In brief
In the Buttiglione affair, Cardinal Pompedda speaks of discrimination
Its discrimination and unfortunately its not the only troubling sign coming from Europe, explained Cardinal Francisco Pompedda, Prefect Emeritus of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, in an interview by La Stampa, on October 12, on the refusal of the candidacy for the post of European Commissioner of a Catholic having clearly expressed his convictions. I dont see why someone who professes his Catholic Faith and affirms his own ideas can not be qualified to assume the post of Commissioner of the European Union. We are faced with an excessive laicism, he asserted, adding that to reject a candidate for his ideas reveals a dangerous form of discrimination. This is all the more true because a commissioner does not have the power to impose a law or norm, but must stick to the collegial decisions of the Commission or the Parliament.
The cardinal, who was reminded that the statements of the politician against homosexual marriage had caused a stir, responded: If this criteria is alright, then those who have the opposite view could not be nominated either. This seems to be a frontal attack on Catholics. He gave the example of the case of French priests wearing the cassock and who, for this reason, were refused entrance into certain public schools, or the controversy surrounding the veil worn by nuns in German schools. (see The Church around the World below)
The socialists, the liberals, the greens and the communists condemned the Italian Catholic ministers conservative positions. Homosexuality is without question a sin and many things can be immoral without being a crime, declared Rocco Buttiglione, adding one does not give up ones moral convictions when one enters politics.
The Vatican denies nominating a coadjutor bishop for Paris.
On October 22, the Vatican denied the rumor regarding the upcoming nomination of a coadjutor bishop with right of succession to replace Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris. If the idea was ever mentioned, it has since been abandoned, a Vatican source told APIC news. There is therefore no reason to expect the nomination of a coadjutor for the Archdiocese of Paris any time soon, at least not for several months, he added.
On the eve of the opening of the International Congress for the New Evangelization organized in Paris on the theme Who will bring us happiness?, under the aegis of Cardinal Lustiger, the French press spread the word that a coadjutor would be named by the pope in order to permit a smooth transition in the archdiocese. Cardinal Lustiger is 78 years old; he suffers from a disease of the vocal cords which sometimes renders his voice barely audible.
