatican secretary of state, pope reveals much about self

By Gerard O'Connell
6/23/2006
UCANews (www.ucanews.com)

VATICAN CITY (UCAN analysis) – After 14 months in office, Pope Benedict XVI has made his most important appointment to date in naming Italy's Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa as the Holy See's new secretary of state.

This decision, not unexpected, ends months of speculation and provides precious insight about how Pope Benedict chooses to fill top positions in his administration and in which direction he intends to take his pontificate.

For some, however, it also raises questions that still beg for answers.

In building his own team in the Roman Curia, the 79-year-old pope has moved forward slowly, weighing moves carefully and trying not to upset sensibilities unduly, but finally making strong decisions that reveal a common thread.

Common traits are apparent in the men whom Pope Benedict has appointed to Vatican congregations – besides Cardinal Bertone, Cardinal William Levada as prefect for Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ivan Dias as prefect for Evangelization of Peoples and Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith as secretary for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.

The pope personally knows them well as men whose loyalty to him is beyond question and who share his theological vision. Like him, they are not afraid to take a public stance, however unpopular, in defense of "the truth."

A source who worked closely with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI recently confided: "He is a delight to work for, courteous and person-oriented, but very private and very reserved. Right now, he is a very lonely man, and his friends are not many. He decides by himself."

The source, who asked not to be named, added that the pope over the years "has been extremely lucky in having so many loyal people working for him."

Noted for such loyalty is Cardinal Bertone, a Salesian who for seven years was secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then led by Cardinal Ratzinger. They got to know each other well during that time and grew comfortable in each other's company. An informed source put it plainly: the pope trusts the cardinal and the cardinal "has been very loyal to him."

Cardinal Ratzinger, well aware that he was a theologian, not a manager, and that he has "no talent for... administration or organization," as he himself admitted in the interview-book Salt of the Earth in 1997, entrusted personnel and administrative matters to his secretaries, including Archbishop Angelo Amato, whom he handpicked to succeed Cardinal Bertone.

To fulfill his extraordinarily onerous job of governing the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict unsurprisingly turns for help to people he knows best and trusts most. Thus, his choice of secretary of state was crucial, much more than the selection of his successor as prefect for Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican Web site describes the role of secretary of state this way: "As the pope's first collaborator in the governance of the universal church, the cardinal secretary of state is the one primarily responsible for the diplomatic and political activity of the Holy See, in some circumstances representing the person of the supreme pontiff himself."

If he so wished, the pope could have retained Cardinal Angelo Sodano until Nov. 23, 2007, when his second-in-command would turn 80. However, a Vatican source explained, by so doing "he risked his pontificate continuing to be directed by those who ran the administration under John Paul II."

Cardinal Sodano, in his post since June 29, 1991, is the fifth-longest-serving secretary of state since this role emerged about five centuries ago. Cardinal Ratzinger knew him well during his more than 20 years as prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith – their offices are respectively to the right and left of St. Peter's Basilica – but their styles are quite different.

Pope Benedict, the same source said, knew that "he had to move them (office-holders such as Cardinal Sodano) if he wished to have his own administration. Otherwise, he would be operating with John Paul II's administration."

The German-born pontiff took his time, despite the worries of some of his most ardent supporters. On June 22, the Vatican finally confirmed what all Italian media had been saying for days, some even for months. Pope Benedict has chosen the outgoing and jovial Cardinal Bertone, a youthful 71, as his new secretary of state, effective Sept. 15.

Benedict XVI had no diplomatic experience before becoming pope, nor was he conversant with the diplomatic world's intricacies or the Holy See's often complicated relations with civil governments, though he is learning rapidly.

Many observers felt it would be highly advisable for the pope to appoint someone with considerable diplomatic experience as secretary of state, and thereby also head of the Holy See's diplomatic corps, but he chose otherwise.

His top requirement clearly was not diplomatic expertise. He wanted an administrator he can totally trust to coordinate and direct the Roman Curia, improve communications among the Vatican offices, and ensure that his wishes, including reforms he may decide to enact, are faithfully carried out – not sidetracked, watered down or put on hold. Cardinal Bertone is such a man.

For more than 100 years, all but one secretary of state have been men with considerable diplomatic experience. France's Cardinal Jean Villot brought much pastoral and Roman Curia experience but zero diplomatic skills to the job. Pope Paul VI, who had enormous diplomatic experience, named him secretary of state in 1969. Paul VI also gave the red hat to Cardinal Ratzinger in 1977.

Thus, Cardinal Bertone is only the second secretary of state in more than a century to be named to the position despite a lack of diplomatic experience.

The cardinal does have a considerable academic background. Besides teaching theology and canon law, he was an administrator at the Salesian University and in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for more than two decades. He also was a pastor for several years, in Vercelli (1991-1995) and Genoa (2002-2006). However, he has no experience in the diplomacy arena.

When the pontiff named Cardinal Bertone, many in Rome wondered whether the theologian-pope was actually redefining the secretary of state's role and, consequently, also the role of the papacy in the international arena.

Pope John Paul II took the papacy to center stage in global politics, making it a major actor on the world scene. During his long reign, the number of states maintaining diplomatic ties with the Holy See more than doubled to the present 174. That development also greatly enhanced the role of the secretary of state. Worldwide recognition of the Holy See's growing international political influence was evident in April 2005 when so many heads of state and government attended the unforgettable funeral of the first Polish pope.

By giving lesser importance to diplomatic skills for the role of secretary of state and by choosing his former secretary for the second most important post in the church hierarchy, Benedict does appear to be redefining the very office of secretary of state. He is giving it a more pastoral slant, while downsizing, or at least giving lower priority to, its diplomatic character.

The diplomatic element could, to some extent, be regained if Pope Benedict were to appoint a top Holy See diplomat with considerable experience in world politics to the post of secretary for relations with states, more commonly known as the Vatican's "foreign minister."

On June 22, the Vatican said Benedict XVI has named the present incumbent, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, as governor of Vatican City State, a position officially described as "president of the Pontifical Commission for the State of the City of the Vatican" and "president of the governorate of the same state." As with the new secretary of state, his appointment becomes effective on Sept. 15. The pope has yet to appoint Archbishop Lajolo's successor.

By choosing his former number two for the Vatican's most important post after his own, Pope Benedict has recreated at the top of the Church hierarchy the same leadership team that governed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1995 to 2002.

Now, with men sharing his vision and enjoying his trust in three key positions – secretary of state, prefect for Doctrine of the Faith and prefect for Evangelization of Peoples – the pope is positioned to exert more control over the Roman Curia than any pope since Pius XII (1939-58).

This puts Pope Benedict in a very strong position to bring about the reform of the Roman Curia that, before becoming pope, he claimed was badly needed.

Some theologians who prefer anonymity suggest that the pope's appointment of like-minded people to key positions in the Roman Curia raises the question as to whether his papacy risks falling victim to "groupthink."

They also wonder if future papal appointments will allow persons with other theologically valid but variant viewpoints, as happened under John Paul II, to take up citizenship at the Vatican.

The newspaper Il Giornale, one of the handful of Italian media that went out on a limb as early as two weeks ago to say Cardinal Bertone was about to be named the next Vatican Secretary of State, ran this inspiring analysis today. We can only pray that this commentator is right. Here is a translation -
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With Ratzinger,
the Church changes its 'politics'
By Andrea Piersanti

The naming of a new Secretary of State at the Vatican has been accompanied by an unprecedented press campaign. Several articles which have appeared in recent days appear to have been insturumental.

The virtual indiscretions over the possible decisions made by Benedict XVI appear to have been 'savoured' disconcertingly. It is as though the media and politics had succumbed, if only for an instant, to the temptation of exerting influence over the naming of new Curial heads. Ernesto Galli della Loggia [historian-philosopher and commmentator for Corriere della Sera]has said that we are witnessing the end of ‘Catho-communism.’

There have been attempts to support his statement, even though for reasons other than his. Catho-communism was and is the attempt by politicians to mix up the Church’s pastoral strategies with earthly matters. But the era of openly vaunted promiscuity between political affairs and Church strategy is coming to an end.

The community of believers, after John Paul II and more so with Benedict XVI, are rediscovering every day the exclusive and prior centrality of the faith.

It is like the procession at Corpus Domini, when even the Pope, leader of the Catholic world, is behind the Blessed Sacrament, not preceding it.

It is the sign of the times – seen in Marienfeld, Germany, then in Blonie, Poland. Open fields with millions of the faithful of all ages, on their knees and with hands clasped in prayer, before the Sacrament. It is a phenomenon that attracts the attention of and raises wonder even among non-believers.

As never before, pastoral activity is at the top of the hierarchy of messages within the Catholic Church. Something which does not please the church bureaucrats, and which could squash the decades-long attempt by 'Catho-communist' advocates to force an impossible coexistence between interests and strategies that are otherwise irreconcilable.

This is the sense in which we may read the nominations which will be made in the Curia to replace so many dicastery heads who have reached the age of retirement. The primacy of the Pastor over the politician-prelate is the characteristic of the era which we have just entered.

But the mass media do not seem to be prepared for the change at all. For months, efforts multiplied – although perhaps not all consciously so – to try and influence the decisions of the Pope from outside. But the Pope kept mum and has held back the long-awaited nominations up till now.

Serenity and determination, but also an awareness of one’s personal responsibility – these are the qualities that Benedict XVI has succeeded to instill meanwhile in those around him, whether within the Curia or outside it.

With the new Secretaruy of State, Cardinal Bertone, a Salesian and a longtime collaborator of Caridnal Ratzinger, things may finally proceed along the indicated way.

The media should learn to come to terms with a language that will necessarily be increasingly different from the language of secular politics.

For some it will be a great disappointment. A pity - since the situation offers new opportunities for that part of politics which is more concerned with human values and spiritual foundations, in which politics can go back to being a noble exercise in the service of the community.

And if that were so, then Galli della Loggia is right to say that the season of Catho-communism is over and done with.

At the end of June the Church celebrates the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. It is they – the two human beings to whom the Lord entrusted the task of establishing and guiding His Church - who remind us of the weakness of the human condition and the irresistible fascination of a day-to-day journey towards saintliness.

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Interestingly, John Allen in his 6/23/06 WORD FROM ROME devotes a section to Galli della Loggia's ideas on 'Catho-communism' which I will post here in the interest of the 'larger picture.'

Anyone who has followed American politics in recent years knows the revolution that has taken place in the "religious vote." Once the Democrats were the party of immigrant Catholics, and the Republicans the party of the Protestant establishment; today the Democrats tend to be the party of secularism, and Republicans the party of voters for whom religion is a major concern.

Now a provocative article by Italian political scientist Ernesto Galli della Loggia suggests there is a parallel phenomenon in Italy, which he calls the "death of cattocommunismo," the term for the Catholic version of leftist radicalism which was long a potent force in Italian politics.

First, Galli della Loggia argues that the great political debate which created the ground for cattocommunismo in the first place, the struggle between capital and labor, is no longer the defining issue.

Look, he says, at the actual problems we face: competition with new global actors such as China and India, migratory flows, the demographic crisis of Europe, the impossibility of sustaining current levels of social spending, and the decline in the stability of work. Which of these problems, he asks, is born of a conflict between capital and labor?

His answer is "none."

Further, he argues, in Europe these days economic policy is largely set in Brussels by the European Union, and even the most radical "reformed communists" in Italy and elsewhere have to accept it.

Second, Galli della Loggia says that the traditional social base of the radical left -- industrial workers, farmers, and rural craftsmen -- are today on the verge of disappearing, and have been replaced by civil servants, teachers, employees of large corporations, university professors, and other members of the middle and upper-middle classes.

These groups are economically interested in the protection of a strong public sector, but no longer conserve anything of the antique leftist hostility to individualism, hedonism, materialism, and in general for the middle class. Today, the ethic of the left tends to be "to each his or her own," requiring the state to remain neutral in the face of various lifestyle choices.

All this means, according to Galli della Loggia, that the magnetic appeal of cattocommunismo in the early 20th century, that of a meeting between "two peoples" in defense of social solidarity and the "humble Italy," against the Italy of the signori and the bourgeoisie, is largely finished.

Instead, the radical left and Catholics find themselves on opposite sides of the culture wars. The left supports a "subjectivist" ethics, while Catholics defend the values of human life and traditional visions of the family.

Of course, some of his language is a bit loaded, and things are inevitably more complicated than Galli della Loggia's brief sketch may suggest.

Yet Galli della Loggia is nevertheless on to something. The rise of debates over sexuality and the family, rather than economics and international policy, has indeed tended to drive religiously serious voters to the right. Whether this is an inevitable long-term trend, or a process capable of being reversed, may have a lot to say about the future of Western politics.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2006 5.16]

Luigi Accatoli in today's issue of Corriere della Sera analyzes the unprecedented nature of the announcements made by the Vatican yesterday. Here is a translation -
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The Pope moves to check
further indiscretions
By Luigi Accatoli

There’s a sense of adventure in the governance of the theologian Pope. He meditates at length on his decisions but during the waiting, the Curia is left pawing the ground and stamping its feet, and news comes out before the deed is done.

With the pre-announced nominations yesterday, we have the second case in five months of a papal action which comes on the heels of rumors in the media.

Something similar, but perhaps more serious, happened in January with the leaking of information about consultations with Italian bishops regarding a replacement for Cardinal Ruini as head of the Italian bishops conference. [At the time,the leak was attributed to the Secretariat of State, and in particular to Cardinal Sodano, who is said to be hostile to Ruini. The Pope scotched the rumors by announcing that Ruini would keep his position until further notice.]

Having waited months for news on the successor to Cardinal Sodano, the media appear to have learned of the Bertone solution almost as soon as it emerged, but even before the interested parties had received any ‘official communication', in the words of the Archbishop of Genoa.

This case, like the Ruini case, is damaging to the image of the outgoing Secretary of State who has received from the Pope the assurance that he may stay in office till September 15.

If the announcement yesterday had not been made, constant speculation would have accompanied every act taken by the Vatican for the next two and a half months, e.g.,‘That’s what Sodano says, but would Bertone agree?’

The intolerability of such a situation becomes clear if one takes into account the role – even diplomatically – of representation and exercise of Papal power that devolves on the Secretary of State.

That seems to be the explanation for the pre-announcement of a nomination which we had yesterday, and which, apparently, is unprecedented in Vatican annals.

But why has Sodano been ‘confirmed’ to stay on till September 15? His expressed desire to accompany the Pope on his visit to Bavaria on September 9-14 appears to have determined the date. [Teresa's note: Oh Benedict, what a kind soul you are!]Bertone will formally succeed Sodano on September 15, the day after the Pope gets back from Bavaria.

The analogous pre-announcement of Archbishop’s Lajolo’s transfer from the office of external relations (i.e., as foreign minister) to the Governorship of Vatican City is linked to Sodano’s departure, so that the full reorganization at the Scretariat of State can take place in September.

At that time, the super-prudent Ratzinger would have all the elements in hand to replace Lajolo. The usual indiscreet sources mention two leading names, Mons. Fortunato Baldelli, apostolic nuncio to Paris, and Mons. Celestino Migliore, the present Vatican observer at the UN.

Of course, there has been no lack of more tortuous explanations for the novelty of yesterday’s pre-announcements. For instance, that Sodano had wished to remain in office until he turns 80, which would be in November 2007. Or that the Pope’s choice of Bertone met with resistance from various members of the Curia who insist on a ‘diplomatic’ succession.

In fact, the Secretary of State has traditionally come from among the Vatican’s career diplomats, but there have been precedents for non-diplomats, most notably Cardinal Jean Villot, Paul VI’s Secretary of State who also continued in the first months of John Paul II’s Papacy.

Nevertheless, the choice of Bertone can be plausibly interpreted in two ways: One, Benedict XVI wants as his primary collaborator a man he knows and whom he worked with for almost eight years at the CDF. Two, the fact that he is not a diplomat is not a problem for the theologian-Pope who wants the ‘political’ activity of the Holy See diminished in favor of that which is strictly ecclesiastical.

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Sandro Magister in his blog today reinforces the less-than-pretty picture that Cardinal Sodano appears to have presented in his last few months as the Vatican's 'Prime Minister.' Here is a translation -

Sodano out-
Even at Catholic University,
he cannot prevail

It is official. On September 15, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will be the new Secretary of State in place of Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Sodano’s departure has been up in the air for some time. But a series of losing moves on his part has preceded his departure.

For example, Sodano stood squarely to the end in defense of Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, who has been accused of serious offenses. But we all know how it ended: Maciel was publicly asked by the CDF and by the Pope to retire to a “private life of prayer and penitence.”

Another example: Sodano sought to have cardinal Camillo Ruini removed as president of the Italian bishops conference. But here too, Benedict XVI thought diffrently and confirmed Ruini in his position for an indeterminate period.

Another indication of Sodano’s loss of power in the Vatican was the confirmation of Lorenzo Ornaghi as rector of the Catholic University on June 21, the day before the announcement of the succession at State.

Ornaghi is one of Ruini’s most faithful followers. When he was nominated the first time, Sodano supported his opponent, and in this he had powerful help from senator-for-life Emilio Colombo, from ex-President (of Italy) Oscar Luigi Scalfaro and Carlo Balestrero, who was the administrative director of the university at that time.

And today, the last word on choosing a rector for the Catholic University no longer devolves on the Secretariat of State, as Sodano wanted, but on the powers that lead the Italian bishops conference.
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Finally, here is a translation of an analysis by the Vatican correspondent of the Rome-based newspaper Il Messaggero.

The reason for the unprecedented
'pre-announcements' from the Vatican
by ORAZIO PETROSILLO

Perhaps it the most singular nomination that the Pope could have made. Because it was not a nomination but the announcement of one. Of no less than his principal collaborator; the new Secretary of State.

It is a nomination that was made publicly but ‘informally’ yesterday; officially, it still does not exist. It won’t until September 15.

This has never happened at the Vatican. Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Cardinal Angelo Sodano for having long passed the age limit – he is now 78 years and 7 months old – but did not automatically leave the way free for his successor. Tarcisio Bertone has been designated but he won’t be formally nominated for another 83 days.

And the same situation exists for the succession to Cardinal Edmund Szoka as Governor of Vatican City, who will be replaced by Mons. Giovanni Lajolo, secretary of the section for relations with other states, and therefore analogous to a foreign minister. One must note that Szoka, who is the same age as Sodano, has always said that he would not leave until Sodano retired. So now he gets his wish.

The only interpretation for this “announcement of a nomination” is that there was an iron band of resistance in the Curia and that the Pope – gentle but firm – did not get the obedience that is owed to him. [Note by me: If some ranking prelates in the Roman Curia can be so openly defiant of the Pope, no wonder bishops everywhere and even simple priests cast their vows of obedience to the winds! What will it take to clean house at the Vatican, dear Papino?]

It was not a fault on the part of journalists to write that Bertone was the designated successor. Some informed cardinals had admitted it. It seems that the Pope was not happy about the leak, but the news was too important for the public and the journalists had no choice but to report it. [Yes, but very few actually had the guts to run with story in the past two weeks. I searched Messaggero archives and not even Petrosillo – rumored to be a possible replacement for Joaqun Navarro-Valls as Vatican spokesman – came out with the story!]

It was well known in the Vatican that Sodano had asked for a postponement of his retirement – two weeks, some months, a bit more time. It will finally take place the day after the Pope returns from his trip to Bavaria. Thus, Sodano will remain ‘in charge’ during the Pope’s next two trips abroad (to Valencia and to Bavaria).

Maybe these few months will help him to detach himself gradually after almost 16 years as Secretary of State, which makes him the fifth longest holder of the office among 51 who preceded him.

It is also known that Bertone’s designation raised not a few objections in the Curia, since he is not a diplomat, leading some to fear a diminution of the Holy See’s diplomatic influence.

Between Sodano who asked for more time in his position and some cardinals who wanted him to rethink his decision on Bertone, Beendict XVI sat on it for a while and arrived at a decision which sought to make everyone happy, while at the same time affirming his desire to have Bertone as his principal co-worker, clearly demonstraing his trust in someone who earned it during 7-1/2 years of working at the CDF.

That the Pope did not have any other candidate in whom he could place his full trust is a measure of how difficult it is to be Pope.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/06/2006 0.45]

And here is a translation of the post-announcement analysis, with a few more items of 'inside information,' from the Vatican correspondent for Il Giornale, one of the few in the Italian media who came out unequivocally with the news about Bertone's appointment as early as June 10 (and promptly posted in this forum!).
---------------------------------------------------------------

Lobbying by Vatican diplomats
delayed the Bertone announcement
By Andrea Tornielli

Last Saturday, when rumors peaked about his imminent retirement, Cardinal Angelo Sodano told a journalist from Eco di Bergamo, "I see that one of your colleagues is fretting and is out there searching for some novelty to report. St. Paul in his time spoke of Christians who had an 'itch in the ears' due to their eagerness to go out in search of new sensations."

[Could Sodano have been referring to Tornielli himself, who was the the first writer in the Italian mainstream media to report that Bertone's nomination was virtually in the bag?]

Well, the cardinal’s resignation, made public yesterday along with the designation of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to succeed him – although this does not take place till September – just shows that the contagious ‘itch’ among reporters in this case was not at all imaginary.

Benedict XVI’s decision is unprecedented. Sixteen years ago, on December 1, 1990, when Angelo Sodanoi replaced then Secretary of State Agostino Casaroli, the transfer of power was immediate.

Casaroli, barely 76 at the time, learned of the change 48 hours before it happened, and there are those who swear that a few days later, the new ‘prime minister’ of the Vatican changed the locks between the private apartment of the Secretary of State (where Casaroli remained while he organized his moving out) and the office of the Secretary of State.

It was an immediate change, without byzantinism, announcements, denials or leaks – as should be expected with a position which, notwitstanding its importance, remains eminently a service rendered directly to the Pope.

The change of ministers in 1990 was an epochal one – the rather unceremonious exit of one of the great figures in the history of the Church, the man of Ostpolitik himself, who had accompanied the first and most delicate part of John Paul II’s Papacy, which was marked by difficult relations with the nations of Communist Eastern Europe.

Then why not this time the same dispatch in the same style, but the choice of a completely unprecedented way? The answer lies in the great sensitivity and charity that marks Benedict XVI’s attitude towards his co-workers.

In the last few months, Sodano’s entourage had kept assuring journalists that their boss, thanks to his long experience, would stay on with Benedict as Secretary of State at least until he reached the age of 80 (in November 2007), and that there was absolutely no reason to replace him until then.

But it has since been learned that, in fact, the Pope wished – as expected and as predicted – to build his own ‘team’ for government and had always primarily considered his former co-worker at CDF to be his ‘prime minister.’

So what happened? According to some, news leaks in the last few days forced the announcements to be made to avoid ulterior ’maneuvers’ designed to weaken the position of Bertone by circulating the names of other possible candidates. This explanation, which led to attributing the
‘fault’ to the ‘itch’ of journalists , seems to be the easiest, and has some basis, but it does not explain everything.

From what Il Giornale has found out, the change should have taken place earlier, shortly after the Pope came back from Poland, not postponed till after summer vacation.

What provoked the postponement, according to Curial gossip, was a ‘preventive war’ undertaken by some venerable cardinal against Bertone, whom he judged “not suitable” because he does not come from the ranks of the Vatican diplomatic service, although neither did Cardinal Jean Villot, Paul VI’s Secretary of State (although of course, in that case, it was the Pope who had had extensive diplomatic experience).

But it is well known that Ratzinger wishes to emphasize the ministry and doctrine, rather than diplomacy.Also, it became known that in the past few weeks, Sodano reiterated to the Pope that he wished to stay in office for a few more months.

Meanwhile, because of the reported opposition in the Curia, Bertone himself had a long conversation with the Pope last week, concluded over lunch, and it cannot be ruled out that the Archbishop of Genoa, who is not used to having an iron arm poised over his head, may have expressed his willingness to give up the appointment.

But obviously the Pope did not change his thinking about it and instead prepared the letter which he addressed to the faithful of Genoa and made public yesterday, to explain his decision.

Yesterday’s announcement sets a definite schedule. It announces Bertone’s nomination, but it also satisfies Sodano who is left in charge with full powers although obviously, in the same situation as a lameduck premier at the end of his term.

It will be interesting to note what happens at State between now and September 15, when the Pope comes back from Bavaria and finally presents his new Secretary of State. It is traditional that at the end of June, new nominations and reassignments of nuncios takes place, along with appointments to various organisms, and developments are also expected in connection with the Vatican financial institution IOR.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2006 4.28]

Thanks to Beatrice in the French section for collating the major articles reporting the Bertone nomination in the French press.

As the 'news' part of their reports is something we already know, I have excerpted only the observations and conclusions drawn in the articles for Le Monde and Le Figaro by two journalists whose bylines we are now familiar with, Henri Tincq and Herve Yannou, respectively. They do have fresh points to make about the nomination in particular, and Benedict's reforms in general.

However, unlike previous reports from them, neither had anything negative to say about the nomination or about Benedict, for a change! Although Tincq continues to call Benedict 'the new Pope'! [When will he be just 'the Pope'? I thought after at most one year, he would stop being called 'the new Pope'!]

Here are translations -
----------------------------------------------------------------
By Henri Tincq
6/23/06, Le Monde

...it has taken the the new Pope 14 months to separate himself from Cardinal Sodano…

The slowness isn’t explained by reciprocal confidence – never excessive – between the two men who were the closest collaborators of the Polish Pope until he died.

It is simply typical of Benedict’s style – he takes his time to build up his team, to surround himself with men of his confidence who will never try to speak or act in his place, and to reform a Curia that has often been decried for its bureaucratic methods and its hypertrophy.

In this view, the choice of Cardinal Bertone is not surprising. For seven years, he was Ratzinger’s right hand man at the CDF. He did not come from the the pontifical diplomatic service, traditional nursery for secretaries of state (Pacelli, who would become Pius XII; Tardini for John XXIII; Casaroli and Sodano for John Paul II). His profile is that of a ‘pastor’ rather than a high functionary in the usual curial mold.

He has experience as a resident bishop (Vercelli and Genoa) like two other Curial heads named by this Pope – Cardinal William Levada at CDF, who came from San Francisco ; and Cardinal Ivan Dias, soon to take over as Prefect for the Congregation of Evangelization, who comes from Bombay.

And thus, little by little, we see the emergence of Benedict’s Curial reform, which appears to revolve around international representation, prior experience in the Curia, and a simplification of structures.

As Cardinal Ratzinger, this Pope was a witness to the growth of a Vatican bureaucracy that became almost a quasi-autonomous government under a Pope who was often out of the country. Now, as Pope, he is regrouping the various pontifical councils created after Vatican-II.

In March, he provisionally placed the council for justice and peace and the council for migrants under one president, and the same thing for the councils on culture and on inter-religious dialog.

Next, it is planned for the council on the family to merge with that on health and the laity. Similarly, all the organs of communications at the Vatican (Press Office, Osservatore Romano, Radio Vatican, CTV) may soon be grouped under a single ‘ministry’ for communications.

This reform of the Roman Curia follows principles dear to this Pope who is a theologian rather than a politician – a lightening of the bureaucratic structure and minimal exercise of pontifical power.

This must be correlated with his decision to cut down on the private audiences he grants, the obvious reduction in foreign trips, and his aboslute respect for rules (as when he named his first cardinals last March, taking care not to exceed the limit of 120 potential cardinal-electors at any given time).

The retirement of Cardinal Sodano – who, under John Paul II, embodied that frenzy for audiences and voyages, as well as an activist diplomacy in the Balkans, in the Middle East and against the war in Iraq – doubtless marks the end of a Vatican era in which geopolitics and centralization of authority apppeared to have been the priorities.

----------------------------------------------------------------
By Herve Yannou
6/23/06, Le Figaro


...The game of musical chairs at the Vatican, long awaited since Benedict XVI was elected 14 months ago, has begun. Calmly, the Pope is placing his own men in key positions. With his nomination of his own Secretary of State, he has stamped a very personal mark on the governance of the Church….
Benedict XVI, a Pope who is more religious than political, has chosen someone in his image – a university veteran, doctrinally conservative, but ever-smiling and particularly attuned to the youth.

Above all, he (Bertone) is very media-oriented. He was the first Church prelate to denounce The Da Vinci Code. A fan of Juventus, the team from Turin (his native province), he has commented on football matches for radio and TV.

Bertone is a jurist, author of a thesis on the government of the Church under Benedict XIV (1740-1758). He participated in the last revision of the Code of Canon Law and has perfect knowledge of the internal workings of the Church.

This is a fundamental point for the Pope, who is concerned about surrounding himself with men of his confidence and who are on familiar ground in the Vatican.

His most important nominations so far have all been resident bishops, non-Italians until Bertone, who have all spent time in Rome.

But perhaps the key to being named by the Pope to an important post in the Curia is having worked with him earlier in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith!

---------------------------------------------------------------
There's a third article from La Croix which I have been unable to translate yet.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2006 3.54]

A full translation of the Pope's words at the Angelus may be found in the AUDIENCE AND ANGELUS thread.
--------------------------------------------------------------


Vatican City, June 25, 2006 (AsiaNews) – Benedict XVI today appealed for heightened awareness to ensure increased occupational safety.

His plea came at the end of the Angelus prayer, as he prayed for victims of an accident yesterday on the construction site of the Catania-Syracuse highway, in which one person was killed and 14 others wounded. The pope gave assurance of his prayers for the victims and their families.

But first, taking his cue from the liturgical calendar, Benedict XVI, catechist and theologian pope, used the time of reflection before the Angelus to explain the feasts of the Sacred Heart, John the Baptist, Mary’s Immaculate Heart, and Saints Peter and Paul. In doing so, he wrested them away from sentimentalism and revealed their relevance for Christians and the world.

Recalling the feast celebrated on Friday 23 June, Benedict XVI said: “The consecration of the Sacred Heart was – and still is in some countries – a tradition in some families, which kept an image of the same in their homes. The roots of this devotion are embedded in the mystery of the Incarnation; it is precisely through the Heart of Jesus that the Love of God for mankind is revealed in a sublime way.”

Genuine worship of the Sacred Heart, which became widespread in the seventeenth century, “preserves all its validity”, continued the pope. It “attracts above all souls thirsty for God’s mercy, as they find there an infinite font from which to draw the water of Life, capable of irrigating the desert of the soul and of making hope blossom again.”

Benedict XVI also recalled that the solemn feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is also the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests. He said: “I take the opportunity to invite all of you, dear brothers and sisters, to pray for priests always, that they may be valid witnesses to the love of Christ."

Turning to the feast of the birth of John the Baptist – marked yesterday – the pope highlighted the expression “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). This expression, he said, “is programmed for each and every Christian”. The pope said: “Our life is always ‘relative’ to Christ and it is realized by welcoming Him, Word, Light and Spouse, of whom we are the voice, lamp and friends (cfr Jn1:1,23; 1:7-8; 3:29)”.

Dwelling on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the pontiff said: “Allowing the ‘I’ of Christ to replace our ‘I’ was, in exemplary manner, the ardent desire of the Apostles Peter and Paul, who the Church will venerate in a solemn feast on 29 June. St Paul wrote of himself: “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. (Gal 2:20).”

Before the prayer of the Angelus, the pope also recalled the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, “Heart of a Mother, who continues to keep watch with tender concern over us all. May her intercession grant that we will always remain faithful to our Christian vocation.”

Benedict XVI greeted students “who are finishing their exams in these days; I assure them that I remember them in my prayers.”

The pontiff also thanked Italy’s ecclesial community for donations made during the “Pope’s Charity Day”. On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul – which is also the feast of the Vatican basilica – collections of donations are made in all churches of Italy, which are given to the Holy See and administered by the pontiff for needy missionaries of the Church around the world.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2006 4.31]

I apologize for posting a 'non-topical' item at this point, but I just came across this article yesterday (mea culpa!). It was written for the first anniversary of Benedict XVI's election by Charles Curran, an American priest whom the CDF under Cardinal Ratzinger barred from teaching Catholic theology because he wrote openly against several key principles in the Catholic Magisterium.

Curran is now professor of human values at Southern Methodist University. His memoir, Loyal Dissent, will be published by Georgetown University Press in May 2006.

This article was published 0n 4/15/06 in the British Catholic weekly newspaper, The Tablet, which generally espouses liberal views. Curran finds the Pope's first encyclical emblematic of
Benedict's sense of the Papacy as a unifying force.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Here is how the article is introduced:

It has been 12 months since Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger succeeded John Paul II as Bishop of Rome. The new Pope’s election delighted many but also alarmed plenty. Here, a theologian whom he barred from teaching offers his – somewhat surprising – assessment of Benedict XVI’s first year.

From division to unity
By Charles Curran

I was disappointed last April when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Bishop of Rome. While some Vatican observers had dismissed his candidacy because he was too old and his health was not particularly good, my primary objection was the fact that he was a divisive figure in the Catholic Church, strongly identified with the more conservative wing.

The role of pope is not an easy one. He is looked to as the leader of the Church and at the same time the centre of unity within it. The challenge is to recognise legitimate diversity and pluralism while still holding on to unity.

The tensions facing the Catholic Church and its head are similar to the daunting challenges found in any community today from our smallest cities to the global community itself: how to reconcile unity and diversity.

In theory, the ideal solution to this challenge is the old Latin axiom – in necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas – in necessary things unity, in doubtful things freedom, in all things charity.

My personal history strongly influenced my negative judgement about Cardinal Ratzinger. In 1986, after a seven-year investigation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), with the approval of John Paul II, declared “that one who dissents from the Magisterium as you do is not suitable nor eligible to teach Catholic Theology”.

My disagreements with the CDF centred on the question of dissent from non-infallible Church moral teachings and, specifically, with my dissent on such issues as contraception, masturbation, premarital sex, divorce, homosexual acts and abortion.

In the course of this investigation I realised that I had an even deeper theological disagreement with Cardinal Ratzinger. Many theologians have pointed out that he embraced a brand of theological Augustinianism. Such Catholics often understand the two cities of Augustine by identifying the city of God with the Church and the human city with the world, thus stressing the opposition between the two. As a result, the Church is a small Church that sees itself in opposition to the world.

In 1984, in the midst of my investigation by the CDF, Cardinal Ratzinger gave the famous interview that was later published as The Ratzinger Report. The original Italian is stronger than the later translations:

“Looking at North America, we see a world where riches are the measure and where the values and style of life proposed by Catholicism appear more than ever as a scandal … Consequently, many moralists … believe that they are forced to chose between dissent from society or dissent from the Magisterium.”

I describe my position as theological Thomism, which accepts a basic goodness of all that God has created despite the disfiguring presence of sin in the world and in the Church. Dialogue and not opposition characterises the relationship between the Church and the world.

In light of the consistent Augustinian approach of Cardinal Ratzinger, I have maintained that he has not changed as much as many progressives in the Church claim he has changed since his days as a leading theologian at the Second Vatican Council.

The Council proposed two criteria for the renewal of the Church – ressourcement (going back to the sources) and aggiornamento (bringing the Church up to date, especially through a broad dialogue with others). In the years since the Council, a division has grown between these two approaches.

The ressourcement school, identified with theologians such as Von Balthasar, Danielou, De Lubac and Ratzinger, have been fearful of many developments in the post-conciliar Church. The aggiornamento group of theological Thomists, such as Congar, Rahner, Schillebeeckx, Chenu and Küng, have called for continual reform. [Hmmm! And I always thought Congar was with the ressourcement group!]

Yet I have been pleasantly surprised by the first year of Pope Benedict’s papacy. He has recognised his role as a centre of unity and has not seen the Church primarily as a small remnant in opposition to the world.

Church pundits have often pointed out that the most important document from a new pope is the first encyclical. On 25 January, Benedict released his first encyclical: Deus Caritas Est.

My fears were that the first encyclical would be on truth: we the Church have the truth and we must struggle against the relativism and subjectivism in the world around us. Many of Cardinal Ratzinger’s earlier statements and homilies before his election took this approach.

But the first encyclical is a reflection on what Pope Benedict calls “the heart of the Christian faith” – love. He is speaking here as the centre of unity in the Church, confirming his sisters and brothers in their faith in the power of love. There is nothing divisive about this encyclical.

The encyclical deals with the three classical understandings of love – eros, philia and agape. It defends the basic goodness of eros, understood especially as sexual love, despite the warped and destructive form such love has at times taken. Christian love does not reject eros, but rather perfects it and brings it to its true grandeur.

The encyclical goes on to deny the opposition that some have seen between agape as the Christian giving of self and eros as the possessive or covetous love typical of particularly Greek culture. Such an antithesis would make the essence of Christianity a world apart, cut off from the fabric of human life. Eros and agape must find a proper unity in the one reality of love. Unlike some theologians who distinguish eros as human love from agape as divine love, the Pope even insists that God’s love includes both eros and agape.

In the discussion of love, especially eros and human marital and sexual love, it would have been very easy for the Pope to insert a paragraph strongly supporting the existing Catholic teachings on contraception, divorce and even homosexuality. One can only conclude that the Pope purposely did not go down this road.

In this whole encyclical there is not even a hint of a small remnant Church in opposition to the world around it. The encyclical accepts a basic goodness of the human that needs to be transformed by the divine.

The second part of the encyclical (rumoured to have been in preparation under Pope John Paul II) deals with the practice of love by the Christian community. Love of neighbour is the responsibility of the entire Church community at all levels, and such love must be organised in order to best serve human needs.

The encyclical distinguishes (perhaps too much) between love and justice, but sees both as necessary for the good of our global society. Justice is the direct responsibility of the body politic, but the Church contributes to the formation of consciences by its social teaching. The social teaching of the Church must be addressed in the context of dialogue with all those concerned about humanity and our world.

There have been other indications in papal words (Benedict’s first homily as Pope) and deeds (his meeting and dinner with Hans Küng) that Pope Benedict sees himself as the centre of unity in the Church, which thus strives to be in dialogue with all people of good will.

Does this mean that we might see a significant change from the positions that Cardinal Ratzinger has held over the years? No pope has a greater paper trail than the very productive scholar, Joseph Ratzinger. I do not see him changing his basic positions, but the new context of his role as Bishop of Rome gives a different emphasis and ordering to these positions he has held over the years.

A key indication that he has not changed his basic perspectives or approaches was Pope Benedict’s address to the Roman Curia just before Christmas, during which he commented on developments in the 40 years since the end of the Second Vatican Council. He recognised that the implementation of the Council decisions and changes has been difficult, even using an analogy from St Basil comparing the Church after the Council of Nicea with a naval battle in the darkness of a storm.

The problem comes from two opposing and quarrelling interpretations of the Council – a “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” and a “hermeneutic of reform”. The hermeneutic of discontinuity, which has frequently availed itself of the sympathies of the mass media and also one trend of modern theology, claims to follow the spirit of the Council.

The letter of the texts themselves is the result of compromise so, according to this interpretation, one must discern in these texts the true spirit behind the Council. The hermeneutic of discontinuity risks endorsing a split between the pre-conciliar and the post-conciliar Church.

But it was the “hermeneutic of reform” that was proposed by each of the conciliar popes, John XXIII and Paul VI. Historical changes and developments have taken place in both the modern world and the Church. Changes in the modern world have occurred, for example, in the fact that many scientists no longer say there is no place for God in our world.

With regard to change in the Church, Vatican II addressed three crucial questions: the relationship between faith and science, the relationship between the Church and the modern world, and religious tolerance and relationships among all religions.

Yes, changes were made at the Council because of changing historical situations, but the basic principles have remained the same. In correcting certain historical decisions, Vatican II has actually preserved the Church’s true identity. The Church is the same Church: one, holy, Catholic and apostolic, journeying through time. But in our time too, the Church remains a “sign that will be opposed” (Luke 2:34).

In conclusion, I have been happily surprised that Pope Benedict XVI is very conscious of his role as the centre of unity in the Church, but this does not mean that he has changed or will change any existing teachings of the Church and his own basic theological positions. I would expect this same stance to guide him in the remaining years of his papacy.

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Earlier today, in the thread APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO POLAND, Benefan posted an article by Fr. Andrew Greeley, another liberal critic of Joseph Ratzinger, in which he defends the Pope's discourse at Auschwitz-Birkenau as totally appropriate for a Catholic. It's a must-read.

Also, I have little acquaintance with the Curran case, but if one goes by what he wrote above, could he have fought the CDF decision not to allow him to teach Catholic theology since he disagreed openly with the Church on the hot-button social issues of the era?

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/06/2006 2.05]

CONCERT IN HONOR OF THE HOLY FATHER



VATICAN CITY, JUN 24, 2006 (VIS) - This evening, the Pope attended a concert of sacred music in the Sistine Chapel, presented in his honor by the Domenico Bartolucci Foundation, directed by Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci.



At the end of the concert, Benedict XVI thanked Msgr. Bartolucci - who directed the Sistine Chapel Choir from 1956 to 1997 - for the concert, which included the composition "Oremus Pro Pontefice" written, the Pope recalled, by Msgr. Bartolucci "immediately after my election to the See of Peter."



"All the pieces we have heard," the Holy Father continued, "and especially their arrangement - with the sixteenth and twentieth centuries running in parallel - go to confirm the conviction that sacred polyphony, and especially that of the so-called 'Roman School,' is a legacy to be carefully preserved, kept alive and propagated, for the benefit not only of scholars and enthusiasts, but of all the ecclesial community for which it constitutes a priceless spiritual, artistic and cultural heritage."



Pope Benedict then highlighted how the aim of the Bartolucci Foundation is "to preserve and defend the classical and contemporary tradition of this famous polyphonic school, which has always been characterized by its focus on the pure voice, without instrumental accompaniment."



He continued: "A true 'aggiornamento' of sacred music cannot be achieved except by following the great traditions of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphony. For this reason, in the musical field as in that of other forms of art, the ecclesial community has always promoted and sustained those who seek new forms of expression without rejecting the past, the history of the human spirit, which is also the history of its dialogue with God."



Msgr. Bartolucci, the Pope said, "has always sought to appreciate sacred music, also as a vehicle of evangelization. Through innumerable concerts in Italy and abroad, with the universal language of art, the Sistine Chapel Choir," led by him, "cooperated in the mission of the Popes, which is that of spreading the Christian message throughout the world. the Sistine Chapel Choir still continues that mission under the careful direction of its current maestro, Giuseppe Liberto."

This news just dropped in from VIS. Hope it hasn't already been posted elsewhere. Everything about our Papa and music is so interesting! Love - Mary x

8 Keys to Reading Joseph Ratzinger's Work

Suggested by Archbishop Forte

ROME, JUNE 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto recently presented eight keys for reading Joseph Ratzinger's theological work.

The archbishop, a member of the International Theological Commission, presented his ideas at the closing the first course of Specialization in Religious Information, organized by the University of the Holy Cross.

The prelate began his address June 17 by presenting, as the first key, an analysis of the historical and cultural context in which the theological work matured of the man who today is Benedict XVI.

After 1968, when the "age of utopia" and its vision of an essentially "useless" God came to the fore, Ratzinger's work began to develop its anti-ideological conviction, said Archbishop Forte, 56.

Moreover, after 1989, when the "age of disenchantment" and the idea of the "death" of God prevailed, Ratzinger's challenge was to "propose horizons of meaning, joy and hope," the Italian archbishop said.

During this period, Joseph Ratzinger elaborated the concept of "Deus caritas," which shows that the topic of his first encyclical was "long in maturing," observed Archbishop Forte.

The second key is the task Joseph Ratzinger assumed with his theology: "to give witness with the service of the intelligence to the Word amid the words of men," that is, "a 'diakonia' [service] to truth in the house of truth," namely, the Church.

In fact, "God is not found in solitude" but in a "community that remembers and narrates and which, at the same time, interprets the truth that has been transmitted to us," said Archbishop Forte.

Abandoning ourselves

The third key is the meaning of believing. Quoting Ratzinger himself, in his "Introduction to Christianity," Archbishop Forte said that to believe "means to give one's assent to that sense that we are not capable of building ourselves, but only to receive it as a gift, so that it is enough to accept him and abandon ourselves to him."

Illustrating the fourth key to the reading, the archbishop said that the God in whom one believes, can only be a personal god, God the Father, who is revealed in biblical history as the living God, that is, the God of Jesus Christ. An unknown God cannot be loved. Only a personal one can be loved, one who addresses us and who, at the same time, we can address.

In this context, the relationship between man and God must be characterized by the move from "dualism," which has opposed the human and the divine, faith and reason, in many periods of the modern spirit, to "meeting" and correspondence.

According to the fifth key of Ratzinger's thought, "the human and divine meet but are not confused in Jesus Christ," noted the prelate. God is not the answer to man's expectation, but is always superior; "he is the beyond who overtakes, disconcerts and troubles us."

The sixth key is the vision of the Church as the place where God dwells. "The Church must always live in docility to the Spirit and must be ready to acknowledge resistances to the Spirit," Archbishop Forte observed, indicating the importance of admitting faults of the past.

Eschatology

The seventh key, the vision of the beyond, eschatology, is a "dominant theme in Ratzinger's thought" and affects first of all the identity of the Christian: "a prisoner of the future of God," who must measure his decisions on the horizon of the infinite God, according to the archbishop.

In this connection, "the Christian lives in an anticipated and anticipating experience of the last things," through faith and the sacraments, but is also "critical reserve" because at times the Christian goes against the current.

The last stage illustrated by Archbishop Forte was the image that summarizes this theological work -- Mary -- synthesis of ecclesiology: "a concrete and personal icon in which the coordinates of Christian thought are expressed."

The archbishop concluded his address highlighting the differences between Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI. If Pope Karol Wojtyla was a personalist anthropologist, he said, then Pope Joseph Ratzinger is a theologian who is "almost a catechist," bearer of the possibility of the meeting of different traditions and cultures.

The course of Specialization in Religious Information took place March 3-June 16. During the course, professors of several pontifical universities and athenaeums of Rome alternated in addressing topics relative to religious information, to offer some keys to its reading in order to understand the Catholic Church better.

26 June, 2006
PHILIPPINES - VATICAN

Pope has “cordial meeting” with Arroyo who faces impeachment in Manila

The President of the Philippines talked to Benedict XVI about abolition of the death penalty and the project about the Constitution, which she hopes expresses Christian values. But in Manila, there are renewed calls for her removal for the same corruption and fraud charges made last year.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – The decision to abolish the death penalty in the Philippines, the project for constitutional reform and “favourable” prospects of dialogue with the Muslim population were discussed by the President of the Republic of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with Benedict XVI, who received her in an audience this morning. Also today, but in Manila, the opposition presented another call for her impeachment, with the same charges she managed to evade last year: corruption and electoral fraud.

The visit to the Vatican is part of an eight-day Europe trip started by Arroyo yesterday, a day after she signed into law the abolition of the death penalty in the country. Throughout her visit, she will hold official talks with Italian politicians and the Spanish royals. The main focus of her trip is “life, unity and prosperity”.

“There is no doubt that the highlight of the visit will be the audience with Benedict XVI, who our president wants to invite to the Philippines as soon as possible,” said Ignacio Bunye, Arroyo’s secretary for public relations. Arroyo herself told journalists at the airport before her departure: “For the first time, I will meet with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican and will tell him our people's devotion and support for his papacy.”

The director of the press office of the Holy See, Joaquín Navarro-Valls, issued a statement about the “cordial meeting” of Benedict XVI with Arroyo, who was accompanied by her family and entourage. Navarro said: “The President showed the Holy Father the new law abolishing the death penalty, signed only last Saturday, on the feast of St John the Baptist. Mrs Macapagal-Arroyo also presented a project of constitutional reform to the pope, which is aimed at more harmonious national development, with special attention reserved for the poorest brackets of the population. During the meeting, reference was also made to favourable prospects of dialogue with the country’s Muslim population and to hopes of national pacification. Finally, the President said Christian values, recognized by the majority of Filipinos, find expression and support in state laws.”

Notwithstanding the papal audience, Arroyo’s trip did not meet the approval of the whole national Church. Mgr Oscar Cruz, archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan, said “given that there are questions about the legitimacy of the presidential election, it is not appropriate that Arroyo does to Benedict what she had done with John Paul II.” The archbishop was referring to post-electoral statements made by the president, who in 2004, had said her election “had the blessing of John Paul II, the Pope whose heart was arguably closest to Filipinos”.

Mgr Cruz said it was “very doubtful” that the Pope, former prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, would extend his “moral affirmation” to the president, despite the abrogation of the death penalty. He said: “It won't make any difference, given that the government closes its eyes to the kidnapping of activists seeking to improve our country, including Church people.” The stand of the bishop of Lingayen-Dagupan reflects that already expressed by the bishop of Novaliches, Mgr Antonio Tobias, who last April celebrated Mass for the birthday of the ex-President Joseph Estrada. During Mass, he “apologized for the Church’s participation and support in rallies that led to his resignation”.

At the time, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) responded swiftly: two days later, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, published a statement saying “the bishops have nothing to apologize to Estrada for” and “if any bishop said different, he was doing so on a personal basis”.

AsiaNews sources in the Philippines said on that occasion, the Apostolic Nunciature also intervened – although it was in a situation of interregnum at the time, owing to the appointment of the new Nuncio, Mgr Filoni – to remind bishops of the call of John Paul II to “keep out of the country’s politics”.

Thousands of families, pro-family advocates await pope's Spain visit

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI visits Valencia, Spain, July 8-9 to close the Fifth World Meeting of Families, thousands of families will have spent the week discussing ways they can better pass on their Christian faith to their children.

Given the many challenges families face today, the July 1-9 meeting will act as a clearinghouse for experts, religious leaders and regular families from all over the world to pitch ideas and exchange experiences.

But whatever initiatives or solutions participants agree on, they also will be eagerly looking forward to the pope's presence. Pope Benedict has made it known he was not going to travel as much as his predecessor, so many see his presence in Valencia as a strong sign of his support for families.

The World Meeting of Families and the Pontifical Council for the Family were established by Pope John Paul II in 1981 when he published his apostolic exhortation, "Familiaris Consortio," on the role of the Christian family.

The first world meeting was held in Rome in 1994 and since then, it has taken place in other cities every three years. Each meeting has drawn more than a million people, and organizers expect up to 1.5 million pilgrims in Valencia.

The meeting's main purpose has always been to "celebrate the divine gift of the family and to unite families in prayer, speaking, learning, sharing" and to help families as the "domestic church" and evangelizers, said the Fifth World Meeting of Families' Web site, www.wmf2006.org/en/.

In a 2005 letter referring to this year's meeting, Pope Benedict said parents are the first evangelizers of children. They are called to help build up "a moral universe" that is "rooted in the will of God, where the child grows in the human and Christian values that give life its full meaning," he said.

But for many, that task is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in societies with rising divorce rates, limited economic opportunities that often force a parent to emigrate far from home, and a growing secular climate that can seem hostile to traditional values and social structures.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, which organizes each world meeting, believes the pope's participation in this year's event will add extra momentum to the pro-family movement.

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo told Catholic News Service in mid-March that the meeting will "bring fire" to the cause.

He said Pope Benedict has made a number of forceful comments defending the family and the dignity of marriage as the true expression of love between a man and a woman.

Over the past year, the pope has found many occasions to extol the virtues and importance of a stable, loving family. He also has urged bishops and governments to offer needed pastoral, social and political support for a family based on marriage between a man and a woman.

Governments should be concerned about the makeup and condition of their communities' families, he said May 13, because "as John Paul II liked to say, 'the future of humanity passes by way of the family.'"

Many of Spain's bishops will be eager to hear what the pope has to say in separate meetings with them and the country's prime minister.

The church in Spain has been at odds with the Socialist-led government over a wide range of issues since Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was elected in 2004.

In just two years, the Spanish government has made divorce quicker and easier for couples, reduced the role of Catholic education in public schools and become the first European country to allow homosexual people to marry and adopt children. Belgium and the Netherlands allow same-sex marriages, while some other European states have decided to recognize or are debating recognizing civil unions between homosexual couples.

Legislation aimed at relaxing abortion laws is also proposed, and the government gave the green light for embryonic stem-cell research in 2005, making Spain one of a few European countries to authorize such experiments.

But for Spain, where 39.5 million of 42 million people are Catholic, the bishops are especially concerned about what they see as the government's attacks on the family and life.

Even the city that will host the world families meeting and the papal visit is not immune to the controversies.

During its June 22-24 congress on diversity in Europe's families, Valencia's gay community hosted its annual gay pride parade just yards from the city's Catholic cathedral.

Bishop Pietro Fragnelli of Castellaneta told Vatican Radio June 20 that whatever comes out of this year's World Meeting of Families and the pope's visit "will be important for all the churches in Europe."

He said whatever the pope does and says in Valencia will be decisive for Europe's Christians and families because they yearn "to rediscover the role of the family in carrying on the faith" and to become protagonists in handing down a complete moral and ethical Christian-based education to their children.