Pope Benedict RESIGNING

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Newest interview: Associated Press interviews Pope Francis

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-01/pope-critics-help-us-grow-but-i-want-them-to-say-it-to-my-face.html
Pope: Critics help us grow, but I want them to say it to my face
25 January 2023, 18:36

Associated Press interviews Pope Francis: the conversation ranged over topics from the death of Benedict XVI, to treating homosexuals with dignity; from dialogue with China, to the German Synodal Path, to the case of Father Rupnik.
By Salvatore Cernuzio

Pope Francis has addressed a wide variety of topics – from the death of Benedict XVI, criticism of Fracncis’ papacy, homosexuality, relations with China, the case of Father Rupnik, and even his “good” health despite his age – in an interview released today by the Associated Press, an American news agency. It is the pontiff’s first interview since the death, on 31 December 2022, of his predecessor Joseph Ratzinger, whose character Pope Francis outlines in his interview with correspondent Nicole Winfield, which took place on Tuesday at Casa Santa Marta.
 

Spanish transcript of AP interview with Pope Francis at the link below--
https://apnews.com/article/a5cf2c1d450064b588ab3f41d3bf6994
Transcripción de la entrevista de AP con el papa Francisco
Associated Press  today

Articles on some of the topics:

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253453/i-lost-a-dad-pope-francis-speaks-about-losing-benedict-xvi
‘I lost a dad’: Pope Francis speaks about losing Benedict XVI
By AC Wimmer
Rome Newsroom, Jan 25, 2023 / 08:50 am

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Hmmm...

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/papal-biographer-claims-benedict-xvi-resigned-due-to-years-of-insomnia/
Papal biographer claims Benedict XVI resigned due to years of ‘insomnia’

Pope Benedict XVI's biographer Peter Seewald stated that the late Pope told him he had resigned due to 'insomnia' he had experienced since 2005 and that a bizarre bleeding incident in 2012 was pivotal to his resignation. But questions arise even from Seewald's statement.
Michael Haynes
Fri Jan 27, 2023 - 2:13 pm EST

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) –– Pope Benedict’s biographer Peter Seewald, has stated that the late Pontiff wrote to him last year, citing longstanding insomnia as the reason behind his 2013 resignation. However, the news adds further confusion to the details regarding Benedict’s resignation.

Seewald – who wrote the widely read biography on Pope Benedict Benedict XVI: A Life – made the comments to German language magazine Focus. In a subsequent statement to KNA, Seewald confirmed what Focus had reported, arguing that it was insomnia which was the “central reason” behind Benedict’s shock resignation in 2013.

Seewald stated that Benedict reportedly wrote to him in October 28, 2022, providing details of his medical condition while the reigning Pontiff. Citing this letter, Seewald stated that Benedict wrote of “insomnia that has accompanied me continuously since World Youth Day in Cologne.”

The Cologne World Youth Day took place in August 2005, four months after Benedict was elected Pope in mid-April. Benedict retired on February 28, 2013.
 

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Synod on Synodality

Hmmm...

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/cardinal-hollerich-critics-of-synod-cant-stop-it
Cardinal Hollerich: Critics of the Synod ‘Won’t Be Able to Stop’ It

The general relator of the Synod on Synodality made a number of bold statements this week including the assertion that Christian Europe is a “thing of the past.”
Edward Pentin
January 28, 2023

VATICAN CITY — One of Pope Francis’ closest aides and a leading figure of the Synod on Synodality has singled out critics of the process, calling them afraid of a “Church on the move” and saying they “know they won’t be able to stop” the synodal experiment.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, the general relator of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality, also issued other bold statements this week including asserting that the idea of a Christian Europe is a “thing of the past,” that people should be accepted and not judged, and that Benedict XVI’s former personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein had betrayed the former pope by not staying in Benedict’s “shadow.”

The Jesuit cardinal, who last year called for a revision of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, told Quotidiano Nazionale Jan. 26 that he believes “those who want Pope Francis to resign do not want a Church on the road.”
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253519/archbishop-ganswein-celebrates-mass-for-benedict-xvi-one-month-after-pope-s-death

Archbishop Gänswein celebrates Mass for Benedict XVI one month after pope’s death
By Hannah Brockhaus
Rome Newsroom, Feb 1, 2023 / 11:25 am

Archbishop Georg Gänswein celebrates Mass in the Vatican crypt close to the tomb of Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 31, 2023, to mark one month since the death of the pope emeritus on Dec. 31, 2022. | Angela Ambrogetti/CNA

Archbishop Georg Gänswein celebrated Mass at the tomb of St. Peter on Tuesday to mark one month since the death of Pope Benedict XVI.

Gänswein, the pope emeritus’ longtime personal secretary, offered the Mass in the Vatican crypt close to Benedict’s tomb in the presence of a small group of people.

Benedict XVI died on Dec. 31 in the Vatican. He was buried in the crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 5 following the celebration of his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square.

In his homily, Gänswein said Benedict, “one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time on the Chair of Peter, put himself under the protection of a saint for whom there was no theology, only adoration.”
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253518/cardinal-zen-hospitalized-in-hong-kong-after-returning-from-benedict-xvi-s-funeral

Cardinal Zen hospitalized in Hong Kong after returning from Benedict XVI’s funeral
By Courtney Mares
Rome Newsroom, Feb 1, 2023 / 09:02 am

Cardinal Joseph Zen, former bishop of Hong Hong, attends the funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Jan. 5, 2023, in St. Peter's Square. | Credit: Diane Montagna

Cardinal Joseph Zen has been hospitalized in Hong Kong after his health deteriorated upon returning from Benedict XVI’s funeral in Rome.

The 91-year-old cardinal wrote on his blog on Jan. 31 that he is receiving treatment in the hospital after experiencing difficulty breathing.

Zen said that the doctors have already conducted many examinations and ruled out that he does not have a bacterial infection in his lungs as he experienced in 2016 when he was hospitalized for three weeks.

“You have not heard from me as I have been staying in the hospital. Please rest assured, Hong Kong’s most senior doctors are taking care of me,” he wrote.

The former bishop of Hong Kong revealed that he had already been experiencing some health difficulties before he received permission from a Hong Kong court to travel to Rome for the Jan. 5 funeral of Benedict XVI.

Despite having inflammation in his shoulders, an aching back, and numbness in his hands, Zen said that he felt that he “could not give up the opportunity” to be present at the funeral.

“The funeral of Pope Benedict was very important to me; and like a miracle, God allowed me to go to Rome to attend: The court approved, the police let me get back my passport; the airline just had a flight so that I could catch the funeral in time, therefore, I felt that I couldn’t give up this opportunity and decided to go,” he said.

“When I went to Rome, I felt that I represented the whole of Hong Kong and the whole of China, expressing our respect and love to Pope Benedict XVI.”
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253583/benedict-xvi-describes-protestantization-of-the-eucharist-in-posthumous-publication

Benedict XVI describes ‘Protestantization’ of the Eucharist in posthumous publication
By Hannah Brockhaus
Rome Newsroom, Feb 8, 2023 / 08:30 am

In a 2018 essay published after his death, Pope Benedict XVI said a Protestant-like understanding of the Eucharist and strong calls for intercommunion are often found together.

Commenting on the current situation of eucharistic life in the Catholic Church, the pope emeritus said: “One process of great impact is the almost complete disappearance of the sacrament of penance.”

There is also the understanding of Communion as merely “a supper,” he added. “In such a situation of a very advanced Protestantization of the understanding of the Eucharist, intercommunion appears natural.”

Benedict’s essay on the Eucharist is part of a series of texts the pope emeritus wrote after his resignation in 2013. The essays, letters, and reflections have been collected into a single volume, “What Is Christianity?,” which was published in Italian last month.

According to Vatican journalist Sandro Magister, Benedict XVI had arranged for the writings to be published after his death.
 

http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2023/02/07/the-catholic-mass-as-no-one-ever-explained-it-before-a-brand-new-work-from-pope-benedict/
07 feb
The Catholic Mass as No One Ever Explained It Before. A Brand New Work From Pope Benedict

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https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/vatican-touts-very-different-memoir-about-pope-benedict-xvi

Vatican touts a very different memoir about Pope Benedict XVI
NICOLE WINFIELD
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vatican City — February 9, 2023

Retired Pope Benedict XVI's second secretary came out with a new memoir on Feb. 9, a light, photo-filled daily journal that sharply contrasts with the bombshell tell-all book published last month by the late German pope's main assistant.

"My Days With Benedict XVI" by Archbishop Alfred Xuereb is the latest book to hit Italian bookshelves following Benedict's Dec. 31 death. It was launched Feb. 9 at a semi-official Vatican event alongside another book by a longtime Vatican reporter "The Resignation: I Didn't Flee."

The two new publications served to blunt, in some ways, the negative criticism of Francis that erupted in the weeks after the death of the first "emeritus pope" by refocusing attention on Benedict himself.

Pope Francis recently acknowledged that Benedict's death had been "instrumentalized" by conservatives to accentuate the idea of competing papal camps, a reference to the books, interviews and memos published by Benedict's longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, and some conservative cardinals that were highly critical of the reigning pontiff.

Xuereb was the "second secretary" to Benedict during his 2005-2013 pontificate, and remained on as secretary to Francis for the first months of his papcy. Francis then placed Xuereb in his new Economy Ministry before making him ambassador to Korea and Mongolia, where Francis is expected to visit later this year in the first-ever papal visit.
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253684/god-creation-and-humanity-the-lost-lectures-of-benedict-xvi-collected-in-new-book

God, creation, and humanity: The ‘lost lectures’ of Benedict XVI collected in new book
By Kevin J. Jones
Denver, Colo., Feb 19, 2023 / 07:00 am

Six lectures of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger were almost lost forever. But now, they have been collected in a new Ignatius Press book, “The Divine Project: Reflections on Creation and Church.”

“It’s a wonderful summation of what God intends in creating us and redeeming us, in six lectures. It’s just a great find,” Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, president of Ignatius Press, told CNA. “It’s written for students and spoken for students. It’s really quite readable.”

The future Pope Benedict XVI delivered the series of lectures in 1985 at the Bishop of Gurk’s formation house at St. George’s Abbey in Längsee in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. They were recorded on audio cassettes but the tapes were misplaced for 30 years and forgotten. By chance, they were rediscovered.
 

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https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/pope-benedict-s-resignation-debate-continues-10-years-on

Pope Benedict’s Resignation: Debate Continues 10 Years On
COMMENTARY: New information can help us to better understand Benedict’s decision.
Father Raymond J. de Souza
Commentaries
February 27, 2023

The 10th anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s abdication announcement — Feb. 11, 2013 — passed with little comment, given the attention paid just a month earlier upon his death. But the anniversary of the abdication itself, Feb. 28, offers an opportunity to revisit the decision in light of new information.

On the occasion of the fifth anniversary in 2018, I wrote, given that no one had ever resigned the papacy in serene circumstances, that the default position must be that Benedict was wrong to do so, and the burden of argument lay upon those who considered it the right thing to do.

Benedict himself argued clearly for the validity of his abdication, but unconvincingly for the rightness of the decision. I made that argument here.

Since the fifth anniversary, new information can help us to better understand Benedict’s decision.
 

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https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pope-benedict-xvis-aide-acknowledges-criticism-memoir-97974014

Pope Benedict XVI's aide acknowledges criticism over memoir
By The Associated Press
March 19, 2023, 2:01 PM

ROME -- The longtime secretary to Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged Sunday that his tell-all memoir, published in the days after Benedict’s death, had been criticized for casting Pope Francis in an unfavorable light, but insisted that some of the polemics were more about anti-Benedict prejudice than anything else.

In some of his first public comments since Benedict’s Dec. 31 death, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein said he remained loyal to Francis and that he was still waiting for the pontiff to give him a new job.

Gaenswein’s future has been the subject of much speculation following Benedict’s death and the publication of “Nothing But the Truth: My Life Beside Pope Benedict XVI.” In the memoir, Gaenswein charted his nearly 30 years working with Benedict, but also settled old scores, revealed palace intrigues and detailed some of the bad blood that accrued during the decade in which Benedict lived as a retired pope alongside Francis.
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253904/benedict-s-personal-secretary-searches-for-five-cousins-who-are-heirs-of-the-late-pontiff

Benedict’s personal secretary searches for five cousins who are heirs of the late pontiff
By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Rome, Italy, Mar 21, 2023 / 14:30 pm

Five German cousins of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI are the direct heirs to his personal property, the pope’s personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, told Italian media after a Mass celebrated in Rome on Sunday at Santa Maria Consolatrice parish, Cardinal Ratzinger’s titular church.

Benedict XVI died Dec. 31, 2022.

The archbishop explained that he thought there were two direct heirs. However, he was surprised to learn that there are three more, hitherto unknown. “This has been very interesting for me. I thought he had two relatives, two cousins, but there are five cousins in total,” he said.

“By law I have to write to the cousins who are the closest relatives, and also by law I have to ask them: ‘Do you accept the inheritance or do you not accept it?’” he told various Italian national media.
 

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Hmmm...

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253913/report-of-pope-benedict-s-secretary-becoming-costa-rica-nuncio-is-speculation-vatican-sources-say
Gänswein to Costa Rica? Report of Benedict’s secretary becoming nuncio is ‘speculation,’ Vatican sources say
By AC Wimmer
CNA Newsroom, Mar 22, 2023 / 08:36 am

Following a report that Pope Francis will appoint Archbishop Georg Gänswein as the Vatican’s next ambassador to Costa Rica, sources inside the Vatican have told CNA Deutsch that the news was “speculation at best.”

The Spanish news site Religión Digital reported Tuesday that Benedict XVI’s longtime private secretary is set to serve as the next apostolic nuncio to the Central American nation.

According to “ecclesiastical sources,” the Holy See contacted the country’s state authorities last week to make the appointment, the online portal said — adding that the current apostolic nuncio, Monsignor Bruno Musaro, is about to turn 75 and is headed for retirement.

Several media outlets picked up news of Gänswein’s transfer to Costa Rica. The Vatican has so far not commented. However, sources told CNA’s German-language partner agency CNA Deutsch that the information was little more than speculation
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253917/prosecutors-drop-case-of-alleged-cover-up-against-benedict-xvi

Prosecutors drop case of alleged ‘cover up’ against Benedict XVI
By AC Wimmer
CNA Newsroom, Mar 22, 2023 / 16:30 pm

A potential legal case against Pope Benedict XVI over his handling of abuse during his time as archbishop of Munich has been dropped.

The public prosecutor’s office in Munich said on Tuesday it had “discontinued its investigations” against Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger and Friedrich Wetter, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The accusations had been investigated in the wake of the Munich abuse report, which raised allegations that “there could be misconduct on the part of Church officials in positions of responsibility.”

Cardinal Ratzinger, who would later become Pope Benedict XVI, served as archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982.
 

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https://www.ncregister.com/news/benedict-xvi-s-the-divine-project

Benedict XVI’s ‘The Divine Project’

BOOK PICK: Remembering Pope Benedict XVI on what would've been his 96th birthday.
John Grondelski
Books
April 16, 2023

THE DIVINE PROJECT
REFLECTIONS ON CREATION AND THE CHURCH
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Ignatius Press, 2022
177 pages, $18.95

To order: ewtnrc.com

After John Paul II died, and as his canonization process ensued, several lost talks and retreats he delivered during his 32 years of priesthood in Poland were discovered and published.

Similarly, this book contains five lectures then-Cardinal Ratzinger gave in 1985 in Austria.

Though they were known and partially published, were they complete?

The discovery in an attic of someone’s recording of them allowed their full texts to be transcribed.

John Paul once said, around the time of his Wednesday audiences on the theology of the body, that if man wants to understand himself, he needs to return to the first pages of Genesis.

Cardinal Ratzinger’s lectures focus on the theology of creation and of the Church. The title and the thread holding creation and Church together is the question, “What is man?”
 

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https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/german-archbishop-georg-g%C3%A4nswein-hopes-people-learn-the-real-truth-about-benedict-xvi

German Archbishop Georg Gänswein hopes people learn the 'real truth' about Benedict XVI
PAULINA GUZIK
May 26, 2023

WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) ─ German Archbishop Georg Gänswein, former personal secretary to the late Pope Benedict XVI, told OSV News in a recent interview that he hopes those who read his new memoir "will recognize the real face or the real truth about the person but also the truth about what Benedict XVI and also Cardinal Ratzinger have done."

Archbishop Gänswein was in Poland recently promoting his book "Nothing but the Truth," which details his time as personal secretary to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during his last two years as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, to Pope Benedict XVI during the eight years he was in pontiff, and, finally, the decade when Pope Benedict was pope emeritus.

As he tours, Archbishop Gänswein is simultaneously awaiting Pope Francis' decision on what the archbishop's next position will be. He expected the decision to be communicated within the next few days.

"I hope Pope Francis will give me the opportunity to talk to him to hear (in person) what he has decided," Archbishop Gänswein told OSV News May 23. "I am calm. I can wait. I also have the patience to wait."
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254472/report-ganswein-ordered-to-leave-vatican-return-to-home-diocese-without-new-role

Report: Gänswein ordered to leave Vatican, return to home diocese without new role
By AC Wimmer
CNA Newsroom, Jun 2, 2023 / 06:34 am

According to a German newspaper report, Pope Francis ordered Archbishop Georg Gänswein to leave the Vatican and return to Germany by the end of June.

The longtime private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI has been told to return to his home diocese of Freiburg in southwest Germany but has not been given any role or assignment, the Welt newspaper reported on Friday.

According to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language partner agency, the report claims Pope Francis informed the 66-year-old Gänswein of his decision during a private audience on May 19.

Gänswein had not responded to a request by CNA Deutsch by the time of publication, and the Vatican has not issued any communication on the matter.
 
Gänswein is expected in Germany later this week: He is scheduled to preside over Mass on Sunday, June 4, for an annual pilgrimage to the Cistercian monastery of Stiepel near Bochum, in Western Germany.

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-06/cardinal-herranz-publishes-his-memoirs-benedict-xvi-and-francis.html

Cardinal Herranz publishes his memoirs on Benedict XVI and Francis
04 June 2023, 08:00

Cardinal Julián Herranz publishes his memoirs regarding Benedict XVI and Francis in his new book, "Two Popes," saying "they have inspired me with their virtues and honoured me with their personal friendship." Pope Francis wrote the preface in which he thanks the Cardinal for his service to the Church.
By Johan Pacheco

“Dos Papa” (Two Popes) features the memoirs of Spanish Cardinal Julián Herranz Casado and his experience in the service of Benedict XVI and Francis, offering his own testimony of the Church's journey in recent decades. With love for Mother Church and the Holy Father, Cardinal Herranz writes about the moments of splendour and the challenges faced by the successor of Peter.

Cardinal Julián Herranz is President emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and President emeritus of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia.
 

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https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-06/buddhist-monks-thailand-meeting-interreligious-dialogue-pope.html

Thai Buddhists reaffirm friendship and fraternity with Catholic Church
15 June 2023, 12:12

A Buddhist Delegation from Thailand meets with representatives of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue in the Vatican. Having been due to meet with the Pope who is recovering from surgery but will be discharged tomorrow, the delegation leave him a letter of prayers and well-wishes.
By Francesca Merlo

One minute of silent reflection “to really bring everyone here and now” opened the meeting between a delegation of Buddhist monks, and their entourage, and representatives of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue at the Augustinianum on Thursday 15 June. 

The delegation had been due to meet with Pope Francis during their two-day visit to the Vatican, but due to the Holy Father’s ongoing recovery in Hospital, they wrote him a letter, signed by the Venerable Somdet Phra Mahathirachan, Abbot of the Royal Temple of Wat Phra Cetuphon, instead.
 
The delegation members recount their activities in the Vatican, including having prayed for peace and having payed a visit to the tomb of the late Pope Benedict XVI.


Buddhist delegation prays at the tomb of the late Benedict XVI
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254573/vatican-ganswein-to-return-to-home-diocese-from-july

Vatican: Gänswein to return to home diocese in July
By Hannah Brockhaus, AC Wimmer
Rome Newsroom, Jun 15, 2023 / 04:31 am

The Vatican confirmed Thursday that Pope Francis has asked Archbishop Georg Gänswein to return to Germany as of July 1.

The longtime private secretary of Pope Benedict XVI has been told to return to his home diocese of Freiburg in southwest Germany “for the time being,” according to a brief statement June 15.

The Vatican also said Gänswein’s role as prefect of the Papal Household concluded on Feb. 28. It did not indicate that he had been given any new assignment.

The news about the 66-year-old Gänswein was first reported by a German newspaper in early June.
 

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https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254619/pectoral-cross-of-benedict-xvi-stolen-from-bavarian-church

Pectoral cross of Benedict XVI stolen from Bavarian church
By AC Wimmer
CNA Newsroom, Jun 20, 2023 / 12:30 pm

A pectoral cross bequeathed by the late Pope Benedict XVI to a parish in his native Bavaria has been stolen from the church where it was on display.

According to CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language partner news agency, unknown perpetrators broke open a display case on the wall of St. Oswald’s Church in the city of Traunstein during daylight hours Monday.

Police said cash was also stolen from the cash register of a literature stand in the church.

The value of the cross to the Catholic Church is “not quantifiable,” the police said. Authorities are asking anyone who saw anyone suspicious near St. Oswald’s on Monday or has any other information to come forward. The Traunstein district attorney’s office is leading the investigation.