With no pope, Catholic Church leaderless for now

March 01, 2013

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Catholic Church has awoken with no leader following Benedict XVI's resignation, in which he pledged obedience to his successor and described himself as "simply a pilgrim" starting the final part of his life.

Now begins a period known as the "sede vacante" or "vacant see" — the transition between the end of one papacy and the election of a new pope. During these few days — no more than 20 — a few key players take charge running the Holy See, guiding the College of Cardinals in their deliberations and organizing the conclave to elect Benedict's successor.

In one of his first official acts as dean, Cardinal Angelo Sodano on Friday officially summons cardinals to Rome to participate in the conclave, a formality given that most are already here. And in one of his first official acts as camerlengo, or the chamberlain who actually runs the Holy See in the transition, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone sealed Benedict's apartment in the Apostolic Palace on Thursday night. It will not be reopened until a new pope is elected.

With the 8 p.m. Thursday end of Benedict's papacy, every department head in the Vatican lost his job — except for those whose offices are crucial for the smooth running of the transition period itself.

Cardinals on Monday will begin formal meetings to set the date for the conclave and discuss problems facing the church; major topics of discussion are expected to be the report Benedict commissioned into the leaks of sensitive Vatican documents and the dysfunction currently reigning in the Vatican bureaucracy.

"What we talk about ... will be certainly the governance of the church and in that context there may be questions to people who did the report," said Chicago Cardinal Francis George. "I think we will find out a lot from a lot of sources to figure out what is necessary now to govern the church well here in Rome itself."

Pope leads midnight Christmas Mass amid tight security

Fri, 24 Dec 2010

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI led the Vatican's Christmas celebrations late Friday with the traditional midnight Mass, which began amid tightened security measures following last year's intrusion by a mentally disturbed woman.

Thousands of people flocked to St Peter's Basilica as Benedict began presiding over the ceremony. Many more followed the proceedings on giant video screens in St Peter's Square, on a mild but wet winter's night.

Benedict, wearing golden robes and his bishop's miter, walked into the Basilica in procession with other clerics. The pontiff stopped occasionally, briefly greeting well-wishers, many of them holding camera phones.

During the same event in 2009, a Swiss-born woman, Susanna Maiolo, jumped over a barrier and lunged at the pontiff, knocking him down. Benedict was unhurt in the resulting fracas, but an elderly cardinal suffered a broken leg.

Maiolo had already tried to accost the pontiff during the 2008 Christmas Mass but was blocked by security guards.

As in 2009, Friday's midnight mass began at 10 pm (2100 GMT) instead of midnight - an earlier slot aimed to give the 83-year-old pontiff a few extra hours of sleep before his Christmas Day duties, the Vatican said.

In his mass homily, the leader of the world's more than 1 billion Catholics was expected to stress that Jesus' coming - the event that Christians celebrate at Christmas - gives mankind the hope that lasting peace will be achieved on Earth.

Earlier, the Vatican unveiled in St Peter's Square its Nativity scene, recreating the scene of Jesus' birth - a custom revived in 1982.

The story narrates how Jesus' mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph, unable to find lodging, seek shelter in a stable and using a manger, or livestock feeding trough, as a crib for the infant.

This year, the traditional Nativity figures are complemented by a set of nine statues created by Filipino sculptor Kublai Ponce-Millan. These include musicians playing indigenous instruments and a family in a boat pulling a net, heavy with fish.

The statues are a gift from the Philippines government to mark next year's 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the majority Catholic Asian nation and the Vatican.

The Nativity scene stands next to the Vatican's Christmas tree - this year a 34-meter-high Norwegian spruce from Italy's north-eastern Alpine region of Alto Adige.

Benedict has encouraged Catholics to display their own Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, both "spiritual" symbols representing Christ's appearance on Earth, according to the German-born pontiff.

On Saturday, Benedict was scheduled to deliver his Christmas Day blessings and traditional Urbi et Orbi message "to the city and to the world."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/359642,christmas-mass-tight-security.html.

البابا يعارض انضمام تركيا لأوروبا

11/12/2010 م

حسب تسريبات ويكيليكس
البابا يعارض انضمام تركيا لأوروبا

كشف موقع ويكيليكس مسؤولية البابا بنديكت السادس عشر عن تنامي مشاعر الرفض لعضوية تركيا في الاتحاد الأوروبي حتى قبل أن يتربع على رأس الكنيسة الكاثوليكية.

ونشرت صحيفة الغارديان البريطانية رسالتين أرسلتا من السفارة الأميركية في الفاتيكان خلال أغسطس/ آب 2004 وديسمبر/ كانون الأول تؤكدان معاداة الفاتيكان لانضمام تركيا. وتشير برقية مرسلة في يونيو/ حزيران 2009 إلى اهتمام عاصمة الكاثوليك بتقليل نفوذ الرئيس الفنزويلي هوغو شافيز في أميركا اللاتينية.

في البرقية الأولى ينقل القائم بالأعمال الأميركي في الحاضرة البابوية برنت هارد عن القائم بأعمال وزير خارجية الفاتيكان المنسنيور بييترو بارولين تأكيده أن ما قاله الكاردينال جوزيف ريتزغر (اسم بنديكت قبل تنصيبه) من أن تركيا هي نقيض دائم لأوروبا، غير ملزم للفاتيكان.

لكن بارولين يشير –حسب البرقية- إلى أن الفاتيكان تبقى قلقة من مستوى الحريات الدينية في تركيا وخصوصا ما يتصل منها بالوضع القانوني للكنائس.

ويضيف أن الصعوبات والتعقيدات أمام عضوية تركيا بالاتحاد الأوروبي ليست من النوع الذي يصعب تجاوزه لكنه مواضيع ضرورية يجب تناولها قبل المضي قدما إلى الأمام.

ويشير الدبلوماسي الأميركي في ذات البرقية إلى أن تأثير الكاردينال ريتزغر كبير في موضوعات العقيدة والإيمان داخل الفاتيكان, لكن ذلك لم يمتد إلى سياستها الخارجية.

المحاولة الفاشلة

لكنه يقول بالمقابل إن ريتزغر كان رائدا في المحاولة الفاشلة للفاتيكان لإدراج مبدأ الجذور المسيحية في مشروع الدستور الأوروبي. كما أنه يعتقد بقوة أن إدخال أمة إسلامية إلى داخل الاتحاد الأوروبي من شأنه إضعاف المؤسسات المسيحية بداخله.

ويمضي الدبلوماسي قائلا "في كل الأحوال يبقى موقف مسؤولي الفاتيكان حذرا ومتحفظا من موضوع انضمام تركيا إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي". ويضيف أن البابا يوحنا بولس أبلغ السفير التركي في الفاتيكان خلال لقائهما في فبراير/ شباط أنه مع انطلاق تحضيرات تركيا لتأسيس علاقة جديدة بأوروبا فإن الكنيسة (الفاتيكان) تشدد على "حقوق الإنسان الأساسية للأتراك الكاثوليك".

وفي برقية ثانية مرسلة من القائم بالأعمال الأميركي في الفاتيكان بيتر مارتين في 7 ديسمبر/ كانون الأول عام 2006 يقول إن مسؤولين كبارا بينهم البابا بنديكت السادس عشر تحدثوا بإيجابية علنا عن الوحدة الأوروبية لكنهم انتقدوا وضع الحريات الدينية داخل تركيا.

لم يتبدل

ويمضي الدبلوماسي قائلا إن موقف الفاتيكان لم يتبدل من عضوية تركيا رغم ما تردد بعد لقاء البابا بنديكت برئيس الوزراء رجب طيب أردوغان. ويضيف "في الحقيقة لم يوافق البابا ولا الفاتيكان على عضوية تركيا, أكثر من ذلك فإن الحاضرة البابوية مستمرة في التشديد علنا فقط على ضرورة تمتع تركيا بمعايير كوبنهاغن الخاصة بعضوية الاتحاد الأوروبي".

وتمضي البرقية إلى القول إن المونسنيور باولين قال "لا نرى عقبة أمام انضمام تركيا إلى الاتحاد الأوروبي"، وذلك في نظر الأخير تطوير يتيح مزيدا من الحقوق الدينية للأقليات في تركيا.

وفي مقطع آخر من البرقية ينقل الدبلوماسي الأميركي عن باولين عدم رضاه عن قيام الرئيس التركي أحمد نجدت سيزر بوضع فيتو على تسع مواد من قانون جرى إقراره في تركيا حديثا يتصل بالأقليات الدينية.

ويضيف أن باولين لاحظ أن قساوسة مسيحيين كانوا قد أرسلوا قبل عامين رسالة أشاروا فيها إلى أن المواد الملغاة تتصل بمشاكل يكابدونها وأن ذلك يلقي الضوء على المشاكل التي يعانيها الكاثوليك اليوم في تركيا.

زيارة تنفيس

وتتناول البرقية أثر زيارة البابا بنديكت السادس عشر لتركيا في تنفيس التوتر الذي كان قائما بين تركيا والفاتيكان قبلها.

وبخصوص ما قاله رئيس الوزراء التركي رجب طيب أردوغان عن دعم البابا لانضمام تركيا للاتحاد الأوروبي ينقل الدبلوماسي الأميركي عن القائم بأعمال وزير خارجية الفاتيكان قوله إن "رئيس الوزراء أساء فهم أقوال الحبر الأعظم وهو على الأرجح يريد كسب تغطية إعلامية جيدة للقائهما. البابا عبر عن الموقف الذي نتمسك به لكنه قاله على الأرجح بطريقة ملطفة".

ويقول الدبلوماسي إن الرسالة الأسبوعية التي وجهها البابا لجمهوره في 6 ديسمبر تقول "البابا يعرب عن أمله بأن يتشارك المسيحيون والمسلمون في العمل لحقوق الإنسان ويشدد على أمله بأن تركيا ستكون جسر الصداقة والتعاون الأخوي بين الشرق والغرب".

المصدر: الجزيرة.
الرابط: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/011591BB-9C5E-4776-83E4-BF5E1D4FA272.htm.

Pope leaves Spain, urging it to own up to Christian roots - Summary

Sun, 07 Nov 2010

Barcelona - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday bid farewell to an increasingly secular Spain after a two-day visit, urging it to own up to its Christian heritage.

The faith had come to Spain "at the very dawn of Christianity" and "took ... deep root," the pope said in his farewell address at Barcelona airport.

"The preservation of this rich spiritual patrimony" would allow Spaniards to transmit "fundamental values" to the young generations, the 83-year-old pontiff said, expressing the wish that the Christian faith "find new vigor" in all of Europe.

The pope's second visit to Spain first took him to the pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela, before his arrival in Barcelona on Saturday evening.

On Sunday morning, Benedict celebrated a mass to consecrate the city'e emblematic Sagrada Familia basilica, the unfinished masterpiece of Catholic architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), which is one of Spain's most popular tourist sights.

In his homily at the Sagrada Familia, the pope urged the state to protect the family based on the union of man and woman, and described the life of children as "sacred and inviolable from the moment of their conception."

He was speaking in a country where Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has legalized homosexual marriage, introduced fast-track divorce and made abortion available on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Benedict later stressed the same message, describing marriage and family as "the hope of humanity" during prayers attended by tens of thousands of people in front of the Sagrada Familia - a name meaning Holy Family.

Large crowds cheered the pope, waving Vatican, Spanish and regional flags and chanting: "Benedict, Benedict!"

A total of about 250,000 people showed up to see the pontiff during his visit to Barcelona, officials estimated. That was less than initial estimates, which put the expected number at up to half a million.

The mass at the Sagrada Familia was attended by dignitaries including King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, as well as 8,000 people sitting inside and 36,000 sitting outside the basilica.

In the forest-like modernist building filled with plant and animal forms, Benedict praised the beauty created by the likes of Gaudi - whose canonization is being considered by the Vatican - as "revealing God."

The interior of the Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for 128 years, had been largely finished by the time of the pope's visit.

However, the basilica, which will feature 18 spires, is not expected to be entirely finished before 2025.

After the mass, Benedict visited a Catholic center for disabled children, warning against giving an unlimited freedom to scientific medical advances.

"It it indispensable that new technological developments in the medical field never be to the detriment of respect for human life and dignity," the pontiff said.

On the plane to Spain, Benedict described Spain - a former Catholic stronghold - as the main battleground between faith and secularism, the daily El Pais reported.

Zapatero, whose social reforms are seen by the church as having accelerated secularization, did not attend either of the masses the pope celebrated during his visit.

However, he met the pontiff at Barcelona airport prior to Benedict's departure.

Homosexuals and feminists staged several demonstrations against the pope's visit, with about 100 gays kissing each other as the popemobile passed by in Barcelona.

The pope already visited Spain in 2006, and is due to return in 2011.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/352396,christian-roots-summary.html.

2ND LEAD: Medical science must respect human dignity, pope says

Sun, 07 Nov 2010

Barcelona - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday warned against giving unlimited freedom to medical advances in the Spanish city of Barcelona - where his presence drew some 250,000 people.

"It it indispensable that new technological developments in the medical field never be to the detriment of respect for human life and dignity," the pope said, on visiting a Catholic center for disabled children.

The number of children with Down's Syndrome at the center had gone down because many such children were aborted before birth, Spanish bishops' conference spokesman Isidro Catela claimed - prior to the pope's two-day visit to Spain.

On Sunday morning, Benedict celebrated a mass to consecrate the city's Sagrada Familia basilica, the unfinished masterpiece of Catholic architect Antoni Gaudi, which is one of Spain's most iconic tourist sights.

In his homily, Benedict urged the state to protect the family based on the union of man and woman, and described the life of children as "sacred and inviolable from the moment of their conception."

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has legalized homosexual marriage, introduced fast-track divorce and made abortion available on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The pope later stressed the same message, describing marriage and family as "the hope of humanity" during prayers attended by tens of thousands of people in front of the Sagrada Familia - a name meaning Holy Family.

Large crowds cheered the pope, waving Vatican, Spanish and regional flags and chanting "Benedict, Benedict!"

A total of about 250,000 people showed up to see the pontiff during his visit to Barcelona, officials estimated. That was less than initial estimates, which put the expected number at up to half a million.

The mass at the Sagrada Familia was attended by dignitaries including King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, as well as some 8,000 people inside and 36,000 seated outside the basilica.

Benedict praised the beauty created by the likes of Gaudi - whose canonization is being considered by the Vatican - as "revealing God."

The interior of the Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction for 128 years, had been largely finished by the time of the pope's visit.

However, the basilica, which will feature 18 spires, is not expected to be entirely finished before 2025.

On the plane to Spain, Benedict described Spain - a former Catholic stronghold - as the main battleground between faith and secularism, the daily El Pais reported.

Zapatero, whose reforms are seen by the church as having accelerated secularization, did not attend either of the masses the pope celebrated during his visit.

However, he was scheduled to meet the pontiff at Barcelona airport prior to Benedict's departure.

Homosexuals and feminists staged several demonstrations against the pope's visit in Barcelona, with about 100 gays kissing each other as the popemobile passed by.

Benedict already visited Spain 2006, and is due to return in 2011.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/352387,human-dignity-pope-says.html.

Pope arrives in Spain for two-day visit

Sat, 06 Nov 2010

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday arrived in Spain for a 32-hour visit during which he was expected to encourage the increasingly secular country to rediscover its Christian roots.

The Alitalia Airbus passenger jet carrying Benedict landed at the airport of the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela at 11.24 am (10.24 GMT).

Clad entirely in white, the pontiff was welcomed by Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Letizia, while crowds waved yellow-and-white Vatican flags and cheered, "Long live the pope!"

Thousands of people were lined along the route that the popemobile was due to take to the city center.

About 6,000 seats had been reserved for believers at the Obradoiro square in the heart of the medieval city, where the pope was scheduled to celebrate a mass in the afternoon.

All the seats were filled already in the morning. Some of the faithful had spent the night outside to be able to attend the papal mass.

A group of Chilean students said they wanted to thank God for the recent rescue of 33 miners trapped in the San Jose mine, while another group from Mexico said they would pray for world peace.

The papal mass in Santiago de Compostela will mark 2010 as a Holy Year in the city, a popular Christian pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages.

Before celebrating the mass, the pope was due to visit the cathedral and pray at the tomb of Saint James the Apostle.

More than 6,000 police had been mobilized in the biggest security operation ever in Santiago de Compostela.

The pontiff was later scheduled to fly to Barcelona where on Sunday he is set to consecrate the city's Sagrada Familia church. It was designed by the visionary architect and devout Catholic, Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926).

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, an agnostic whose liberal social reforms have frequently pitted him against the Vatican, will not attend either mass.

However, the pontiff planned to hold private talks with Zapatero at Barcelona airport before his departure for Rome on Sunday evening.

The visit was the pope's second to Spain, after a first one in 2006.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/352233,arrives-spain-two-day-visit.html.

Pope says priests must move in cyberspace

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI in a message issued Saturday, urged priests to use modern digital technology including the internet, to interact with the faithful and to seek out new converts. Jesus' "word can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different 'highways' that form 'cyberspace,' and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own," the pontiff said.

"Thanks to the new communications media, the Lord can walk the streets of our cities and, stopping before the threshold of our homes and our hearts, say once more: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me,'" Benedict said, citing the New Testament book of Revelation.

Benedict's message was prepared for the Catholic Church's World Day of Social Communications which falls on Sunday, the feast-day of the patron saint of journalists, St Francis de Sales.

Since the 82-year-old Benedict's election in 2005, the Vatican has increased its presence on the internet, creating an internet site dedicated to the pontiff, www.pope2you.net, on the web video-sharing channel Youtube and on the social networking site Facebook.

More than 2 million hits were registered by visitors to www.pope2you.net, during the Christmas season, according to the president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305370,pope-says-priests-must-move-in-cyberspace.html.

Pope's released shooter declared unfit for military duty - Summary

Istanbul - Pope John Paul II's 52-year-old would-be assassin was released from prison Monday and taken to a military facility where he was declared unfit for duty. In a statement handwritten in English and released at the prison gates by his lawyers, Mehmet Ali Agca proclaimed himself "the Christ eternal."

"The gospel is full of mistakes, I will write the perfect gospel," the statement said.

"I proclaim the end of the world. All the world will be destroyed in this century. Every human being will die in this century."

Agca, who shot the Pope in Rome's St Peter's Square in 1981, was taken by a convoy of vehicles to a military facility in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkey has universal conscription and Agca had never served in the military.

According to Turkish television reports, Agca was released after being check out and deemed unfit to serve. He then went to an Ankara hotel, where his lawyers said he would spend the next several days.

Images in the Turkish press showed Agca holding up his fist defiantly while sitting in a car with darkened windows on his way out of prison.

Agca was jailed in Italy for the papal attack until 2000, when he was pardoned. The pope forgave Agca in a 1983 visit to his Italian prison cell. After being released in Italy, Agca had to serve time in prison in Turkey for the 1979 attempted murder of a Turkish journalist.

Agca has expressed interest in landing book deals upon his release and also to earn money doing interviews with media outlets about the papal attack.

"We have yet to agree with any television or publishing company," Yilmaz Abosoglu, one of Agca's lawyers, told reporters in Ankara.

"We'll wait and see what will happen."

Agca had also previously announced plans to convert to Christianity and expressed a desire to go to Rome to visit the grave of Pope John Paul II.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304456,popes-released-shooter-declared-unfit-for-military-duty--summary.html.

Pope's failed assassin released

A Turkish national who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981 has been released from prison after almost three decades behind bars.

"The release procedure has been completed," Mehmet Ali Agca's lawyer Yilmaz Abosoglu said outside a high-security prison near Ankara on Monday.

Abosoglu said that the 52-year-old Agca would be immediately taken to an army recruitment office to sort out procedures concerning his status as a draft dodger.

He was a member of the notorious Grey Wolves ultranationalist group. He was on the run from Turkish justice and facing murder charges, when he opened fire on the pope in Rome on May 13, 1981.

The pope received serious injuries in the abdomen and Agca spent the next 19 years in Italian prisons.

Italy pardoned Agca in 2000 and extradited him to Turkey, where he was convicted of the death of prominent journalist Abdi Ipekci, two armed robberies and escaping from prison, crimes all dating back to the 1970s.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116436§ionid=3510212.

Pope seeks closer ties with Holocaust denier group

Benedict urges rapprochement with Catholic fraternity seen by some Jews as anti-Semitic.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday urged a rapprochement with a Catholic fraternity that includes a Holocaust-denying bishop just two days before a high-profile visit to Rome's synagogue.

Calling Christian unity a priority for the Roman Catholic Church, the pope urged the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog to "overcome doctrinal problems that prevent full communion between the Church and the Pius X Society."

The remark came as the pontiff's upcoming synagogue visit is already clouded by Jewish anger over his decision last month to move wartime Pope Pius XII further along the road to sainthood.

Many Jews accuse Pius XII of inaction during the Holocaust, and the president of Italy's assembly of rabbis, Giuseppe Laras, has said he will not be on hand for the Sunday visit.

On Friday the 82-year-old German pontiff was addressing the Vatican department he headed for a quarter-century, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He said he "counted particularly on the commitment" of the congregation to bringing the Pius X Society back into the Catholic fold.

The Swiss-based fraternity rejected the 1965 Vatican II declaration absolving Jews of blame for Jesus' death, and their leader Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ordained four bishops without Vatican blessing.

Benedict's predecessor John Paul II, fearing a schism, ex-communicated the four, who include Richard Williamson of Britain, who has dismissed as "lies" the fact that some six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, claiming that only between 200,000 and 300,000 Jews died before and during World War II.

A year ago, Pope Benedict unleashed an outcry among Jews as well as within the Catholic Church when he lifted Williamson's ex-communication as he began reaching out to the "Lefebvrists".

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=36683.

Russian president set for first meeting with Pope Benedict

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is to meet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time next week while on his political visit to Italy, the Kremlin disclosed Thursday. The presidential office said Medvedev would meet the pope in the Vatican on December 3, Interfax reported. There were no details give about their possible topics of discussion.

Former president Vladimir Putin met Benedict in the Vatican in March 2007.

Relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church have been tense for some time. Moscow as a result has yet to permit a pope to visit Russia, arguing among other reasons that it was feared the pontiff could try to lure faithful away from the Russian church.