Tag Archives: Topic: Vatican

Life News: A number of Americans have helped plan this event including representatives from Priests for Life, the Pro-Life Secretariat of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Alliance Defending Freedom, Susan B. Anthony List, Students for Life of America, LiveAction, and Americans United for Life.

Middle East Forum: The lost history of Christians forced to convert to Islam—or die—is reemerging, figuratively and literally. According to the BBC: “Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony [last Sunday] at the Vatican—a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.”

LifeSiteNews: Some 40,000 pro-life marchers at the March for Life in Italy received a surprise when Pope Francis joined them — driving down the street in his popemobile where the Marcia per la Vita was taking place.

AP: Palestinians in this Christian village are hoping the new pope can succeed where others have failed – pressing Israel to drop plans to build a stretch of its West Bank separation barrier through their picturesque valley.

AP: Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church were abducted as they traveled from the Turkish border to the city of Aleppo on Monday.

Vatican.va: “Regenerative Medicine: Fundamental Shifts in Science and Culture is the title of an International Conference on adult stem cell research which gets underway gets underway Thursday morning in the Vatican.

Erika Bachiochi at Public Discourse: Both sociological evidence and the teachings of Christianity show that religion is a powerful ally for promoting the equality and dignity of women. Adapted from remarks delivered at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Religion Clause Blog: The Prime Minister said that the government also has a mandate to legislate civil unions.

Religion Clause Blog: Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church met in Rome to discuss cooperation in promoting family values, social services and care for the poor, the Moscow Patriarchate said on Wednesday.

Washington Times: Vice President Joseph R. Biden and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi both received Communion during the Mass to celebrate the installation of Pope Francis in spite of their pro-choice position on abortion.

Florida Baptist Witness: Alan Sears, president of Alliance Defending Freedom—a Christian legal group—applauded the election. “We join millions in congratulating Francis I on his selection as pope,” Sears said. “He is a leader who has stood strongly for the values of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, marriage, and the family, often under very trying circumstances. We appreciate his many strong statements over the years on the protection of marriage and the unborn and trust he will continue to be a powerful voice on the deep importance of these issues.”

AsiaNews.it: The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I will attend Pope Francis’s inaugural Mass. The Ecumenical Patriarchate Press Office informed AsiaNews about the decision, noting that this is the first time such an event occurs since the Catholic-Orthodox split in 1054, an important sign for Christian unity.

Acton Institute links to the audio.

The New American: Alan Sears, president of Alliance Defending Freedom, called Pope Francis “a leader who has stood strongly for the values of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, marriage, and the family, often under very trying circumstances. We appreciate his many strong statements over the years on the protection of marriage and the unborn, and trust he will continue to be a powerful voice on the deep importance of these issues.”

“We join millions in congratulating Francis I on his selection as pope. He is a leader who has stood strongly for the values of religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, marriage, and the family, often under very trying circumstances. We appreciate his many strong statements over the years on the protection of marriage and the unborn and trust he will continue to be a powerful voice on the deep importance of these issues.”

AP: Argentine Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope Wednesday and chose the papal name Francis, becoming first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.

Washington Post: So where do most of the cardinal electors who choose the pope come from? More than half come from Europe, even though the continent only accounts for 24 percent of the world’s Catholic population, as the following map from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows . . .

Guardian: The outcome document of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) must not undermine previous agreements that put women’s sexual and reproductive rights central to their empowerment, the head of the UN development programme said on Wednesday.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: An analysis of Pew Research Center surveys reveals no signs of a marked resurgence of faith among Catholics in France, Germany, Spain and Italy – the four countries with the largest Catholic populations in Western Europe. Yet the picture facing the church is not entirely bleak. French, Italian and Spanish Catholics have reported low but relatively stable levels of religious commitment in recent years. In Germany, too, the overall trend in religious commitment has been fairly stable over the past decade, despite short-lived shifts in the importance German Catholics place on religion.

CNSNews: Cardinal Raymond Burke, an American who serves as the top judge at the Vatican, recently stated that Catholic politicians who support abortion must not receive Holy Communion.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: As the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women begins today, two news stories are already disingenuously implying that the Holy See, the Russian Federation, and Iran are effectively enablers of violence committed against women. These and several other UN member states oppose the inclusion of language that could be used to support a right to abortion – a topic that is always controversial within the UN system.

LifeSiteNews: A recent paper by a Ph.D. priest from Poland has been circling the globe in recent weeks and given heightened prominence by the recent revelations of a Vatican inquiry into a “gay mafia” inside the Vatican. “Standing with the Pope against homoheresy,” was written in late 2012 by Fr. Dariusz Oko, Ph.D., a priest of the Archdiocese of Krakow and Assistant Professor at the John Paul II Pontifical University in Krakow.

Haaretz: ctively revising the three monotheisms’ archaic homophobic legacy may not be 100% historically honest, but it is certainly necessary for reframing more tolerant versions of these religions.

Catholic Culture: La Repubblica claimed that in a lengthy report on the leaks, the cardinals had alerted the Pontiff to the existence of factions within the Roman Curia, including a powerful faction “united by sexual orientation.” Some members of that bloc, the cardinals reportedly said, may be vulnerable to “external influence” because of their activities. The Italian newspaper said that the report shocked Pope Benedict and contributed to his decision to resign.

AP: Topless women activists have pounded a huge church bell in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to “celebrate” the pope’s resignation.

Reuters: Pope Benedict said on Monday he will resign on Feb 28 because he no longer has the strength to fulfill the duties of his office, becoming the first pontiff since the Middle Ages to take such a step.

LifeSiteNews: Pope Benedict XVI says Catholic agencies must sometimes refuse partnerships that would even indirectly support activities opposed to the Christian view of the human person.

Catholic Culture: “There is a real risk that moral relativism, which imposes itself as a new social norm, will come to undermine the foundations of individual freedom of conscience and religion,” the archbishop said.

Washington Post (AP): The Vatican is pressing its opposition to gay marriage, insisting Saturday that children should grow up with a father and a mother after Italy’s high court upheld a lower court ruling and granted custody of a child to his gay mother.

Catholic News Agency: The petition reveals an “underlying agenda,” which is not simply to prevent violent crimes, but to “stigmatize any disapproval of homosexuality at all and essentially to silence us,” said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

Washington Post: Italian Premier Mario Monti, who is being backed by the Vatican in his bid for re-election, says gay rights issues — including gay marriage —should be decided by Parliament, not his government if he wins.

When the freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being. The defence of the family is about man himself. And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears. Whoever defends God is defending man.

Telegraph: Pope Benedict XVI has weighed in on a heated debate over gay marriage, criticising new concepts of the traditional family and warning that mankind itself was at stake.

Catholic Culture: The agreement with the Republic of China (Taiwan) contrasts dramatically with the situation in mainland China, where the Church has vigorously protested the government’s efforts to exert control over Catholic institutions.

Chicago Phoenix: Case and Northwestern law professor Andy Koppelman spoke Thursday in Evanston, breaking down the legal arguments for same-sex marriage and how anyone with a feminist perspective will benefit from its legalization through the court system. “Ratzinger’s dreams are my nightmares and vice-a-versa,” Case said.

LifeSiteNews: Following numerous revelations of abortions performed or promoted in hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church in Spain’s Catalonia region, the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers is addressing the issue in its annual International Conference, which began on November 15 and ends on Saturday.

LifeSiteNews: n an interview with Canadian Catholic News reporter Deborah Gyapong, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson, “warned against Catholic development agencies getting involved in the push for abortion or contraception through the guise of improving women’s lives in the development world.”

Fox News: But the Catholic singer, a long-time defender of gay rights, hit back at his comments on French radio. “I think that gay marriage is going to happen. It must.” she said. We are not actually equal—humanity—if we are not allowed to freely love one another.
“What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope. It is not a reflection of all religious people.”

Pakistan Today: An Islamic group headed by influential cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Friday demanded Pope Benedict XVI apologise to Muslims over inflammatory remarks he made in 2006.

Catholic Culture: In a September 15 address, Pope Benedict XVI explained why a commitment to religious freedom is a requirement for stability in the Middle East.

Google News (AFP): Pope Benedict XVI visits Lebanon this week at a time when Christian refugees from the war-torn city of Aleppo in neighbouring Syria are fearful for their future.

Fides: “That is because – explain the Bishops – a Country cannot practice the values and precepts of Christianity, by a mere declaration. The principle of separation between State and Religion must not be lost. If Zambia is a multi-religious Country, a fact that was recognized in the preamble of the first draft of the Technical Committee, to say that Zambia is a Christian nation would be in contradiction with this fact.”

AP: The Vatican won a major victory Monday in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests

Matthew D. Wright at Public Discourse: Michael Rosen’s effort to clarify the history and meaning of dignity ignores Christianity’s important philosophical contributions.

AP: Saudi Arabia has entered an objection to the Vatican’s bid for a new “.catholic” internet domain.

Catholic Culture: Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Salvatore Cordileone the new Archbishop of San Francisco.

LifeSiteNews: A senior gov’t official stated that one way to curb Britain’s social problems is to tell mothers with large families not to have any more children.

LifeSiteNews: In North America today, the Christian Church is challenged in the most extreme way in this regard by the issue of homosexuality. There is no other topic, abortion and contraception included, which has made for more gun-shy Church, political and institutional leadership. And that is quite understandable given the current obsession with homosexuality and all things relating to it by the media and so many of the institutional elites. For nearly 20 years the labels of ‘hater’ and ‘bigot’ have been cast upon all those who would dare to question the homosexual lifestyle.

LifeSiteNews: “People, in their minds, they think that condoms prevent the sickness,” says Bishop Xolelo Thaddaeus Kumalo of Eshowe, a small town in Zululand, in an interview with Where God Weeps. But, he says, “it helps spread it because every young person, even those who are not aware of sexual activity, is taught in the school about this condom in sexual education. They try it and that is why you still have a high rate of people being infected with this AIDS epidemic.”

The Tablet: The Prime Minister this week called for forceful arguments to be made against the Church’s opposition to artificial birth control.

AP: The government body that controls the Catholic church in China says it is investigating the selection of a bishop who cut his ties to the group as soon as he was ordained, in an embarrassment to Beijing that could deepen its rift with the Vatican.

Boston Globe (AP): President Hugo Chavez says he’s seeking friendly relations with representatives of the Roman Catholic Church.

Catholic Culture: The Vatican announced the excommunication of a Chinese bishop who was ordained without the approval of the Holy See, while Chinese authorities have taken into custody another bishop who proclaimed his loyalty to Rome and renounced the government-backed Patriotic Association.

AP: A newly ordained Chinese bishop has been placed in isolation after announcing he’s quitting his government posts in a challenge to Beijing’s control over the Catholic clergy . . .

AP: The Vatican has urged China to engage in good-faith dialogue with the Roman Catholic church, urging the communist government to avoid damaging gestures . . .

LifeSiteNews: The Communist Party of Australia has weighed in on that nation’s debate over marriage, stating that redefining the age-old institution is a vital pillar of the Marxist war against capitalism and the Church.

Christian Science Monitor: The UN’s Rio+20 earth summit set only modest goals, but sparked controversy over the Vatican’s successful effort to remove reference to ‘reproductive rights’ from the final document. Hillary Clinton vowed the US would ensure ‘those rights are respected.’

C-FAM: In an astounding show of solidarity, a diverse group of countries rallied together with the Holy See to successfully remove any mention of reproductive rights or population control from the final outcome document produced during the last round of UN negotiations at the Rio +20 conference this week.

Turtle Bay and Beyond links to the paper and provides an excerpt.

Religion Clause Blog: Zenit reports that the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel met in the Vatican on June 12 to discuss an agreement that has been under negotiation for the last 13 years.

LifeSiteNews: The Vatican is backing a petition campaign in the European Union that seeks a debate about enshrining personhood for the unborn from the moment of conception.

Christian Newswire: The Holy See mission to the United Nations assembly in New York called upon UN Member States to respect the right of parents to homeschool their children in a statement before the United Nations two weeks ago.

Irish Central: Prior to his death, al-Qaeda ring-leader Osama bin Laden was urged by Adam Gadahn, the American al-Qaeda spokesman, to consider reaching out to the Irish population in hopes of getting them to convert to Islam.

LifeSiteNews: “The State should respect the choices that parents make for their children and avoid attempts at ideological indoctrination,” the permanent observer mission of the Holy See to the United Nations wrote in a statement released last Tuesday.

Telegraph: The Pope’s representative in Britain has urged Roman Catholic leaders to form a united front with their Muslim and Jewish counterparts to oppose gay marriage.

AP: The issue of who should appoint bishops has been a key obstacle to Pope Benedict XVI’s goal of improving relations with Beijing.

Catholic News Service: Citing “serious doctrinal problems which affect many in consecrated life,” the Vatican announced a major reform of an association of women’s religious congregations in the U.S. to ensure their fidelity to Catholic teaching in areas including abortion, euthanasia, women’s ordination and homosexuality.

LifeSiteNews: The upcoming episode of Catholic Action Insight hosted by Thomas McKenna to air on EWTN on Wednesday, April 11 at 2:30pm and April 13 at 9:00pm EST will surely ignite discussion among Catholics on the impending mandate which is an attack on religious liberty. In this interview, Cardinal Raymond Burke speaks out for the first time in a public interview on matters of faith, religious liberty, and culpability in relation to this threatened mandate for employers. (interview excerpts included)

AFP on Yahoo: At least 43 Cuban dissidents have been arrested in areas near where Pope Benedict XVI visited last week, dissidents said Tuesday, as the United States urged their immediate release.

Sacramento Bee: After two papal visits, support is growing for the Roman Catholic Church among long-suffering Cubans. Yet support from the Communist Party that rules the island nation . . .

AP: Pope Benedict XVI demanded greater freedom for the Catholic Church in Cuba during an unusually politicized Mass before hundreds of thousands of people Wednesday . . .

Pope Benedict said on Friday communism no longer works in Cuba and that the Roman Catholic Church was ready to help the island find new ways of moving forward without “trauma.”

LifeSiteNews: The Vatican’s principal representative before the United Nations, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, is objecting to demands to outlaw “discrimination” against homosexuals in a report commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council, on “Discriminatory Laws and Practices and Acts of Violence against Individuals based on their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”.

AP: Thirteen Cuban dissidents have holed up in a Roman Catholic church in Havana to press for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI when he visits in two weeks . . .

The Tablet: He said: “If the stories in the press about Blair’s thinking are true, I think he should examine his conscience carefully”, Vatican Insider reported.