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BANGALORE, INDIA, October 1, 2000: Navaratna S. Rajaram wrote this essay five years ago dealing in large part with the work of Cardinal Ratzinger, the newly elected Pope:



The Pope and the Vatican have shown their true face. In a just released document titled “Declaration of Lord Jesus” (written by Ratzinger) the Vatican proclaims non-Christians to be in a “gravely deficient situation” and even non-Catholic churches have “defects” because they do not acknowledge the primacy of the Pope. This of course means the Vatican refuses to acknowledge the spiritual right of the Hindus to their beliefs and practices and asserts also the right of its agents in India and other countries to engage in conversion. During his visit to India Pope John-Paul II went further: he demanded conversion as a “fundamental right” though the Vatican does not recognize any right beyond the Pope’s authority.



All this claim is based not only on the doctrinal authority supposedly deriving from the word of Christ, but also the supreme authority of the Pope as the spiritual head of the world to which followers of all other “gravely deficient” religions–like Hinduism–must submit. Without this there is no salvation. Who issued this statement proclaiming the supremacy of the Catholic religion and the supreme spiritual authority of the Pope? It was one Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, head of a Vatican office known as the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is probably the most powerful and influential office in the Vatican. And of all the Cardinals, Ratzinger is closest to Pope John Paul II. The public knows very little about this shadowy office, known since 1965 as the congregation for the Docrtine of the Faith. Prior to that date it was known as the Holy Office. And until 1542 it was known as the Holy Inquisition–a name synonymous with terror and torture in the name of God and Christ. Cardinal Ratzinger is called its secretary; in the old days he would be known as the Grand Inquisitor. It was this office that persecuted Galileo and burnt scientist Giordano Bruno at the stake. It was this office again that sanctioned the Goa Inquisition as demanded by “Saint” Francis Xavier, at which were thousands of innocent Indians perished. It is the same office now that is denouncing Hindus as “gravely deficient” who need to be converted to save them.



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