Is Cardinal Kasper racist and a liar or does he suffer from dementia?

It is not bad enough that Cardinal Kasper appears to be a racist with his statements about Africa, now it appears that he is also a liar. Either that, or the octogenarian Cardinal suffers from an onset of dementia and has no business being a involved with the synodal process.

The friend and confident of Jorge Bergoglio, Bishop of Rome in a conversation with Kath.net, denied the alleged statements made yesterday about Africa and its bishops published by Zenit and now removed.

“I am shocked. I have never spoken like this about Africans, and I would never do so. Zenit has, in the past days and weeks, never reached out to me, nor has it had an interview with me,” Kasper is reported to have said.

Zenit took down the interview which appears below "Is Cardinal Kasper a racist."

In response, the interviewer Edward Pentin, reprints the interview and provides the following statement:

In response to a statement from His Eminence Cardinal Kasper denying giving the interview that appeared in ZENIT Wednesday 15th October, I issue the following response:

His Eminence Cardinal Walter Kasper spoke to me and two other journalists, one British, the other French, around 7.15pm on Tuesday as he left the Synod hall.

I transcribed the recording of our conversation, and my iPhone on which I recorded the exchange was visible. I introduced myself as a journalist with the [National Catholic] Register, and the others also introduced themselves as journalists. I therefore figured the interview was on the record and His Eminence appeared happy to talk with us. In the end, I posted the full interview in ZENIT rather than the Register. ZENIT removed the article on Thursday in response to Cardinal Kasper’s denial.

His Eminence made no comment about not wanting his remarks published. It depends on the context, but normally in such a situation, comments are considered on the record unless otherwise requested.

The recording can be downloaded below. A couple of the questions came from the other two journalists and I included them as part of the interview. Some of the quality of the English has also been improved for publication.

00:00

07:53

If there was a misunderstanding, I apologise, but I stand by the interview that was published as a correct account of the exchange.

How much longer will Pope Francis allow this scandal to continue?