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Spokesman reacts quickly, saying “La Stampa”
story on Vatican capitulations is false
Vatican City, 8th February 2007 (CNA) - In a
brief but firm communiqué Thursday morning, Father Federico Lombardi S.J.,
Director of the Holy See’s Press Office, denied the validity of a story in
the Italian daily "La Stampa." Lombardi said the story’s purported
“revelations” which claimed that the Vatican Secretary of State has agreed
to a request from the government of Italy to keep quiet on social issues and
that the Holy See is receiving pressure from certain bishops over the
appointment of the next President of the Italian Episcopal Conference are
both false.
"Regarding news published this morning in an important Italian daily, I deny
that a meeting has recently taken place between Cardinal Secretary of State
Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., and the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi, or
that a letter has arrived in the Vatican from bishops of Piedmont concerning
the presidency of the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference)," the press release
said.
On Thursday, "La Stampa" published an article
which rumored that Cardinal Bertone and Prime Minister Prodi had a "private"
meeting in "the past weeks," in which the Secretary of state agreed that the
Church in Italy would be less forceful in voicing its opinion regarding such
public policy issues as the recognition of unmarried couples, a topic which
is presently at the center of public debate in Italy.
The same article also indicated that Bishops
of the Piedmont region, in Northern Italy had written a letter to Pope
Benedict XVI asking him not to name Cardinal Angelo Scola as the new
President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CIS), due to the Cardinal’s
close ties with the Milan-based Communion and Liberation movement.
In Italy, the President of the bishop’s conference is directly appointed by
the Pope, who as the Bishop of Rome oversees the Church in Italy. The
retirement of Cardinal Camillo Ruini, due to canonical age limits, and the
sudden death of Ruini’s anticipated successor, 55-year old Archbishop
Cataldo Naro, Archbishop of Monreale (Sicily), has brought a spate of media
speculation lately.
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