NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      ROME, 25 (NE) In a recent declaration to Vatican Radio, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, recalled the importance of Pope John Paul's Motu proprio Ad tuendam fidem. He also declared the frequent misinterpretation that this pontifical document issued last year has suffered.

      Cardinal Ratzinger declared this speaking about the encounter of members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and presidents of the doctrinal commissions of the episcopates of the United States, Canada and Oceania, held some days ago in San Francisco. The Vatican Cardinal said the document was the point of reference to understand how "academic freedom, and the freedom in general with which reason investigates, harmonizes with the duty to move within faith."

      Pope John Paul II´s Motu Proprio Ad tuendam fidem was issued in the middle of 1998. The pontifical document completes formulas from the Canon Law of the Occidental and Oriental Church, in order to defend the Church's faith from errors that some faithful present, specially theologians and teachers, in order to maintain the identity and the contents of the Church's faith clearly established.