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Pope Benedict / Joaquin Navarro-Valls Rome, Italy, Sep 25, 2009 / 03:28 pm (CNA).- Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who was the Vatican's official spokesman for 22 years, said in an interview that the Church currently has one of the brightest popes in history, and that one of the most unique aspects of Benedict XVI is his confidence in the rationality of individuals.  Navarro-Valls, who worked for almost two years with Benedict XVI, was interviewed by the Spanish daily El Mundo about his work at the Vatican and some aspects of the two Popes he served under. Speaking about Benedict XVI, he...

Did Penn & Teller Set a World Record for Most Falsehoods in One Show? Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, has said, "Penn & Teller's Nazi-like assault on Catholicism that took place on August 27 will go down in history as one of the most vile, obscene programs ever aired in any nation." However, will the show also go down in history for airing the most number of lies, falsehoods, and misleading statements in a single half-hour show? Not counting credits, the guilty episode runs less than 26 minutes. Here's a lie-by-lie list of the falsehoods that Penn Jillette...

Pope Benedict XVI has sacked two Vatican officials over the readmission of a British Holocaust-denying bishop to the Roman Catholic Church. He also abolished the Vatican department responsible for the lifting of the excommunication of Richard Williamson, who is one of the leaders of the Society of St Pius X. The rehabilitation, in January, threatened to undo decades of work to heal rifts between Catholics and Jews. The German-born Pope was forced to apologise to Jewish leaders and atoned by visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel in May. The incident made Pope Benedict, one of the most admired...

In the last few decades, the matter of the right way to celebrate the Liturgy has increasingly become one of the points around which much of the controversy has centred concerning the Second Vatican Council, about how it should be evaluated, and about its reception in the life of the Church. There are the relentless supporters of reform, for whom the fact that, under certain conditions, the celebration of the Eucharist in accordance with the most recent edition of the missal before the Council–that of 1962–has once more been permitted represents an intolerable fall from grace. At the same time,...

In an action that spoke far louder than words, Pope Benedict yesterday walked out of an interfaith meeting in Jerusalem after the chief Islamic judge of the Palestinian Authority launched into an anti-Israeli diatribe. The pontiff, on his first day in Jerusalem, did not realize at first that Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, speaking in Arabic, was condemning the "crimes of the Jewish state" and accusing Israel of having "slaughtered women, children and senior citizens." But as soon as he was told the nature of the sheikh's tirade, he stood and left the meeting, which took place at Notre Dame church, before...

THE Pope will be given unprecedented security when he arrives in Israel tomorrow because of fears that his brief enrolment in the Hitler Youth as a boy of 14 could trigger an assassination attempt by Jewish zealots. The Israeli government has ordered Shin Bet, the domestic security service, to take command of the visit. Four Audi armoured cars have been imported from Germany and security chiefs have banned the use of the familiar glass-sided “Popemobile” except for a short journey in Nazareth. In Jordan yesterday, on the first stage of his middle eastern tour, the pontiff held a meeting with...

A couple of weeks ago, two of my priest friends and I went to see the new movie, Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise.  The movie presents the true life story about a large-scale conspiracy within the German army to assassinate Adolf Hitler.  The heroic German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg led the coup.  The assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, failed because the detonated bomb only injured Adolf Hitler.   Colonel von Stauffenberg and the other conspirators were arrested and executed for treason.  Now, of course, they are honored as heroes who tried to stop the madness of Hitler.Unbeknownst to most people is...

San Francisco Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors have shown nothing but contempt for the First Amendment rights of Catholics. Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, in the heart of San Farncisco's gay Castro community, was vandalized over the weekend by opponents of Proposition 8, the California resolution passed by voters in November that rejected gay marriage. Swastikas were painted on the church and the names Ratzinger (referring to Pope Benedict XVI) and Niederauer (the San Francisco Archbishop) were scrawled besides the Nazi symbol. In the wake of Proposition 8, innocent persons have been assaulted, churches have been vandalized, a...

Capitalism Italy's anti-globalist finance minister claims that Pope Benedict made a 1985 "prophesy" of this year's market drop. What he really said was not clairvoyant, but self-evident: Economic freedom demands ethics."Capitalism begins with giving," George Gilder declared in "Wealth and Poverty," the 1981 book often described as the Reagan administration bible. "Not from greed, avarice or even self-love can one expect the rewards of commerce, but from a spirit closely akin to altruism. . . . The investor must give his money, offer his goods, freely, depending on the voluntary willingness of others to respond with creative efforts of their...

"Yet Joseph did not attend activities, and as he recalls in Milestones, a sympathetic teacher in the high school in Traunstein allowed him to qualify for a reduction in tuition even though he did not have the mandatory Hitler Youth registration card." see also change.gov for Obama's service plans.

Pope Benedict XVI / Msgr. Georg Ratzinger Rome, Sep 30, 2008 / 10:58 am (CNA).- In an interview by Andrea Tornielli for the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Pope Benedict XVI’s brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, revealed several unknown details from the childhood of the Pontiff, such as when he said one time that Benedict would be a good name for a pope, and that he never attended Hitler Youth meetings he was obliged to sign up for.During the interview in Ratisbona, Germany, Msgr. Ratzinger said his brother was “a lively child, but not an earthquake. I remember him as always...

div class="noticia_lead_imagen_container"> Castelgandolfo, Aug 22, 2008 / 01:57 pm (CNA).- Today Pope Benedict XVI thanked his brother Georg Ratzinger for having always been his companion, for being “a benchmark of confidence” and for helping him to accept his old age “with serenity, humility and courage.”The Holy Father spoke during a ceremony presenting his older brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger with the honorary citizenship of Castel Gandolfo, the Italian town south of Rome, where the Pope’s summer residence is located.Benedict XVI revealed that “since the beginning of my life, my brother has not only been a companion, but also a trustworthy guide...

(ANSA) - Bressanone, August 4 - Pope Benedict XVI managed to dodge journalists and crowds during his first outing in the mountains near his holiday retreat in Bressanone, in Italy's northern Alto Adige region, Vatican sources revealed on Monday. After celebrating the traditional Angelus service on Sunday in Bressanone's cathedral, the pope and his elder brother Georg, who is keeping him company on his holiday, visited the neighbouring village of Sant'Andrea. They were spotted at the village's tiny cemetery, praying at the tomb of Catholic missionary Anton Agreiter, a dear friend who died in 2003. Benedict, 81, had kept indoors...

On September 15th the paperback edition of Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth (featuring a new index) will be available from Ignatius Press. The Jesus of Nazareth Study Guide will also available on the same date. Here is the description: This easy-to-use companion study guide helps the readers who approach Joseph Ratinger/Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth without the benefit of extensive theological or biblical training. The goal is not to replace Benedict’s book but to make it more accessible, more fruitful for the average reader—whether lay, religious, priest or deacon Designed for individual study or for group/parish discussion, this guide...

Castelgandolfo, Jul 23, 2008 / 08:15 pm (CNA).- Having returned from his visit to Australia for World Youth Day, Pope Benedict XVI has moved to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. After three days of rest, he will meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki on Friday and travel to the northern Italian town of Bressanone the following day.In Bressanone, a German-speaking town near the Italian border with Germany, the Pope will stay with his brother Father Georg Ratzinger in a medieval seminary from July 28 to August 11. According to ANSA news agency, a grand piano has been...

ROME, MAY 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- If you want to understand Joseph Ratzinger, the man and the Pope, the starting point is the love of God, affirmed a cardinal who has worked closely with him. Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, gave an inside look at the personality of Benedict XVI when he participated Tuesday in the book launch of "Benedictus," by Giuseppe de Carli. "The key to the person and the ministry of Benedict XVI is the love of God," the cardinal said, affirming that the Pontiff's first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est," "represents the particularity...

NEWS: August 19, 2003 Bird’s Eye View of the News Atila Sinke Guimarães RATZINGER, A TOOTHLESS LION - For the last 20 years Sr. Jeannine Gramick, SSND, and Fr. Robert Nugent, SDS, have been two leading American religious stars in the Catholic “ministry” with gays and lesbians. Their innovative progressivist positions on the topic have generated a lot of publicity, so I don’t need to remind my reader who they are. On July 13, 1999 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued to both Sr. Gramick and Fr. Nugent a formal condemnation along with a permanent prohibition to...

[This article by Jim Akin is a good companion to the previous post about Arch-Tame Wuerl. Jim is director of apologetics and evangelization at "Catholic Answers" and is a contributing editor of This Rock. --PP] Abortion Is the Black Hole of Moral Issues A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for Holy Communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely because of the candidate’s permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a candidate’s stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia but votes...

Vatican City, Apr 25, 2008 / 10:08 am (CNA).- This week the Italians took their turn at showing their affection and respect for the Pope by hosting a classical music concert in honor of his third anniversary and birthday. Benedict XVI thanked the choir and the orchestra for sharing the gift of music with people. Music, he said, has a spiritual value because it can “infuse hope into the human soul.” The concert was offered by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, who met with the Pope for 15 minutes beforehand. The meeting was characterized by the Vatican as...

<p>Comedian Bill Maher stopped short of apologizing Friday night for accusing Pope Benedict XVI of being a Nazi, but he said he'd refrain in the future from drawing that connection.</p> <p>"I will never make 'the pope is a Nazi' joke again," Maher said on his HBO show, "Real Time With Bill Maher."</p>

...but I cannot help it. Help what? you kindly ask. I cannot help playing the "MSM Papal Word Assocation Game." It's simple: just highlight the words and phrases that have been used over 264,000 times by other journalists to describe the Pope, creating a "story" that is simply a regurgitation of some 74,527 other stories. Today's carefully selected example comes from USA Today: When Shepherd One lands outside Washington, D.C., on April 15, the jet carrying Pope Benedict XVI to a six-day visit in the USA will deliver a complex and surprising man. His image is cast in a stern...

Remember Chris Kelly, the mudslinger at the Huffington Post who mocked Ann Coulter's father as a Nazi right after he died? On Monday, Kelly took up mocking Pope Benedict as a Nazi in attacking Bill O'Reilly, and by extension, every Catholic who attended an Easter Mass, as a way to deflect criticism of Barack Obama's poor taste in ministers: The Huffington Post has learned that Bill O'Reilly -- who claims to love America -- spent Sunday at a "church" run by a former Hitler Youth named Joseph Alois Ratzinger. Ratzinger has gone to elaborate ends to hide this connection, including...

From the comment box on my recent post on Ratzinger and Luther, these thoughts from Mark Brumley: Whatever Luther's original intent, he wound up a "heretic". His positions have often been misunderstood by Catholics. A better understanding of Luther can help reduce or eliminate unnecessary problems in the Catholc-Protestant dialogue. Indeed, because some Catholics have gone so far off the deep end, Luther can actually help them move closer to Catholicism, if they bother to understand the real Luther. However, no amount of better understanding will make Luther a Catholic. The Reformation was not, as Jaroslav Pelikan once said (in...

Trying to Skirt the Pope's (Cardinal Ratzinger's) Negative Appraisal of Harry Potter By John-Henry Westen TORONTO, August 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Since LifeSiteNews.com first published online scanned copies of the letters of Cardinal Ratzinger concerning Harry Potter, many have attempted to deny the Cardinal- now Pope's - statements on the matter. The latest such claim to hit the news was from a report in the Catholic News Service, the official news agency of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.  An article headlined "Catholic perspective can be seen in Potter series, says priest-devotee," by Peggy Weber published on June 27...

From the Italian magazine Panorama (click on the image for a bigger version)The article accompanying this paints a somewhat dire picture of infighting at the Vatican and resistance to the Pope. I'm brushing up on my Italian for my stay in Rome, so you'll have to forgive the rust. It speaks of a "silent battle" within the Curia, with the Pope having to deal with various groups that had formed in the last years of John Paul II.'s pontificate. He writes, "the German Pope would like a Church focused on spreading the Gospel message, with less weight to carry...

After Verona: How to “Restore Full Citizenship to the Christian Faith”Pope Ratzinger and his vicar, Ruini, see in Italy “a rather favorable terrain” for the public rebirth of Christianity in Europe and the world, too. But many do not accept their view. And the archbishop of Milan, Tettamanzi, has placed himself at the head of the opposition by Sandro MagisterROMA, October 26, 2006 – After the five-day conference in Verona, the uniqueness of the Italian Church will be the highly envied object of study in the episcopal sees of Europe and America, especially where Christianity is most in decline. From...

LONDON - Roman Catholic bishops in England and Wales rejected as “false and entirely misleading” a BBC documentary about what it said was a cover-up of child sexual abuse under a system enforced by Pope Benedict XVI in his previous job.Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, head of the Catholic Church in the two countries, plans to write to Mark Thompson, director general of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) this week to protest about the program, aired late on Sunday.The documentary, by “Panorama”, the BBC’s flagship current affairs show, examined what it described as a secret document written in 1962 that sets out...

"Lessons of the Past Must Help Us to Seek Paths of Reconciliation" CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, SEPT. 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today in the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, to leaders of Muslim communities in Italy and ambassadors of Muslim countries accredited to the Holy See. * * * Dear Cardinal Poupard, Your Excellencies, Dear Muslim Friends, I am pleased to welcome you to this gathering that I wanted to arrange in order to strengthen the bonds of friendship and solidarity between the Holy See and Muslim communities throughout the...

Depressing Times Oriana Fallaci, RIP, the Pope, and a Sad Age Rarely has the death of a public intellectual affected me as much as the passing of Oriana Fallaci. I never met her, and only received a brief note once from her accompanying a copy of The Rage and the Pride. The story of her career is well known, but her death, at this pivotal time, was full of paradoxes and yet instruction as well. Radical Islam is, among other things, a patriarchal movement, embedded particularly in the cult of the Middle-Eastern male, who occupies a privileged position in a...

He may seem stiff and shy at times, but Pope Benedict XVI has delighted fellow Bavarians by wading into crowds and kissing babies, shedding the image of a dour theologian from his quarter-century at the Vatican.He is not only growing into his job after 17 months in the papacy, but appears to enjoy it.In the most personal day of his homecoming visit, he knelt in prayer Wednesday at the graves of his parents and sister while his older brother — his only close living relative — leaned on a cane beside him.During the stop at the Ziegetsdorf cemetery just outside...

London, Sep. 11, 2006 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI and his brother, Fr. Georg Ratzinger, 82, were surprised to learn this week that their parents, Joseph and Maria, met through a singles ad their father had placed in local Catholic weekly, Liebfraubote. The disclosure came at the outset of the Pope’s return to his native Bavaria, where he intends to visit his parents’ grave and the village of Marktl am Inn, where he was born, reported the London Times. The July 1920 ad was found in the Bavarian state archives by a researcher for the tabloid Bild. According to the...

ROME, Sept. 1 — They meet every year, the eminent German professor and his old doctoral students, for a weekend of high-minded talk on a chosen topic. For years it was nothing more than that. But now the professor, once called Joseph Ratzinger, has become Pope Benedict XVI. And this year, for three days beginning Friday, the topic on the table is evolution, an issue perched on the ever more contentious front between science and belief. And so the questions rise as the meeting unfolds at a papal palace just outside Rome. Is this merely another yearly seminar? Or is...

Great post at Jimmy Akin's place about B16 in a suit. Tip to Akin for the photo, taken from some Trad site, which found it in some magazine... you get the idea. More than anything, though, the shot underlines the strong bond the Pope enjoys with his one living relative, his older brother Msgr Georg Ratzinger. The two were ordained priests together in 1951, share a deep affinity for music (the Papstbruder served for many years as director of the famed choir of Regensburg Cathedral), and on next month's Bavarian homecoming, little brother Joseph has blocked out a private...

Pope Benedict XVI Receives Custom Volvo XC90No German car for Pope Benedict XVI as the Catholic church leader received a new Volvo XC90 that has been custom tailored for his personal use. During a June 28 ceremony at the Vatican, the Pope was presented with the keys to the SUV. The V8 version vehicle is dark blue with a light interior and Volvo officials say the car, like every Volvo XC90, is designed for safety with features like ROPS (rollover protection system). Press Release Volvo Cars presented His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, with one of its Sport Utility Vehicles. The...

ROMA, June 1, 2006 – In a St. Peter’s Square that is always extremely crowded with pilgrims from all nations, each Wednesday Benedict XVI continues the cycle of catechesis he began last March 18, on “the relationship between Christ and the Church as considered beginning with the experience of the apostles.� The continuity is interrupted only rarely: for example, on Wednesday, May 31, the pope dedicated the audience to a reflection summarizing his trip to Poland a few days earlier. The theme assigned to the cycle is revealing of pope Joseph Ratzinger’s intention to clarify the essence and foundations...

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI arrives at the Marian shrine of Jasna Gora May 26, he will be stepping in the footsteps of his Polish predecessor and generations of Catholic pilgrims. Visitors to Jasna Gora ("Bright Mountain") are reminded of Pope John Paul II's words when he first returned to communist-ruled Poland in 1979: "So many times we came here to this holy place ... to listen to the beating of the heart of the church and of that of the motherland in the heart of the mother." Twenty-seven years later, much has changed in the surrounding...

A German pope's duty at Auschwitz Timothy W. Ryback FRIDAY, MAY 12, 2006 SALZBURG The Vatican recently announced that Pope Benedict XVI will visit Auschwitz on his scheduled trip to Poland later this month. This will be his second Auschwitz visit. In 1979, when Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop of Munich, he accompanied Pope John Paul II to the former Nazi death camp, where they celebrated Holy Communion. "It was a moving idea and a moving moment to look across these horrific fields of death in which four million human beings lost their lives, and to experience the resurrection as the...

Dear Friend of Catholic Answers: A few weeks ago I was with my grand-niece, Haruna. She is a delightsome four. At one moment, all shyness, she hides her face in her mother's skirt. A moment later she proudly shows off her English to me. "Good morning, Karl Oji-chama [honorable uncle]," she says. "Ohayo gozaimasu [good morning]," I reply with an equally wide smile. We laugh, and then she hides herself again. Like all happy children her age, Haruna does not just walk. She skips, jumps, and even dances her way along the sidewalk or through the hotel lobby. An attempted...

Marking one year since the April 19 election of Pope Benedict XVI can make the two dominant figures from last spring — John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — already seem like ancient history. But it is a testament to both the Catholic church’s durability and continuity and the speed of the modern news cycle that the only man in white on our minds now is Pope Benedict, while images of the same Ratzinger in cardinal red appear almost odd and outdated. For Catholicism, this is a necessary thing. The church counts on the very earthly process of an...

A year into his papacy and the radical shift many had expected when Pope Benedict XVI became pope last spring has yet to arrive. Instead, he has chosen discretion. The newest entrance to the Vatican is 3.7 meters (12 feet) wide and 5 meters (16.4 feet) tall. It's a four-paneled bronze gate that looks like a row of book spines, and it's the German pope's first construction project. It looks almost as though one must go through the Word to get to the Church -- or at least into its underground parking garage. The papal palace is empty on this...

When Mozart Stunned Rome; God at the Pub Wolfgang's Memory Caught a Pope's Attention ROME, JAN. 26, 2006 (Zenit.org).- As any good music aficionado knows, 2006 marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Opera houses worldwide are featuring "Don Giovanni" and "Figaro," while Mozart biographies and boxed sets of concertos and sonatas proliferate in music stores. Even Rome was enchanted by this great composer and, indeed, the child prodigy from Salzburg was warmly received in the Eternal City during his brief sojourn here in 1770. Mozart is often associated with the Freemasons -- he joined the...

1. At this moment in the Church's life, the question of the primacy of Peter and of his Successors has exceptional importance as well as ecumenical significance. John Paul II has frequently spoken of this, particularly in the Encyclical Ut unum sint, in which he extended an invitation especially to pastors and theologians to "find a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation".1 In answer to the Holy Father's invitation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided to study the matter...

The Prefecture of the Papal Household -- still headed, for now, by Milwaukee-born Archbishop James Harvey -- this morning released the annual tally of attendance figures for papal events in 2005. Due to the interregnum, to be precise, the figures accounted solely for events (general audiences, liturgical celebrations and the Angelus) presided over by Benedict XVI as Pope. John Paul II held his last on-the-ground public function on 31 January, the day before he was admitted to the Policlinico Gemelli, when he presided at a general audience in the Paul VI Hall. Any way you slice them, the '05 numbers...

Pope Benedict XVI dons a red velvet Christmas hat with white ermine trim for his weekly general audience(AFP/Vincenzo Pinto)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that homosexuality risked "destabilizing people and society", had no social or moral value and could never match the importance of the relationship between a man and a woman.The remarks were contained in a long commentary published to accompany the official release of a long-awaited document that restricted the access of homosexual men to the Roman Catholic priesthood.The article by Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a French Jesuit and psychologist, said homosexuality could not be considered an acceptable moral alternative to heterosexuality."During these past years, homosexuality has become a phenomenon that is always...

"intelligent design," the notion that living things are too complex to have been produced by evolution, has gotten a cold shoulder in the scientific community. Not so in the popular imagination, where its advocates have convinced much of the public and even an Austrian cardinal that it deserves a place alongside Darwin in science classrooms. The public-relations successes of what's being widely called "ID" reflect the skillful way in which its proponents have framed the debate to place God and Darwin in direct opposition. As Phillip Johnson, the movement's most respected leader, has candidly described it, the principal strategy followed...

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop insisted Wednesday he was not encouraging Roman Catholics to leave their church when he criticized its view of homosexuals during a recent speech in London. New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, at a service Friday commemorating the 10th anniversary of Changing Attitude, a British group which advocates full inclusion of gays in the Anglican faith community, noted during his talk that many Catholics in his home state were becoming Episcopalian. "Pope Ratzinger may be the best thing that ever happened to the Episcopal Church," Robinson said, referring to former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is...

Pope Benedict's first encyclical due in Dec-sourceVATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict has written his first encyclical, the highest form of papal writing addressed to all members of the Roman Catholic Church, a Vatican source said on Monday. The source said the encyclical, which is expected to be published before the end of the year, deals with one's personal relationship with God. The work is just under 50 pages long and will probably be published to coincide with the feast of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, the source said. The source said the encyclical, written in the Pope's native...

EWTN will be re-airing Arroyo's interview with then Cardinal Ratzinger, tonight at 8pm EST. For those who are unable to watch, here is the transcript. * * * * * THE WORLD OVER: CARDINAL RATZINGER INTERVIEW Raymond Arroyo with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger The following is a transcript of the interview by EWTN News Director Raymond Arroyo of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, which first aired on EWTN on 5 September 2003. Cardinal Ratzinger is the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, an office to which he was appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1981. Introduction Raymond: ...