Controversial Cardinal Reappointed by Pope
Pope John Paul II has confirmed the controversial and conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as head of the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrinal office for a third five-year term, a Vatican spokesman said this week.
Ratzinger, 64, was first appointed by the Pope in 1981 to head the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department that is the modern-day descendant of the Inquisition.
Ratzinger, whose department checks purity of Catholic theology and doctrine, was responsible for disciplinary action against Latin America’s liberation theologians as well as some leading liberal U.S. churchmen in the 1980s.
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