Oh, this is so, so rich. From the German Catholic website kath.net:

Die Diskussion rund um die Afrika-Aussagen von Kardinal Walter Kasper im Rahmen eines Interviews weitet sich aus. Kasper wird in dem Interview, dass er allerdings bestreitet, unter anderem mit folgenden Sätzen über afrikanische Bischöfe zitiert: „Sie sollen uns nicht zu sehr erklären, was wir zu tun haben“,kath.net hat berichtet.

Gegenüber kath.net teilte er am Donnerstag am späten Nachmittag folgendes mit: „So habe ich nie über Afrikaner geredet und würde ich auch nie reden.” Danach hat allerdings der zuständige Zenit-Redakteur das Tonband veröffentlicht und erklärt, dass sogar zwei andere Journalisten als Zeugen dabei waren. Im Tonband ist die Stimme von Kasper klar zu hören und auch die Aussagen werden von Zenit wahrheitsgetreu wiedergegeben. Kardinal Kasper hat am Freitagvormittag kath.net persönlich mitgeteilt: „Ich werde ein heimlich aufgenommenes privates Gespräch, das kein Interview war, mit zwei anderen Journalisten, das ein dritter, den ich gar nicht kenne und der sich mir auch nicht persönlich vorgestellt hat, nicht kommentieren und noch weniger autorisieren. Das sind keine anständigen journalistischen Methoden.”

Translation (from Google and me):

The discussion around the Africa-focused statements by Cardinal Walter Kasper in an interview grows. Kasper denied saying, among other things, the following about African bishops: “They should not tell us too much what we have to do,” kath.net reported.

On the other hand, he said on Thursday afternoon: “I have never spoken about Africans, and I would never speak.” After that, however, the Zenit-editor published the audio of the interview, and said that even two other journalists were present. In the tape, the voice of Kasper is clear, and the statements are reproduced faithfully by Zenit. Cardinal Kasper announced on Friday morning to kath.net personally: “I was secretly recorded in a private conversation that was not an interview, with two other journalists and a third writer I do not know and who was not personally introduced to me; I did not comment, and even less did I authorize these words These are not decent journalistic methods.”

(If you are a fluent German speaker, I would appreciate an improvement on this rendering of Kasper’s words, as reported in kath.net.)

This is remarkable. Kasper knew he was speaking to journalists, even if he did not know who Edward Pentin was (Pentin has been covering the Vatican for 10 years). Yet even though Kasper’s words, as reported, are undeniably true, he is accusing Pentin of ambushing him, and of being an unprofessional journalist. Listen to the tape yourself. It is simply not credible that Kasper was “secretly recorded,” or that this was a “private” conversation. Three journalists stopped the cardinal on a street and asked him straightforward, basic journalistic questions. Listen to the tape yourself. 

I suppose argumentum ad hominem is the last refuge of a scoundrelous prince of the Church. Thank God Pentin has that recording, and was able to make it public on the Internet. Kasper would have sooner seen this man lose his professional reputation than have owned up to the truth of what he, the cardinal, actually said.

Memo to journalists interviewing Walter Kasper in the future: always, always, always have your recorder on. Meanwhile, let us ponder Cardinal Kasper’s principle of media metaphysics: if an act of journalism committed in public redounds to the discredit of a German cardinal, that act of journalism is therefore fictional, no matter what the material evidence for its existence.

Next question: if a tree falls in the woods and Cardinal Kasper isn’t there to hear it, does it make a sound?

(By the way, John L. Allen has a good piece up on the clash between the German-speaking bishops and the African ones at this Synod. In short, he says that the Africans aren’t willing to Stepin Fetchit for the Europeans any longer.)