Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone will assume his role as the Vatican Secretary of State on September 15. (For those who don’t know what that is and what it entails – the page on the Vatican website is quite helpful)

It’s quite an important role because the Secretary of State provides an valuable window into the mind of the Pope who chooses him – his sense of the role of the Church in the world, as well as what the priorities of the Church are. So naturally, there is great interest in Cardinal Bertone, his thinking, what he brings to the office, and what that tells us about Pope Benedict.

Over at PRF, they’ve posted a translation of an interview with Bertone that appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Italian newspaper Il Giornale.

Some interesting tidbits from the Salesian:

But I know I can count on the assistance and, above all, the prayers of so many wellwishers. These days, I have been visiting the cloistered monasteries in the archdiocese of Genoa. I have also decided to write a letter to contemplative monasteries around the world to ask for their support and aid in prayer.

(snip)

The Pope was Prefect of the CDF and you were his #2 man, and now the duo is being reconstituted. Is the Vatican going to be one big Holy Office?

I would like the proper terms to be used: the Holy Office today is a place, a building, not the dicastery itself nor the way in which the dicastery works.

The Congreation for the Doctrine of the Faith certainly has the function of being the guardian of orthodoxy, and in this function, to use the words of then Cardinal Ratzinger, it carries out a "democratic mission" because it protects the faith of the simple people, of those who do not write books or editorials, nor participate in talk shows.

But one must also remember its fundamental role of promoting the faith in connection with the missionary role of the Church. Having worked at the CDF helps one to spread the Gospel in the interests of the Church without forgetting to place man at the center of our missionary approach, man as the ultimate end of creation and of redemption, in whatever nation, culture and condition he is found.

(snip)

Benedict XVI seemed to wish to divest the Papacy of some political and diplomatic involvements, underlining the pastoral aspect of his ministry. What reflection will this policy have on the Secretariat of State?

The mission of the Church, as the Pope often repeats, is singular and it has always been so: to tell the world that beauty, happiness, the answer to man’s deepest questions, is not an idea, a philosophy or a series of teachings, but one person, Jesus Christ, who died and rose again for our salvation.

And it is only because of and in the light of this mission that the Holy See seeks to act in favor of peace and justice in every corner of the world, using all means available in order to reach this noble objective.

What then is the task of the Holy See on the international scene?

In the past century, the Popes have called on every person to start with the idea of God in order to promote peaceful and just coexistence in every region of the earth. They spoke not to defend the interests of the Church, but to defend justice and the dignity of man, of all men, especially the weakest among them and those who are forced to undergo injustices and intolerable inequalities.

From this point of view, peace cannot simply mean the absence of armed conflict but the result of order imposed on human society by God himself.

There’s much more – about Medjugorje, Fatima (Bertone is held in suspicion in some quarters because they say he’s suppressed the real Third Secret, etc), Archbishop Milingo, and ….sports.