On another level, Goa's archbishop, Raul Gonsalves, has also said in public that he has tendered his resignation, on touching 75 years of age. FN
Pope to make key appointments >From Indo-Asian News Service Washington, Aug 28 (IANS) Pope John Paul II has spent part of his summer vacation at Castel Gandolfo deciding on nominations to fill top Vatican posts soon to be made vacant by compulsory retirement, UPI reported quoting church sources. He needs to find a replacement for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Bavarian-born, rigidly conservative Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith who has been second in importance only to John Paul II himself in putting the clock back -- as many observers see it -- on the progressive reforms of the Second Vatican Council. At the same time the pope faces key vacancies in the area of Vatican foreign policy at a time when the church is seeking to play a more active role in international affairs. Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano -- effectively the prime minister of the small city state -- is among the senior prelates who have reached the mandatory retirement age for Catholic clergy of 75. A successor will also have to be found for the Vatican's de facto foreign minister, Archbishop Jean-Luis Tauran of France, who is only 70, but wants to resign because of ill health. In addition, the sources say, the pope needs to name prelates to several other senior posts ranging from a new head of the congregation for religious communities, and the governor of Vatican City. John Paul II, 83, is suffering from advanced Parkinson's disease. He gets about only in a wheel chair or on a small wheeled platform. But at the Vatican there is no longer the same concern of a couple of years ago that he was close the end of his life. October 16 marks the 25th anniversary of his papal election, when his pontificate will become the second longest in history -- after Pope Pius IX, who was pontiff for 35 years and seven months. The sources say this explains why the new nominations do not seem like stopgap appointments. On the contrary, one commentator says Pope John Paul II appears to be filling the Roman Curia -- the Catholic Church's central bureaucracy -- with relatively young conservative prelates who will shape the course of the next pontificate because they would be hard for a successor to dislodge. Although no official announcements are likely until the pope returns to the Vatican from his summer palace in Rome's Alban Hills, Ratzinger's successor at what used to be known as the Holy Office, which directed the Inquisition, will almost certainly be his deputy, Archbishop Angelo Amato. The 65-year-old Italian theologian, who is a member of the Silesian order, can be expected to follow the ultra-orthodox line as his superior and mentor. Sources say Amato was the author the recently issued controversial Vatican document "Dominus Jesus". Its theme is that Christianity is the true faith, and not all religions are equally valid ways to salvation -- a position that had one critic complaining that the document had sent the ecumenical movement almost back to square one. Last month, Amato also published a letter in the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana challenging what he called "the myth" that the 16th century astronomer Galileo was imprisoned, badly treated, and even tortured by his church interrogators. He said recent evidence shows that Galileo was comfortably lodged and well looked after during his trial on charges of heresy for saying that the earth rotates round the sun. To succeed Cardinal Sodano the pope is reliably believed to have picked Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, currently Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, and himself sometimes mentioned as "papable," that is, a possible pope. Re is a veteran career diplomat of ripe experience who rose to the level of substitute (deputy) secretary of state. In his present post he is responsible for advising the pope on the appointment of new bishops throughout the world. He also persuaded U.S. bishops to tone down the tough "one slip you're out" rule adopted two years ago for dealing with suspected paedophile priests. The changes in the "political" branch of the Roman Curia come at a time when Pope John Paul has shown signs of wanting the Holy See -- diplomatic speak for the Vatican -- to play a more direct role in international affairs. At the U.N., for example, the Holy See has been discreetly lobbying -- so far unsuccessfully -- to change its current observer status to a more active representational role. --Indo-Asian News Service ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
