I hate to interject this messy note, but Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos should probably have kept quiet when asked about this issue today... Because look at how AP is reporting it!
'Cardinal: Late Pope backed priest-shielding'
MADRID, April 17 (AP) - Spanish media are quoting a retired Vatican cardinal as saying the late Pope John Paul II backed his letter congratulating a French bishop for risking jail for shielding a priest convicted of raping minors.
Web sites of
La Verdad and other Spanish newspapers reported Saturday that Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, 80, told an audience at a Catholic university in Murcia, Spain, on Friday that he consulted with John Paul and showed him the letter.
He claimed the Pontiff authorized him to send the letter to bishops worldwide.
{I have no time to check out the Spanish sites now, but something is not right. Castrillon was Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy at the time - I am not sure he had any standing to send letters to 'bishops worldwide', who are overseen by a separate Congregation, as opposed to a personal letter from him to an individual bishop.]
La Verdad said the audience at Universidad Catolica de Murcia applauded the cardinal's remarks.
The 2001 letter praised Bishop Pierre Pican, who received a three-month suspended prison sentence for concealing knowledge about the clergyman, the Rev. Rene Bissey, the media said. The priest himself was sentenced to 18 years for sexually abusing 11 minors.
Asked about the Spanish media reports on Saturday, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters in Malta, where Pope Benedict XVI is visiting, that he would not comment on the retired Vatican cardinal's statement.
Lombardi said he would only repeat what he had said earlier, that before he became Pope Benedict, Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger had overseen the office that the Vatican was using to consolidate control of all clergy sex abuse cases.
[One would have thought someone in the Vatican could have done Cardinal Castrillon the courtesy of reaching him at the time Lombardi issued a statement that was clearly at the very least a public reproach to the cardinal - or, as the MSM put it, 'threw Castrillon under the bus'. When you think someone is straying, you reach out to them right away, not isolate them. If someone had taken the courtesy to call Castrillon, they might have helped him devise a better answer than to point the finger at a dead man who can no longer speak for himself!]
Earlier today, news about the death of a cardinal...
Pope remembers Czech cardinal
with great emotion
Rome, Italy, Apr 17, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News) - Jesuit Cardinal Tomas Spidlik of the Czech Republic died on Friday evening in Rome at the age of 90. The prelate, who was remembered by the Holy Father affectionately on Saturday, leaves a legacy of publications and work to promoting unity between eastern and western Christians.
In his long life, the cardinal was a professor, theologian, writer and academic, who was also involved in radio. According to a biography from the Centro Aletti, a John Paul II inaugurated center founded within the Pontifical Oriental Institute to promote Christianity in Eastern Europe, Cardinal Spidlik had an extraordinary ability to engage an audience and made great steps to developing eastern Christian spirituality.
The "Centro," of which he formed a part, describes him as "one of the greatest experts of the spirituality of eastern Christianity today."
In a telegram to Superior General of the Jesuits on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI expressed the "strong emotion" he felt upon learning of the cardinal's "pious departure."
It was "with profound gratitude," the Holy Father wrote, that he recalled the "solid faith, paternal affability and the intense cultural and ecclesial industriousness" of the late cardinal, especially regarding his great knowledge of eastern Christian spirituality.
Cardinal Spidlik was also remembered for his work in promoting cooperation between Christians and leaders from the East and West by Vatican Radio on Saturday morning. Their report underlined his work for a spiritually united Europe, the "two lungs" that John Paul II described as essential to the vitality of the Church.
The Holy See's radio station was particularly close to him, and he to it, as he had spent a half-century working with their Czech transmissions.
Just recently the Holy Father thanked the The cardinal for his legacy.
Exactly four months ago today, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his appreciation to Cardinal Spidlik personally during a Mass at the Redemptoris Mater chapel to celebrate his 90th birthday. In his homily, the Pope said that the cardinal's "long life and his singular walk of faith are testimony of how God guides whomever entrusts himself to Him."
Remembering the "rich" thought of the cardinal, the Pope praised the "ardor and deep conviction" with which he announced the centrality of the Triune God and man's communion with him through freedom and love.
He added that Cardinal Spidlik possessed a "vivacious and... original theological vision" which was able to bring eastern and western Christians together, “reciprocally exchanging their gifts."
The funeral ceremony for the cardinal will be held next Tuesday at St. Peter's Basilica. Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, will preside over the Mass together with other cardinals. Following the Eucharistic celebration, Pope Benedict XVI will make an address and officiate at the Ultima Commendatio and the Valedictio.
According to
L'Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Spidlik leaves behind a bibliography of over 600 articles and 140 volumes.
One of the outstanding personalities of the Church in the Czech Republic today is Cardinal Thomas Spidlik, botn in Brno 90 years ago. A Jesuit, he was forced to work in the quarries under both the Nazis and the Communists. He became a priest at age 30 despite difficulties of all kinds.
A world-famous theologian who became known for his books on the spirituality of thE Oriental Churches, he lived and worked at the Centro Aletti in Rome with Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik (artist of the mosaics in the Redemptoris Mater chapel and in the Padre Pio shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo).
For almost 50 years, he worked with Vatican Radio, delivering a meditation every Friday. John Paul II MAde him a cardinal in 2003, when he was 83, in recognition of his achievements as a theologian [like the late Avery Cardinal Dulles].
More information about Cardinal Spidlik and his work can be found in:
www.sacredheart.edu/pages/24695_the_cardinal_spidlik_center_for_ecumenical_understan...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/04/2010 10:58]