Who knew what when?

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The former Cardinal of the Curia Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who is responsible for the traditionalists, apparently knew months before the lifting of the excommunication of the Briton Richard Williamson about his Holocaust denial. This was reported by the Swedish TV program "Uppdrag Granskning" ("Mission: Investigate") on Wednesday evening, citing leading Vatican officials such as Pope's spokesman Federico Lombardi.

In the broadcast, Stockholm Bishop Anders Arborelius explains that he had already forwarded information about the interview, in which Traditionalist Bishop Williamson denied the existence of gas chambers, to the Stockholm nunciature in November 2008. The Pope's ambassador to Sweden, Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, was unwilling to be interviewed on camera. However, according to reporter Ali Fegan, immediately after receiving the information, he stated that he had contacted several people in the Vatican. This had included Cardinal Castrillon, who is responsible for contacts with traditionalists.

Kasper: Castrillon committed errors

The president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, said in the July interview in Sweden that mistakes had been made in the Vatican surrounding the Williamson affair – by those responsible for it. Asked by Swedish journalist Ali Fegan if Castrillon had also made mistakes, Kasper said, "I think he is one of them yes, because he was a major figure in this thing." However, he said, it is not his job to accuse other cardinals. In a letter to "Uppdrag Granskning" published on the Internet, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi is quoted as saying that he had no knowledge of the Williamson interview at the time it was broadcast. He had been informed only afterwards by the Swedish section of Radio Vatican. It continues: "Cardinal Castrillon did not say a word to me about it."When Lombardi informed his superiors about his findings on Williamson, the excommunication had already been lifted. The Vatican spokesman stressed in the letter that he was firmly convinced that also Pope Benedict XVI. had not known of Williamson's Holocaust denial before his decision to lift excommunication. The Pope himself had also stated this in March in a letter to all the bishops of the universal Church. Lombardi reiterated this Wednesday in an official Vatican statement. Castrillon, who has since retired, was not available for an interview, according to "Uppdrag Granskning". Still on 29. January, eight days after the broadcast of the Williamson interview on Swedish television and five days after the official announcement of the lifting of excommunication, Castrillon had told the Italian daily "Corriere della Serra" that he had known nothing about the interview.

Williamson: Castrillon is close to us

The TV broadcast also included excerpts from a video interview of the priestly fraternity of St. Pius X. shown with the Holocaust denier Williamson. In it, the traditionalist bishop reported that Castrillon "really tried to help the priestly fraternity". He has "met a number of members of the Brotherhood and likes us on a human level," Williamson said: "I think he likes us because we stand up for our faith."

A visitor to the Goseck solar observatory © Sebastian Willnow

St. John’s bonfires, herb walks and lively celebrations: the day of the summer solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years. From now on the days become shorter again.

"From now on it was downhill…", once sang Hildegard Knef. She related this ironically to her artistic life. But this title can be well related to the day of the summer solstice, which is coming up on Thursday. Sunrise 5.29 o’clock, sunset 21.32 o’clock: the longest day of the year lasts 16 hours, 2 minutes and 45 seconds in Fribourg.

In Kiel, the sun already rises at 4:44 a.m. and and 21.57 o’clock under – that makes a day length of 17 hours and about 13 minutes. Still imperceptible at first, the days then become shorter again. At the end of the month, the length of the day has already shrunk by four minutes. On 21. June, the sun reaches its highest point over the northern hemisphere of the earth. This position, also known as the Tropic of Cancer, is at 23° 26 northern latitude, which is at the level of the Sahara Desert. Responsible for the seasons and the different day lengths is that the axis of rotation of the earth is oblique to the sun.

Thus the sun position shifts from day to day. On Midsummer’s Day, the Earth’s axis tilts exactly toward the sun. Inhabitants of the northern hemisphere rejoice at the beginning of the warmest season of the year. This is because a lot of solar energy then reaches the northern part of the globe. The atmosphere and the earth’s surface there continues to warm as the summer progresses.

Solstice days are probably the oldest holidays at all

Feasts and fires were meant to drive away evil demons, spirits, and disease; light and warmth were celebrated, a good harvest was hoped for. Excavations and ancient buildings show that people tried to calculate the summer and parallel winter solstice exactly already several thousand years ago.

About the more than 7.000-year-old circular excavation site in Goseck in Saxony-Anhalt, which was only discovered in the early 1990s: The gates and paths to the site are aligned with those points on the horizon where the sun rose and set at the winter solstice back then. A sighting device in the palisade was also discovered, which enabled the determination of the summer solstice.

At Stonehenge in England, which is more than one and a half millennia younger, on the other hand, the summer solstice seems to have played the main role. The horseshoe-shaped ensemble of stone gates in the center, built around the same time as the great pyramids in Egypt, pointed to the sunrise on Midsummer’s Day.

Christian church also celebrated solstice

The Christian church also celebrated the solstice, but reinterpreted the pagan customs. The 24. June is the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is exactly six months before the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus. Already in the late Middle Ages, St. John’s bonfires were piled up, services and festivities were celebrated around the fire.

However, the summer solstice has been celebrated only sporadically in Germany since World War II because the Nazis abused the festival. SS chief Heinrich Himmler attached particular importance to the cultivation of supposedly Germanic customs and thus wanted to displace Christian festivals. Solstice is still celebrated in the Lippe region of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the center: the Externsteine near Detmold, also known as the Stonehenge of the Teutoburg Forest.

Esoterics, old hippies and young people who want to party make a pilgrimage to the mystical 13 sandstone rocks that rise up to 40 meters into the sky. The festival is much more rooted in Sweden; the other Scandinavian countries and the Baltic states are also in a party mood then. Because the further north you go, the longer the sun stays in the sky in summer.

It doesn’t get dark at all in the Arctic Circle. Singing, dancing and wreaths of flowers in your hair: in Sweden, the summer solstice is an official holiday, always celebrated on Saturday between 20. and 26. June is celebrated, this year on Saturday, 23 June. June. This time the longest day of the year could be even more colorful there. Sweden challenges Germany at the World Cup in Sochi, of all places, to celebrate the summer solstice. The German team then hopes for a different turn of events.

This year, the Olympics coincide with the fasting month of Ramadan. Many of the 3,000 Muslim athletes therefore have a permit from their imam to break their fast in their pocket or pay a high donation sum.

The Olympics pose a special challenge for top Muslim athletes this time: the fasting month of Ramadan coincides with the competitions in London. Many Muslim athletes then have to find a solution to deal with fasting. According to Muslim beliefs, they are not allowed to fast during Ramadan, which ends in Britain on 21. July begins, neither eating nor drinking allowed from sunrise to sunset.

One of the Muslim athletes is Briton Mohamed Sbihi. He is the first practicing Muslim in the history of the British rowing team. "When I started rowing in 2003, I announced that I would fast during Ramadan," Sbihi told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. But at that time, Ramadan was during the winter months, when rowing involves less training.

It was only last year that Sbihi decided to stop fasting. "Rowers need to burn more than 4.burn 500 calories a day when they exercise," he explained. Since Ramadan, which moves through the calendar year, was in summer in 2011, he quickly realized that he could no longer fast. ‘I just didn’t know how to reconcile this with my faith’."Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, as are the profession of faith, daily prayers, the tax on the poor and the pilgrimage to Mecca.

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Sbihi finally found a solution in the Quran: "The Quran says: For every day you deliberately break your fast, you must fast for 30 more days or feed 60 people," Sbihi said. And so the rower decided to spend about 2.000 pounds (about 2.400 euros) to donate 1.Financing food for 800 poor people in Morocco. Although he regrets not being able to fast, he says. But he does not want to miss the unique opportunity to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

That’s how athletes from other countries see it, too: Palestinian runner Bahaa al-Farra obtained permission from his imam not to fast. Qatari-born sprinter Noor al-Malki told the New York Times, "You have to respect Ramadan, but I want to set a new national record. If Ramadan doesn’t work, I won’t fast." And even the soccer team of the United Arab Emirates has obtained an exemption from their government.

While criticism in Muslim communities was initially high because of the date of the Games, many Muslim organizations in Britain now support the Olympics, including the Muslim Council of Britain. The London organizing committee is doing its best to involve as many groups as possible in the organization in order to meet the needs of athletes and visitors.

Many prayer rooms
Every sports facility has, for example, a prayer room. There are special food packages to be able to eat even late in the evening and early in the morning. For the first time, the meat available to Muslim participants will be controlled according to the standards of the European Halal Development Agency. The Arabic word "halal" means "allowed" or "pure": animals are slaughtered according to the Islamic rite – without anesthesia and with an incision through the carotid artery, esophagus and trachea.

In the past, not only Muslims but also Christians have repeatedly had problems reconciling their faith with the schedule of the Games: In 1924, for example, the Scotsman Eric Liddell withdrew his participation in the 100-meter race in Paris because the competition was to take place on a Sunday. For the devout Christian, a run on a Sunday was unacceptable. And so, in the months leading up to the Olympics, he trained for the 400-meter race, which was held on a weekday. His chances were much worse here. But in the end he ran world record and became Olympic champion.

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