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Vatican City, February 13, 2013 (Zenit.org). | 650 hits Here is a translation of the brief statement by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope's secretary of state and the cardinal camerlengo, at the end of this evening's Ash Wednesday Mass, over which Benedict XVI presided. * * * Most Holy Father,with feelings of great emotion and profound respect, not only the Church, but the whole world, has heard the news of your decision to give up the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Successor of the Apostle Peter.We would not be honest, Your Holiness, if we said that this evening...

ROME — A day after Pope Benedict XVI stunned Roman Catholics by announcing that he would resign at the end of the month, the Vatican disclosed new details about his physical well-being on Tuesday, saying he had been fitted with a heart pacemaker a decade ago but that had not influenced his decision to become the first pope in almost 600 years to step down. The disclosure about the device, whose existence was not widely known, came as the Vatican grappled with a series of logistical questions raised by a decision that gave Benedict just 17 days to wind up...

The Gemelli Hospital in Rome, owned by the Church, has a hole in theie accounts of one billion. This has been revealed in a letter to Cardinal Bertone: "There is danger of bankruptcy" A few days ago the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone received a report with devastating content regarding the healthcare operations of the Catholic University of Sacred Heart which controls the Gemelli Hospital, showing a total debt of nearly one billion (750 to banks and 170 million to suppliers), and the risk of a crash is very close. "L'Espresso" has read the confidential memo dated May 17, 2012...

Vatican City (CNA/EWTN News) -- The Vatican’s Secretariat of State plans to take greater control over the publication of documents produced by Vatican agencies. The move follows widespread disquiet within the Roman Curia after last month’s publication from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which advocated the creation of a global financial authority. Veteran Vatican correspondent Sandro Magister wrote Nov. 10 in L’Espresso’s religious affairs website Chiesa that a meeting was convoked Nov. 4 by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to discuss the issue. Magister says that Cardinal Bertone complained he did not know about the document...

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-Pope has taken over the news cycle. In his second interview with a US outlet to emerge over the last 24 hours, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB held an hour-plus chat yesterday with Fox News Channel on his upcoming pilgrimage to the States... alongside Pope Benedict, of course. While the sit-down has yet to air on cable's highest-rated news network, Vatican Radio's let slip a summary: Bertone noted “the Holy See and Washington share many common viewpoints. For example the sense of the value of religion, not only in private life but also in public life”....

Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (2nd R) blesses the crowd during Mass outside Havana's cathedral February 21, 2008. The Vatican hopes Bertone's visit will bring further improvement in the once strained relations with the government so that the Catholic Church can operate more freely in Cuba. REUTERS/Claudia Daut (CUBA) The Vatican's No. 2 official hinted Thursday at a papal visit to Cuba, hours after Pope Benedict XVI said Roman Catholics on the communist-run island still face difficulties and distrust.Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, was in Cuba to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Pope John...

"Benedetto è il Papa, ma Bertone è il Sommo Pontefice" -- "Benedict is the Pope, but Bertone is the Supreme Pontiff." That's the word from Rome these days as Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone keeps consolidating the sort of all-powerful brief his recent predecessors as Secretary of State could only dream of. Every pontificate has one figure of overarching influence: John Paul II had his private secretary of four decades, now-Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz; Paul VI's über-aide was his Sostituto, Giovanni Benelli, who was rewarded shortly before his master's death with the archbishopric of Florence and -- at a "snap" consistory called...

Performance Pay For Vatican John Hooper Mail & Guardian 04 January 2008 11:59 As an avid football fan, the pope’s right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, knows better than most that in the end it is the result that counts. No one, though, expected Pope Benedict XVI’s new secretary of state to be quite so goal-minded as to bring ­performance-related pay to the Vatican. But he did. A recent statement said a meeting presided over by the cardinal -- effectively the pope’s prime minister -- agreed on the introduction “into the Vatican pay system of an element of incentive and remuneration...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Vatican's secretary of state celebrated Mass Tuesday morning at the Knights of Columbus annual meeting -- marking his first U.S. appearance since taking over the position last yearCardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as the Vatican's secretary of state is the pope's top aide, was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2006.Bertone, the Mass' principal celebrant who said much of it in Italian while an English interpreter translated, said the pope wanted him to convey his "cordial greetings.""Please be assured of the Holy Father's spiritual closeness and of a special remembrance in his prayers at this time,"...

In all the hub-bub about the Pope's long-anticipated motu proprio, "Summorum Pontificum" it seems hardly anyone paid attention to the other things happening today at the Vatican. They held the Giuramento (i.e. Oath-Taking) for Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone who has now officially taken on the position of Camerlengo (Chamberlain) of the Holy Roman Church. The ceremony is usually small and quiet. Today's was in the Chapel of Urban VIII. The Pope actually hands over to him a baton of office. This baton is a stick about two feet in length covered in red velvet with a braid at one end. The...

The condition of faith in Europe Wlodzimierz Redzioch talks to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, who participated in the 8th Gniezno Congress. WLODZIMIERZ REDZIOCH: - Some political powers regard the presence of the Church as a threat to the secular character of the state... CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE: - One should not mix secular character and laicism. A healthy laicism means the autonomy of the political sphere in relation to the religious sphere but not to morality. Faith is not a private act. Therefore, I am sad to see that some countries, for example France, strongly opposed the...

Appearing on an Italian TV station, Holy See Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, has shown the original copy of Fatima Sister Lucia's letter detailing the so-called Third Secret revealed to her by Our Lady. Catholic News reports that Cardinal Bertone showed the letter, which was first revealed in 2000, on the program "Port a Porta" on the Rai Uno network. He first opened an orange envelope with a translation in Italian of the letter, and then he opened a white envelope and showed the original letter written in 1944. The cardinal read the phrase that appears on the outside...

PARIS (Reuters) - A top aide to Pope Benedict has blasted the media for highlighting the Vatican's views on sex while maintaining a "deafening silence" about charity work done by thousands of Catholic organisations around the world. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is effectively the Vatican's prime minister, also accused the media of deliberately misinterpreting the Pope's speeches, especially his Regensburg address last September which angered Muslims. "We face an extremely grave problem. The church's messages are subject to a type of manipulation and falsification by some western media," Bertone said in an interview with Le Figaro...

Arian Heresy Still Tempts, Says Cardinal Bertone Sees Example in "Da Vinci Code"ROME, OCT. 9, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the new Vatican secretary of state, says that the Church continues to be tempted by the Arian heresy, the idea that Christ is not God. In an interview with the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, the Italian cardinal acknowledged that "one of the main problems of our time is the problem of Christology," according to which Christ is considered only as "a great man." "If Christ's divinity is doubted," the foundation of Christianity is doubted, he said. The Vatican official recalled...

Minutes ago, at the end of the just-concluded audience with the Secretariat of State marking the handover of its top job from Cardinal Angelo Sodano to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict XVI personally announced the appointment of Archbishop Dominique Francois Joseph Mamberti, the nuncio in the Sudan and Eritrea, as the new Secretary for Relations with States, the Vatican's top foreign relations post. The name of Mamberti, 54, had surfaced in imminent pre-appointment speculation in the Italian press. He was ordained a bishop in 2002, when he was assigned to the nunciature in Khartoum. The Holy See's new "foreign minister"...

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican secretary of state who, beginning Sept. 15 will be Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, is "the Pope's first collaborator in the governance of the universal Church." This is the description made of the holder of this office in the Vatican's Web page, which presents the history and organization of the Secretariat of State. "The Secretariat of State," says the apostolic constitution "Pastor Bonus," "provides close assistance to the Supreme Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme office." The origins of the Secretariat of State go back to the 15th century. The apostolic constitution "Non...

The Holy Father has accepted Cardinal Sodano's letter of resignation according to Canon 354. Cardinal Sodano will remain at his position as Vatican Secretary of State until September 15, 2006. The Holy Father has named Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, as the new Secretary of State beginning September 15th. In addition, the Holy Father has accepted Cardinal Edmund Szoka's resignation and will also remain until September 15th as President of the Pontifical Council for the Vatican State. Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, at present, the Secretary for Relations with States, has been named to be the new President to succeed Cardinal...

(ANSA) - Rome, June 19 - The most important move in Pope Benedict XVI's reshaping of the Vatican administration after his election in 2005 will be announced soon, according to Vatican-watchers in Italy . The current Vatican Secretary of State, the 79-year-old Cardinal Angelo Sodano, is widely expected to step down later this year and Benedict must choose a replacement . It is a crucial choice because the holder of the position, akin to that of a prime minister, is second only to the pope in the Vatican hierarchy. He is in charge of all the political and diplomatic activities...