In an article in the National Catholic Register, Rome correspondent Edward Pentin wrote that Francis's choice of cardinals is among the indicators of his pontificate's direction.

Pentin noted that Francis has chosen not to award "so many red hats to traditional cardinalatial sees, especially in Italy".

Examples Pentin cited include Venice and Turin.

Rather, the Pope has gone to the global peripheries for new cardinals, reflecting the universality of the Church.

Pentin described the elevation to cardinal of Cardinal Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga as "unprecedented".

The writer noted Tonga's population was little more than 100,000 and that Protestants outnumber Catholics significantly.

Another such appointment from a small state was that of Cardinal Arlindo Gomes Furtado of Cape Verde, Pentin noted.

"Despite [such appointments of cardinals] being a widely welcomed innovation that focuses on parts of the world where the Church is growing fastest, not all are happy with the move," Pentin added.

"One senior Church official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Register that emphasis on the peripheries may sound worthy, but it omits the fact that being a member of the College of Cardinals involves ‘some very weighty responsibilities, in terms of advising the Pope, electing a Roman pontiff'.

"For this reason, he believes, ‘a certain respect for the very large sees is logical'.

"In any case, the Church official said, the bishop of a large diocese is already ‘involved in a big way in the peripheries of his own diocese'.

"Others believe new cardinals from the peripheries will also be taken less seriously," Pentin wrote, "and have comparably less influence than those from the traditionally-cardinalatial metropolitan sees."

In April last year, Pope Francis named Cardinal Mafi to be a member of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, which promotes and coordinates Catholic charitable giving

In 2011, there were 15,441 Catholics in Tonga, making up 15 per cent of the population.

Catholics were the third largest denomination in Tonga, behind Methodists (54 per cent) and Mormons (18 per cent).

Sources

• National Catholic Register
• Catholic News Service
• Matangitonga
• Image: Catholic News Service

Vatican reporter Edward Pentin has written "The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation of Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family".

The Relatio post disceptationem, or interim report, released half-way through the synod discussions sparked furious debate.

Pentin wrote that at issue were "three controversial paragraphs the contents of which had been barely, or not at all, discussed by the synod fathers".

"One of these paragraphs referred to proposals for readmission of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to Holy Communion, and two other paragraphs dealt with the pastoral care of homosexuals and cohabiting couples."

Pentin wrote that Archbishop Bruno Forte, the synod's special secretary, was widely considered to have been the main author of the document.

"The Italian theologian, together with all the members of the drafting committee, drew on the lengthy written speeches of each synod father submitted prior to the meeting.

"Apparently, certain points from these written speeches found their way into the draft report, even if the bishops had not mentioned them during the four minutes allotted to each speaker.

"Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said he recalled only one speech out of about 265 that discussed homosexuals during the debate.

"Defenders of the report, therefore, say it is not surprising that much did not seem familiar in the interim report because the written submissions were not made public or distributed to the bishops themselves.

"The oral presentations only reflected a summary or particular point that a bishop wanted to make.

The defenders also noted that the interim report had to be produced quickly, and that there were no transcripts available of verbal interventions.

In a response to published excerpts of Pentin's book, National Catholic Reporter columnist Michael Sean Winters took issue with many of the points made.

Winters described as "pernicious" Pentin's suggestion that the interim report was given to the press in an effort to sway the synod towards its purportedly more "liberal" views.

Sources

• Catholic World Report
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: International Business Times

"Remaining in the Truth of Christ" contained contributions from the Vatican's doctrinal chief Cardinal Gerhard Müller, church historian Cardinal Walter Brandmüller and American Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The book aimed to counter arguments put forward by German Cardinal Walter Kasper who had proposed a way to that could see divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to Communion.

The book was mailed to all the fathers at the extraordinary synod on the family. Some received it.

Vatican sources allege the head of the synod's secretariat, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, ordered the books be intercepted.

This is because they would "interfere with the synod".

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Ion Mihai Pacepa, who defected to the United States in 1978, previously claimed he was part of a KGB-led campaign of disinformation to discredit the wartime pontiff, centred on Rolf Hochhuth's 1968 play The Deputy.

Historians and Cold War-era diplomats initially doubted the story. One of them, Ronald Rychlak, an American law professor and specialist on Pius XII, decided to examine Pacepa's claim for himself.

Rychlak became so convinced of the veracity of Pacepa's story that he has now co-authored a book called Disinformation with the former spy.

"Bit by bit, all the pieces fell in place," Rychlak said. "The new picture answered many questions and made sense out of things that had previously been inexplicable."

Pacepa is now 84 and living in hiding. When Edward Pentin, the Rome correspondent of the National Catholic Register, tracked him down, he said there is "plenty of hard evidence proving that the portrayal of Pius XII as Hitler's Pope was born in Moscow".

Describing the KGB practice of "framing", he said it was a highly classified disinformation operation in which "mosaics made up of hundreds or even thousands of tiny pieces fitted together".

"Only a handful of master designers know how the final image will turn out," he said. "I was peripherally involved in changing the past of Pius XII, but at that time, even I did not know what the final image would look like."

Pacepa said the campaign against Pius XII actually began in 1945, when Stalin tried to portray him as a Nazi collaborator. That effort was rejected by the contemporary generation "that had lived through the real history and knew who Pope Pius XII really was".

"The Kremlin tried again in the 1960s, with the next generation, which had not lived through that history and did not know better. This time it worked," Pacepa said.

Source:

Zenit

Image: Cotidianul.ro