Media avert eyes as Obama caught in infanticide deception

by Brian Fitzpatrick - 8/20/2008

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign has admitted that he has misled the public since 2004 on a hot-button social issue, but Big Media has virtually ignored the story.

The Illinois senator and a leading pro-life organization have accused each other of lying about his reasons for leading the fight against an anti-infanticide bill in the Illinois state senate between 2001 and 2003.

On Saturday, Obama accused the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) with "lying" about his record. On Sunday, however, his campaign was forced to concede the NRLC's charge was accurate.

Obama's opposition to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) has been a major problem for his political campaigns since 2004, when his opponent in the U.S. Senate race accused him of supporting infanticide. BAIPA would have required hospitals to provide care to infants that survived an abortion attempt, rather than withhold treatment and allow them to die.

Most such cases involve an abortion procedure in which labor is induced prematurely. The infants are expected to be killed by their own mothers' contractions, but a few survive the birthing process. The lungs of the survivors usually are not mature enough to sustain life, so the babies need immediate medical intervention. Many Illinois hospitals, however, decline to provide the lifesaving care.

Why would anybody oppose such a bill? According to CNSNews editor Terence Jeffrey, Obama opposed it because it would have defined a baby that survived an abortion procedure as a person: "Defining a 'pre-viable fetus' that survived an abortion as a 'person,' he argued, 'would essentially bar abortions....'"

In 2002 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a federal version of BAIPA with a "neutrality clause" stating the bill did not affect the legal status of "the species homo sapiens prior to being 'born alive.'" Even the radically pro-abortion organization NARAL withdrew its opposition to the bill. Since 2004, Obama has said he would have supported the Illinois BAIPA if the state version of the bill had included "Roe-neutral" language found in the federal version. Has he been telling the truth?

Not according to NRLC. Last week, NRLC produced Illinois legislative records it said proved Obama had "blatantly misrepresented" his opposition to BAIPA. According to NRLC, Obama presided over a 2003 committee meeting that amended the Illinois bill to make it virtually identical to the federal bill – then voted against the amended bill anyway.

In an interview following Saturday's Saddleback Church presidential forum, CNN/CBN reporter David Brody asked Obama to comment on the NRLC allegations. Obama told Brody, "I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying." Obama continued, "I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported, which was to say that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion."

On Sunday, however, Obama's campaign staff conceded to The New York Sun that Obama "had voted against an identical bill in the state Senate." The staff tacitly admitted that Obama has been misleading the public since 2004.

Pro-life organizations immediately seized upon the controversy, but except for CNN, the liberal media have ignored it. NewsBusters reports that on Monday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer played a clip of Obama's accusation that NRLC was "lying." Blitzer said CNN is "checking the facts," but so far CNN has not reported NRLC's documentary evidence or the Obama camp's acknowledgement that NRLC has the facts straight.

Big Media has been ignoring the BAIPA story for months; the essential facts were reported by Jeffrey as early as January. This weekend, Obama put the story on the national radar screen by publicly accusing the NRLC of "lying." His campaign staff's subsequent admission that NRLC was correct – calling into question Obama's reasons for opposing a bill that would have prevented infanticide – has created a story screaming for attention.

How could a U.S. presidential candidate have opposed a bill that protected the lives of innocent, fully born babies, a bill so incontestably in the moral right that the most ardent pro-choicers in the U.S. Senate supported it unanimously? Is Barack Obama even more radically pro-choice than NARAL? Would Obama deny medical care to living, breathing infants just to reinforce the abstract right of mothers to decide whether their children are to live or to die? Big Media owes it to the public to tell the full story.

As of this writing, stony silence.

Source: http://www.onenewsnow.com/

Obama pro-abortion all the way, says NRLC

Rusty Pugh - OneNewsNow - 8/13/2008 9:20:00 AM

A pro-life group says not only is Barack Obama 100-percent pro-abortion, it is now known that he even opposed a law designed to protect children who survived an abortion and were born alive.

New documents just obtained by the National Right To Life Committee (NRLC) prove that Senator Obama (D-Illinois) has, for the past four years, blatantly misrepresented his actions on the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection bill.

In 2000, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act was first introduced in Congress. The bill was a two-paragraph bill intended to clarify that any baby who is entirely expelled from his or her mother, and who shows any signs of life, is to be regarded as a legal "person" for all federal law purposes, regardless if the baby was born during an attempted abortion.

Susan Muskett is legislative counsel for the NRLC. "Newly obtained documents prove that in 2003, Barack Obama, as chairman of an Illinois State Senate committee, voted down a bill to protect live-born survivors of abortion – even after the panel had amended the bill to contain verbatim language, copied from a federal bill passed by Congress without objection in 2002, explicitly foreclosing any impact on abortion," she explains.

"Obama's legislative actions in 2003 – denying effective protection even to babies born alive during abortions – were contrary to the position taken on the same language by even the most liberal members of Congress. The bill Obama killed was virtually identical to the federal bill that even NARAL ultimately did not oppose."

A group of evangelical and Catholic leaders claimed this week that pro-life voters should be willing to support Obama in his presidential bid because there has been a "positive shift" in language on the issue of abortion in the Democratic Party platform, which typically mirrors the principles and policies of its presidential nominee. But at least one pro-life activitst notes the proposed platform seeks the repeal of all state-level pro-life laws.

See this video. It is disgusting and disturbing, and I am nauseated. It is not graphic images but the content speaks of reprehensible acts defended by Barack Obama.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=212396

Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

From Ignatius Insight

August 9th is the Feast Day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who was martyred on that day in 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Fr. Charles P. Connor, in Classic Catholic Converts, writes:

The story of the Jewish Carmelite Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, known in the world as Edith Stein, presents us with one of the more brilliant converts to come to the Faith in [the twentieth] century; it also places us in close contact with a horrendous tragedy of the modern world, the Holocaust.

Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany on October 12, 1891, the youngest of eleven children. In 1913 she began studies at the University of Göttingen in Germany. She soon became a student of the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl and was later attracted to the work of Max Scheler, a Jewish philosopher who converted to Catholicism in 1920. A chance reading of the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila revealed to her the God of love she had long denied. She entered the Church in 1922.

For eight years Edith lived with the Dominicans, teaching at Saint Magdelene's, which was a training institute for teachers. She wrote:

Initially, when I was baptized on New Year's Day, 1922, I thought of it as a preparation in the Order. But a few months later, when I saw my mother for the first time after the baptism, I realized that she couldn't handle another blow for the present. Not that it would have killed her—but I couldn't have held myself responsible for the embitterment it would have caused.

In fact, after her conversion Edith continued to attend synagogue with her mother. Meanwhile, she continued to grow and impress as a philospher. In 1925 she met the Jesuit Erich Pryzwara, a philosopher who would have a tremendous influence on Hans Urs von Balthasar. Pryzwara encouraged Edith to study and translate St. Thomas Aquinas; she eventually wrote a work comparing Usserl with Aquinas.

In 1933 Edith entered the religious life with the Carmel of Cologne, Germany. She fell in love with the person and writing of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She wrote:

My impression was, that this was a life which had been absolutely transformed by the love of God, down to the last detail. I simply can't imagine anything greater. I would like to see this attitude incorporated as much as possible into my own life and the lives of those who are dear to me.

After taking her first vows, Edith was known as Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She continued to write, Fr. Connor notes, "continually developing the theme that Christ's sacrifice on the Cross and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are in fact one and the same sacrifice. From her religious background, she knew the importance of sacrificial prayer for Old Testament prophets." She wrote of how Jesus' sacrifice as the Incarnate God-man was the final, perfect sacrifice that replaced all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

Because of the rise of Nazi power, Edith and her sister Rosa, who had also converted to Catholicism, moved to Holland in 1938. On August 2, 1942, Edith and her sister were taken from the convent by two S.S. officers. She was martyred seven days later. Fr. Connor writes: "On October 11, 1998, fifty-six years, two months, and two days after her death at Auschwitz, Edith Stein, Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II."

Ferdinand Holböck writes in New Saints and Blesseds of the Catholic Church : 1984-1987 (Volume 2):

The Church now presents Sister Teresa Benedicta a Croce to us as a blessed martyr, as an example of a heroic follower of Christ, for us to honour and to emulate. Let us open ourselves up for her message to us as a woman of the spirit and of the mind, who saw in the science of the cross the acme of all wisdom, as a great daughter of the Jewish people, and as a believing Christian in the midst of millions of innocent fellow men made martyrs. She saw the inexorable approach of the cross. She did not flee in fear. Instead, she embraced it in Christian hope with final love and sacrifice and in the mystery of Easter even welcomed it with the salutation,"ave crux spes unica". As Cardinal Höffner said in his recent pastoral letter, "Edith Stein is a gift, an invocation and a promise for our time. May she be an intercessor with God for us and for our people and for all people."

Scientists closer to developing invisibility cloak

Mon Aug 11, 7:36 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.

Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.

The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.

People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.

Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows.

It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track.

The research was funded in part by the U.S. Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation's Nano-Scale Science and Engineering Center.

WOW!!!...


Source: Yahoo News

Record Check: Planned Parenthood

Do you know the reality of Planned Parenthood’s record? You may be surprised at these statistics and facts about the nation’s number one abortion provider:

1. Planned Parenthood was founded in 1916 by Margaret Sanger, a birth control advocate and proponent of eugenics. In her 1932 article, “A Plan for Peace,” Sanger argued, “a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring.”

2. Planned Parenthood is the number one abortion provider in America, performing over 290,000 abortions each year (In 2005, latest year statistics are available, according to The Wall Street Journal).

3. Planned Parenthood abortions are up. According to a recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal, “even as the total number of abortions in the U.S. has dropped, the number performed by Planned Parenthood has grown steadily.” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told the paper “that she has encouraged more Planned Parenthood clinics to offer abortions,” in order to make up for independent abortion providers who are closing their doors at a fast clip.

4. Planned Parenthood is a very profitable “non-profit.” According to its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood had a $114.8 million “excess revenue over expenses” for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007.

5. Planned Parenthood is literally a billion dollar enterprise. The latest Annual Report also showed total revenues at $1,017,900,000 – over one billion dollars.

6. Planned Parenthood relies on your tax dollars. The latest Annual Report records revenues of $336.7 million came from “government grants and contracts” – one third of its total revenues, and nearly three times the amount of that same year’s “excess revenues.” Yet, Planned Parenthood continues to lobby Congress for increased funding and special discount drug purchases for its clinics.

7. Planned Parenthood’s “One Million Strong Campaign” it its most aggressive advocacy campaign ever. The organization plans to spend at least $10 million “to recruit patients, as well as their friends and families, to lobby legislators and vote for candidates who support Planned Parenthood’s agenda,” according to the Los Angeles Times. This is three times the amount they have spent on past elections.

Source: Susan B. Anthony List


Disgusting.


Planned Parenthood has $1 Billion in revenue. They are exempt from taxes. I'm convinced that future generations who have woken up from this current intellectual stupor will equate this bloodbath industry to some other of society's worst crimes against humanity.

Watch this: VIDEO

Senator Michelle Bachmann speaks out in favor of defunding Planned Homicide.

Capello backs Ronaldinho-Milan partnership

ROME (AFP) - England coach Fabio Capello said the acquisition of Ronaldinho has made AC Milan favourites for the Serie A title.

Milan have not been champions of their country since 2004 and last season they finished a dismal fifth - missing out on Champions League qualification - despite winning the World Club Cup.

However, they have bought well over the summer, bringing in Italy international defender Gianluca Zambrotta from Barcelona and box-to-box French midfielder Mathieu Flamini from Arsenal.

But the piece de la resistence was surely the capture of Ronaldinho, whom Capello believes can return to his top form.

"It is lucky for Milan that he is going to the Olympics," Capello said in an interview published in Thursday's Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He will return match-fit and motivated following his year off."

The twice former world player of the year enjoyed three successful seasons at Barcelona, winning two titles and the Champions League, but lost his way last season amid rumours his commitment was waning as his love for the night-life affected his performances and attitude.

But Capello believes he can still get back to his form of old.

"If he has the desire to get back to his best, to rediscover his old self, to become once again one of the best three players in the world, he's gone to the right place.

"Milan has everything to put him back into orbit."

Milan have had a good pre-season, even winning the Tim Trophy earlier this week - a three-way competition between Italy's biggest three clubs, Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus, where they each play 45 minutes against their two rivals on the same evening.

Milan won both their mini-matches on penalties following draws to claim the trophy, considered quite prestigious despite its format which usually sees the teams playing virtually two separate line-ups in their two matches.

With that success, their summer signings and the fact that Milan will not be distracted by the Champions League this coming season, Capello agrees with Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon that Milan are title favourites.

"Great transfer signings and Tim Trophy success; Milan are favourites for the scudetto if, as I believe they will do, they concentrate on the championship," said Capello.

"Europe can wait this time. (Coach Carlo) Ancelotti will use his best team in Serie A."

However, Capello admitted that the pressure is on Milan who, despite winning the Champions League in 2007, have a lot to prove in their own domestic championship.

"Milan can't wait any longer. Waiting makes you grow old. It's important to pick the right signings," said Capello, suggesting that maybye Milan still need some new faces, particularly with striker Marco Borriello facing two months on the sidelines.

Source

Loss of Clerical State for Paraguay's President-Elect

Fernando Lugo Had Been Bishop of Society of Divine Word

ASUNCION, Paraguay, JULY 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has granted a reduction to the lay state for the president-elect of Paraguay, a former Catholic bishop who had been suspended "a divinis."

The apostolic nuncio in Paraguay announced today the Pope's decision regarding Fernando Lugo.

Archbishop Orlando Antonini explained at a press conference that the Holy Father "granted [Lugo] the loss of the clerical state, with all the obligations, as a priest and bishop of the [Society of the] Divine Word."

The nuncio said Lugo's request was accepted because "the people have elected him" and "his clerical state is not compatible with the pr! esidency of the republic."

"Having examined all the circumstances carefully, His Holiness Benedict XVI has granted him the loss of his clerical state with the consequent loss of its inherent rights," he added.

A January 2007 decree signed by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, had announced the suspension "a divinis" of Lugo, for having declared himself a candidate for the Paraguayan presidency. The Code of Canon Law prohibits this.

On Dec. 18, 2006, Lugo had requested the loss of the clerical state to become a candidate in the elections.

On April 20, 2008, the day after winning the election, Lugo asked the Church, and Benedict XVI in particular, for forgiveness for the sorrow his disobedience to canon law had caused.

According to a communiqué read by the nuncio, the Pontiff is now exhorting Lugo "to be faithful to the Catholic faith in which he was baptized and to lead a life that is consistent with the Gospel."

Lugo will take office Aug. 15.

Beyond Obama's Beauty

By KENNETH BLACKWELL | February 14, 2008
source: www.NYsun.com

It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first frontrunning freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.

We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender.

Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.

The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him.

Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.

Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton.

Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.

Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant.

Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America. But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty."

Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong Il, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists — something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr. Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.

Next, consider economic policy. For all its faults, our health care system is the strongest in the world. And free trade agreements, created by Bill Clinton as well as President Bush, have made more goods more affordable so that even people of modest means can live a life that no one imagined a generation ago. Yet Mr. Obama promises to raise taxes on "the rich."

How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck.

Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" — hijacked — Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. His spiritual leaders endorse homosexual marriage, and he is moving in that direction. In Illinois, he refused to vote against a statewide ban — ban — on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood, and San Francisco values, not Middle America values.

The real Mr. Obama is an easy target for the general election. Mrs. Clinton is a far tougher opponent. But Mr. Obama could win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of "bringing America together" means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs.

But right now everyone is talking about how eloquent of a speaker he is and — yes — they're talking about his race. Those should never be the factors on which we base our choice for president. Mr. Obama's radical agenda sets him far outside the American mainstream, to the left of Mrs. Clinton.

It's time to talk about the real Barack Obama. In an election of firsts, let's first make sure we elect the person who is qualified to be our president in a nuclear age during a global civilizational war.

Campaña en el sur de Irak para la restauración de las iglesias cristianas

Campaña en el sur de Irak para la restauración de las iglesias cristianas
En primera fila, la comunidad de Basora de los Caldeos

CIUDAD DEL VATICANO, lunes, 28 julio 2008 (ZENIT.org).- Las comunidades cristianas de las provincias del sur de Irak han lanzado una campaña para la restauración de las iglesias que la incuria y las guerras han dejado inservibles.

La noticia, difundida por el sitio Baghdadhope, ha sido dada por el padre Imad Aziz Al Banna, de la archidiócesis de Basora de los Caldeos, quien explicó que la comunidad local cristiana ha pedido al Gobierno la correspondiente financiación y trabaja en colaboración con la oficina que se ocupa de los intereses de los grupos no musulmanes y con el Ministerio de Planificación y el Consejo de la Provincia de Al-Basrah.

Al Banna recordó además la reciente reapertura de la iglesia de Um Al Azhan, en Al-Amarah, en la cercana provincia de Maysan, y subrayó su confianza en la acción de conservación del patrimonio religioso cristiano por parte de las instituciones públicas, subrayando que la situación relativa a la seguridad anime esta iniciativa, urgente ahora que algunas familias que habían huido del sur de Irak están retornando.

Menos conocida y numerosa de las de Bagdad y del norte del país, la comunidad cristiana del sur de Irak tiene raíces antiquísimas que, según el sacerdote siro-ortodoxo de la iglesia de la Virgen, el padre Sam'an Khaz'al, se remontan al siglo IV, demostrando que Basora era ya entonces un lugar de difusión del cristianismo hacia los territorio del golfo arábigo.

Hace cerca de un mes, reabrió sus puertas la iglesia caldea de Um Al Azhan (Nuestra Señora del Dolor) en Al-Amarah. El edificio, construido en 1880, ha sido restaurado y a finales de junio acogió una Misa y un bautismo celebrados precisamente por el padre Al Banna.

Aunque en la zona viven sólo 18 familias cristianas y a pesar de las dificultades actuales en las provincias meridionales, en la iglesia se celebrará una misa mensual y se realizarán cursos de catecismo durante todo el verano.

"Son incontables en Irak los edificios de culto destruidos o dañados durante la guerra o en el curso de ataques contra las diócesis locales" explica un artículo de "L'Osservatore Romano".

En junio de 2007, uno de los momentos más difíciles vividos por los cristianos en el país, culminado con el asesinato en Mosul del padre Ragheed Ganni y de tres subdiáconos, fueron tomadas como objetivo dos iglesias en el barrio Dora en Bagdad: la de San Juan Bautista y la de Santiago, esta última con el intento de transformarla en mezquita.

Anteriormente, en diciembre de 2004, provocó dolor e inquietud el atentado que devastó el obispado caldeo de Mosul. El patriarca de Babilonia de los Caldeos, el cardenal Emmanuel III Delly, dijo que había sido destruido el más bello símbolo de la Iglesia Caldea de Irak.

Traducido del italiano por Nieves San Martín

Aprobación vaticana al primer Máster en Ciencias Religiosas por Internet

Al Instituto Superior de Ciencias Religiosas de Barcelona (ISCREB)

Por Miriam Díez i Bosch

BARCELONA, lunes, 28 julio 2008 (ZENIT.org).- Un centro de Barcelona se ha convertido en el primero del mundo en ofrecer un Máster en Ciencias Religiosas por Internet con la aprobación de la Santa Sede.

Según ha contado su director, Antoni Matabosch, a Zenit, "el ISCREB se ha convertido en el primer centro del mundo a quien la Congregación para la Educación Católica le ha concedido la aprobación formal de ofrecer el Máster en Ciencias Religiosas por Internet".

La Diplomatura por Internet funciona desde el curso 2003-2004, después que el Vaticano le concediese el permiso, en julio de 2003, como centro piloto para desarrollar esta modalidad de estudios.

De esta manera, el ISCREB es la primera institución docente en el campo teológico que obtiene el permiso para poder dar grados académicos - Diplomatura (Grado) en tres años y Máster en dos años - por vía telemática, en lengua catalana y castellana. El Máster es en la especialidad de Identidad Cristiana y diálogo.

El Instituto Superior de Ciencias Religiosas de Barcelona (ISCREB) ha incrementado este curso un 11 % su alumnado, pasando de 648 en el curso 2006-2007 a 730 en el 2007-2008.

Esta cifra ha aumentado gracias a los alumnos virtuales que cursan la Diplomatura en Ciencias Religiosas a través de la modalidad Teología x Internet, ya que dentro de un campus virtual situado en la web del centro (www.iscreb.org) los estudiantes gozan de un acompañamiento personalizado de profesores y tutores.

El próximo curso en el segundo semestre (de febrero a junio) se impartirá de forma presencial un Postgrado coorganizado por el mismo ISCREB y la Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona sobre Religiones y Diálogo. Para el curso 2009-2010 está previsto que continúen los estudios hasta obtener un Máster en la misma especialidad.

El primer ciclo de estudios (tres años) ofrece un tratamiento completo de los principales termas teológicos, bíblicos, morales, históricos y del pensamiento contemporáneo, con la finalidad de proporcionar a sus alumnos una sólida formación académica.

Los estudios presenciales del ISCREB ofrecen en el segundo ciclo dos especialidades: la de Teología Bíblica y la de Diálogo Intereligioso, Ecuménico y Cultural.

Otra novedad del ISCREB es que en el próximo curso adaptará todas sus titulaciones de segundo ciclo al Espacio Europeo Universitario, dentro del proceso de Bolonia, en el que la Santa Sede está completamente implicada. Así, explica Matabosch, "lo que hasta ahora se denominaba "Licenciatura", el próximo curso se llamará "Máster"".

El Instituto Superior de Ciencias Religiosas de Barcelona está ubicado en el edificio del Seminario Conciliar de la archidiócesis y su web es www.iscreb.org

Cases of Forced Abortions Surface in China

by Louisa Lim, NPR
A slogan on a village building outside Baise in southwest China, reads, "Keep the birth rate low to enhance the quality of the population."

Morning Edition, April 23, 2007 · During the past week, dozens of women in southwest China have been forced to have abortions even as late as nine months into the pregnancy, according to evidence uncovered by NPR.

China's strict family planning laws permit urban married couples to have only one child each, but in some of the recent cases — in Guangxi Province — women say they were forced to abort what would have been their first child because they were unmarried. The forced abortions are all the more shocking because family planning laws have generally been relaxed in China, with many families having two children.

Liang Yage and his wife Wei Linrong had one child and believed that — like many other couples — they could pay a fine and keep their second baby. Wei was 7 months pregnant when 10 family planning officials visited her at home on April 16.

Liang describes how they told her that she would have to have an abortion, "You don't have any more room for maneuver," he says they told her. "If you don't go [to the hospital], we'll carry you." The couple was then driven to Youjiang district maternity hospital in Baise city.

"I was scared," Wei told NPR. "The hospital was full of women who'd been brought in forcibly. There wasn't a single spare bed. The family planning people said forced abortions and forced sterilizations were both being carried out. We saw women being pulled in one by one."

The couple was given a consent agreement to sign. When Liang refused, family planning officials signed it for him. He and his wife are devout Christians — he is a pastor — and they don't agree with abortion.

The officials gave Wei three injections in the lower abdomen. Contractions started the next afternoon, and continued for almost 16 hours. Her child was stillborn.

"I asked the doctor if it was a boy or girl," Wei said. "The doctor said it was a boy. My friends who were beside me said the baby's body was completely black. I felt desolate, so I didn't look up to see the baby."

Medical sources say fetuses aborted in this manner would have been dead for some time, so the tissue is necrotic and thus dark in color.

"The nurses dealt with the body like it was rubbish," Wei said. "They wrapped it up in a black plastic bag and threw it in the trash."

This was also the treatment given to the stillborn baby of He Caigan. Family planning officials turned up at her house, in the countryside several hours outside Baise, before dawn on April 17 to force her to go to the hospital. This would have been her first baby — but she hadn't married the father, in contravention of family planning laws. She was already 9 months pregnant, just days away from delivery.

"They told me I'm too young, I couldn't keep the child and I should have an abortion," she said. "I'm too young to get a marriage certificate — I'm only 19 and my boyfriend's only 21."

After the forced abortion, her boyfriend left her. She said that she's still in great physical pain and that her life had been ruined.

An eyewitness, who requested anonymity for fear of the consequences, said that he counted 41 occupied beds on just one floor of the maternity hospital in Baise and that he believed none of the women he saw had come to the hospital of their own free will.

Coerced abortions such as these were not unusual after China's one-child policy was first introduced in 1980. But a law passed five years ago guarantees China's citizens a degree of choice in family planning matters. When contacted for comment, an official at China's State Commission for Population and Family Planning said she'd heard nothing about forced abortions in Guangxi and asked for more details. But in Baise, a family planning official surnamed Nong acknowledged that such behavior would violate regulations. Despite the fact that these allegations refer to events that happened just within the last week, he said an investigation had already been held.

"We were very surprised to hear of these accusations," Nong said, "but our investigation concluded some individuals who were dissatisfied with our family planning policies were fabricating stories. These facts simply don't exist. We really love and care for women here."

Official figures published by the Xinhua news agency shed some light on why a forced abortion campaign might be judged necessary. They show that the Baise government missed its family planning targets last year. The recorded birth rate was 13.61 percent, slightly higher than the goal of 13.5 percent. This is significant because the career prospects of local officials depend upon meeting these goals.

Wei Linrong and her husband Liang Yage, were incensed by their treatment, seeing it as little short of murder.

"I think their methods are too cruel," said Wei, "my heart really hurts. Such a tiny baby, it was innocent. And they killed it."

"Every time we talk about this child, we both cry," Liang added. "We can't bear talking about this child."

Liang and his wife risked further official disapproval by contacting a Christian group overseas to publicize their plight. China may once have depended on its state apparatus of control and fear to silence those who suffer human rights abuses at the hands of its officials. But China's victims are angry, and they want their voices to be heard.

UN Secretary General Nominates Abortion Advocate for Top Human Rights Post

....this can't possibly get anymore backwards. Why not nominate Michael Vick as the new head of PETA? Or place Adolf Hitler at the head of some kind of "Diversity Taskforce."

By Samantha Singson

(C-FAM - NEW YORK) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to name abortion advocate Navanethem “Navi” Pillay of South Africa as the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) this week despite reservations from the United States.

According to the New York Times, the United States has privately raised concerns about Pillay’s nomination to the top human rights post because of her strong support for abortion. Pillay is a founding member of the international non-governmental organization Equality Now, a group that has spearheaded campaigns for abortion access in Poland and Nepal. Pillay remains on the board of the organization which receives major funding from pro-abortion foundations including George Soros’ Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation.

In her interview with the Judicial Service Commission in 1994 when she was being considered for membership to South Africa’s Constitutional Court, Pillay expressed concern that including a “right to life” article in the South African Constitution would create problems in relation to abortion. “This is the one clause [the pro-life lobby] are going to latch on to for their cause…” Pillay said.

During that interview, Pillay also expressed concern that the constitutional article did not define whether or not such a right begins at conception, leaving it “open to litigation” which could potentially threaten women's “reproductive rights.” When pressed on why she would be so opposed to a reasoned debate on the issue, she responded with the question, ‘why have not other rights been put in there as patently as this one which would be the woman's right to, reproductive rights, for instance?”

Pillay became prominent for her role as presiding judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a post she occupied from 1995 until her appointment to the International Criminal Court in 2003. Pillay has been a favorite among women’s groups and is consistently endorsed by feminist NGOs for top level jobs at the UN, including Secretary General. Radical feminist NGOs first endorsed Pillay for the High Commissioner on Human Rights post four years ago, but the job went to Canada’s Louise Arbour.

The High Commissioner is the principal UN official with responsibility for human rights and is accountable to the Secretary-General. According to UNHCR definition, the High Commissioner is charged with the task of leading the international human rights movement by acting as a “moral authority” and coordinating and streamlining human rights within the UN system. This would include all of the human rights treaty monitoring bodies which have increasingly overstepped their mandates to pressure more than 60 sovereign nations on their abortion laws in recent years.

Critics are concerned that Pillay will adopt the same positions on social issues as her predecessors, Canada’s Louise Arbour and Ireland’s Mary Robinson. Both Arbour and Robinson support abortion as a human right. Both also enthusiastically endorse the “Yogyakarta Principles,” a document claiming homosexual rights as binding human rights including same-sex “marriage,” adoption by homosexual couples and state-funded sex change operations.

A formal announcement from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Pillay’s nomination is expected this week.

Excuse me while I go vomit.

Will Pro-Choicers Respect Conscientious Choice?

Will they? I doubt it.

Cardinal Addresses Possible Regulations on Abortion Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The chairman of the U.S. bishops pro-life committee says an issue is being discussed by members of Congress that should be a matter of agreement between "pro-lifers" and "pro-choicers": respect of conscience.
Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, affirmed this in a letter Friday to members of Congress. The cardinal's letter responded to a debate that arose when the New York Times reported on July 15 that it had a draft of proposed federal regulations on the conscience rights of health care providers.

According to the Times article, "The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control."

A California Representative responded to the news by circulating a letter calling on members of Congress to write President George Bush to oppose any such regulations, even though as yet, they are still unpublished.

Yet Cardinal Rigali said the issue "should be a matter of agreement among members [of Congress] who call themselves 'pro-life' and 'pro-choice': the freedom of health care providers to serve the public without violating their most deeply held moral and religious convictions on the sanctity of human life."

He clarified that his own statement was not a public comment on "the details of an unpublished draft allegedly leaked from a government agency." But, the cardinal added, the critics' charges of the possible regulations "are sweeping enough that a few general comments on conscience protection in health care seem warranted."

Nothing new

Cardinal Rigali first explained that there are already laws protecting rights of conscience in health care, the first having been passed in 1973.

"Some of these laws address such rights in a specific context, such as abortion or AIDS prevention; some explicitly address both abortion and sterilization; and some try to ensure respect for individuals’ moral and religious convictions in programs receiving federal funds regardless of the specific issue," the cardinal noted. "The critics’ surprise that conscience protection may apply beyond the specific issue of abortion seems based on a lack of knowledge of existing federal law."

Nevertheless, the cardinal added, "despite Congress’ frequently demonstrated concern about conscience rights over 35 years, none of these statutes has been clarified or enforced through implementing regulations."

As a result, he said, some institutions might be violating the laws unawares, and some victims of discrimination may not know they have legal recourse for their situations.

"It seems the statutory policy is clear and needed, and at the same time is relatively unknown, misunderstood and unenforced," Cardinal Rigali wrote. "This is a paradigm instance calling for the executive branch to reaffirm and implement the statutes, especially as fundamental rights are at stake. If the administration is preparing regulations along these lines, it would simply be performing its proper task in an area of law where that is long overdue."

Tiny or pervasive?

The cardinal's final point called into question the logical soundness of abortion-supporters' arguments.

He explained that "efforts to protect rights of conscience are being attacked by critics as a threat to women’s 'access' to abortion arid birth control. This is an interesting charge. For many years, pro-abortion groups have insisted that abortion and related services are 'basic' and mandatory aspects of health care."

"They have opposed conscience clauses, dismissively calling them 'refusal clauses,' claiming that they protect an irrational 'refusal' by a tiny minority of religious zealots to comply with this supposedly objective medical standard," the cardinal continued. "Now they have reversed their stand, claiming that conscientious objection to these procedures is so pervasive in the health care professions that policies protecting conscience rights will eliminate access to them."

"Obviously these two claims cancel each other out," Cardinal Rigali affirmed.

He added: "I would suggest, however, that if a procedure really elicits widespread ethical disapproval from conscientious health professionals, and must be imposed on unwilling physicians and nurses by force of law in order to be available at all, it may not be as 'basic' as pro-abortion groups imagine. I would add that patients with pro-life convictions, including women who require a physician’s care for themselves and their unborn children during pregnancy, deserve 'access' to health care professionals who do not have contempt for their religious and moral convictions or for the lives of their children.

"This issue provides self-described 'pro-choice' advocates with an opportunity to demonstrate their true convictions. […] [I]s the 'pro-choice' label a misleading mask for an agenda of actively promoting and even imposing morally controversial procedures on those who conscientiously hold different views? Reactions to efforts to reaffirm and implement laws on conscience protection may provide an answer."

Youth Day '11 to Bring Hope to Spain

- I'm going to do everything possible to attend this one!!!!! -

VATICAN CITY, JULY 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- World Youth Day 2011 will bring Europe a message of hope, not controversy, says a Vatican spokesman.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi commented on the next World Youth Day, to be hosted by Madrid in three years. Benedict XVI announced the venue for the event when he closed World Youth Day '08 in Sydney last Sunday.

Father Lombardi acknowledged on Vatican Radio that "[Europe] is a continent where the confrontation between faith and the problems of modern society, of secularization is always alive."

He added: "The Pope often speaks of the risk that Europe might lose its fundamental values, linked to Christian tradition and to the faith's contribution to the continent's development.

"This will certainly be one of the topics and objectives of the next Youth Day, but without controversies and without the will to oppose the world that surrounds us."

Father Lombardi recalled the Pope's most recent trip to Spain: for the 2006 World Meeting of Families in Valencia.

He said that the Holy Father's message at that event was "entirely positive, centered on the beauty of being Christian, a positive message also for today's family."

"At a time when the family is going through great difficulties, to be Christian is a positive message," Father Lombardi affirmed. "I believe this should also be the spirit of the next Youth Day in Spain: a message of hope, a message that shows how faith offers a beautiful and great contribution for the future of our societies and of the world, as truly happened in Australia."

Father Lombardi mentioned the disappointment expressed by some people that, because of organizational and security problems, it has not been possible to organize a World Youth Day in Africa.

"So we return to Europe," he said, "though the intention is to involve the African continent in every possible way."

UN Committee Pressures Slovakia over its Concordat with the Catholic Church

UN Committee Pressures Slovakia over its Concordat with the Catholic Church




by Samantha Singson

(NEW YORK – C-FAM) At the most recent session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) meetings in New York, committee members pressed countries on abortion in the guise of talking about maternal mortality, family planning and contraceptive prevalence. Lithuania, Nigeria, Finland, the United Kingdom and Slovakia were all questioned on their abortion laws during their reviews by the committee.

While abortion is not mentioned in the treaty, in recent years the CEDAW Committee has questioned more than 60 nations on their abortion legislation. The committee has even gone so far as to create their own "general recommendation" that reads abortion into the text even though the nations negotiated the treaty made sure that controversial issue was never mentioned. Delegations often go along with the committees’ line of questioning on abortion by providing data and answering queries on the subject during their reviews.

During Lithuania’s review, committee members pressed the government delegation on access to contraception and on proposed legislation that seeks to defend prenatal life and would pose restrictions on access to abortion. Japanese committee member Yoko Hayashi stated that governmental restrictions on abortion “contradict the full enjoyment of women’s reproductive health rights that are protected by CEDAW.” The CEDAW document is silent on "reproductive health rights."

The United Kingdom was similarly taken to task by the CEDAW committee because of concerns over access to abortion in Northern Ireland. In response to committee queries over whether there was a possibility of changing the abortion legislation, the Irish representative responded that abortion was a matter of criminal law and that no change in legislation could occur in Northern Ireland without consent from all parties.

One committee member fired back that the government was not adequately addressing the abortion issue and that not taking action on the matter is “incompatible with obligations under the CEDAW convention.”

Sylvia Pimentel of Brazil took exception to Slovakia’s concordat with the Holy See, particularly on the right of health care workers to conscientiously object to performing or aiding in abortion. Pimentel claimed that it is “discriminatory to refuse to legally provide reproductive health services to women” and that CEDAW state parties “must refrain from obstructing women from pursuing their health goals.”

While the rulings of the Committee are supposedly non-binding, abortion activists have brought litigation throughout the world citing CEDAW Committee rulings in support of overturning laws against abortion. Such arguments helped convince the Colombian constitutional court to liberalize that country’s restrictions on the practice.

Under the topic of non-discrimination, CEDAW committee members questioned states on gay rights issues. During Finland’s review, committee members questioned legislation that prevented lesbian adoption. Slovakia was questioned on medically assisted reproduction and “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation” against lesbian women who wanted to undergo the procedure.

At the end of the month, official representatives of States parties to CEDAW are scheduled to elect 11 members of the Committee that will serve from January 2009 to December 2012. The CEDAW Committee will next meet again in Geneva in October to review the reports from Bahrain, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Mongolia, Myanmar, Portugal, Slovenia and Uruguay.

At first, abortion began as a program of racism and eugenics. Now, it is applied to all races, and in my opinion, the fuel for its fire is directly provided from the depths of hell.

More from World Youth Day Australia

source for all articles below: http://www.zenit.org

3-Minute Showers and
World Youth Day Goes Green

By Anthony Barich and Catherine Smibert

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- World Youth Day 2008 will be the most environmentally friendly event Sydney has ever hosted, says the event's coordinator.

Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney told ZENIT that the organizers have been acutely aware that hosting such a big event "has its own ecological challenges."

He said that experts have been advising event organizers "from the start" on minimizing risks to the environment and, "if anything, leave the environment better off at the end."

It will be more environmentally friendly than any other event Sydney has hosted because pilgrims are mainly walking from venue to venue, and taking public transport.
Pilgrims around Australia also have been involved in a huge tree-planting program that will be a carbon-offset for those traveling to Australia by plane.

World Youth Day '08 airline partner Qantas also provided a carbon-offset program for the pilgrims using the national airline.

"We have dedicated cleaning and waste management strategies to maximize the recycling and we have used, throughout, the minimum packaging that can either be kept or re-used," Bishop Fisher said.

For example, he explained that the pilgrims have also been given a three-minute timer so they keep their showers brief to minimize water use, and that the flashlights in the pilgrim packs have reusable batteries so they "don't end up being thrown out."

"Pilgrims spent much of the time walking or on public transport, which means they're not in cars polluting the environment," he said. "On a per capita basis this group will be far and away the lowest-polluting crowd for an event in Sydney.

"They're using the very minimum of energy and are maximizing the use of recyclable and biodegradable products."

*****

Generation Y Forgot to RSVP: Thousands Register Late for Youth Day

By Anthony Barich and Catherine Smibert

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Generation Y is demonstrating to World Youth Day organizers in Sydney why they weren't called Generation RSVP, says the coordinator of the event.

Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney told ZENIT today that thousands of unregistered pilgrims arrived to the host city on the opening day of World Youth Day, providing an extra challenge for the organizers to accommodate the unexpected overflow.

Thousands stood in line Tuesday at registration stands in Hyde Park, Circular Quay and Broadway. World Youth Day began today in Sydney, and will culminate on Sunday with an open-air Mass presided over by Benedict XVI at Randwick Racecourse. Some 500,000 are expected to attend the closing liturgy.

"This is not Generation RSVP," said the bishop, "this is Generation Y, and they just arrive and decide to register on the spot, and we're getting them in the thousands."

He said that over 100,000 international pilgrims have already arrived, and that organizers are confident of achieving their goal of having 100,000 Australian pilgrims, including 40,000 Sydney residents.

"Some of them we didn't know about; they've been arriving unregistered and we're past maximum capacity, but we're doing everything we can to make sure they get into all the events, get transport passes and accommodation and food," said Bishop Fisher, the youngest bishop in Australia.

24-year-old Sabrina Dias from Mexico was one among those registering late. She said she is in Australia visiting her family, and she "happened to be here at the same time."

"It's an opportunity not to be missed," she added.

Street party
"Look at the streets of Sydney," Bishop Fisher said. "We've never had this before. […] We've never had this many young people full of the faith, of idealism, of enthusiasm for Jesus Christ, his Church and the future of our world."

He added that Sydney is the first World Youth Day where that has been a large participation from the Pacific.

In Cologne 2005 there were 100 pilgrims from New Zealand, 10 from Papua New Guinea and less than 100 from the rest of the Pacific.

This year there are 4,500 from New Zealand, 2,000 from Papua New Guinea and up to 1,000 from each of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and other small island nations, the bishop reported.

The youth day organizer explained that this was due to the contribution of local parishes and schools to the fairs of the poor Pacific Islands. A contingent from East Timor was also made possible through local fundraising efforts.

Dressed in traditional tapa wraps in colors designed specifically for his parish group, Tonga Rui of Tonga told ZENIT he is excited "at how World Youth Day has been able to unite so many of the Oceanic region."

Bishop Fisher added that the indigenous participation attending the youth event will also be "way out of proportion to their population numbers" due to the support from local communities.

Aboriginal performers are headlining key events throughout the week, as are those from the oceanic islands.

******

Prime Minister Notes Faith-Reason Partnership

Welcomes Youth to Australia

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The prime minister of Australia welcomed participants in World Youth Day to his country, affirming that faith and reason are "great partners" in history and will be in the future.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke to the youth gathered in Sydney for the 23rd World Youth Day before today's opening Mass celebrated by Cardinal George Pell.

"Australia welcomes the youth of the world to Sydney. Australia welcomes the youth of the world to this celebration of faith and this celebration of life. And as prime minister of Australia I welcome you from every land, every path, every continent on this, our planet," he said.

The leader told the young people that they are the "light of the world at a time when the world has so much darkness."

"Too often in the history of the world when young people traveled in great numbers to other parts of the world, they do so in the cause of war. But you here today are here as pilgrims of peace," he said.

The prime minister spoke about the role of faith in today's world and in history.

He said: "Some say there is no place for faith in the 21st century. I say they are wrong. Some say that faith is the enemy of reason, I say, also they are wrong. Because faith and reason are great partners in our human history and in our human future. Rich in humanity, rich in scientific progress.

"Some say only that which they see wrong in Christianity and in the Church, I say let us speak also about what is right in Christianity and the Church."

Rudd noted that the Church began the first schools and hospitals for the poor: "And I say this, that Christianity has been an overwhelming force for good in the world."

"Australia is a land of great freedom, a land of many cultures, a land of many faiths," Rudd continued. "But also a land deeply shaped by and proud of this nation’s Christian heritage and future. And within that great Christian heritage, we honor deeply the great Catholic heritage of Australia as well."

Catholicism is now the religious tradition with the largest number of adherents in Australia, some 26% of its 20 million people.

"You come here as young pilgrims of the world," Rudd added. "I say to you as I conclude, as Prime Minister of Australia, you are welcome guests in our land. May each of you be enriched by your time here among us in Australia just as you enrich Australia by your time here with us. Welcome to Australia."

Maybe when the USA goes down the tubes, I'll move to Australia. :-)

"If You Wish to Remain Young, Seek Christ"

Pope's Message to Australia and Youth Pilgrims

"If You Wish to Remain Young, Seek Christ"

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the message Benedict XVI wrote ahead of his trip to Australia to the people of the nation and the young pilgrims who will take part in World Youth Day, to be held in Sydney from July 15 to 20. The note was released today in Australia.

* * *

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses" (Act 1:8)

The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you! In a few days from now, I shall begin my Apostolic Visit to your country, in order to celebrate the Twenty-Third World Youth Day in Sydney. I very much look forward to the days that I shall spend with you, and especially to the opportunities for prayer and reflection with young people from all over the world.

First of all, I want to express my appreciation to all those who have offered so much of their time, their resources and their prayers in support of this celebration. The Australian Government and the Provincial Government of New South Wales, the organizers of all the events, and members of the business community who have provided sponsorship – all of you have willingly supported this event, and on behalf of the young people taking part in the World Youth Day, I thank you most sincerely. Many of the young people have made great sacrifices in order to undertake the journey to Australia, and I pray that they will be rewarded abundantly. The parishes, schools and host families have been most generous in welcoming these young visitors, and they too deserve our thanks and our appreciation.

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: and you will be my witnesses" (Act 1:8). This is the theme of the Twenty-Third World Youth Day. How much our world needs a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit! There are still many who have not heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, while many others, for whatever reason, have not recognized in this Good News the saving truth that alone can satisfy the deepest longings of their hearts. The Psalmist prays: "when you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth" (Ps 104:30). It is my firm belief that young people are called to be instruments of that renewal, communicating to their peers the joy they have experienced through knowing and following Christ, and sharing with others the love that the Spirit pours into their hearts, so that they too will be filled with hope and with thanksgiving for all the good things they have received from our heavenly Father.

Many young people today lack hope. They are perplexed by the questions that present themselves ever more urgently in a confusing world, and they are often uncertain which way to turn for answers. They see poverty and injustice and they long to find solutions. They are challenged by the arguments of those who deny the existence of God and they wonder how to respond. They see great damage done to the natural environment through human greed and they struggle to find ways to live in greater harmony with nature and with one another.

Where can we look for answers? The Spirit points us towards the way that leads to life, to love and to truth. The Spirit points us towards Jesus Christ. There is a saying attributed to Saint Augustine: "If you wish to remain young, seek Christ". In him we find the answers that we are seeking, we find the goals that are truly worth living for, we find the strength to pursue the path that will bring about a better world. Our hearts find no rest until they rest in the Lord, as Saint Augustine says at the beginning of the Confessions, the famous account of his own youth. My prayer is that the hearts of the young people who gather in Sydney for the celebration of World Youth Day will truly find rest in the Lord, and that they will be filled with joy and fervour for spreading the Good News among their friends, their families, and all whom they meet.

Dear Australian friends, although I will only be able to spend a few days in your country, and I will not be able to travel outside Sydney, my heart reaches out to all of you, including those who are sick or in difficulties of any kind. On behalf of all the young people, I thank you again for your support of my mission and I ask you to continue praying for them especially. It remains only for me to renew my invitation to the young people from all over the world to join me in Australia, the great "southern land of the Holy Spirit". I look forward to seeing you there! May God bless you all.

From the Vatican, 14 July 2008 ~ BENEDICTUS PP. XVI ~ © Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Sin Dios, el hombre no tiene futuro

Por monseñor Demetrio Fernández, obispo de Tarazona

TARAZONA, sábado, 12 julio 2008 (ZENIT.org).- Publicamos la carta pastoral escrita por el obispo de Tarazona (España), monseñor Demetrio Fernández, con el título "Sin Dios, el hombre no tiene futuro".

* * *

Se quiere construir una sociedad sin Dios, y sin Dios el hombre no tiene futuro. Dios es el futuro de nuestra vida, a nivel personal y a nivel social. Si quitamos a Dios de la existencia humana, el hombre se queda sin horizonte. El hombre sin Dios queda amputado en una de sus principales dimensiones, la dimensión religiosa. Esta dimensión religiosa del hombre no se reduce a la esfera privada de la conciencia, sino que por la propia naturaleza humana tiende a expresarse y a vivirse en sociedad.

Dios no es enemigo del hombre. Dios no estorba para el progreso y para la felicidad del hombre. Dios ha sido y seguirá siendo el principal factor de transformación de la sociedad, de respeto al ser humano, de promoción de sus derechos, de fomento de la convivencia. La religión no ha sido, como tantas veces se nos quiere hacer ver, la causa de los enfrentamientos a lo largo de la historia. Cuando el hombre deja de ser religioso, no por eso cesan las guerras y las ambiciones, sino que por el contrario se multiplican. La historia demuestra que cuando el hombre se acerca a Dios, se hace más capaz de crear una convivencia pacífica entre todos.

Oímos continuamente proclamas en contra de Dios y de la religión, y al hacer estas proclamas, se sueña con un progreso que traerá la paz y la felicidad para todos. Pero junto a estas proclamas y como una consecuencia de las mismas, se anuncia el aborto sin medida, la eutanasia legalizada y otros "progresos" que no respetan los derechos fundamentales del hombre.

La vida es el bien fundamental de la persona. Todos tienen derecho a los que han sido engendrados y todavía no han nacido. Desde el momento mismo de la fecundación, tenemos una nueva persona, dotada de alma y cuerpo, con un proyecto genético y vital propio. Truncar esa vida es matar a un inocente. El sentido común y la fe en Dios nos dicen que nadie tiene derecho a suprimir esa vida que ha brotado en el seno materno. Hoy nos presentan como un progreso la libertad para matar al inocente en el seno materno, poniendo al alcance de quienes lo deseen todo tipo de medios. La vida no es respetada, el hombre no tiene futuro por este camino. Cuando el hombre se aleja de Dios, pierde hasta la luz natural para entender esta verdad elemental.

La vida en todas sus fases debe ser respetada, amada, acogida, alentada. No es ningún progreso poder eliminar a los minusválidos, a los que tienen síndrome de Down, a los que por cualquier accidente viven una vida limitada, a veces vegetativa. No hace bien al hombre y a la sociedad esta falta de protección del más débil, incluidos los que llegan a una edad avanzada y, gracias a la medicina, prolongan sus años. Cuando el hombre se aleja de Dios, se vuelve contra el hombre con toda crueldad. Y eso no constituye ningún progreso.

Por eso, nos llena de esperanza la próxima Jornada Mundial en Sydney del 15 al 20 de julio, en la que el Papa Benedicto XVI convoca a jóvenes de todo el mundo. Desde el encuentro fuerte con Jesucristo, estos miles y miles de jóvenes se animan a construir la civilización del amor, que respeta y ama al hombre, especialmente al más débil, en todos los momentos de su existencia. Es urgente construir un mundo nuevo. Y esto no podrá hacerse nunca al margen de Dios. Los miles de jóvenes que acudirán a Sydney y los millones de jóvenes que se unirán desde cualquier rincón del planeta a este acontecimiento constituyen una esperanza y una promesa. En ellos tenemos la esperanza de un mundo nuevo donde el hombre será respetado y amado en todas las circunstancias de la vida.

Expected protests at WYD 2008

When I went to Germany for WYD 2005, the worst protester I saw was some wacked out Protestant with a huge sign that said "The pope is the beast." (the beast from Revelation). I know that argument in and out, I think he needs a history lesson, but when all is said and done he was another Christian trying to spread (his version of) the gospel. This year, it looks worse...

from ZENIT

Sydneysiders have been asked politely, or maybe not so politely, to avoid annoying or inconveniencing World Youth Day pilgrims. Pesky merchants or protestors, or mere nuisances, could be penalized with fines of more than $5,000.

Australian civil rights campaigners are set to challenge the regulation in federal courts. The Combined Community Legal Centers Group has warned that police powers could be used inappropriately during World Youth Day.

Going out on a limb, but I bet these groups lean to the left.

So to just push the issue, the NoToPope Coalition, which includes members of Sydney's atheist, gay and environmental communities, held an "annoying" fashion show this week outside the New South Wales Parliament, in which they paraded in T-shirts sporting messages contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Although only 20 people gathered for the protest, it received international coverage.

Don't tell me the media has no bias... A 20 person protest receiving international coverage? That only happens if the Catholic Church is being protested. Not even anti-Bush protesters get that much attention.

The coalition says it also plans to stage similar protests and hand out condoms as the pilgrims head to Randwick Racecourse on for the youth day vigil July 19.

Of course, because Catholic youth from around the world spent 2 years raising and saving $3500 each for airfare just to have sex with each other in Australia, but they forgot to bring condoms! Honestly, this really pisses me off. Of course this group will say they are trying to promote "safe-sex," but they are just doing this to be an annoyance. If they really care about "safe-sex," go to some third world country ravaged by venereal disease and hand out your condoms there. Don't bother with a bunch of kids, 95% who have committed to saving themselves until they are married, accompanied by priests and nuns who have vowed celibacy. That is like handing out air conditioning units to Eskimos. (oops, I'm sorry, Inuits)

The state government said the regulation is necessary to ensure the smoothness of the event, which will culminate with an open-air Mass on July 20. Some 500,000 people are expected at the event.

Coalition spokeswoman Rachel Evans said the "peaceful protest" would condemn the Pope's stance against condoms, homosexuality and abortion.

One young Catholic leader in the archdiocese and co-coordinator of the "Love and Life Site," Jovina Graham, laughed at the thought of such a scenario, saying, "such protestors obviously are unaware of the peaceful fortitude of these young people while en masse marching to meet the head of the Church!"

Amen.

McDonald's: those opposing same-sex marriage motivated by hate

source: American Family Association

Throwing out any pretense of being neutral in the culture war, McDonald's has taken up the rhetoric of gay activists, suggesting those who oppose same-sex marriage (SSM) are motivated by hate.

AFA has asked for a boycott of McDonald's restaurants because of the company’s promotion of the gay agenda. AFA asked McDonald’s to remain neutral in the culture war. McDonald’s refused.

In response to the boycott, McDonald's spokesman Bill Whitman suggested to the Washington Post that those who oppose SSM are motivated by hate, saying "...hatred has no place in our culture." McDonald's has decided to adopt the "hate" theme used by gay activist groups for years.

Whitman went on to say, "We stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment." Mr. Whitman has intentionally avoided addressing the reason for the boycott. This boycott is not about hiring gays or how gay employees are treated. It is about McDonald's choosing to put the full weight of their corporation behind promoting their agenda.

McDonald's donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in exchange for membership and a seat on the group’s board of directors. The NGLCC lobbies Congress in support of same-sex marriage.

McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner said the company will promote issues they approve. "Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world...and we do."

Yeah McDonald's, just another reason to add to the list of why I have boycotted you for 4 years. Besides reducing cattle ranchers to serf-like status, and spreading your disgustingly inferior product all throughout the world, now you jump on this "if you don't support me you hate me" bandwagon. To my liberal friends I ask, how is this attitude any different from the much criticized G.W. Bush statement "if you're not with us, you're against us"?