Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
Here is a translation of the introduction Siegfried Wiedenhofer, one of Benedict XVI's former assistants, gave at the launch in Munich of the Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI Foundation.
The foundation is the project of a group of Joseph Ratzinger's former doctoral and postdoctoral students, known as the Schülerkreis (Circle of Students).
Despite attempts by the ultra-traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X to repair the damage to Catholic-Jewish relations caused by the "Holocaust denial" row, another member of the fraternity today defiantly denied that gas chambers were used by the Nazis to exterminate Jews.
"I know that gas chambers existed as a means to disinfect. But I cannot say for sure if they killed anyone, because I really haven't looked into it."
(Op-ed: PAPAL FALLIBILITY)
(Truth: THE PROBLEM OF THE GAS CHAMBERS)
(Truth: INSIDE THE AUSCHWITZ "GAS CHAMBERS")
Thursday morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received the dean, judges, promoters of justice, defenders of the bond, officials and lawyers of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, for the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year.
He focused his remarks on questions concerning mental incapacity in causes of nullity of marriage.
In the Holy See Press Office Thursday morning, a press conference was held to present various initiatives marking the year of astronomy, in which the organisations and institutions of the Holy See are participating.
Archbishop Ravasi explained that the UN decided to make 2009 the "year of astronomy" in order "to commemorate 400 years since the first astronomic discoveries."
Becoming sober 'n serious?...
It seems that Germans are sticking to some secret New Year's resolution to drink less beer -- for the 2nd year in a row. And their good example has rubbed off on their neighbors.
The "grand compromise" of 2005 is coming under pressure. The odd-ball couple of German politics is now experiencing the 3-year itch.
With Germany gearing up for fresh federal elections this autumn, cracks have emerged inside the grand coalition. Both sides have indicated they want out.
Pirates off the Somali coast have kidnapped a German liquefied natural gas tanker and its crew of 13.
220 years after the French revolution, scenes somewhat reminiscent of the almost long forgotten revolts, are again visible on the streets of Paris. They appear to be pre-revolutionary in their scope and political impact.
Iceland is to be fast-tracked into the European Union in an attempt to stop the country going into complete financial meltdown, it emerged last night.
Barack Obama's decision to step back from the previous administration's plan to develop an anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe is blocking ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by the Czech parliament, Czech analysts told EurActiv.
In a letter to the European Commission, Chancellor Merkel has called on the EU's member states to support a controversial natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
Her remarks come just days after her Czech counterpart expressed support for a rival scheme.
In a new national directive, Russia has asserted claims on large sections of the Arctic Ocean.
The tone of the document is openly aggressive, prompting fears of increasing international tension over who has the right to exploit the mineral-rich territory.
Foreign media outlets discuss the election of the new Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Western journalists are not so much interested in the election per se as in the persona of the new patriarch.
The foreign press tries to analyze both his previous statements and deeds and forecast his future steps and decisions.
Opinions vary from groundless accusations to low-key praise.
Damn, we are all sitting here in open-mouthed astonishment.
Turkish premier Tayyip Erdogan has just stormed off the rostrum after calling Israel's president Shimon Peres a "killer" to his face.
Peres in turn has been thundering and fulminating at the top of his voice for 25 minutes -- while the UN Secretary-General sat in embarrased silence next to him, mostly looking at his shoes.
The incensed leaders then walked out passed packed ranks of trembling Davos enthusiasts - all believers in civilized comity, and all horrified by this display of raw and visceral feeling.
During Operation Cast Lead, Israel warned Syria that it would bomb sites and facilities in Damascus if Hizbullah fires rockets on Israeli towns and communities in the North, Egyptian paper Al Ahram reported.
A Norwegian doctor working in Gaza says that the weapon "causes the tissue to be torn from the flesh." The weapon typically amputates or tears apart lower limbs and patients often do not survive.
Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem -- and he vowed to fight the move.
"Some politicians are trying to blur the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish People by referring to it as the 'Holy Basin.' We, as Jews, know who built the Temple Mount."
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader said there is no difference between Obama and Bush when it comes to Israel, and that the new US administration has so far shown full support for the Jewish state.
The Obama administration has abandoned Afghan President Karzai and now believes he is a major obstacle to defeating the Taliban-led insurgency.
The approach to combatting the drug mafia in Afghanistan has spurred an open rift inside NATO.
According to information obtained by Spiegel, top NATO commander John Craddock wants the alliance to kill opium dealers, without proof of connection to the insurgency.
NATO commanders, however, do not want to follow the order.
Pakistan's investigation into the Mumbai attacks has found that they were not planned from Pakistani territory, the country's high commissioner to London said today in an interview that is certain to infuriate India.
Pakistan's high commissioner in Britain, also suggested that India had fabricated transcripts of telephone calls between the Mumbai attackers and their handlers in Pakistan.
In a significant escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea has cancelled all agreements with the South, claiming that the two Koreas were on the "brink of a war."
The founder of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization advises Tehran not to give into political pressure over its nuclear program. "In my opinion they (Western countries) have invented this problem of the nuclear program just to put political pressure on Iran."
When Israeli election front runner Benjamin Netanyahu told the World Economic Forum that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons ranks far above the global economic recession and other challenges facing leaders of the 21st century, he was dead wrong.
It's not about Iran's nuclear enrichment program, but nuclear weapons in general-including Israel's and America's.
So just one day after the possibility that the Obama Administration might actually make a positive move toward peace with Iran, the White House is again raising the specter of a US military strike against Iran.
The list includes heavy-hitters educated at some of the nation's most prestigious law schools, and many who were sharply critical of Bush administration policies.
Democrats have praised the appointments as necessary to roll back the legal policies of Bush and Cheney, who largely relied on a relatively small group of conservative lawyers to formulate an expansive view of executive branch and presidential powers.
Most of Obama's key foreign policy appointments seem more committed to military dominance than international law.
A State Department employee has filed a lawsuit today in federal court against newly sworn-in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claiming she is constitutionally ineligible to serve.
Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced that it is pursuing the complaint in US District Court in Washington, DC.
The constitutional quandary arises from a clause that forbids members of the Senate from being appointed to civil office, such as the secretary of state, if the "emoluments," or salary and benefits, of the office were increased during the senator's term.
According to the lawsuit, the "emoluments" of the office of secretary of state increased as many as 3 times since Clinton began her 2nd, 6-year Senate term in January 2007.
While the nomination of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner generated plenty of heat because of his failure to pay income taxes for 5 years, almost unnoticed amid the controversy is the fact that he presided over the failure of some of the largest banking institutions in the world – institutions he was charged with overseeing and regulating as head of the New York region of the Federal Reserve Bank.
(Cartoons: TREASURY SECRETARY GEITHNER)
Even as the US Congress looks for ways to expand President Barack Obama's $819 billion stimulus package, the rest of the world is wondering how Washington will pay for it all.
(And: OBAMA'S NEW BANK GIVEAWAY)
(And: THE BIG STIMULUS)
It's the best possible course to rescue our economy at this point; all the other options would be disastrous.
Hey Feds, here's a free policy recommendation to help fix the economy: enact a 3-4 year program permitting people to prepay their debts with pretax dollars.
Americans need to shed debt, not begin borrowing even more.
Instead of "stimulating" us to keep borrowing to buy, buy, buy -- how about "stimulating" us to improve our personal balance sheets by eliminating debt so we have a future in which we can live, live, live?
The stimulus package designed to brake the worldwide recession is no place to tout ideologies that have nothing to do with the economy, says a US bishops' representative.
Bishop Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York, chairman of the US episcopal conference's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, called on Congress to keep their priorities straight.
An economic-stimulus package is no place to "advance ideological or partisan agendas."
He decried "measures to expand contraception coverage or prescribe rules for immigrant employment" as "particularly inappropriate in legislation to promote economic recovery."
More prominent economists have declared that the U.S. is facing a depression that may be even worse than that of the 1930s.
36 hours in September changed the world. When investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, the credit crunch became a global financial crisis.
But how bad is that crisis? Was it wrong to let Lehman fail? Or was Lehman just a symptom not the cause of the chaos in the global economy?
Tough questions, and the World Economic Forum had lined up 5 top experts (including 2 Nobel prize winners) to find answers.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
I interviewed at least 8 people about the state of the global economy and so far most blame has been directed at bankers. There has also been blame pointed at America and its mortgage and housing crisis.
When the history of the financial crash is written, this is what will be said...
(Cartoon: WHO'S TO BLAME?)
(And: WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO?)
The International Air Transport Association released international scheduled traffic results for both December 2008 and the full-year. In the month of December global international cargo traffic plummeted by 22.6%.
"The free fall in global cargo is unprecedented and shocking. There is no clearer description of the slowdown in world trade."
US economic output fell 3.8% in the last 3 months of 2008, the worst quarterly contraction in more than 26 years, official figures have shown.
As the global economic crisis continues to deepen, the unmistakable stench of economic nationalism is on the rise around the world.
Confronted with collapsing industries and growing anger over job losses, governments are reaching for protectionist measures despite the disastrous consequences of such beggar-thy-neighbour policies in the 1930s.
Such measures threaten to provoke escalating retaliation and a full-blown trade war.
The logic of economic nationalism is class collaboration in a dog-eat-dog competition that pits workers in one country against their class brothers and sisters around the world.
The end result is trade war and military conflict.
The EU is watching closely to see whether a "Buy American" provision relating to steel will make it into the final version of the US stimulus plan bill to be signed by Barack Obama, fearing it will affect European exports.
"If a bill is passed which prohibits the sale or purchase of European goods on American territory, that is something we will not stand idly by and ignore."
(And: EU-US TRADE WAR LOOMS)
Underlying the anger is a profound sense of frustration because the French, like the other 15 members of the eurozone, are all too aware that their national governments have only limited room for manoeuvre.
The one-size-fits-all inflexibility of the eurozone deprives single currency members of the vital weapons of devaluation and monetary policy with which they can at least try to ameliorate the impact of the global downturn.
For critics of the single currency, the test of the euro was always going to come during a bust, not a boom. Now that the bust is with us, it is evident that the strains on the currency are becoming unsustainable.
The inherent contradictions of trying to run 16 national economies as one are becoming all too apparent.
Europe's political elite may be in denial but the people are not. They realise that the governments no longer have control of the economic levers and the consequences are proving ruinous.
With the IMF this week forecasting that it will be 2 years before the world economy resumes growth, it becomes increasingly difficult to envisage the euro surviving intact.
The latest ECB data confirm that banks are cutting down on credit to companies and consumers.
The gloom surrounding this year's World Economic Forum descended into confrontation yesterday as international labour leaders launched a withering attack on the 1,400 business executives and 41 heads of government at Davos over what the labour leaders alleged was their failure to respond effectively to a deepening crisis of their own creation.
The general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation said that the current financial turmoil had triggered a social timebomb that would lead to deepening civil unrest and soaring crime.
"We are on the road to serious social instability, which could be extremely dangerous in some countries to democracy itself. The certainties that have defined Davos for the past 10 years have collapsed. We are witnessing the collapse of an entire system of ideas."
Mexican President Calderon said he will meet with the heads of major energy companies at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as Mexico prepares to offer the first oil exploration contracts to foreign companies in 70 years.
Mexico's Congress approved a law in October that allows state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos to hire private and foreign companies to explore for crude in Mexico.
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While church numbers have been falling for years, these days the trend is for spirituality with no links to organised religion.
Now the Church is on a mission to convert the so-called spiritual-but-not-religious.
Premier Paranoid Protestant Prophecy Propagandist Preaching Poop...
One of the first things I expect to see introduced as a consequence of this "transformational crisis" is the elimination of cash as a medium of exchange.
During Revelation's predicted Tribulation period, the global system will be presided over by a single political authority in the person of the antichrist. The Apostle John forewarns that his control over the economy will be absolute.
A fresh new face has moved into our neighborhood, but once it swings by Earth next month, it may never come back. Comet Lulin is currently sailing through the inner solar system and is getting closer to our home planet, with its nearest approach expected in late February.
Although it will probably be hard to see with the naked eye, the comet "should be a fairly easy object [to see with] modest amateur telescopes or even binoculars." But he notes that the icy body has the potential to do something unexpected.
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