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Video of the then Cardinal Bergoglio celebrating Hanukkah....

"I live in Buenos Aires. Bergoglio has destroyed the archdioceses, persecuting every single orthodox priest.

Before the conclave today in Rome, the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (ZMD) and the movement "We Are Church" for spoke in support of a cosmopolitan Pope. In an interview with the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" the ZMD-chairman Ayman Mazyek said he wanted a cosmopolitan pope who would introduce spirituality and a renewal of faith in God.

They all want a say in the election of the new Pope: In the Vatican, various interest groups among the Cardinals are in for tough fight. An overview of the factions in the Conclave. If the new man on the throne of Peter were to come from Europe or should he be a church leader from the southern hemisphere? Cardinals before their entry into the Sistine Chapel repeatedly emphasized that origin or skin color should not matter. At that point also various "factions" in the universal Church and different perspectives come into play. The 115 voting cardinals come from 45...

A few days ago Cardinal Meisner was speculating that it would be good for a man as young as 45 to be Pope. The youngest Cardinal happens to be 55 and formerly an Auxiliary Bishop in the Cardinal's Archdiocese of Cologne. Step forward Cardinal Woelki (55), seen above at his introduction to the See of Berlin, at which none other than Cardinal Meisner preached. Cardinal Marx of Munich is also to be seen concelebrating. It is not too much a leap to see the hand of Cardinal Meisner in the early promotion and indeed the red hat for Cardinal Woelki.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, will participate in the conclave, though he is 80 years old in two days. He will thus be the oldest of the Papal voters. The German cardinal is presently the most heavyweight representative of the progressive cardinals who flag up an anti-Ratzinger pontificate. The former assistant to Hans Küng was removed in 1999 by John Paul II as Bishop of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and transported to Rome, where he was until 2010 President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. (Cathcon- what a pair Cardinal Lehmann, research assistant to Karl Rahner and Cardinal Kasper, assistant...

egensburg - Again, he sat in front of the TV and looked at "Joseph". This is the name Georg Ratzinger uses for his brother, who has been called Benedict XVI for almost eight years and on Wednesday had his last major appearance as Pope. Although he can no longer see so well, the 89-year-old in Regensburg wanted to see as much of the general audience as popssible of the outgoing head of the Church in St. Peter's Square. "It was very touching," the prelate said to the news agency dpa. "There was a melancholy mood." And Georg Ratzinger added reassuringly...

Bishop Minnerath (to right of Pope) and Bishops of the Province of Dijon, surrounding Pope Benedict XVI during the last Ad Limina visit to Rome in November 2012 On Monday, learning of the decision of Benedict XVI to leave his position as Pope for health reasons at the end of February, Archbishop Minnerath, according to RCF parabole (a radio channel) who was given a sole and unique interview, "did not want believe it. " On Wednesday morning, Archbishop Minnerath agreed to speak on this sensitive subject. He did this without omitting to point out some disagreement with someone he knows,...

On Monday, 11 February in Rome the canonization was announced of 800 Christians took place who suffered martyrdom in the 15th Century in Otranto. The elevation to the altars is to be made in the context of an ordinary consistory of the College of Cardinals which was convened by Pope Benedict XVI. The canonization concerned Antonio Primaldo and his 800 companions. The Christian inhabitants of the town of Otranto in Apulia, in southern Italy were victims of a bloodbath by Ottoman troops during a raid on 29 July 1480. They killed more than 800 fishermen, craftsmen, farmers, merchants, peasants simply...

The Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Cardinal Barbarin visited the Grand Mosque of Lyon, and there prayed for the release of a seven-member French family who has been kidnapped in Cameroon and is held hostage. "Does Allah hear the prayers more than our Lord Jesus Christ?," asks the French website Riposte Catholique

Announcement due tomorrow. There is no return to Rome. The superior of the Lefebvrists of Spain and Portugal, Juan Maria Montagut, will communicate to the faithful, after the mass of 11, that the hierarchy of the FSSPX, gathered in Ecône, have decided to say "no" to the Vatican. The followers of Lefebvre will not return to the Roman fold. Primarily, because they are not willing to accept the Second Vatican Council in all its extremes.

Relaxed and at ease, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller returns a week after his appointment as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Diocese of Regensburg. A series of interviews for journalists are on the agenda for Friday: liberation theology, the SSPX and the situation of divorced and remarried. Minefields for an ecclesiastic, who has moved to third place in the Vatican's ecclesiastical pecking order. Archbishop Mueller, first of all, congratulations on the new job. Since when did you know about your appointment? I definitely knew it on 16 May, when the Holy Father has summoned...

He insulted the mother of God, the Eucharist and the Church. It is a foretaste of what is to come from the post-conciliar church headed by Benedict XVI (Cathcon- small modification of the text here as kreuz.net expressed themselves in rather more vivid terms than I would be prepared- but the catastrophe of this appointment cannot be hidden, along with the appointment of Annibale Bugnini's reincarnation, Bishop Roche to be Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship- although Bugnini for all his grave errors had studied the liturgy very thoroughly) Today at noon is the Vatican announced the appointment of...

There was controversy in advance of a televised church service on 17 June on ZDF (Cathcon- German equivalent of BBC). The reason: during the service of the Evangelical Free Church congregation (Baptist) in Kamp-Lintfort work where Christians and Muslim work alongside eachother in the mines, there will be a reading from the Koran. As the Baptist pastor, André Carouge explained, Christians and Muslims have maintained close relationships in Kamp-Lintfort since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States.

The controversy in Saxony on homosexual partnerships in the rectory escalates. The Protestant Lutheran Church of Saxony has suspended the evangelist and songwriter Lutz Scheufler (Waldenburg) on 13 June from office. This was confirmed by the spokesman of the Church, Matthias Oelke (Dresden) at the request of the Evangelical News Agency, idea. Scheufler had declared together with seven other members of the evangelism team of Saxony that they no longer recognised the spiritual direction of the Church of Saxony governing bodies. Moreover, he called for the convocation of a Confessional Synod.

he Hula massacre was a turning point in the Syrian drama. . There was great worldwide outrage when on 25 May, 108 people were killed, among them 49 children. Calls for a military intervention have been raised to end the bloodshed, and the violence in Syria has since escalated steadily. Almost unanimously world opinion, based on an Arab news channel, and the visit of UN observers on the following day, blamed the massacre on the regular army and Schabiha militia which is close to the regime. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has in the past week put this version into question...

Nearly a dozen senior leadership positions are filled with dignitaries beyond the retirement age of 75. Will the Curia become more international? In the Vatican, a number of high ranking staff changes are awaited. Among them, it is not for certain that the Cardinal Secretary of State will remain in office, who is currently the focus of the "Vatileaks" attack. But there are currently almost a dozen senior positions with occupied by dignitaries above the pensionable age of 75. And even if no relationship between leaks scandal and retirement exists, the appointment will this time attract special attention. In addition,...

UPDATE from 19.00 clock: a new statement from the SSPX: "The desire for further clarifications could usher in a new series of meeting" - The Vatican plans to offer a personal prelature The Vatican on Wednesday evening consulted with the leadership of the SSPX on the progress of the ecclesiastical unity efforts. The prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada, gave the Superior of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, Bernard Fellay, in a detailed interview at the headquarters of his curial body, the official response of the Pope. Benedict XVI had informed Levada and the...

Concerning the open wounds of the Church by Gianluigi Nuzzi "Traitor," some call him. Because he has made public in his book "Sua Santità" operations that the Holy See would have rather have kept in the dark- failures in dealing with cases of sexual abuse, for example. The journalist and author Gianluigi Nuzzi tells the SZ why the publication of the Vatileaks will make the Church better. Pope Benedict XVI is to meet Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano - and Monsignor Mamberti, the "foreign minister" of the Vatican Secretariat of State is preparing a note to Ratzinger. He cites a number...

A Christian church has been converted into a Muslim assembly hall. In Moenchengladbach-Rheydt the Alevi community gathers in the former Holy Cross Church of the Evangelical Methodist Church. Three years ago, the Methodists celebrated their last church service in the church and sold it in 2010 to the Alevis. The renovation of the building took one and a half years. This was an unprecedented event in Germany, writes the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag". So far, an interdenominational consensus had prevailed, not to allow the conversion of abandoned churches to Islamic worship.