Vatican City, Jul 24, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Pope Benedict XVI, who is on vacation until July 28 in Les Combes in northern Italy, met privately on Tuesday with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa and soon-to-be Vatican Secretary of State.
The meeting “did not focus on international political issues,” said Vatican sources, in an apparent response to speculation by some reporters that the Pope and his former collaborator at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith may have been discussing the appointment of a successor to Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo as the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States.