http://www.informazionecorretta.com/main.php?mediaId=115&sez=120&id=21231

1 Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born on the 16th of April, 1927, in a small town near Passau, Germany. He was ordained in 1951; in 1952 he joined the theology and philosophy staff of the Freiburg high school.Ratzinger participated in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) as an expert, but there is no proof that he took any part in the editing of the declaration Nostra Aetate, as some have claimed. (In the book of the declaration's initiator, Cardinal Bea, there is no mention of Ratzinger. See: Augustin Cardinal Bea, La Chiesa e il Popolo Ebraico, [Brescia: Morcelliana, 1966]). He was a member of the faculty at the universities of Bonn, Munster, Turbingen and Regensburg. He quickly escalated in the Church’s hierarchy till he was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Friesing, on March 25, 1977. In the same year, he was promoted to the rank of Cardinal, which was an especially speedy advancement. He took part in the election of Karol Wojtyła as Pope in 1978. In November 1981, he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the most important departments of the Curia, the Church’s central government.
2 The Concise Oxford Dictionary, (Oxford: 1979).
, (Oxford: 1979).3 New Covenant, Paul, Ephesians 2:16.
, Paul, Ephesians 2:16.4 One is reminded of the traditional role of Jews in Church thinking as a landless, errant community, serving as living witnesses of their forefathers' purported crime of deicide.
5 Cardinal Ratzinger, Reconciling Gospel and Torah: The Catechism, April 1, 1996. www.ewtn.com/library/catechism//gostrorah.html.
6 R. Panikkar, La Trinidad y la experiencia religiosa (Barcelona, 1986), quoted in: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, "Interreligious Dialogue and Jewish-Christian Relations", Communio, 25 (Spring 1998), p. 5.
7 Ratzinger, "Interreligious Dialogue and Jewish-Christian Relations", Op. Cit.
8 Il Sabato, October 24, 1987.
, October 24, 1987.9 Luigi Accatoli, "Dal Papa un segnale di pace per il Medio Oriente - Lettera di Ratzinger agli ebrei: continuerò sulla via del dialogo", Corriere della Sera, April 22, 2005.
10 "Address of His Eminence Walter Kasper", 17th International Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee, April 30-May 4, 2001.
11 Johannes Cardinal Willebrands, Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, "Notes on the correct way to present the Jews and Judaism in preaching and catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church", June 24,1985, in: Fifteen Years of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue, 1970-1985, (Vatican City, 1988), p. 307.
12 Pontifical Biblical Commission, "Il Popolo Ebraico e le sue Sacre Scritture nella Bibbia cristiana", May 24, 2001. In: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_doc_index.htm.
13 Joseph Ratzinger, La Mia Vita – Autobiografia, (San Paolo, 1997), p. 54.
14 See Raul Hilberg, The destruction of European Jewry (New York, Holmes and Meier, 1985).
15 Roger Cardinal Ethcegaray, "Preface", Radici dell'Antigiudaismo in ambiente cristiano, (Vatican City, 2000), p.5. Author's translation.
19 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, L'Osservatore Romano, December 29, 2000. (Translated from the Italian by Murray Watson)
20 Joseph Ratzinger, Il Sale della Terra, (San Paolo, 1997), p. 283-284. See the English translation: Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium: An Interview with Peter Seewald, (Ignatius Press, 1998).
21 Andrea Riccardi, "Governo e Profezia nel Pontificato di Pio XII", in: Andrea Riccardi (a cura di), Pio XII, (Laterza, 1984), p. 52.
22 Paul Blanquart, Le rêve de Compostelle, (Centurion, 1989), p. 209.
23 "Pope Benedict: Full text of speech to Jewish leaders", Times on Line (www.timesonline.co.uk), August 19, 2005.
24 "Pope's Message at Auschwitz", May 28, 2006, www.zenit.org.
25 President Richard von Weizsäcker; "Speech during a commemorative ceremony in the Plenary Room of the German Bundestag (May 8, 1985)", In: Remembrance, Sorrow and Reconciliation, Press and information office of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1985, p. 61.
26 Pope John Paul II, "Omelia di Giovanni Paolo II al Campo di Concentramento di Brzezinka", Brzezinka, June 7, 1979. www.vatican.va.
27 Benedic XVI, Angelus, Les Combes (Aosta Valley), Sunday, July 24, 2005.
28 Pierluigi Battista, "Le vittime cancellate", Corriere della Sera, July 26, 2006.
29 For example, on April 4, 1982, following a Palestinian suicide attack, the Pope expressed his personal sorrow for "the new occurrences which took place in the West Bank, and which caused deaths and casualties, raising the anxiety and increasing the population’s lack of security". These words can hardly be considered a condemnation of terrorism. Rather, they constitute an expression of commiseration, which does not point an accusation finger. It is also intentionally unclear from his words which part of the population the Pope had in mind when he spoke - the Israelis or the Palestinians. In another statement, on September 15, 1982, at the UN General Assembly, the Pope asked that both sides abandon "forms of armed combat, some of which had been particularly inhuman in the past". Once more, these words deliberately omitted any attribution of culpability, and, even more distressing, equated the perpetrator with the victim.On January 12, 1991, he declared that one must "recognize that certain Palestinian groups chose, in order to make their voices heard, unacceptable methods, which we must condemn". This was, finally, an unequivocal statement. Unfortunately, such statements were few and far between. On February 3, 1989, the Pope said that "those who live in the Holy Land have an indisputable right to live in peace". If his intentionwas to condemn the deeds of terrorists, his listeners received no such message. On October 10, 1990, John Paul II said that one could not "remain passive" in the face of the violence in Jerusalem. This time he chose harsher words, but once again it was difficult to discern which of the parties he had in mind when he spoke.
30 Rabbi Herb Keinon writes that only once did the Pope condemn Palestinian terrorism: after the suicide attack against the bus in Jerusalem, in February 2004. Herb Keinon, "The Big Picture Behind the Vatican Spat", The Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2005. See also: Mario Pirani, "Chi fiancheggia la Jihad", La Repubblica, July 28, 2005. Pirani writes that there is a negative prejudice in the left and in the Catholic world, where there is always a justification of Palestinian terrorism, which is put on the same level as the Israeli military reaction. On moral ground, however, the two are very different.
31 Luigi Accattoli, "Il 'caso Israele' scuote il Vaticano", Corriere della Sera, August 29, 2005.
32 "Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue...a Vital Necessity", Pope's Address to Muslim representatives, Zenit (www.zenit.org), August 20, 2005.
, July 28, 2005. Pirani writes that there is a negative prejudice in the left and in the Catholic August 20, 2005.33 Ratzinger, The Salt of the Earth (Op. Cit.); quoted in: John L. Allen Jr., "The Vatican and Islam", National Catholic Reporter, July 29, 2005.
, July 29, 2005.34 Legislative elections were held in Spain on March 14, 2004. At stake were all 350 seats in the lower house of the Cortes Generales, the Congress of Deputies, and 208 seats in upper house, the Senate. The governing People's Party (PP) was led into the campaign by Mariano Rajoy, successor to outgoing Prime Minister José María Aznar. In a result which defied most predictions, the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, won a plurality of seats in Congress of Deputies, and was able to form a government with the support of minor parties. The socialists received more votes than expected as a result of the government's handling of the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings and the PSOE's electoral manipulations during the reflection period. See: Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_legislative_election,_2004 )
35 Samir Khalil Samir, "Benedetto XVI e l'Islam", Asianews.it, Aprile 28, 2006. The answer was given on 24 July 2005 in Val d'Aosta.
36 "Address Of His Holiness Benedict XVI To The Diplomatic Corps Accredited To The Holy See For The Traditional Exchange Of New Year Greetings", January 9, 2006. From: www.vatican.va.
37 "Commitment to Truth Is the Soul of Justice - Pope's Address to Diplomatic Corps", Zenit, January 10, 2006.
38 "Holy See Appeals for Dialogue in Middle East", Zenit, July 14, 2006.
39 Sandro Magister, "Israel is fighting for its life, but the Vatican 'deplores'", July 19. 2006. www.chiesa.espressonline.it
40 "Dichiarazione della Sala Stampa della Santa Sede", July 20, 2006.
41 Pope Benedict XVI, On Day of Prayer for Peace in Middle East, Angelus. July 23, 2006. From: www.zenit.org.
42 A.G., "Per il Papa agghiaccianti le immagini di Cana", Il Sole-24 Ore, 3 agosto 2006, p.4. See also:"Pope: Peace for the peoples of the Middle East overwhelmed by fratricidal conflict!", August 6, 2006.From: www.asianews.it (Pontificio Istituto Missioni Estere).
43"Meeting with the representatives of science in the Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg ", September 12, 2006. www.vatican.va
44 Zenit, September 17, 2006, , September 17, 2006, http://www.zenit.org/english.
45"Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI" http://www.islamicamagazine.com/onlineanalysis/ open-letter-to-his-holiness-pope-benedict-xvi.html.
46 George Weigel, "Regensburg revisited: the Islamic response", European Voice, 7-13.12.2006.
47 Zenit News Agency, "Olmert and Pope Discuss Peace, Catholics in Israel",www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=99860
48 " Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace: The Human Person, the Heart of Peace", January 1, 2007. www.vatican.va