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Don Gabriele Amorth is the busiest exorcist in Europe. His job is to keep the Roman Pontiff free of demons. This is because, says the priest, the devil is abroad in the Vatican. SPIEGEL Author Alexander Smoltczyk has visited the priest - and to test out any demons. Rome - Everything goes wrong today. First, the Roman taxi drivers strike without any warning. Even the address specified cannot be found on the map plan of the city. Then the photographer calls and says that his camera had not charged. He must dismantle and repair it. All seems jinxed. "You are...

A film series warns against Christians and missionaries and associates them both with organ trafficking, the mafia and prostitution. The well-known Turkish nationwide television station 'Show TV' aired on 8th, 15th and 29 November 2007 a new episode of the old series "Kurtlar Vadisi-Pusu" – The Valley of the Wolves. This was reported on 28 December on its website by the 'The Institute of Islamic Issues' of the German Evangelical Alliance. The film is about the relationship between the state and four powerful Mafia families, which in the film control the economic life of the country. The programme also mentions...

Human rights organization speaks of "unprecedented case" Havana - The Cuban police have arrested in a church in the southeastern City of Santiago de Cuba up to 15 opponents of the regine. The police had on Tuesday come to the doors of the Church of Santa Teresita and "wildly attacked peaceful dissidents," said Elizardo Sanchez, President of the Cuban Human Rights and Reconciliation Commission (CCDHRN), on Wednesday. There were 15 government opponents arrested. Sanchez spoke of a "very serious case of political oppression, in practice without precedent."

An ultra-nationalistic Turkish group is seeking to stop a Mel Gibson film about the genocide of the Armenians with an e-mail campaign, the Turkish newspaper "Zaman" reported on Tuesday in its internet edition. The man behind the campaign....

Cathcon has the pictures. If you use any of these pictures, please acknowledge by making a link to Cathcon. Canon Georg Ratzinger occupied one of the stalls in the Church. His biography. He gave interviews. More coverage coming soon here- hopefully a video

Translation of original article in German. The President of the Jewish Central Council of Germany Charlotte Knobloch- "insinuations which were right at the border of anti-semitism. " German Bishops have caused frictions on their visit to the Near East, Charlotte Knobloch says that the statements made by them were “at the border of anti-semitism”. The Bishops had compared Palestinian towns with the Warsaw Ghetto.

One sided and harmful to children Bishop Dr Walter Mixa of Augsburg has criticised Family Minister van der Leyen’s plans to enormously extend children’s nursery places from 250,000 to 750,000 by the year 2013. This is a translation of his press release. See the firestorm raining down on the Bishop for all sides of politics. In the meantime, his Catholic colleagues and ecumenical friends attack him.

I commented below on a report that ZDF the German equivalent of the BBC was starting with programming aimed at a Muslim audience (and scroll down a small way). Now the General Secretary of the Bavarian Christian Social Union has criticised the ZDF plans.

Carnival stealth priestess in the Church of St Francis in Wels "celebrates" Carnival last Tuesday with Communion from the tabernacle. The Church were the servers wear tiaras and the ministers funny hats

How can Anglicans and Catholics get together again? by Philip Otterman Translation of German article in the Spiegel Proposals are being drawn-up in a 42 page document by an international commission for the unification of both churches. This however has little to do with the day-to-day reality of the Church of England.

Cardinal Lehmann has used the German manifesto for the liberation of the old Mass to his own ends, by coming out with praise of the failed liturgy reform of the late 1960s. Translation of an article from the ever excellent kreuz.net. “There are mis-implementations here and there.” The Mainz bishop, Karl, Cardinal Lehmann has recently remarked on the “beauty” of the new Mass. A reason for this recent praise was the German language manifesto for the readmitance of the old Rite. These comments were made by Cardinal Lehmann for the latest edition of the Mainz Church News, “Glaube und Leben”...

What are the consequences of the release of the old Mass? The Holy Father has an enormous sensitivity to liturgical spirituality and would like to retain a treasure of the Church – not for the museum but as a living inheritance for society so that people who have sensitivity towards tradition will be able to savour this richness. I am constantly surprised that young people who have not known the Old Rite before discover the peace and mystery of the Old Mass. What is important is that the two Rites do not oppose each other but one should see the...

the reform congress of the German Protestant Church. (EKD) Original German text The organizations, the Catholic Caritas and the Protestant, Diakonie could work together more closely. 26.1.07 Wittenberg The Mainz Cardinal Karl Lehmann expects from the “future-orientated congress” of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) a stimulus specifically for ecumenism. Caritas and Diakonie, should above all work more closely together. This was stated by the Chairman of the German Catholic Bishops Conference in Wittenberg.

A Radio Vatican commentary from Father Eberhard von Gemmingen SJ, Director of German Speaking Programmes. The aristocratic Jesuit is often on German TV and was granted an early exclusive interview with the new Pope, who he studied under at the University of Tübingen. Weekly Commentary In all probability Pope Benedict will give the permission to celebrate again the traditional or Tridentine Rite. It would however be completely wrong if Catholics started to quarrel over this, some of them full of joy about this reversal, the others full of anger.

Last year, just one priest was ordained in the Diocese of Linz. The ordination had in fact been postponed as the candidate had called for an open revolt against Rome. After full and as we can now see less than frank discussions with the Bishop, the ordination went ahead, the Bishop giving himself cover by ordaining two FSSP priests using the old books at a separate ordination around the same time. Father Golatz has now broken every bound of discretion and published a new interview in the Standard, one of the main Austrian newspapers. The Bishop has issued a statement...

First Latin Rite ordinations in over forty years in the Diocese of Linz. The two ordinands are from the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter. In the Diocesan yearbook, they only have two other ordinations this year - but not to forget the notorious Golatz. Conveniently, he has been forgotten or perhaps he was ordained too late for publication. No less than fifteen priests died this year in the Diocese.

A new pastoral assistant has been inducted into the notoroious parish of St Francis, Wels, Austria. Rainbow colours were the order of the day.

Iconoclasm and Liturgy by Martin Mosebach The case is at first glance a banal one. The church concerned does not rank among the flashpoints of Germany’s ecclesiastical history, nor does it stem from one of the great architectural epochs; the architects and artists who worked jointly on its completion are for the most part unknown. What happened in this Church of Saint Raphael in the Heidelberg suburb of Neuenheim is, however, exemplary for thousands of churches the world over, for masterpieces and anonymous creations, for cathedrals and chapels. Hardly a church remained unscathed in the aftermath of the Second Vatican...

No longer the wood of the Cross but the crossed bricks. Strange monsters were once only to be found in drug induced hazes and outer space. But now at a Catholic Mass.

The ever-excellent kreuz.net exposes what is being done in the name of pastoral youth work in Germany. The 1960s generation are responsible for the empty churches; now they claim to be able to fill them by at the same time appeasing and competing with contemporary culture. Totally decadent and often corrupt. The pictures and their titles added by Cathcon- together with a small amount of commentary in square brackets. 40 tonnes of sand inside a Church In the Diocese of Limburg, Germany three so-called youth churches have been fitted-out in the last three years. Limburg in Hessen on the River...