Dailies and periodicals” “

The UN resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories, the intensification of the military operations in Bethlehem and Ramallah, the massacres committed by suicide-bombers: these are the most recent events in the tragic escalation of death and violence in the Middle East that continues to monopolize the attention of the international dailies. “The battle is cruel close to the holy places”, is the headline carried for instance by the Herald Tribune (3/4) referring to the fierce fighting in Bethlehem, close to the Basilica of the Nativity, where several journalists have also been taken prisoner. “It’s really war”, headlines the French daily La Croix of 2/4, which dwells on the “two faces” of the conflict, symbolized by the tragic events of recent days: the siege of Ramallah and of Arafat’s headquarters by Israeli troops and the intensification of the bombing campaign by Palestinian kamikaze. Bruno Frappat, in the editorial of the French Catholic daily, refuses to “choose” between the tragedy of the two peoples: “A Palestinian ‘State’ in pieces and on the verge of disaster, and a State of Israel terrorized and immobilized by the methods of occupation (…). With the almost explicit support of an America keen for any kind of revenge”. Frappat speaks, too, of “an almost uncurbed spiral of terror”. “Bush supports the war of Sharon”, is the headline of Le Monde of 2/4; according to the paper, the Israeli military expansion aims at the “total isolation” of Arafat, with the complicity also of the American decision to “understand” Ariel Sharon’s motives. “ Asking the Israeli Prime Minister in vague terms – explains Patrick Jarreau – not to close the door on a political solution, the American President has insisted on the need to conduct a war against global terrorism”. Rose-Marie Borngässer and Gernot Facius have conducted for the German daily Die Welt a lengthy two-part interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Germany is once again a mission country: that is the main theme treated in the first part of the interview (published on 30/3), entitled “ Christianity must begin all over again in Germany“; in this regard Cardinal Ratzinger affirms that “ without doubt the atheist education in the former GDR together with the domination of affluence in the western part of the country have hastened the alienation of many Christians from the faith. So in certain respects Christianity must begin from scratch in Germany. It must however be rediscovered and experienced anew in each generation. Our history poses us particular difficulties in this sense“. As regards relations with Judaism, Ratzinger affirms that “the problem of the policy of the State of Israel must be kept absolutely separate from that of Christian-Jewish dialogue“. “ The foundation of society would perhaps be placed in doubt” is the title of the second part of the interview, published in Die Welt on 2/4. “ A distinction must be drawn between what is contrary to law and what is contrary to morality” because “ what’s happening in Germany” with regard to the law on abortion, maintains the Bavarian cardinal, “is contrary to morality” and man must regain the consciousness that “ killing a human being can never be a justified act of freedom. Once this is grasped, the consciousness of what is lawful may be reawoken once again.” To the final question of the interview, asking him whether “ the next pope might not be European”, Ratzinger replied that “undoubtedly” such an eventuality cannot be discounted: “In Africa we really have great personalities [among the cardinals] , whom we cannot fail to admire and who would truly be up to the task. In this sense, in principle, it is possible that the next pope may come from there. For me personally it would be a fine signal for the whole of Christianity.” Concerns about the health of the Pope are voiced both in Die Welt and in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; in an article published in the latter paper on 30/3, Heinz-Joachim Fischer, the paper’s Rome correspondent, notes that, in spite of all the difficulties, “ Karol Wojtyla has made humanity participate in the strength and unshakeable faith of a pope and now also in his weakness, illness and defenceless old age“; since, writes the author, “with his health broken John Paul II is paying the tribute of a long and laborious pontificate during which he has never spared himself.”