Saturday, April 08, 2006

The Day After

Well, they met yesterday. And, for the time being, that's about all I can tell you.

In this morning's list of appointments, however, there is something of note. As a foreshadow to his impending distribution of dicastery assignments to the new members of the College of Cardinals created late last month, Benedict XVI named three members of that group who are widely seen as being among his closest allies to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which handles issues relating to the 1988 indult -- and, informally, relations with the Society for St Pius X.

The new members of Ecclesia Dei are Cardinals William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, head of the French episcopal conference, and the Spanish primate Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo.

Cañizares is known as the "little Ratzinger" -- he became close to the pontiff as secretary of the doctrine committee of the Spanish bishops. At the Big Ratzinger's behest, Canizares was named a member of the CDF.

Also in the daily release from the Holy See Press Office were in-depth plans for Benedict XVI's visit to Poland, coming up on 25-28 May.

While spending overnights in the two major cities of Warsaw and Krakow, the Pope will also make trips to the Shrine of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa at Jasna Gora, the site of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz and, in what will be the sentimental high-point of the trip, Karol Wojtyla's birthplace at Wadowice.

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