World
Youth Day 08
Pope
Benedict XVI has begun his nine-day visit to Australia.
This BBC video clip of his meeting with journalists
on the flight to Sydney may be seen
here
1464.1
EWTN
live coverage
The
EWTN Global Catholic Network will provide live comprehensive
coverage of the events of World Youth Day 2008 (WYD08),
to be held July '5 - 20 in Sydney, Australia. During
the six-day celebration, EWTN's viewers will not only
enjoy all the WYD events with Pope Benedict XVI, but
also will be privy to such exclusives as an interview
with Sydney's Cardinal George Pell; a live youth show
straight from Australia's most recognizable landmark,
the Sydney Opera House; and much more. Since
its inception by the late Pope John Paul II in '986,
World Youth Day has become the largest gathering of
young people in the world. Approximately 225,000 registrants
are expected to take part in WYD08, including '25,000
international visitors (more than the 2000 Olympic
games in Sydney), 2,000 clergy, and 700 Bishops and
Cardinals. Organizers expect the closing Mass with
Pope Benedict to attract more than 500,000 people.
EWTN's coverage will include a 90-minute special presentation
at 8 p.m. ET, Thursday, July '7 of the network's call-in
show for youth, Life on the Rock, which will air live
from the Sydney Opera House. Father Mark Mary Cristina,
MFVA, host of Life on the Rock, will be joined in
studio via satellite by co-host Doug Barry. Father
Mark, who will also be hosting EWTN's live continuous
coverage, says viewers can expect an inside look at
WYD - including spectacular views of Sydney -- in
both the live show and in a follow-up Life on the
Rock on the Road, which will air 8 p.m. ET July 24.
'EWTN's World Youth Day team is flying to Sydney the
week before the event,' said Father Mark. 'We'll go
to Blessed Mary MacKillop Chapel, and to St. Mary's
Cathedral, where we'll see the body of Blessed Pier
Giorgio Frassati, one of the patrons for World Youth
Day, whose body has been transported from Turin, Italy.
He died when he was 24-years-old. He's a model for
youth of a life of social activism and prayer. We'll
tape all of that.'
There's also a pre-World Youth Day special 'Pilgrim
Formation,' in which young adults will discuss the
conversion of heart that thousands encounter at WYD
events and the importance of living in obedience to
Holy Mother Church. (Airing at 4 p.m. ET July '2,
'0 p.m. ET July '3, and 5 a.m. ET July '5.)
But this is only the beginning. The live shows, which
begin Tuesday, July '5, on EWTN will include:
o
The Opening Mass with Sydney's Cardinal Pell at Barangaroo,
a magnificent waterfront site. (Airing live 2 a.m.
ET Tuesday, July '5 with encores at noon and 9 p.m.
ET July '5, and '2 a.m. ET July '6.) 'Wednesday's
schedule also includes veneration of both the WYD
cross, which has traveled around the world, and an
icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, as well as all-day
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Sydney Opera
House,' said Father Mark. 'Wednesday afternoon, the
WYD team will tape vespers and evening prayer in Latin
and Georgian chant and we'll show highlights. Afterwards,
we will interview Cardinal Pell.'
o
Arrival and welcome of the Holy Father. (Airing live
'2:30 a.m. ET Thursday, July '7. Encores at '0 a.m.
ET, 4 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET.)
o
Stations of the Cross, a theatrical and devotion re-enactment
of Our Lord's Passion and Death to be held at a number
of venues which will transform Sydney into an outdoor
cathedral, will be hosted by Father Mark and Jason
Evert. (Airing live '2:30 a.m. ET July '8 with encores
at 2:30 p.m. ET.)
'Friday night, we'll go to the 'Receive the Power
Live' concert and tape footage for the following week,
which will be another cool week of coverage' Father
Mark said.
o
Holy Mass with the Australian bishops and consecration
of the new altar at St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.
(Airs live 7 p.m. ET Friday, July '8, with an encore
at '2 a.m. ET Saturday, July '9.)
o
Evening Vigil with the Holy Father. (Airing live 4:30
a.m. ET July '9, with encores at 2 p.m. ET.)
'Saturday's highlights will include the pilgrimage
walk to the site of the Closing Mass and the Evening
Vigil,' Father Mark said.
The July 24 showing of Life on the Rock will feature
a segment with Father Mark from atop the spectacular
Sydney Harbour Bridge, with its birds-eye view of
the walking bridge over which youth will travel in
their pilgrimage to the Closing Mass with Pope Benedict
at Randwick Racecourse and Centennial Park.
o
Closing Mass with Pope Benedict, which is expected
to attract a half million pilgrims. (Airing live 7
p.m. ET July '9 with encores at '2 p.m. ET and 8 p.m.
ET July 20.)
All
the papal events will also be provided on the Network's
U.S. Spanish-language channel EWTN Español
and on the Network's international Spanish-language
service, EWTN El Canal Católico.
Father
Mark will be blogging about the whole event on www.ewtn.com.
The website will also feature live streaming video
of the events as well as on-demand video of every
major event.[EWTN] 1464.2
UK pilgrims flocking
to Sydney
Over
2,000 young people from England and Wales will be
arriving into Sydney in the next couple of days to
see the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Shepherded
by 20 of their diocesan bishops, they will be joined
by up to 200,000 pilgrims, 2,000 priests and 500 cardinals
and bishops from across the globe. All have journeyed
to Sydney to take part in World Youth Day - the largest
youth event in the world.
World
Youth Day will mark the Holy Father's first visit
to Australia. It will be the first Papal visit to
Australia since '995. Before setting off on his southern
pilgrimage, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor said: 'it's the Pope's first
visit to Australia. His visit will be a blessing to
the country in a very significant way. Australia has
a great appeal - so many young people from England
and Wales go to Australia to work there for a while.
It is important that young people from England and
Wales support World Youth Day particularly when it
is in an English speaking country…We have over
2000 going from this country. Each morning for three
days, I meet a group of about '000, perhaps more young
people from all over the world. I have to give catechesis
sessions. I will be talking with them for 20 to 30
minutes and exchanging with them. To meet the young
people not just from our own country, but especially
from other countries - that will be for me the best
part of the trip.'
All
the 22 dioceses of England and Wales have pilgrim
groups travelling to Australia and a number of young
people are travelling with the new movements. You
can read more about the World Youth Day pilgrim experience
on a number of diocesan blogs and you'll be receiving
regular reports back from over 30 young pilgrims who
have been trained as World Youth Day Communications
Officers. [CCN] 1464.3
'A
complex trip'
A Vatican spokesman says the rights of indigenous
Australians -- 'trampled for centuries' -- will be
a key topic during Benedict XVI's trip Down Under
for World Youth Day.
Jesuit
Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican
press office, told journalists Wednesday about some
of the details of the Pope's July '2-2' trip, his
ninth apostolic journey.
The
Holy Father will be accompanied by Cardinals Angelo
Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals; Tarcisio
Bertone, his secretary of state; and Agostino Vallini,
newly appointed vicar for the Diocese of Rome.
Father
Lombardi himself will be a member of the papal entourage.
The
Jesuit told Vatican Radio that it is 'a complex trip
from the organizational point of view.'
On
Saturday, the Pope will leave Castel Gandolfo by helicopter
and go to Fiumicino airport, to begin his trip to
Sydney in a B777 Alitalia plane. The flight will last
'2 hours, including a one and a half hour technical
stop in Darwin, Australia.
Upon
arriving Sunday, the Pontiff will rest for a few days
in a private retreat center run by Opus Dei.
Cardinal
Pell, archbishop of Sydney, will open the WYD celebrations
on Tuesday. The following day, the Pope will be received
by Governor General Michael Jeffrey and Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd.
He
will then go to the Mary MacKillop Memorial and continue
on to Rose Bay, where he will be welcomed by a group
of young Aborigines before embarking on the 'Sydney
2000' vessel for his trip to Barangaroo and his official
arrival to the Youth Day celebrations.
Father
Lombardi said that 'the topic of the aborigines and
their rights trampled for centuries will be very present
in this trip, both in the Pope's words as well as
in the addresses of civil authorities.'
Among
the various meetings planned, the spokesman highlighted
two on Friday, July '8, in St. Mary's Cathedral with
representatives of other religions, increasingly present
in the country due to Asian immigration, and with
members of non-Catholic Christian communities.
'It
should be noted that Catholics already outnumber Anglicans
in Australia,' he said, before reviewing with journalists
the rest of the meetings, especially the Vigil and
Mass at Randwick Racecourse.
Prior
to his departure, the Holy Father will meet with benefactors
and volunteers of WYD, Father Lombardi added, inviting
them to ''go into the deep' to proclaim the Good News
to the whole world.' [Zenit] 1464.4
Response
to anti-papal demonstrations
Catholics
are responding to anti-papal demonstrators who plan
to distribute condoms to pilgrims at World Youth Day
by distributing Natural Family Planning information.
The
Australian Council of Natural Family Planning (ACNFP)
said it will distribute material promoting the sympto-thermal
method (STM) of natural family planning, News.com.au
reports. The STM method involves using the knowledge
of the naturally-occurring fertile and infertile phases
of a woman's menstrual cycle.
The
ACNFP said there have been protests of Catholic teachings
on sexuality and contraception at every previous World
Youth Day. Interestingly, despite the thousands of
young people there to celebrate their belief in the
church, it is the condom peddlers who tend to catch
the eye of the media,'' the group said in a statement.
But this time we're ready for them! Despite popular
belief, the Church isn't against sexuality. On the
contrary, the Church wants everyone to develop a deeper,
richer understanding of the meaning of sex and sexuality,''
the ACNFP asserted.
The
group plans to hand out material on Natural Family
Planning to pilgrims before next week's final World
Youth Day Mass at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. [CNA]
1464.5
A
third encyclical?
Benedict
XVI is reportedly working on his third encyclical
this summer, which could be ready as early as this
fall. The Pope's secretary of state confirmed the
existence of the document in an interview with the
APCOM news agency last May. He even proposed a possible
title: 'Caritas in Veritate' (Charity in the
Truth) and said this, the Holy Father's third encyclical,
could be ready in the fall. 'For now, it is a hypothesis,'
Cardinal Bertone said. 'I don't want to say that the
title will definitely be this -- for now, yes, and
for the moment, it's this idea, but later, a successive
inspiration could arrive'.
According
to the secretary of state, the encyclical comes and
goes from the Pope's desk, because he doesn't want
to repeat common concepts of the Church's social doctrine,
but wants to offer something original, according to
the challenges of today. We could think of the great
problem of globalization and the other problems that
afflict the international community, such as the food
crisis and climate change, the cardinal said. These
are themes that could motivate an evaluation and commentary
from the Church from the moral point of view.
The
Holy Father may have given an insight into the themes
of his encyclical when he addressed the Pontifical
Academy of Social Sciences last May. Their meeting
was focused on 'Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity
and Subsidiarity Can Work Together. He cited the Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church in noting that
the academy's session was devoted to examining the
interrelationship between four fundamental principles
of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human
person, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity.
These
key realities, the Pontiff said, which emerge from
the living contact between the Gospel and concrete
social circumstances, offer a framework for viewing
and addressing the imperatives facing mankind at the
dawn of the 2'st century, such as reducing inequalities
in the distribution of goods, expanding opportunities
for education, fostering sustainable growth and development,
and protecting the environment.' Benedict XVI suggested
that 'we can initially sketch the interconnections
between these four principles by placing the dignity
of the person at the intersection of two axes: one
horizontal, representing 'solidarity' and 'subsidiarity,'
and one vertical, representing the 'common good.'
This
creates a field upon which we can plot the various
points of Catholic social teaching that give shape
to the common good.' Nevertheless, though the graphic
gives an idea of the principles' interweaving, the
Pope stated, 'the reality is much more complex.' And
he said that solidarity and subsidiarity must be placed
within the context of the Trinity. He further proposed
that these two principles 'have the potential to place
men and women on the path to discovering their definitive,
supernatural destiny.' He added: 'The eyes of faith
permit us to see that the heavenly and earthly cities
interpenetrate and are intrinsically ordered to one
another, inasmuch as they both belong to God the Father,
who is 'above all and through all and in all.'' 'At
the same time, faith places into sharper focus the
due autonomy of earthly affairs, insofar as they are
'endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness,
proper laws and order.'' [Zenit] 1464.6
Peter's
Pence
The
Council of Cardinals that studies the Vatican's organizational
and economic matters announced this week that the
income generated worldwide by the collection known
as the Peter's Pence placed U.S. Catholics way at
the top of the list, distantly followed by Italy.
During 2007, the Peter's Pence reported an income
of $79,837,843 U.S. dollars; most of which was used
for the Pope's charitable initiatives in favor of
the poorest countries or regions affected by natural
disasters. The most generous Catholic communities
were the U.S. with $'8.7 million dollars, followed
by Italy at $8.6 million, Germany with $4 million
and Spain at $2.7 million.
The
Holy See also received an individual contribution
from an anonymous donor for $'4.3 million dollars.
The most generous bishops' conference in support of
the Holy See was that of the German Bishops, who contributed
$9.3 million. The German bishops were followed by
the USCCB at $8.3 million and then the Italian Bishops,
who gave $5.5 million. Surprisingly, the Bishops of
South Korea, where Catholics represent slightly more
than '0% of the population, ranked 7th with $68',542
dollars. The Council of Cardinals also announced that
the Holy See has reported a deficit of 9 million euros
-more than '4 million U.S. dollars- for 2007.
The committee of Cardinals, who recently gathered
with the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
includes cardinal Roger Mahony from Los Angeles, Camillo
Ruini, Vicar emeritus of Rome (Italy), Antonio Maria
Rouco Varela of Madrid (Spain), Anthony Olubunmi Okogie,
of Lagos (Nigeria), Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, of
Lima (Peru), Edward Michael Egan, of New York, Eusébio
Oscar Scheid, of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Gaudencio
B. Rosales, of Manila (The Philippines) and Nicholas
Cheong of Seoul (Korea).
The
Committee evaluated the balance sheets of the Holy
See, the Government of the Vatican City State and
the contributions to the Peter's Pence all separately.
The Holy See's balance - which includes the expenses
of the different dicasteries and offices of the Roman
Curia - reported incomes for 236,737,207 euros and
expenses of 245,805,'67 leaving a deficit of 9,067,960
euros. The posting of a deficit is a dramatic down
turn from the surpluses reported 2004, 2005 and 2006,
which netted a combined income of '5,206,587.
The
main contributors to the Vatican's dip into the red
are Vatican Radio and the newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano in their different languages, including the
daily Italian edition. The two media providers required
a combined '4.6 million euros for their expenses in
2007. There are 2,748 people working in the Roman
Curia, 44 more than in 2006. The labor force of the
Curia consists of 778 priests, 333 religious (male
and female) and ',637 laypersons, of which 425 are
women. The Government of the Vatican City State did
not post a deficit in 2007, registering a surplus
of 6.7 million euros. A significant role in the surplus
was played by the substantial increase in the number
of visitors to the Vatican Museums. The Government
of the Vatican City has ',795 employees, '02 more
than in 2006. The city state paid out 62.3 million
euros in salaries and benefits in 2007. [CNA] 1464.7
The Family
What
does Humanae Vitae teach us?
In
his homily during the mass marking the 40th anniversary
of the Encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life)
at the Manila Cathedral, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo,
president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines (CBCP), urged the Philippine government
to teach natural family planning methods in public
hospitals and local health centers.
'What
does Humanae Vitae teach us? It doesn't prohibit
family planning. But family planning should be done
the right way, not the sinful way,' Archbishop Lagdameo
said.
'The
use of artificial contraceptive methods like birth
control pills and condoms lower moral standards and
encourage infidelity,' the archbishop added.
Humane
Vitae, issued by Pope Paul VI on July 25, '968,
sought to give moral guidelines for the faithful on
how to value human life from conception.
The
encyclical, subtitled 'On the Regulation of Birth,'
re-affirms the traditional teaching of the Roman Catholic
Church regarding abortion, contraception and responsible
parenthood.
Archbishop
Lagdameo said marriage and human sexuality have been
devalued, treated both 'lightly and with disrespect'
and that while population growth and responsible parenthood
are linked with the regulation of birth, the church
has a 'moral objection' to artificial birth control.
'While
we consider population growth as a valid concern,
which should be addressed more directly with socio-economic
methods, all men of goodwill are tasked to promote
completely and clearly the teaching of the church
concerning the sanctity of marriage and the regulation
of birth,' he said.
'Direct
abortion must be rejected as a means of regulating
birth or even for therapeutic reasons,' he added.
The
Archbishop said that attacks on large families stem
from a lack of faith and are the product of a social
atmosphere incapable of understanding generosity,
and that is trying to conceal selfishness and unmentionable
practices under apparently altruistic motives.
'Countries
which impose birth control on the other countries,
like the Philippines, are now themselves in need of
growth in their population and are importing from
Asian countries workers and caregivers for their senior
citizens,' he explained.
Instead
of giving condoms and pills to parents, the government
should make natural family planning 'matters of instructions
in hospitals and municipal health centers,' the Archbishop
concluded. [LifeSiteNews] 1464.8
Fruits
of divorce
On the 50th anniversary of a British longitudinal
social study, researchers have revealed that the years
of collected data indicate that a child whose parents
are divorced is more likely to struggle academically,
emotionally and in future relationships of their own,
reports the Daily Telegraph.
'Divorce
has repercussions that reverberate through childhood
and into adulthood. Children from disrupted families
tend to do less well in school and subsequent careers
than their peers. They are also more likely to experience
the break-up of their own partnerships,' the researchers
said.
'The
National Child Development Study (NCDS) is a continuing,
multi-disciplinary longitudinal study which takes
as its subjects all the people born in one week in
England, Scotland and Wales in one week in March '958,'
reads the website for the Centre for Longitudinal
Studies.
The
study compares over '7,000 people born in '958 with
several other groups of similar size born in the subsequent
decades.
Besides
finding an increased divorce rate among couples, the
study found that, contrary to the expectations of
some, an increased social acceptance of divorce over
the years has not reduced the negative effects experienced
by the children of divorced parents.
'It
might be expected that as divorce has become more
commonplace, its effects might have reduced. Yet a
comparison with children born in '970 shows that this
is not the case,' the researchers said.
'The
estimates across cohorts are surprisingly similar
in magnitude and not significantly different from
one another.'
The
study found that children from divorced families are
less likely to be educated, and are more likely to
suffer depression and to be claiming benefits. [LifeSiteNews]
1464.9
United
Nations
C-FAM's
new website
Austin
Ruse, President of the Catholic Family Institute (C-Fam)
writes from New York , 'Today I am proud to announce
that we finally have a website that we can be, well,
proud of! Please go to http:// www.c-fam.org. (here).
Check out Inside the UN, the Center for UN Documents,
the International Organizations Research Group. Check
out our new mission statement, the result of a year-long
strategic planning process.
Today we are reporting on another story you will not
have read anywhere else. The US Government has rejected
advances by the Danish Government to join a global
campaign to put abortion into the Millennium Development
Goals. The Danes, along with the UN Population Fund
and others is running something called the Torch Campaign
that explicitly calls for governments to support 'sexual
and reproductive health,' a phrase that is used repeatedly
to promote access to abortion.
We are also beginning a three part series by Susan
Yoshihara and a very important new book about the
history of population control by a Yale-educated scholar
at Columbia University. I will write more about this
in the coming weeks, but please take a look at Susan's
review and then order the book.
Fatal
Misconception
Susan
Yoshihara, Ph.D. writes : 'A book recently published
by Harvard University Press explains how eugenics
united some of the richest and most powerful elites
of the twentieth century into a movement 'to remake
humanity by controlling the population of the world,'
answering to no one and bringing untold misery upon
the world's poor. The book, 'Fatal Misconception:
The Struggle to Control World Population,' was
written by Columbia University historian Matthew Connelly
and shows why today's reproductive rights advocates
are 'faithfully reciting a eugenic catechism without
the faintest idea where it comes from or where it
can lead.'
In 1952, at a secret, invitation-only gathering in
Colonial Williamsburg, John D. Rockefeller III brought
together what would become the modern population control
establishment. Setting the agenda for the following
decades were the heads of the United States Atomic
Energy Commission, National Academy of Sciences, and
top scientists 'from embryology to economics,' including
past and present Nobel Prize winners.
From verbatim transcripts of the 'Conference on Population
Problems,' just one of the countless number of such
meetings the book exposes, Connelly found that what
drove them were the questions of how many people the
world could hold along with 'whether 'industrial development
should be withheld' from poor, agrarian countries
like India.' By decreasing mortality and encouraging
'breeding,' development would increase inferior populations
and further degrade 'the genetic quality of the human
race.' They decided radical measures to reduce birthrates
were justified in order to save 'Western Civilization'
from being dragged down by the growing humanitarian
demands of Third World countries.
Thus was born the Population Council, which would
in turn become the nexus of the entire population
control movement, going on to coordinate the work
of the United Nations, the Ford and Rockefeller foundations,
International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
- founded three weeks later - as well as major pharmaceutical
firms.
The founder of IPPF, Margaret Sanger, selected for
its first director general the psychologist C. P.
Blacker, who called for a strategy of 'crypto-eugenics,'
saying 'you seek to fulfill the aims of eugenics without
disclosing what you are really aiming at and without
mentioning the word.'
When Nehru presented India's first population-limitation
policy in December '952, the population establishment
found a willing government that would allow them to
start experimenting on its people to find a cheap
contraceptive 'to be used in poverty stricken slums,
jungles and among the most ignorant people,' as Margaret
Sanger put it. Years later, Planned Parenthood would
import the experiments back into poor neighborhoods
in the United States. Sanger said, 'I believe that
now, immediately there should be national sterilization
for certain dysgenic types of our population who are
being encouraged to breed and would die out were the
government not feeding them.'
According to Connelly, it wasn't until President Lyndon
Johnson, prodded by a few highly influential advisors,
that American funding soared, turning Sanger's vision
of forcing birth control on the world's poor into
reality in India and beyond. As the initiatives gained
unstoppable momentum, the brutal consequences shocked
even the most enthusiastic population controllers.
US rejects participation in Danish abortion campaign
Samantha Singson writes : 'The United States
has rejected an invitation to join a new campaign
launched by the Danish government that calls on governments
'to accelerate implementation of Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) 3' which calls for 'gender equality and
women's empowerment.' It is believed that the Danish
Campaign will go beyond the mandate of the MDG's and
be used to promote a new MDG on reproductive health,
something that has been rejected by UN member states
yet repeatedly pushed by advocates of abortion.
Earlier this year, the Danish government initiated
the 'Torch Campaign' to encourage governments and
civil society to 'Do Something Extra' to accelerate
achievement of MDG 3. The campaign also calls on governments
to ensure women's 'sexual and reproductive health
and rights,' a term that has been interpreted by some
to include abortion, claiming that 'access to services
and information on sexual and reproductive health
will empower women to make their own choices about
the number of children they have, safe pregnancy and
delivery.'
In 2000, UN member states agreed to adopt eight broad,
largely non-controversial Millennium Development Goals
which address issues like eradicating poverty and
hunger, achieving universal primary education, and
reducing child mortality. None of the MDGs makes any
mention of 'reproductive health' and neither does
the Millennium Declaration upon which they are based.
Since failing to get a new, separate goal on reproductive
health at the five-year review of the MDGs in 2005,
pro-abortion advocates, including International Planned
Parenthood Federation and the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), have sought to attach reproductive health
to the existing MDGs, with a particular focus on MDG
5 on improving maternal health.
UNFPA has been claiming over the last year that there
is a new reproductive health target under MDG 5 (maternal
health) based on a single sentence buried in an annex
of a 2007 Secretary General Report, even though delegations
like the United States have reminded the organization
that UN member states have not agreed to the creation
of any new targets.
UNFPA has signed onto the Torch Campaign and continues
to try to attach reproductive rights to the MDGs.
Executive Director Thoraya Obaid stated that 'UNFPA
is committed to working with partners worldwide to
guarantee the right to sexual and reproductive health
and to advance women's empowerment and gender equality.'
UNFPA's Torch Campaign commitment states that the
organization will attempt to raise nearly $500 million
to improve the lives of women through the Thematic
Fund on Maternal Health. Apart from focusing on adolescent
sexual and reproductive health and reducing maternal
death and disability, the fund will also target 'the
prevention of unsafe abortion and the management of
its complications.' According to UNFPA, 'addressing
these issues will raise the profile of the broader
development issue of women's empowerment and gender
equality.'
Other 'torch bearers' include the World Health Organization,
the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),
UNICEF and the Danish Family Planning Association.
At the UN high level meeting on the MDGs scheduled
for September 25, the Danish government will present
all Torch Bearer commitments to Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon. [C-FAM] 1464.10
International news
Austria
'Vile attacks'
Human
Life International is asking for prayers in response
to the 'vile attacks' in Vienna, Austria, against
pro-life demonstrators by assailants who are being
paid to harass them by the owners of abortion clinics.
Pro-life demonstrators who are sidewalk counseling
outside the clinics have been sexually assaulted,
and some of the attacks have been captured on video.
According to HLI, the peaceful pro-life protestors
are enduring 'vile attacks and pressure tactics' solely
for praying in front of the Gynmed abortion clinic
run by Dr. Christian Fiala. Fiala is president of
the International Federation of Associated Abortion
and Contraception Professionals and is one of the
leading proponents of abortion in Europe.
He admitted to local reporters that 'agents' had been
hired to harass pro-lifers. 'For defensive reasons
I have contracted agents on repeated occasions to
stop the activity of anti-abortion activists,' he
recently told the Der Standard newspaper. Father Phillip
Reilly of the organization Helpers of God's Precious
Infants-which promotes peaceful protests outside abortion
clinics-deplored the attacks, which he called 'physical
and sexual harassment that is truly immoral.' HLI
has asked Catholics around the world to pray for pro-lifers
as police in Austria 'have done nothing to detain
these attacks against peaceful protesters.' The organization
also asked for letters to be sent in English to Austrian
officials. [CNA] 1464.11
Brazil
Abortion
Brazilian
parliamentarians have rejected the government's attempt
to decriminalise abortion. Just four MPs supported
the measure which would have removed the threat of
prison. Abortion is legal in Brazil after rape and
in so-called cases of the mother's life's being threatened.
Churches had opposed the bill. [BBC, SPUC] 1464.12
Canada
National award for abortionist : reaction
A
rabbi in Canada has condemned a national award for
an abortionist. Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Union of
Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada and
the Rabbinical Alliance of America criticised the
giving of the Order of Canada to Dr Henry Morgentaler.
He said: 'As a Jew this man is a tremendous embarrassment
to us and opposes Genesis 9: 6 which indicates that
feticide is a capital offence from the earliest times
of the world's history.' Father Lucien Larre of British
Columbia, who founded homes for troubled adolescents,
said he would send back his award. Madonna House,
the Ontario Catholic organization, has returned the
medal awarded to Catherine Doherty, its founder. Sister
Margaret Smith, who promoted health care in northern
Canada, says she too may renounce her award. [LifeSiteNews,
CNAA, SPUC] 1464.13
Canada
Population controllers
Cardinal
Christian Wiyghan Tumi, Archbishop of Douala, Cameroon,
in an interview with LifeSiteNews at the Eucharistic
Congress in Quebec City on June 2nd said the West
is afraid of population growth in Third World nations.
LifeSiteNews asked the Cardinal, who earlier in the
day gave a Congress catechesis talk, what his views
were on the fact that Africa has been a major target
for population controllers. The Cardinal responded
with little hesitation, 'I think the West is afraid.'
When asked, 'afraid of what', he stated, 'of the Third
World becoming more populous.'
He continued, referring to North American society,
'And since the families here have two or three children
that already is (considered) much. In our Third World
we have families with 12,13,14,15 children and these
are young men and women growing up. So, I have the
impression that the West is panicking because their
population is becoming old.' And the reason for that
panic, explained the Cardinal, is that 'they are afraid
that other countries might invade the West and reduce
their standard of living.' Earlier that day Tumi,
a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization
of the Peoples and the Pontifical Council for the
Family, gave a passionate and at times humorous catechesis
talk at the Pepsi Coliseum that received much applause
and endeared him to the crowd.
His
main theme was that Eucharistic worship can only be
genuine if the worshippers follow through in their
daily lives with loving and serving others, especially
those who may not love them or are not in any way
related to them. Although the Cardinal did not mention
abortion, euthanasia or related issues, likely because
they are not a significant factor in Cameroon society,
some of his statements were still seen as definitely
related to the obligations of North American Catholics
regarding those crucial issues. Tumi intimated that
while 'the Church cannot remain aloof from the struggle
for justice in the world,' those who attempt to bring
about such justice often fail because of a secular
attitude. 'Without the spiritual dimension, the world
cannot do anything,' he proclaimed to applause. With
the spiritual dimension, he indicated, true seekers
of justice can have a substantial positive affect.
He
stated, 'The Eucharistic person is a dangerous person,
burning with the fire of the spirit and whose only
purpose is to extend that fire and to become fire
for others. This person is a person of daring, a person
of confrontation, a person of radicalism, gospel radicalism,
and of the absolute.' That last word addresses what
many leaders of faithful Christian and pro-life, pro-family
organizations have have found severely undermining
their efforts to restore the Judeo/Christian social
and moral culture - persistent complicity in the anti-Christian
culture by weak, compromising and corrupt Christians.
Tumi, announced, to the applause of his listeners,
'The person of the Eucharist is a person who never
compromises - who only opts for God, opts for humans.'
Such
a person, he emphasized, is not welcomed by those
who do not want to hear his message, but nevertheless
has a Christian obligation of charity to live and
speak the truth. Tumi stated, 'The person of the Eucharist
who loves, disturbs everybody, shakes everybody and
might even give them a bad conscience or the feeling
of a bad conscience. Our vocation as witnesses to
the gospel is to give others a bad conscience so that
the other person knows how to distinguish bad from
good, evil from good and when a person does evil their
conscience accuses them.' Cardinal Tumi received a
standing ovation from the crowd of over '0,000 listeners
that morning. [LifeSiteNews] 1464.14
Germany
Teenagers' interest in religion
A
German research foundation reports that, contrary
to popular belief, teenagers and young adults are
interested in religion. The German Bertelsmann Foundation
announced Wednesday that a study on religion and religious
practices worldwide found that 85% of young adults
between '8 and 29 are religious, and 44% are deeply
religious. Only '3% have no appreciation for God or
faith in general. 'The assumption that religious belief
is dwindling continuously from generation to generation
is clearly refuted by our worldwide surveys -- even
in many industrialized nations,' Dr. Martin Rieger,
project leader of the Bertelsmann Foundation's Religion
Monitor, concluded in a press statement.
The
study, which surveyed 21,000 individuals from 21 nations,
noted important differences among cultures. For example,
young adults in Islamic states and developing countries
are deeply religious, while young Christians in Europe
are comparatively unreligious. Among Catholics in
particular, the proportion of deeply religious Catholics
in Europe is 25% percent, while outside Europe this
figure is 68%. Most of the youth of Eastern Europe
and Russia have not been baptized, and most young
people have no connection at all to faith and the
Church. Only '3% are deeply religious. The study noted
that a great exception among the Western industrialized
countries is the United States, where 54% of the young
adults polled said they considered themselves deeply
religious.
The
study also revealed that 35% of the young adults surveyed
worldwide who regard themselves as not belonging to
a denomination, nonetheless identified themselves
as religious. Religious practices also differed among
cultures. For youth in developing countries such as
Nigeria and Guatemala, 90% reported praying at least
once a day, and 75% of the respondents in countries
such as India, Morocco and Turkey do likewise. In
contrast, daily prayer is no longer common practice
among young Europeans. In France, just 9% of young
adults pray daily, in Russia the figure is 8%, and
in Austria only around 7%. In the United States, 57%
of young Americans say they pray on a daily basis.
[Zenit] 1464.15
India
Hindu attacks on Christians
The slaughter and sale of a cow reportedly triggered
a new series of attacks against Christians in the
Indian state of Orissa in which Hindu militants from
the group Vishwa Hindu Parishad destroyed a Jesuit
residence, a church and a Protestant orphanage. While
no one was reported killed in the recent attacks,
violence has killed four Catholics and has destroyed
730 houses and 95 churches in 2008 alone. Local church
sources told Fides news agency that intimidation and
discrimination continues as local authorities and
police are unable to end the anti-Christian violence.
According to UCA News, some Hindus in Malikpada slaughtered
a cow and sold the beef to some Christians and other
villagers.
When
the Christians were returning to their house they
were stopped by a Hindu religious leader, Bula Chaudri,
and his supporters. Chaudri, who is also known as
Madhaba Baba, berated the Christians for killing a
cow. He threatened to send them to jail, as he had
a photo on his cell phone of the Christians carrying
beef. The villagers begged that Chaudri delete the
photo, but then grabbed the phone when he refused.
This argument then escalated to the attack on the
Jesuit residence, the church and the Protestant orphanage.
Four hundred houses were also set on fire by the Hindu
extremists.
According
to Fides, Archbishop Raphael Cheenath SVD, of the
Orissan capital Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, expressed deep
concern in response to the attacks. He contacted local
authorities, asking for immediate intervention to
prevent further violence and to reestablish order.
In December and January the Indian bishops established
an ad hoc committee to investigate anti-Christian
violence. However, they find that Christians are still
targeted by radical groups and suffer threats, intimidation,
discrimination and abuse. Many Christians have left
their homes out of fear, preferring to live in refugee
camps despite the poor living conditions there. Cardinal
Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Mumbai, has decried
the 'organized attacks to destabilize the Church's
presence in India.' Many bishops and other religious
leaders have said Christians are considered 'second
class citizens' and are deprived of the basic rights
and liberties guaranteed to them in India's Constitution.
[CNA] 1464.16
Italy
'Coma is a form of life'
The
Catholic church says an Italian court's decision to
stop feeding a 35-year-old comatose woman amounts
to euthanasia. Mr Beppino Englaro claims Ms Eluana
Englaro, his daughter, would not have wanted to be
kept alive artificially. In giving its judgement,
the Milan court cited her alleged wishes and the length
of time (16 years) that Ms Englaro has been in a coma.
Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the
Pontifical Academy for Life, said: '[A] coma is a
form of life and no-one can be allowed to put an end
to life.' He wanted the matter to go to appeal. [Telegraph,
SPUC] 1464.17
Philippines
Bishops tolerate condom-use
According
to a report by Evelyn MacAiran in The Philippine
Star, married persons infected with Human Immunodeficiency
Virus (HIV) and those with full-blown Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) will be allowed to use
condoms to eliminate the risk of infecting their partners,
an official of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of
the Philippines (CBCP) said. Fr. Edwin Corros, executive
secretary of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission for Pastoral
Care for Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI), however,
said condom use should be 'the last resort.'
Before
using condoms, the partners should try abstinence
and faithfulness to each other. He clarified that
the Church is only allowing the use of condoms in
order to save a life - the life of the patient's partner.
'But you see by using that (condom) we are not actually
endorsing condom use. We would like to prevent deaths
in the family.' 'I also think that the person also
has the right to express the love to his or her partner.
So this is practical. (Besides) you cannot also be
sure that using condom would be '00-percent proof,'
C
