Roman Catholic Blog

Hole in the Dyke?

 

Dan Brown take note:

Vatican's 'Secret Archives' unveiled

The Vatican Secret Archives is for the first time printing reproductions of more than 100 of its most fascinating, secret documents. Do we hear another Dan Brown novel coming?

By Nick Squires, Correspondent
Christian Science Monitor

"Rome

The name alone is enough to excite curiosity. For centuries, the Vatican Secret Archives have been regarded as perhaps the most enigmatic and inaccessible collection of documents in the world.

They contain more than 50 miles of shelves of correspondence between successive popes and some of history’s biggest names, from Henry VIII to Hitler, Michelangelo to Mozart.

Now, though, the Vatican has allowed a sliver of light to shine into this most remarkable repository. The Holy See has permitted, for the first time, a commercial publishing company to produce a lavish, hard-bound book that features reproductions of more than 100 of the archives’ most fascinating documents.

“We were amazed by the access we were given and the speed with which the whole project was completed,” says Paul Van den Heuvel, the head of the Belgian publishing house undertaking the task. “The Vatican is beginning to realize what an incredible asset it has.”

The tentative opening up to the outside world is also an attempt to dispel some of the myths and mystique that have always enveloped the archives.

The 30 archivists who work in the Secret Archives, in an inner sanctum of the Vatican City State, are eager to dispel the notion that they guard the Roman Catholic Church's darkest secrets.

“They are the private archives of the popes. We really don’t have many secrets,” says Marco Grilli, the secretary to the prefecture of the archives."

SEE: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0721/Dan-Brown-take-note-Vatican-s-Secret-Archives-unveiled

 

Delicta Graviora

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, explains the Vatican's revised procedures for handling sexual abuse cases involving priests at a press conference at the Vatican July 15. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Vatican says new norms will strengthen efforts against abusive priests

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

"VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has revised its procedures for handling priestly sex abuse cases, streamlining disciplinary measures, extending the statute of limitations and defining child pornography as an act of sexual abuse of a minor.

Vatican officials said the changes allow the church to deal with such abuse more rapidly and effectively, often through dismissal of the offending cleric from the priesthood.

As expected, the Vatican also updated its list of the "more grave crimes" against church law, called "delicta graviora," including for the first time the "attempted sacred ordination of a woman." In such an act, it said, the cleric and the woman involved are automatically excommunicated, and the cleric can also be dismissed from the priesthood.

Vatican officials emphasized that simply because women's ordination was treated in the same document as priestly sex abuse did not mean the two acts were somehow equivalent in the eyes of the church.

"There are two types of 'delicta graviora': those concerning the celebration of the sacraments, and those concerning morals. The two types are essentially different and their gravity is on different levels," said Msgr. Charles Scicluna, an official of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation.

Sexual abuse of a minor by a priest was added to the classification of "delicta graviora" in 2001, and at that time the Vatican established norms to govern the handling of such cases, which were reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The norms affect how church law treats sex abuse cases; civil law deals with the crime separately.

The latest revisions, approved by Pope Benedict XVI May 21 and released July 15, for the most part codify practices that have been implemented through special permissions granted over the last nine years and make them part of universal law.

The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said publication of the revisions "makes a great contribution to the clarity and certainty of law in this field, a field in which the church is today strongly committed to proceeding with rigor and transparency."

The norms on sexual abuse of minors by priests now stipulate:

-- The church law's statute of limitations on accusations of sexual abuse has been extended, from 10 years after the alleged victim's 18th birthday to 20 years. For several years, Vatican officials have been routinely granting exceptions to the 10-year statute of limitations. Exceptions to the 20-year limit will be possible, too, but the Vatican rejected a suggestion to do away with the statute of limitations altogether, sources said.

-- Use of child pornography now falls under the category of clerical sexual abuse of minors, and offenders can be dismissed from the priesthood. This norm applies to "the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of 14, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology."

-- Sexual abuse of mentally disabled adults will be considered equivalent to abuse of minors. The norms define such a person as someone "who habitually lacks the use of reason."

In 2003, two years after promulgating the Vatican's norms on priestly sex abuse, Pope John Paul II gave the doctrinal congregation a number of special faculties to streamline the handling of such cases. The new revisions incorporate those changes, which were already in practice:

-- In the most serious and clear cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests, the doctrinal congregation may proceed directly to laicize a priest without going through an ecclesiastical trial. In these instances, the final decision for dismissal from the clerical state and dispensation from the obligations of celibacy is made by the pope.

-- The doctrinal congregation can dispense with using the formal judicial process in church law in favor of the "extrajudicial process." In effect, this allows a bishop to remove an accused priest from ministry without going through a formal trial.

-- The doctrinal congregation can dispense from church rules requiring only priests with doctorates in canon law to serve on church tribunals in trials of priests accused of abusing minors. This means qualified lay experts, including those without a canon law doctorate, can be on the tribunal staff, or act as lawyers or prosecutors.

-- The doctrinal congregation's competency in such cases means it has the right to judge cardinals, patriarchs and bishops as well as priests. Vatican sources said this norm, which originates from a decision by Pope John Paul II in 2004, indicates that if the pope authorizes a trial or penal process against such persons for sex abuse or another of the "more grave crimes," the doctrinal congregation would be the tribunal and could also make preliminary investigations.

The revised norms maintain the imposition of "pontifical secret" on the church's judicial handling of priestly sex abuse and other grave crimes, which means they are dealt with in strict confidentiality. Father Lombardi said the provision on the secrecy of trials was designed "to protect the dignity of everyone involved."

The spokesman said that while the Vatican norms do not directly address the reporting of sex abuse to civil authorities, it remains the Vatican's policy to encourage bishops to report such crimes wherever required by civil law.

"These norms are part of canon law; that is, they exclusively concern the church. For this reason they do not deal with the subject of reporting offenders to the civil authorities. It should be noted, however, that compliance with civil law is contained in the instructions issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as part of the preliminary procedures to be followed in abuse cases," he said.

Father Lombardi added that the doctrinal congregation also was studying how to help bishops around the world formulate local guidelines on sexual abuse in church environments.

He said that would be "another crucial step on the church's journey as she translates into permanent practice and continuous awareness the fruits of the teachings and ideas that have matured over the course of the painful events of the 'crisis' engendered by sexual abuse by members of the clergy."

The new norms treat a number of other "delicta graviora" connected with sacramental issues.

On the "attempted ordination of a woman," the norms essentially restated a 2008 decree from the doctrinal congregation that said a woman who attempts to be ordained a Catholic priest and the person attempting to ordain her are automatically excommunicated.

The norms added that if the guilty party is a priest, he can be punished with dismissal from the priesthood. For those wondering why an excommunicated priest would also be laicized, Vatican sources said they were two different kinds of penalties.

"Excommunication is a medicinal penalty which has to be remitted once the person repents; dismissal (from the priesthood) is an additional expiatory penalty which remains in place permanently, even if the excommunication is lifted," Msgr. Scicluna explained.

The norms address violations against the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist.

One norm explicitly extends the crime of violating the seal of confession through use of modern technology -- by recording confessions or making any such recording public through social communication media. This reflects a change introduced in practice in 2003.

The revisions include among the "more grave crimes" other actions regarding the sacrament of penance: attempting to impart absolution or hearing sacramental confession when one cannot do so validly; indirect violation (and not only direct violation) of the seal of confession; and simulation of the administration of the sacrament by a priest who is able to grant absolution.

Vatican sources said the direct violation of the confessional seal would occur, for example, when a priest betrays the name of the penitent and the sin confessed; an indirect violation might occur if the priest betrays only the name of the penitent or only the confessed sin, but the missing element is understood from the context of the conversation.

Regarding the Eucharist, the revised norms modify the language concerning the attempted and simulated celebration of the Eucharist, and sacrilegious consecration of one or both matters in or outside of the eucharistic celebration.

The revised norms include for the first time "crimes against the faith" -- heresy, apostasy and schism -- saying that while competency normally falls to local bishops in such cases, the doctrinal congregation becomes competent in the case of an appeal."

See: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1002901.htm

L'Osservatore Lunatico

I don't know what they are smoking at L'Osservatore Romano these days, but read this...

____________________________________

Abuse cases show need for greater women's role,

Vatican newspaper says

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A greater presence of women in decision-making roles in the church might have helped remove the "veil of masculine secrecy" that covered priestly sex abuse cases, a front-page commentary in the Vatican newspaper said.

The article said that despite calls by popes and others for welcoming women into equal, though diverse, roles in the church, women have generally been kept out of positions of responsibility.

As a result, the church has failed to take advantage of the many talents and contributions that could have been provided by women, it said.

The article, published March 10 by L'Osservatore Romano, was written by Lucetta Scaraffia (pic above), an Italian journalist and history professor who has been a frequent contributor to the Vatican paper in recent years.

As an example of what the church has lost by not taking advantage of women's contributions, Scaraffia pointed to the "painful and shameful situations" of sexual abuse by priests against the young people entrusted to their pastoral care.

"We can hypothesize that a greater female presence, not at a subordinate level, would have been able to rip the veil of masculine secrecy that in the past often covered the denunciation of these misdeeds with silence," the article said.

"Women, in fact, both religious and lay, by nature would have been more likely to defend young people in cases of sexual abuse, allowing the church to avoid the grave damage brought by these sinful acts," it said.

Scaraffia used the Italian word "omerta," a term that refers to the Mafia's code of silence, to describe the secrecy surrounding the sex abuse cases.

The article cited statements by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI in support of a greater presence of women in the church, not in the ordained priesthood but in roles that are important.

The problem is that these theoretical statements have not been put into practice, it said. In reality, women continue to be generally excluded from decision-making roles in the church, it said.

The article said religious orders have long understood better than other church institutions the importance of reciprocal cooperation between men and women, as seen in the fact that most orders have male and female branches.

See the full story at: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1001020.htm
____________________________________________

Wasn't this the plot of the movie "DOUBT?"

Slap in the face.

Pope’s brother: I slapped pupils

in the face

Georg Ratzinger says he was not aware of any sexual abuse allegations

"BERLIN - The pope's brother said in a newspaper interview that he slapped pupils across the face after he took over a renowned German boys' choir in the 1960s. He also said he was aware of allegations of physical abuse at an elementary school linked to the choir, but did nothing about it.

The Rev. Georg Ratzinger, 86, said he was completely unaware of allegations of sexual abuse at the Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir, part of a string of charges of sex abuse by church employees across Europe in recent days.

Responding to accusations that its policies encouraged silence about the problem, the Vatican said that the sexual abuse scandals in Germany and other countries were cause for anguish but its response has been prompt and transparent.

The scandal sweeping church institutions in many European countries kept widening Tuesday.

In Austria, the head of a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg admitted to sexually abusing a child decades ago and resigned. Dutch Catholic bishops announced an independent inquiry into more than 200 allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests at church schools and apologized to victims.

Pope's homeland
The German abuse allegations are particularly sensitive because Germany is the homeland of Pope Benedict XVI and because the scandals involve the prestigious choir that was led by Georg Ratzinger from 1964 till 1994.

Last week, the Regensburg Diocese said a former singer at the choir had come forward with allegations of sexual abuse in the early 1960s. And across Germany, more than 170 students have claimed they were sexually abused at several Catholic high schools.

Ratzinger has repeatedly said the sexual abuse allegations date from before his tenure as choir director. Asked in the interview Tuesday whether he knew of them, Ratzinger insisted he was not aware of the problem.

"These things were never discussed," Ratzinger told Tuesday's Passauer Neue Presse German daily. "The problem of sexual abuse that has now come to light was never spoken of."

Jakob Schoetz, a spokesman for the Regensburg diocese, told The Associated Press that Ratzinger would not comment further on the issue.

There have also been reports of severe beatings by administrators at two primary feeder schools for the choir, one in Etterzhausen and one in Peilenhofen. One director, identified as Johann M., who headed the Etterzhausen school from 1953-1992, has been cited in several allegations as being particularly abusive.

Ratzinger said boys would open up to him about being mistreated in Etterzhausen.

"But I did not have the feeling at the time that I should do something about it. Had I known with what exaggerated fierceness he was acting, I would have said something," he was quoted as saying by the German paper.

"Of course, today one condemns such actions," Ratzinger said. "I do as well. At the same time, I ask the victims for pardon."

'Bad conscience'
He said he had administered corporal punishment himself.

"At the beginning I also repeatedly administered a slap in the face, but always had a bad conscience about it," Ratzinger said, adding that he was happy when corporal punishment was made illegal in 1980.

Ratzinger said a slap in the face was the easiest reaction to a failure to perform or a poor performance. How hard it was very greatly, depending on who administered it."

See the full article at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35780663/ns/world_news-europe/

Spanish exorcist claims Satanic influence in Vatican

 

Spanish exorcist addresses claims of Satanic influence in Vatican

Catholic News Agency -

Rome, Italy, Mar 3, 2010 

 

 

- A renowned exorcist in Rome recently released a book of memoirs in which he declares to know of the existence of Satanic sects in the Vatican where participation reaches all the way to the College of Cardinals. A second demonologist, also residing in Rome, entered the debate this week, clarifying the origins of the information and defending the Vatican's clergy as an "edifying and virtuous" collection of prelates.

In a book of memoirs released in February, the noted Italian exorcist Fr. Gabriele Amorth (pic above) affirmed that "Yes, also in the Vatican there are members of Satanic sects." When asked if members of the clergy are involved or if this is within the lay community, he responded, "There are priests, monsignors and also cardinals!"

The book, "Father Amorth. Memoirs of an Exorcist. My life fighting against Satan." was written by Marco Tosatti (pic below), who compiled it from interviews with the priest.

Fr. Amorth was asked by Tosatti how he knows Vatican clergy are involved. He answered, "I know from those who have been able to relate it to me because they had a way of knowing directly. And it's something 'confessed' most times by the very demon under obedience during the exorcisms."

The famous Italian exorcist was also asked if the Pope was aware of Satanic sects in the Vatican, to which Fr. Amorth replied, "Of course, he was informed. But he does what he can. It's a horrifying thing."

Benedict XVI, being German, comes from a place "decidedly averse to these things," argued Fr. Amorth, saying that in Germany "there practically aren't any exorcists." However, he clarified, "the Pope believes (in them)."

The Italian priest also warned of the existence of bishops and priests who do not believe in Satan in the interview.  "And yet, in the Gospel, Jesus speaks extensively about it, so it should be said, either they've never read the Gospel or they just don't believe it!"

Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea Cucurull (pic above), a Spanish priest and theologian who specializes in demonology and is now studying for his doctorate of theology in Rome, responded to Fr. Amorth's assertions on March 1.

After reading reports of Fr. Amorth's accusations pointing a finger at members of the clergy, including cardinals, Fr. Fortea declared that it is a "duty of justice" to speak out in their defense.

Noting that some prelates "are more spiritual and others more earthly, some more virtuous and others more human," he wrote on his blog, "from there to affirm that some cardinals are members of Satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."

The Spanish priest then explained the sources of information used by Fr. Amorth to say that Satanic sects are operating in the Vatican.

In addition to the people that seek help for demonic possession, said Fr. Fortea, "innumerable persons come to us who claim to have visions, revelations and messages from Our Lord." Among these, "a certain number offer apocalyptic messages and revelations about the infiltration of Satanism and the Masons within the dome of the Church."

Fr. Fortea added that the only acceptable stance is to suspend judgment of the messages while they are subjected to time-intensive discernment, "sometimes months for each one of the cases."

The other source Fr. Amorth refers to, according to Fr. Fortea, is the demons who are being exorcised. Of this, the Spanish priest wrote that knowing whether or not the demon is telling the truth "is in many cases impossible."

"We can know with great confidence when a demon tells the truth in the subject directly related with the exorcism. That is, the number of demons, their name and similar things. But we cannot be confident in what regards concrete news relating to people."

"Father Amorth does not have other sources of knowledge than the two that I just cited," indicated the Spanish exorcist, "I refer to his own words for this affirmation."

Fr. Fortea observed that the existence of similar messages from the same sources is "something known by me just as (it has been) by many other colleagues for many years."

"Among exorcists, some have come to similar conclusions as those of Fr. Amorth. Others have not."

Fr. Fortea also defended those implicated in Fr. Amorth's statements, stating, "Our College of Cardinals, if we compare it with past centuries is the most edifying and virtuous that history has ever known. One would have to go back to the epoch of the Roman Empire to find a body of electors so distanced from all earthly pretension as the current one is.

"Cardinals might be better or worse," he reflected, "but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God."

He concluded by emphasizing, "Statements must be proven, especially when they are about such grave accusations that affect the honorability of those who form part of the Head of the Church as far as they help the Supreme Pastor."

Copyright © CNA
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)

____________________________________________________________

 

I wonder if many of you remember the public castigation the late Father Malachi Martin received when he made the same claim about Satanic sects operating in the Vatican?

 

Walking the walk, not just talking the talk.

Monsignor Renato Fisichella

 

Vatican official dismisses calls for resignation

By NICOLE WINFIELD
The Associated Press
Monday, February 22, 2010; 7:08 PM

"VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's top bioethics official on Monday dismissed calls for his resignation following an uproar over his defense of doctors who aborted the twin fetuses of a 9-year-old child who was raped by her stepfather.

Monsignor Renato Fisichella told The Associated Press he refused to respond to five members of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life who questioned his suitability to lead the institution.

Fisichella wrote an article in the Vatican's newspaper in March saying the Brazilian doctors didn't deserve excommunication as mandated by church law because they were saving the girl's life. The call for mercy sparked heated criticism from some academy members who said it implied the Vatican was opening up to so-called "therapeutic abortion" to save the mother's life.

To quiet their complaints, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a clarification in July, repeating the Catholic Church's firm opposition to abortion and saying Fisichella's words had been "manipulated and exploited."

But that didn't stem the criticism, which boiled up again last week when the academy - an advisory body to the pope made up of lay and religious bioethics experts from around the world - held its annual plenary assembly.

Five members of the 145-odd member body issued a statement Feb. 16, at the end of the closed meeting, again questioning Fisichella's suitability for office.

They took him to task for his opening speech, in which he described the criticism over his article as being motivated by spite, according to participants. And they accused him of manipulating the Vatican's July clarification to make it appear that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had vindicated his original article.

"Far from creating unity and genuine harmony in the academy, Archbishop Fisichella's address ... had the effect of confirming in the minds of many academicians the impression that we are being led by an ecclesiastic who does not understand what absolute respect for innocent human lives entails," the five wrote.

"This is an absurd state of affairs in a Pontifical Academy for Life but one which can be rectified only by those who are responsible for his appointment as president."

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Fisichella to the post in 2008.

One of the signatories, Luke Gormally, the former director of Britain's Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, said he and the other four wrote the letter to set the record straight after reading comments by Fisichella saying the matter had been resolved.

(Prof. Gormally is on the left)

"When we saw that Fisichella had given an interview ... more or less saying that everything was sweetness and light, we thought that this was in the nature of disinformation," Gormally told The Associated Press.

Not only did Fisichella refuse to retract his March article, "We were accused of spite. It was quite extraordinary," Gormally said.

Reached Monday at home, Fisichella refused to respond to the call for resignation and dismissed the matter entirely, saying: "I won't respond to these people. Too much space already has been given to them."

In his March 15 article in L'Osservatore Romano, Fisichella stressed that abortion is always "bad." But he said the quick and public proclamation of excommunication of the Brazilian bishops "unfortunately hurts the credibility of our teaching, which appears in the eyes of many as insensitive, incomprehensible and lacking mercy."

He argued for respect for the Catholic doctors' wrenching decision.

Writing as if he were addressing the girl, Fisichella said: "There are others who merit excommunication and our pardon, not those who have allowed you to live and have helped you to regain hope and trust."

Monsignor Michel Schooyans(pic above), an academy member and emeritus professor at Belgium's Louvain University, said Fisischella had fallen into the trap of "bogus compassion," in supporting the doctors.

"Instead of expressing compassion for the young and innocent victims, 'compassion' is extended to those who have inflicted immense harm on these victims,'" Schooyans wrote last month.

Schooyans didn't attend last week's meeting but signed the statement calling for Fisichella's resignation. "

See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/22/AR2010022203576_pf.html

___________________

The formal statement of the five brave members of the academy who have called for Monsignor Fisichella's replacement can be found here:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010_docs/PAV_Statement.pdf 

All eyes now turn to Pope Benedict to see what he will do?

Ethical decline = Market collapse

Pope Had `Prophecy' of Market Collapse in 1985, Tremonti Says

By Flavia Krause-Jackson and Lorenzo Totaro

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI was the first to predict the crisis in the global financial system, a ``prophecy'' dating to a paper he wrote when he was a cardinal, Italian Finance Minister Guilio Tremonti said.

``The prediction that an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules can be found'' in an article written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became pope in April 2005, Tremonti said yesterday at Milan's Cattolica University.

German-born Ratzinger in 1985 presented a paper entitled ``Market Economy and Ethics'' at a Rome event dedicated to the Church and the economy. The future pope said a decline in ethics ``can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse.''

Pope Benedict in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing markets and concluded that ``money vanishes, it is nothing'' and warned that ``the only solid reality is the word of God.''

The Vatican's official newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano, on the same day criticized the free-market model for having ``grown too much and badly in the past two decades.''

Conditio Sine Qua Non

"Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to give your life to Christ! Nothing will ever replace the ministry of priests at the heart of the Church! Nothing will ever replace a Mass for the salvation of the world! Dear young people, and those not so young who are listening to me, do not leave Christ’s call unanswered!"

Benedict XVI

Mass at the Esplanade des Invalides, Paris
13-IX-08

INCONGRUOUS

Does anybody else notice the incongruity in the picture below?

I know that in the PC world we live in the Pope has to go along with this stuff, but...

Your thoughts?

Every Knee Should Bow

That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth:

Philippians 2:10

Ut in nomine Iesu omne genu flectat caelestium et terrestrium et infernorum

Philippians 2:10

This has always been a pet peeve of mine. Twenty years ago while a seminarian at St, John’s in Camarillo I was informed by the then dean of Students that my kneeling during the consecration of the mass was a "sign of disunity." Today that priest is an Auxiliary Bishop.

Later, during a liturgy class I asked the priest instructor why every knee would bend at Jesus" name, but not for his real presence? I was treated to a lecture on our status as "People of the Resurrection" who do not servilely bow. When I quipped that he obviously had knowledge that St. Paul did not it garnered me a meeting with the Rector. He told me that I was being disruptive and questioned my "true level" of spiritual growth if I was so concerned with outward and antiquated signs of pre-conciliar piety. Today that priest is an Archbishop!

At least the Pope can call the shots at his own mass.

Vatican: Receiving Eucharist kneeling will be norm at papal liturgies

By Carol Glatz, CNS

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling before the pope will become the norm at papal liturgies, said the Vatican's liturgist.

While current norms allow the faithful to receive the Eucharist in the hand while standing, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated a preference for the more traditional practice, said Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies.

Kneeling and receiving Communion on the tongue highlights "the truth of the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of the faithful and introduces the sense of mystery more easily," he said in a June 26 interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

You can read the full story at: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0803381.htm