Vatican Notes & Quotes
Cardinal Ratzinger Says Media Misread His Job
The Catholic faithful have a right to know what is Catholic and what is not Catholic, he added. In an interview with the San Francisco arch-diocesan newspaper, prior to delivering an address at St. Patrick Seminary, Cardinal Ratzinger said the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has two mandates — promote the Catholic faith and defend it.
If Permitted, Vatican Would Switch Embassy to Beijing
The Church would move its nunciature back to Beijing, “not tomorrow but this evening if the Chinese authorities permitted,” said Cardinal Sodano in a story that was picked up by Inside China Today and numerous European publications.
He told journalists that the move would not mean breaking off relations with Taiwan, but simply bringing the nunciature back to Beijing, where it was located before the communists seized power in 1949.
Critiques of Pius XII Called ‘Shameful’
Father Gumpel is the relator of the cause for canonization of Pope Pius XII.
In the article he pointed out that those who thanked Pius XII for his role in helping Jews were “contemporaries and survivors of the Nazi persecution.” He said, “[T]hey had firsthand experience and direct knowledge of what they were saying. Nevertheless, their witness is today largely ignored by many who were still children or not yet born at the time of the Holocaust.”
The priest said he agreed with Newsweek magazine, which commented on the current attacks against Pius XII saying, “something shameful is going on.”
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- February 28-March 6, 1999