Vatican Radio's ‘Podcasts’ Hugely Successful

MAIL & GUARDIAN ONLINE, Nov. 8 — The Vatican Radio's “podcasting” service, launched with little fanfare during the summer, has proved unexpectedly popular, according to Mail & Guardian Online.

“It has been a success right from the start,” said Jean-Charles Putzolu of the Vatican Radio's web team.

Vatican Radio began its podcasting — an automated way of making audio files, such as radio shows, available for download over the Internet — in mid-August by making available for download an interview given to Polish television in which Pope Benedict remembers his predecessor, John Paul II.

“I have just come back from a conference abroad on international radio and I can assure you that Vatican Radio, like the BBC, is at the forefront in the podcasting world,” said Putzolu. “Our long-term aim is to expand the service to comprise all of the 39 languages in which Vatican radio broadcasts.”

Archbishop: Relations With Russia Not Yet Possible

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 8 — Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican's foreign minister, said after returning from Moscow that an upgrade in relations is not yet possible, Associated Press reported.

Archbishop Lajolo had said at the start of his Oct. 26-30 Russian visit that the Vatican was hoping to establish full-scale diplomatic relations with Moscow, telling Russian media that the current ties don't correspond to the weight each wields in the world.

The head of the Russian church, Patriarch Alexy II, maintains that a papal visit to Russia would be possible only after the Catholic Church stops its alleged poaching for converts in Russia and other ex-Soviet lands and ends alleged discrimination against the Orthodox in western Ukraine. The Vatican has denied the allegations.

“I am convinced that like the Holy See, the Patriarchate wants our reciprocal relations to be more fraternal, open and trusting,” he said. “There are objective reciprocal differences that require a more profound study.”

German Theologian Is Not Catholic, Vatican States

SPERO NEWS, Nov. 8 — Despite claims otherwise, the Vatican said Protestant theologian Klaus Berger is not a Catholic, and reemphasized the Church's teaching excluding dual membership, Spero News reported.

“In the discussion concerning the confessional identity of the exegete Klaus Berger of Heidelberg, who claims to be a Catholic and — according to what has now been made public — in 1968, participating in the Protestant supper, became a ‘member of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church,’ the assertion has been made that ‘Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope,’ had precise knowledge of ‘the matter in its formal aspects’ and ‘raised no objections,’” the Vatican said in a statement issued Nov. 8 by Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls.

“This assertion is false,” the declaration continued. “Until the current discussion arose, no information beyond what was commonly known reached the cardinal, now Pope; there was no knowledge of a dual confessional identity. Thus, the cardinal had no reason to take up a position on the question of Mr. Berger's confessional identity and, indeed, he never pronounced himself on the subject.”

The Vatican statement concluded, “Obviously, the norms of Catholic canon law, which exclude dual membership of the Catholic Church and of a Protestant Landeskirche, remain in full force without exception, and are therefore also valid in this case. The Church cannot obtain any dispensation from this rule, not even in the sacrament of penance.”