AND SO IT GOES

Pope's 'morning after pill' speech criticised
Politicians and pharmacists in Italy responded angrily on Tuesday to an appeal by Pope Benedict for pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs such as the "morning after pill" if they object on moral grounds.
Posted: Friday, November 2, 2007, 9:57 (GMT)

VATICAN CITY - Politicians and pharmacists in Italy responded angrily on Tuesday to an appeal by Pope Benedict for pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs such as the "morning after pill" if they object on moral grounds.

The Pope told an international conference on Monday that pharmacists should be guaranteed the right to conscientious objection in cases where medicines they distribute can block pregnancy, provoke abortion or assist euthanasia.


Health Minister Livia Turco said that while the Pope had the right to urge young people to be sexually responsible, he could not tell professionals such as pharmacists what to do.


"I don't think his warning to pharmacists to be conscientious objectors to the morning after pill should be taken into consideration," she told daily Corriere della Sera.


Benedict did not mention any specific drugs but appeared to refer to the morning after pill, which can stop ovulation if taken within about 72 hours of sexual intercourse. It is available only by doctor's prescription in Italy.


He also referred to RU-486, the so-called abortion pill, which is available on an experimental basis in some Italian hospitals. It blocks the action of hormones needed to keep a fertilised egg implanted in the uterus.


Franco Caprino, head of pharmacists' professional group Federfarma, said that by law pharmacists had to distribute medicine prescribed by a doctor.


"We can't be conscientious objectors unless the law is changed," he said.


While some politicians defended the Pope's right to speak his mind and the right of pharmacists to be conscientious objectors, others criticised him.


"The Pope's appeal to pharmacists to refuse to sell the morning after pill is a very heavy interference in politics and Italian life," said Lidia Menapace, a senator of the Communist Refoundation party.


The Church teaches that artificial birth control, abortion and euthanasia are wrong. It holds that nothing should block the possible transmission of life, which it teaches starts at conception and ends at natural death.


Italian media interviewed pharmacists who are practicing Catholics. Some said they were obliged to put aside their personal beliefs and sell the prescribed medicine, while others said they preferred to ask a colleague to do so.


The morning after pill, sometimes referred to as emergency contraception, has stirred controversy in other countries such as the United States, where some forms are available to those aged 18 and over without a prescription.


U.S. family planning groups support such wider access, but conservative and religious groups have argued that easy availability of the pill promotes promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases among teens and others.


Last August, President George W. Bush said he supported restricting access to emergency contraception for minors.


In February, Chile allowed girls aged 14 and over the right to the morning after pill free of charge and without parental consent after a bitter debate that pitted the government against the Catholic Church.


© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

AND MORE

Pharmacists shouldn’t have choice in selling contraceptives
November 2, 2007By Chris Heide

While addressing an international conference of Catholic pharmacists Monday, Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholic pharmacists to refused dispensing medications that have "immoral purposes such as, for example, abortion or euthanasia," according to the Associated Press.

He argued that pharmacists have a duty to protect the lives of humans from conception until natural death. This includes all drugs that would inhibit normal human life.

Although this speech doesn’t have any legal implications that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill certain prescriptions, such as emergency contraception, it would have problematic implications if the pope’s advice were followed and that type of behavior was deemed socially acceptable within the United States.

Thankfully, many international pharmacists and health professionals reacted angrily in response to the pope’s plea.

However, the issue of pharmacists wielding insurmountable power over their patrons has hit close to home.

Within the past few years, several cases dealing with a pharmacist’s refusal to fill a prescription have arisen in the United States.

In July 2007, several Washington pharmacists “filed a federal lawsuit over a regulation requiring them to sell emergency contraception, saying it violates their civil rights by forcing them into choosing between ‘their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs,’” according to the AP.

A pharmacist’s responsibility to his or her customer must trump his or her personal values. Clearly, this is an issue that should have been put to bed several years ago, but the Pope has managed to reopen old wounds.

Few people would appreciate a dose of morally superior advice from a pharmacist when they go to pick up a prescription. A person’s autonomy over his or her own body is sacrosanct. It must be protected from interference by both church and state.

If a drug is approved by the FDA and prescribed by a doctor, then a person has a legal right to obtain and consume that drug. A pharmacist’s refusal to fill a prescription could put the lives of his or her customers at risk.

Many conservative religious groups link the accessibility of birth control with sexual promiscuity and an increased rate of contraction of sexually transmitted diseases among teens and young adults.

And just as a Catholic pharmacist may find abortion morally repugnant but has no legal right within the United States to impose those beliefs on others, he or she has no right to inhibit the sale of the day after pill.

Livia Turco, the Italian health minister, responded that while the pope has the right to urge young people to be sexually responsible, he cannot tell professionals such as pharmacists what to do, according to Reuters.

Reuters also reported that last August President George W. Bush said he supported restricting access to emergency contraception for minors.
Sexual promiscuity is a problem with teenagers in the United States. However, restricting access to birth control options such as emergency contraception does not prevent teenagers from having sexual intercourse. It simply makes them less prepared and definitely less safe while having sex.

While it is a compromise, we all have to realize that if you are going to have sex, then have safe sex. While not everyone agrees with such safe-sex education, pharmacists should not be able to toy with a person’s ability to decide. A pharmacist voluntarily chooses his or her profession and must perform all aspects of the job.

A person certainly is entitled to his or her moral beliefs and should be applauded for defending them. However, if pharmacists feel that their moral objections would prevent them from performing all aspects of the job, then they should simply quit.

The pope’s suggestions would incite something of an illegal coup in this country. Religious freedom is a fundamental aspect of the first amendment. To refuse to fill a prescription for deep religious values would be to impose those values on other citizens.

This is different than pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions for their personal beliefs, because normal citizens have no other alternatives to obtain their meds. This would violate the first amendment and would therefore be unconstitutional.

Let’s hope that the pope’s suggestion never becomes a legal reality in our country.

[Reach columnists Chris Heide at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]
Comments on this article:
Lee Smith - 11/02/07
Chris Heide's opinion piece carries pro-abortion newspeak to absurd, new extremes. Agreeing with Italian health minister Livia Turco that the pope has no right to urge pharmacists to follow their consciences, Heide appeals to "choice" to argue against the right of pharmacists to choose life and against the right of the head of the billion-member Catholic Church to encourage such a choice. In stating, "A pharmacist’s responsibility to his or her customer must trump his or her personal values" Heide also stretches to new lengths the insidious claim first made by JFK and now used by virtually every US Catholic politician to excuse the abandonment of the teaching of his or her faith in the public arena. Heide now wants this despicable formula to cover all professionals, not just elected officials. Posing as an apostle of "choice," Heide asserts that pharmacists should have no choice but to obey a "responsibility to their customers" that mandates assisting a mother in killing her unborn child. In Robert Bolt's play, A Man for All Seasons, when Cardinal Wolsey chides Thomas More for "obstruct[ing] those measures [to obtain a divorce for Henry VIII] for the sake of your own personal conscience," More replies: Well ... I believe, when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties ... they lead their country by a short route to chaos." But Heide can rest easy because in this country and in Europe - already in chaos - most Catholics, unlike More, who was ready to face prison and death for his faith, agree with society at large rather than their church in approving of abortion.

Joel Pierce - 11/02/07
This may display my ignorance, but how is a pharmacist deciding to not provide a certain product because they find it immoral, different from a clothing shop deciding not to sell sweatshop produced clothes or a coffee shop only selling fair trade coffee? If we are willing to let merchants make moral decisions about their products in other arenas, why are pharmacists not allowed to?

Joel Pierce - 11/02/07
That being said, I think if a pharmacist works for a hospital or other institution, it seems right that the institution should be able to fire a pharmacist for not providing the drug, just as Walmart should be able to fire an employee for refusing to stock the shelves with sweatshop produced clothes.

Joel Pierce - 11/02/07
As to Heide's claim that pharmacies are somehow different (and again I may be displaying my ignorance), because they are the only place patients can obtain the required drugs, I am guessing that in any given town their probably exists more than one pharmacy and probably not all of them are run by strictly observant Catholics. If this is not the case and people will really not be able to get access to the drug, might I suggest Heide and others like him engage in reasoned debated and campaign to sway the moral reason of pharmacists instead of arguing for the suppression of that reason in the workplace. Such efforts might be difficult, but I believe that Heide must agree that an approach biased toward protecting the free use of a people's moral faculties, even when it is inconvenient for the rest of us, is preferable in a free society.

Brad - 11/02/07
If a pharmacist owns his own establishment, I can understand his right not to dispense medicines that conflict with his moral beliefs, as the above example of not stocking sweatshop-produced clothing or only selling fair trade coffee illustrates. If they work for someone else though, I don't think they should be shielded from the consequences of their decisions - they shouldn't be protected from being fired for their refusal to dispense such products. It's part of the job, if you don't like it, find another. It's just like the multiple incidents at the Minneapolis (I think) airport where individuals of the Muslim persuasion refused to transport passengers carrying alcohol. It's part of the job - if you don't like it, find another.

Peter Einwaller - 11/02/07
The Pope's recommendation is already a legal reality in our country: each person has the freedom and liberty to provide a service to whomever they choose to; this is a fundamental liberty. It sounds like you would like to compromise the real "choice" of a citizen just like a marxist would - you must do whatever insane thing the state might determine you should do. Can you say "secular progressive brainwashing".

Joel Pierce - 11/02/07
On a separate point, Heide's analogy concerning abortion seems to be a bit fallacious. While it's certainly true that a Catholic pharmacists, or more the point Catholic doctors, do not have the right to stop someone from having an abortion, they do have the right (or at least should) to not participate in that action. Finally, just to clarify what I believe the Pope's position is (in accordance with Humanae Vitae): the Pope is opposed to not only the morning after pill, but also all forms of contraception. This is different from the standard Protestant pro-life (or anti-choice, however one wishes to label it) position and one needs to be careful not to conflate the two.

Stefaan C Hublou - 11/03/07
Hello people; I have read with great interest Heide's article and the coments made. I am happy and impressed by the quality of this discussion thread. These viewpoints have enriched my thinking on te Pope issuing moral Calls and on the difficult moral and existential problem of different ways people use to enable themselves to enjoy affection and sexual intercourse without leaving open the (Super)Natural effect of the woman becoming a mother and both people assuming their role to become a father and a mother (again)...As a historian with an autodidactical knowledge on natural history and (evolutionary) biology, I would like to add the perspective that Mother Nature/The Creator seems to make a big difference between a fertilized egg and a creature that has reached maturity; the former are usually much less protected and thus inbued with value (out ot the one million fertilized Salmon eggs, only a couple of adult fish stay alive after one year) then individuals that are of a higher degree of refinement and complexity like (sub)adult Bonobo's. These fellow creatures are protected by groupmembers as well by their own skills against the dangers that always seem to lure around the corner in this World..

Pope says pharmacists have right to conscientiously object to fill emergency contraception
Women's Health News - Wednesday, 31-Oct-2007


Pope Benedict XVI on Monday at the 25th International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists in Rome told attendees that they have a right to conscientiously object to dispensing drugs such as emergency contraception, which can prevent pregnancy if take up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse, the AP/Google.com reports (Winfield, AP/Google.com, 10/29).


Conscientious objection is a "right that must be recognized for your profession so you can avoid collaborating, directly or indirectly, in the supply of products which clearly have immoral aims" -- such as abortion and euthanasia -- Benedict said (Reuters, 10/29).


He also encouraged pharmacists to inform patients on the ethical implications of taking such medications. "Pharmacists must seek to raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role," he said (AP/Google.com, 10/29). He added, "It is not possible to anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short a person's life" (Reuters, 10/29).


Benedict's remarks "resonated strongly" among Italian pharmacists, who are required to fill prescriptions regardless of their moral or ethical beliefs, according to Federfarma, the national federation that represents 15,500 private pharmacists, the AP/Google.com reports. The federation in a statement said that the country's law would need to be amended to allow for conscientious objection but noted that such a change would be hard to apply because pharmacists could object to dispensing basic contraception or other hormonal medications.



The International Pharmaceutical Federation, which represents pharmaceutical associations worldwide, has a code calling for the continuity of service "in the event of conflict with personal moral beliefs." However, Henri Manasse -- Federfarma's professional secretary -- said the group is updating its standards because new medications constantly introduce new moral issues (AP/Google.com, 10/29).

Pope says pharmacists have right to conscientiously object to fill emergency contraception
Women's Health News - Wednesday, 31-Oct-2007

Pope Benedict XVI on Monday at the 25th International Congress of Catholic Pharmacists in Rome told attendees that they have a right to conscientiously object to dispensing drugs such as emergency contraception, which can prevent pregnancy if take up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse, the AP/Google.com reports (Winfield, AP/Google.com, 10/29).

Conscientious objection is a "right that must be recognized for your profession so you can avoid collaborating, directly or indirectly, in the supply of products which clearly have immoral aims" -- such as abortion and euthanasia -- Benedict said (Reuters, 10/29).

He also encouraged pharmacists to inform patients on the ethical implications of taking such medications. "Pharmacists must seek to raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death and so that medicines truly play a therapeutic role," he said (AP/Google.com, 10/29). He added, "It is not possible to anesthetize the conscience, for example, when it comes to molecules whose aim is to stop an embryo implanting or to cut short a person's life" (Reuters, 10/29).

Benedict's remarks "resonated strongly" among Italian pharmacists, who are required to fill prescriptions regardless of their moral or ethical beliefs, according to Federfarma, the national federation that represents 15,500 private pharmacists, the AP/Google.com reports. The federation in a statement said that the country's law would need to be amended to allow for conscientious objection but noted that such a change would be hard to apply because pharmacists could object to dispensing basic contraception or other hormonal medications.

The International Pharmaceutical Federation, which represents pharmaceutical associations worldwide, has a code calling for the continuity of service "in the event of conflict with personal moral beliefs." However, Henri Manasse -- Federfarma's professional secretary -- said the group is updating its standards because new medications constantly introduce new moral issues (AP/Google.com, 10/29).

Masters of Faith Are Needed, Pontiff Says
Greeting Marks Beginning of Academic Year in Rome

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says the Gospel message needs to affect the way people think, judge and act, and thus, the world needs masters of faith and well-trained heralds.The Pope affirmed this when he greeted students of the Roman pontifical universities gathered in St. Peter's Square on Thursday. The students' meeting with the Holy Father followed a Eucharistic concelebration presided over by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. The event marked the beginning of the academic year.

Benedict XVI encouraged the students and professors to "establish a climate in which commitment to study and fraternal cooperation enable you to enrich one another, not only in what concerns cultural, academic and doctrinal aspects, but also on a human and spiritual level."

He told them that the chance to study in Rome, "see of Peter's Successor and thus of the Petrine ministry," a city "rich in historical memories, in masterpieces of art and culture, and above all in eloquent Christian testimony […] will help you to reinforce the sense of belonging to the Church and of fidelity to the universal magisterium of the Pope." And "the presence of students from every continent in the academic institutions, colleges and seminars, offers you as well the chance to experience the beauty of forming part of this unique, great family of God," he continued.

Tradition

"Over time," the Pontiff added, "universities and ecclesiastical faculties came into being, now centuries old. There, entire generations of priests and pastoral workers were formed, including many great saints and illustrious men of the Church."

Referring to Pope John Paul II's apostolic constitution "Sapientia Christiana," which calls for a consideration of new problems in the light of Christian revelation and a presentation of truth "in a manner adapted to various cultures," Benedict XVI affirmed that this commitment "is more pressing than ever in our postmodern age, in which the need is felt for a new evangelization, and which needs masters of faith and appropriately trained heralds and witnesses of the Gospel."

"The time you spend in Rome can and must serve to prepare you to undertake [...] the task that awaits you in the various fields of apostolic activity," the Pope said. "In our own time, the Church's evangelizing mission requires, not only that the Gospel message be spread everywhere, but that it penetrate deeply into the way people think, into their criteria for making judgments and their behavior."

"In a word," he concluded, "the entire culture of modern man must be permeated by the Gospel."
© Innovative Media, Inc.

Successful Catechists Aren't Acting, Says Pope
Reflects on Holy Example of St. Ambrose of Milan

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 24, 2007 (ZENIT.org).- Being a teacher of the faith is more than just a job, says Benedict XVI, it is something inseparable from living a Christian life.

The Pope said this today to more than 30,000 people who gathered in St. Peter's Square to participate in the general audience. The Holy Father, continuing his reflections on figures of the early Church, spoke of St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who was a key figure in the conversion of St. Augustine.

"Without speaking a word, he spoke with the testimony of life," the Pope said of the catechetical method of the bishop of Milan.Ambrose was born in Trier, which formed part of the Roman prefecture of Gaul, in the year 340. After his father's death when Ambrose was still a boy, his mother took him to Rome to prepare him for a civil career.

His was sent to Milan around 370, said the Holy Father, where the Church was deeply divided over the Arian heresy. Ambrose intervened to bring peace, and was spontaneously acclaimed bishop of Milan by the people, despite the fact that he wasn't even a baptized member of the Church.The bishop, who had no formal religious education, recounted Benedict XVI, began to study Scripture using as a guide the writings of the third-century Christian writer Origen of Alexandria.

The Pope said that Bishop Ambrose learned from Origin the practice of meditating on Scripture known as "lectio divina," and from that point the bishop's preaching and writing "emerged precisely from prayerful listening to the word of God."Regarding St. Ambrose's catechetical style, however, the Pontiff said that it was the bishop's example that counted more than his words.

Testimony
The Holy Father gave as an example the experience of St. Augustine, which he recounted in his "Confessions." Augustine's conversion, said the Pope, didn't come about as a result of Bishop Ambrose's "beautiful homilies," but rather as a result of "the testimony of the bishop and the Church in Milan, which prayed and sang, united as a single body.

"From Bishop Ambrose, continued the Holy Father, Augustine learned the importance of "reading sacred Scripture in a prayerful attitude, in order to truly receive it in one's heart, and to assimilate the word of God.

"Benedict XVI said that the heart of Ambrosian catechesis lies in truly assimilating the word of God: "Scripture itself, profoundly assimilated, suggests the content of what one must announce in order to achieve conversion of hearts." "Catechesis is inseparable from the testimony of life," he added. "Educators of the faith," said the Pope, "cannot run the risk of looking like some sort of clown, who is simply playing a role.

"The catechist, he added, "should be like the beloved disciple, who rested his head on the master's heart and there learned how to think, speak and act."

Violence in God's name must end, Pope Benedict says
Tuesday, October 23rd 2007

NAPLES - Pope Benedict told imams, rabbis, priests and patriarchs from around the world Sunday that religion must never be used to justify violence.

On a visit to one of Italy's most crime-ridden cities, Benedict condemned the "deplorable" mob violence that he said permeated life in Naples, home of the notorious Camorra organized crime syndicate - the local version of the Sicilian Mafia.

The Pope's visit coincided with a three-day meeting of religious leaders from around the world on the role of religion and culture in creating a violence-free world. The pontiff told the Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist leaders they must work for peace and reconciliation among peoples. The Pope's message was universal, but has particular resonance in Naples, which has long been one of Italy's most violent cities.

The Associated Press

More out of Naples

Muslim scholars urge Benedict to back dialogue appeal

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

PARIS (Reuters) - Muslim scholars pressing Christian churches for a high-level dialogue to improve inter-faith relations have urged Pope Benedict to publicly back their appeal already supported by several non-Catholic leaders.

One of the 138 signatories to the unprecedented appeal told Benedict at a religious gathering in Naples on Sunday that the group was disappointed with what it saw as the Vatican's relatively slow response, another signatory said on Monday.

The group has also sent the Vatican a letter criticising remarks by its top official for inter-faith relations, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, in which he said that serious theological dialogue with Muslims was not possible, signatory Aref Ali Nayed told Reuters.

The novel appeal, representing a broad spectrum of Sunni and Shi'ite groups, urged Christian leaders on Oct. 11 to seek common ground with Islam to help preserve world peace.
"Muslims are still awaiting a proper response from His Holiness Pope Benedict," said the new letter.

"We call upon him to embrace the initiative that our scholars made with the same good will that has already marked its reception by so many Christians."

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Lutheran World Federation head Bishop Mark Hanson, World Council of Churches head Rev. Samuel Kobia, U.S. Presbyterian Church head Clifton Kirkpatrick and several leading theologians have praised the appeal as a positive basis for a possible dialogue.

While several Catholic experts have reacted favourably, Benedict has not mentioned the appeal publicly. Tauran at first praised it as "very interesting" but in remarks last Friday raised other issues that could complicate any talks.

The cardinal said Christians could not discuss theology seriously with Muslims because they did not question the Koran. He also said any talks should discuss why some Muslim states limit church building while Muslims can build mosques in Europe.

"This attitude, it seems to Muslims, misses the very point of dialogue," the new letter said. "Dialogue is by definition between people of different views, not people of the same view.
"Dialogue is not about imposing one's views on the other side, nor deciding oneself what the other side is and is not capable of, nor even of what the other side believes."

Nayed, a senior advisor to the Cambridge Interfaith Program in Britain, said signatory Izzeldine Ibrahim personally urged Benedict to support the appeal. The two sat at the same table for lunch at the Naples inter-faith meeting on Sunday.

Ibrahim is a cultural adviser to the United Arab Emirates government.

The new letter also said the Vatican's annual message to Muslims for Eid el-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan "had been made polemical of late".

Once devoted mostly to religious themes, the messages last year and this year included calls for different religions to fight against terrorism and violence.

Mennonites Hear Benedict XVI's Call for Unity
Benedict XVI Meets With Christian Delegates

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Mennonite and Catholic search for the unity of the Lord's disciples is important, says Benedict XVI.The Pope said this today when he received in audience the delegates from the Mennonite World Congress.

The Holy Father said: "In the ecumenical spirit of recent times, we have begun to have contacts with each other after centuries of isolation. "Since it is Christ himself who calls us to seek Christian unity, it is entirely right and fitting that Mennonites and Catholics have entered into dialogue in order to understand the reasons for the conflict that arose between us in the 16th century. To understand is to take the first step towards healing."

"Mennonites are well known for their strong Christian witness to peace in the name of the Gospel, and here, despite centuries of division, the dialogue report 'Called Together to be Peacemakers' has shown that we hold many convictions in common," affirmed the Pontiff.

He added: "We both emphasize that our work for peace is rooted in Jesus Christ 'who is our peace, who has made us both one … making peace that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.' "We both understand that 'reconciliation, nonviolence and active peacemaking belong to the heart of the Gospel.'"

But, cautioned the Pope, "Our witness will remain impaired as long as the world sees our divisions. Above all, what impels us to seek Christian unity is our Lord's prayer to the Father 'that they may all be one … so that the world may believe that you have sent me.'"

The Holy Father concluded, "It is my hope that your visit will be another step towards mutual understanding and reconciliation."

The Pope and Profit by Joe Grima
Monday, 15 October, 2007

Pope Benedict remains an incomparable international figure also because of his courage in making statements that are often unpopular and sometimes very controversial. Pope Benedict understands his mission as a world leader incredibly well. He knows that he is a world leader, not just the successor of Peter and Leader of the world's Catholics, but a person whose words leave an impact on other world leaders and the actions.

His statements are always food for thought and a reason for serious debate. Pope Benedict's address at Regensburg University about the historic roots of Islam must have been well calculated. His Holiness must have known that that statement would bring a backlash of some degree - perhaps not of the size and spread of what the retort from fundamentalist Islamists actually turned out to be. His quote was factually correct and was misinterpreted by fundamentalists who saw in their reaction an occasion to raise the stakes on their pitiable cause.

Recently Pope Benedict made another statement, in voice, which he must have known would drive a stake into the heart of one of the world's most widespread economic systems, Capitalism. In my opinion, with that statement, Pope Benedict wanted to highlight the ill effects of the Capitalist system in order to create an international debate that would emphasize the fate of millions throughout the world as a result of indiscriminate profit making. Pope Benedict said that "When profit is obtained in a just measure, it is naturally legitimate and necessary for economic development".

"However", he said, "Capitalism should not be regarded as the only valid model for economic progress". The words of His Holiness were making an extremely valid distinction between that profit which is just and legitimate and therefore forms part of the common good and that profit which, as part of an arrogant capitalist system, becomes indiscriminate and ignores the common good altogether. I compare the good and the bad of the capitalist system to the difference between eating to live, which is legitimate and natural and living to eat which is a distortion of the legitimacy of consumption.

In condemning indiscriminate capitalism, Pope Benedict was condemning international practices which eliminate both the common good and the regard for human suffering caused by excessive profiteering - the suffering of millions who in today's world are unable to make ends meet, those who have to choose between the schooling of their children and food on the table everyday, those, in so many countries of today's world, who need to turn to crime - robbery, prostitution, drug trafficking - in order to eat because prices of essential goods are unattainable with their incomes.

With his criticism of Capitalism, Pope Benedict was not advocating the defunct failed Communist system. He was not siding with those leaders (some in our own country) who believe that the State should rule people's lives in order to be able to offer everyone the bare minimum, a loaf of bread, a glass of water and a shirt on one's back. That system is long dead. What Pope Benedict was saying is that, as with everything else on this planet, profit also requires a balance.

Profit has to be balanced against the interest and the well being of the average man who has a right to live a decent life, a right to be able to send his children to a decent school, and a right to have a roof over his family's head. According to this wise Leader of the Catholic Church, profit is legitimate only when it takes into account the common good. When it does not, Capitalism becomes as bad as the system that it spent seventy years combating and which finally destroyed itself - Communism.

Islam scholars reach out to pope

AMMAN, Jordan, Oct. 11 (UPI)

A Jordan-based group of Islamic scholars has appealed directly to the pope to help smooth out conflicts between Muslims and Christians.

Nearly 140 scholars signed a 29-page letter to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders urging them to be more aggressive in finding common ground that will head off future religious conflicts.

The Guardian of London said the letter was sponsored by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Jordan.

"We say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them -- so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes," the letter said.

The scholars contended that Mohammed received the same revelations from God that Christians and Jews heard from their own ancient prophets, and that the Koran calls for friendship and respect with people from other faiths.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

WOW. Fascinating stuff

Vatican to publish Templar trial papers

By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

The Vatican has published secret documents about the trial of the Knights Templar, including a parchment — long ignored because of a vague catalog entry in 1628 — showing that Pope Clement V initially absolved the medieval order of heresy.

The 300-page volume recently came out in a limited edition — 799 copies — each priced at $8,377, said Scrinium publishing house, which prints documents from the Vatican's secret archives.

The order of knights, which ultimately disappeared because of the heresy scandal, recently captivated the imagination of readers of the best-seller "The Da Vinci Code," which linked the Templars to the story of the Holy Grail.

The Vatican work reproduces the entire documentation of the papal hearings convened after King Philip IV of France arrested and tortured Templar leaders in 1307 on charges of heresy and immorality.

The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

As their military might increased, the Templars also grew in wealth, acquiring property throughout Europe and running a primitive banking system. After they left the Middle East with the collapse of the Crusader kingdoms, their power and secretive ways aroused the fear of European rulers and sparked accusations of corruption and blasphemy.

Historians believe Philip owed debts to the Templars and used the accusations to arrest their leaders and extract, under torture, confessions of heresy as a way to seize the order's riches.
The publishing house said the new book includes the "Parchment of Chinon," a 1308 decision by Clement to save the Templars and their order.

The Vatican archives researcher who found the parchment said Friday that it probably had been ignored because the 1628 catalog entry on the 40-inch-wide parchment was "too Spartan, too vague."

"Unfortunately, there was an archiving error, an error in how the document was described," the researcher, Barbara Frale, said in a telephone interview from her home in Viterbo, north of Italy.

"More than an error, it was a little sketchy," she said.

The parchment, in remarkably good condition considering its 700 years, apparently had last been consulted at the start of the 20th century, Frale said, surmising that its significance must have not have been realized then.

Frale said she was intrigued by the 1628 entry because, while it apparently referred to some minor matter, it noted that three top cardinals, including the right-hand man of Clement, Berenger Fredol, had made a long journey to interrogate someone.

"Going on with my research, it turned out that in reality it was an inquest of very great importance" on behalf of the pope, Frale said. Fredol "had gone to question the Great Master and other heads of the Templars who had been segregated, practically kidnapped, by the king of France and shut up in secret in his castle in Chinon on the Loire."

According to the Vatican archives Web site, the parchment shows that Clement initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality, and that he planned to reform the order.

However, pressured by Philip, Clement later reversed his decision and suppressed the order in 1312.

Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, was burned at the stake in 1314 along with his aides.

Surviving monks fled. Some were absorbed by other orders; over the centuries, various groups have claimed to have descended from the Templars.
__
On the Net:
Vatican secret archive: http://asv.vatican.va
Publishing house: http://www.scrinium.org
___
Associated Press writer Frances D'Emilio contributed to this report.

WOW. Fascinating stuff



Vatican to publish Templar trial papers


By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer


The Vatican has published secret documents about the trial of the Knights Templar, including a parchment — long ignored because of a vague catalog entry in 1628 — showing that Pope Clement V initially absolved the medieval order of heresy.


The 300-page volume recently came out in a limited edition — 799 copies — each priced at $8,377, said Scrinium publishing house, which prints documents from the Vatican's secret archives.


The order of knights, which ultimately disappeared because of the heresy scandal, recently captivated the imagination of readers of the best-seller "The Da Vinci Code," which linked the Templars to the story of the Holy Grail.


The Vatican work reproduces the entire documentation of the papal hearings convened after King Philip IV of France arrested and tortured Templar leaders in 1307 on charges of heresy and immorality.


The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.


As their military might increased, the Templars also grew in wealth, acquiring property throughout Europe and running a primitive banking system. After they left the Middle East with the collapse of the Crusader kingdoms, their power and secretive ways aroused the fear of European rulers and sparked accusations of corruption and blasphemy.


Historians believe Philip owed debts to the Templars and used the accusations to arrest their leaders and extract, under torture, confessions of heresy as a way to seize the order's riches.
The publishing house said the new book includes the "Parchment of Chinon," a 1308 decision by Clement to save the Templars and their order.


The Vatican archives researcher who found the parchment said Friday that it probably had been ignored because the 1628 catalog entry on the 40-inch-wide parchment was "too Spartan, too vague."


"Unfortunately, there was an archiving error, an error in how the document was described," the researcher, Barbara Frale, said in a telephone interview from her home in Viterbo, north of Italy.


"More than an error, it was a little sketchy," she said.


The parchment, in remarkably good condition considering its 700 years, apparently had last been consulted at the start of the 20th century, Frale said, surmising that its significance must have not have been realized then.


Frale said she was intrigued by the 1628 entry because, while it apparently referred to some minor matter, it noted that three top cardinals, including the right-hand man of Clement, Berenger Fredol, had made a long journey to interrogate someone.


"Going on with my research, it turned out that in reality it was an inquest of very great importance" on behalf of the pope, Frale said. Fredol "had gone to question the Great Master and other heads of the Templars who had been segregated, practically kidnapped, by the king of France and shut up in secret in his castle in Chinon on the Loire."


According to the Vatican archives Web site, the parchment shows that Clement initially absolved the Templar leaders of heresy, though he did find them guilty of immorality, and that he planned to reform the order.


However, pressured by Philip, Clement later reversed his decision and suppressed the order in 1312.


Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, was burned at the stake in 1314 along with his aides.


Surviving monks fled. Some were absorbed by other orders; over the centuries, various groups have claimed to have descended from the Templars.

Associated Press writer Frances D'Emilio contributed to this report.

GOOD NEWS FROM INDIANA. THERE IS ROOM FOR ALL.

Students demand Latin Mass after rescript
By: Jenn Metz Posted: 10/10/07

After Pope Benedict XVI brought attention to the discontinued tradition of Latin Masses in early July, students began asking Campus Ministry to bring back the "Tridentine Mass" to Notre Dame. Starting Sunday, they will get their wish.

The students' demand and Benedict XVI's papal rescript - which states the Tridentine Mass is optional for Catholics - led Campus Ministry to decide to schedule the Latin Mass this year. The first of these Masses will be celebrated at 8 a.m. Sunday at the St. Charles Borromeo Chapel in Alumni Hall."

In this document from Rome, they asked the pastors to make it available if there is a stable group of people who want it and if there are people who are able to do it," said Father Richard Warner, director of Campus Ministry.

Campus Ministry received more than 100 e-mails from students asking if the University would offer the Tridentine Mass after Benedict XVI released the document in early July, Warner said.

Brett Perkins, director of Protestant Student Resources and Catholic Peer Ministry at Campus Ministry, said some students even formed a Facebook group requesting the Tridentine Mass.

"We knew there was going to be a number of students who wanted this. We knew that stable community would be there," Perkins said.

Members of Campus Ministry met over the summer to decide how to respond to students' demand and the "motu proprio" (as the papal rescript is called, Latin for "of his own accord").

The Tridentine Mass will be celebrated at 8 a.m. most Sundays of the year at Alumni Hall because its chapel has a door that opens directly to the outside and has a high altar, which is also against the wall, making it possible for the priest to celebrate the Mass in the traditional way, Perkins said. In the Tridentine Mass, the priest faces the same direction of the people, toward the altar. The time was chosen so as to not interfere with previously scheduled Masses at the Basilica and in the chapels on campus.

A missalette will be available to students containing Latin and English translations. The rubrics will also be included, so that students can follow the Mass.

Having two forms of Mass on campus offers "the fullness of the Latin Rite - the Roman Catholic Rite," Warner said. "Students will be able to experience both forms, the ordinary and the extraordinary."

The papal document described two forms of the Latin, or Roman, Rite, Warner said. The first, the ordinary form, the Novus Ordo of Pope Paul VI, which came into effect in 1970, is the form of Mass usually celebrated on campus. The second, the extraordinary form, is the Tridentine Mass, which is based on Pope John XXIII's reform of the Missal.

Perkins explained how the two forms developed.

The word "Tridentine" refers to "what came out of the Council of Trent," Perkins said. The Council took place between 1545 and 1563 and was a time of response to the Protestant Reformation.

"The Church issued at that time what is known as the Tridentine Missal, that went through additions and edits from the 1560s to 1962," Perkins said.

The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, called for a "renewal of liturgy," Perkins said. The result was the 1970 Missal, which became the normative way of celebrating the Mass.

The main difference between the ordinary and extraordinary forms, Perkins said, is the different emphasis each places on certain aspects of the faith."

They are both beautiful, holy expressions of the same faith," he said.

The concept of the priest facing the same direction as the congregations presents the priest as a leader of the people, who are "all are on this same pilgrim journey towards God," Perkins said.

In the Novus Ordo, the congregation gathers around the table, sharing the Eucharist, he said, emphasizing the faith's sense of community.

Currently four priests on campus are able to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, but more are in training, Warner said. Priests must learn both the language - Latin - of the Mass and the rubrics, which differ from the ordinary form.

Altar servers typically participate in the Mass responses on behalf of the people, Perkins said. Between 20 and 30 altar servers volunteered to participate in the Mass. Only those who know the Mass will help in its celebration until others have witnessed the Mass and have been fully trained.

Campus Ministry sponsored a three-part lecture series titled "Three Days of Reflection on the Eucharist," to prepare the community for the celebration of the Tridentine Mass.

The first of these lectures, "The Theology of the Eucharist," given by theology professor David Fagerberg, discussed the importance of seeing the two forms of the Mass through the lens of continuity.

Father Michael Driscoll presented the history of the extraordinary form in a lecture titled "The Formation of the Tridentine Missal" Tuesday.

He also said the re-introduction of the Tridentine Mass as an optional form of celebration reflects continuity with the ordinary form.

"Vatican II was not a rupture of the [liturgical] tradition, but rather a continuation," he said.

The third lecture, titled "The Liturgical Reforms of the Second Vatican Council," will take place today at 6 p.m. in the Hammes Student Lounge in the Coleman Morse Center. Basilica rector Father Peter Roccawill speak on these changes.

© Copyright 2007 The Observer

SOMETHING OF INTEREST. HOPE TO SEE SOME FOLLOW-UP OF THIS MEETING IN THE FUTURE.


International Muslim Leaders to Make Significant Announcement to Reach out to Christian LeadershipWednesday October 10, 11:11 am ET

--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought:

WHAT: It will be announced that 138 Muslim clerics, theologians and academics delivered a letter to Pope Benedict XVI and 25 other Christian leaders highlighting the theological synergies of the two faiths. In an historic display of unity, Muslim leaders have made an important announcement promoting inter- faith understanding and cooperation. This unprecedented
initiative falls on the one year anniversary of the open letter issued by Muslim clerics to Pope Benedict XVI in response to his remarks at the Regensburg University. Muslim leaders are calling Christians to formally recognize historical and theological ties between the two faiths to
build towards future collaboration.

Members of the media are invited to this rare opportunity to learn more about this initiative

WHO: Dr. Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Bosnia

Dr. John Esposito, Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

WHERE: National Press Club
Zenger Room
529 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20045

WHEN: Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 12:30pm

To confirm your attendance, please RSVP to Kathryn Phelps via email at kphelps@qorvis.com
This media advisory is being distributed by Qorvis Communications on behalf of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.

Additional information is available at the
Department of Justice in Washington, DC.
Contact:
For the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought:
George Atallah, 202-683-3147
gatallah@qorvis.com
Source: Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought

This is so lighthearted and totally sweet.

Cat tells life story of Pope Benedict
Chico, a feline companion, tells the story of Benedict in a new biography
Reuters
VATICAN CITY - Chico the cat describes the life of his “best friend,” Pope Benedict XVI, in an authorized biography for children released this week.

“Dear Children, here you will find a biography that is different to others because it is told by a cat and it is not every day a cat can consider the Holy Father his friend and sit down to write his life story,” the Pope’s personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, says in the foreword.

“Chico and Joseph—A Cat Recounts the Life of Pope Benedict XVI” is narrated by Chico who took up with the Pope in his native Germany when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The illustrated 44-page book is written by Italian author Jeanne Perego and set mostly in Germany in the years before Benedict was elected in April 2005.

Chico is a real cat who belongs to a German couple in the German city of Pentling, where the pope lived until he moved to Rome in 1981. The couple are caretakers of the house where Ratzinger had hoped to retire had he not been elected pope.

Chico tells the story of the life of “my best friend” from his birth in Germany in 1927, through his days as a young man, priest, bishop and cardinal. It ends with his election as pope on April 19, 2005.

It recounts the Nazi era in Germany when the pope was a teenager, calling the war years “one of the most dramatic and shameful times in the history of man.”

“At that time, Joseph was forced to do something which was absolutely against his will: join the army and leave for the war. We cats do not make war,” Chico narrates.

Chico recounts how each time then Cardinal Ratzinger returned to Germany for a vacation, the cat would run into his house and sit on his lap as he played the piano.

One Christmas, when the future pope tried to put the cat out of the house “I misbehaved” and scratched him. “He forgave me right away but told me: ‘Don’t do it again.’”

In his foreword, Ganswein tells the children: “Keep in mind that the cat is writing from his point of view. At the end of the day he is a cat, even if he is a cat who is a friend.”

During the years when he was a cardinal in Rome, the future pope befriended another cat he found on the street and kept him in his apartment until he was elected pontiff.

There have been conflicting reports about whether that cat moved into the Vatican with the pope.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited.

The original article was published in July 07. The Christian Science Monitor recently picked it up.

Catholic Church's Shift Toward Tradition
ROME, July 18, 2007
(Christian Science Monitor) This article was written by Robert Marquand.

The leader of 1.1 billion Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI, is completing a significant theological shift of the Roman Catholic church — a sweeping change that not only eclipses 40 years of a more moderate and collegial Catholicism, but seeks to reassert the spiritual supremacy of the Vatican and more openly proclaim the authority of the office of pope among all Christians.

Some two years after taking the reins, say Protestant and Catholic theologians and religious experts, the Bavarian-born pope is moving swiftly to affirm orthodox doctrines and medieval church rituals that undermine the spirit of Vatican II, a period of modernization in which the church appeared to be rethinking its centuries-long insistence that it had exclusive claims to matters of grace, truth, salvation, and church structure in the Christian world.

Liberal Catholics go so far as to characterize Benedict as leading a counterreformation in the church, in which fervent backers of traditional Catholic identity and faith are favored, even at the expense of popularity. "While Vatican II said that the Holy Spirit was in operation among the people, now we are saying, no, the Holy Spirit is operating in the bishops.

It is an enormous change," says Frank Flinn, author of the "Encyclopedia of Catholicism." The "impression [previous Pope] John Paul II gave was to emphasize teaching so that all may be one. But Benedict is turning around and saying to churches, 'you aren't all one.' It is destroying the ecumenical movement."

When the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope on April 8, 2005, many Catholics felt he might soften his reputation as a hard-line "enforcer of the faith." Yet his tenure has shown few signs of mellowing. In the space of three days this month, for example, he promoted the old Latin Mass, which contains references to the conversion of the Jews, then issued a blockbuster doctrinal clarification statement saying that Orthodox and Protestant churches were "lacking" and only authentic through their relationship with Rome.

"Benedict has fought for the same thing for 30 years, and now he is putting it to work," says Frederic Lenoir, editor of Le Monde's religious supplement in Paris. "His main aim in being pope is to unify the true believer groups, and he will lose members or destroy religious dialogues, if that's what it takes." Defenders say that only by a radical reassertion of traditional Catholicism can the church become the body able to bring clarity, order, and moral authority to a troubled world.

The various attempts to adapt the church to modernity in the 1960s, they argue, have resulted only in muddled meanings and a lack of proper moral concepts. Beyond that, the opening of the church allowed Jewish, Protestant, atheist, and Islamic ideas to compete against what is seen as God's church, instituted by Christ and the apostle Peter. Since Vatican II (1964-1969), the Roman Catholic Church in Europe has lost tens of millions of churchgoers at a time when Muslim populations are increasing in Europe.

Benedict has stated his central mission is to restore the Catholic Church in Europe and to bridge the gap with Eastern Orthodox churches that more closely share a traditional Catholic suspicion of modernity, the Enlightenment, the Reformation, pluralism, and secularism.

"We think this pope may be starting back on the proper pathway," says a friar at the St. Nicolas du Chardonnet church in Paris, a center of the ultra-traditional Lefebvrist Catholic sect. "We think he understands the real faith. What we object to is his visiting of the mosque in Turkey. He shouldn't have done that."

Last September, the pope stirred the Muslim world following an academic talk that made reference to Islamic teachings as inherently violent. It was the kind of religious assertion, described later by the Vatican as a "misunderstanding," that was rarely if ever heard under Pope John Paul II.

"The previous pope was friendly, down-to-earth, and a good pastor," says Daniele Garrone, a Rome-based theologian of the Waldensian church, a reformed faith. "But Benedict is emphasizing theological clarity, and I think he is painting himself into a corner.

If you believe the church is the sole authority, and you teach this, you have to pay the consequences. Benedict takes it seriously, so I really feel he is suffering right now. He doesn't take this lightly, but feels it is his duty. I wouldn't want to be pope at this point."

Pope Benedict was a German academic and prolific theologian. In the early years of his career, he studied with Hans Kung, a highly influential liberal Catholic theologian whom Benedict would one day reprimand for questioning the concept of papal infallibility. Pope Benedict also contributed to Vatican II, a period when the church was engaging Martin Luther's concept of the "priesthood of all believers" and vesting more authority in and pastoral attention to ordinary churchgoers.

Yet during the German student riots of 1968, a chaotic time when many young Germans were demanding that their parents face up to the Nazi past, Ratzinger felt deeply that the Vatican II project was coming unhinged. He became archbishop, then cardinal in 1977, and in 1981 was made prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith at the Vatican, a meteoric rise. Ratzinger began to pursue and censure liberal theologians favorable to Vatican II.

He issued a paper, "Instruction Concerning Certain Aspects of the 'Theology of Liberation,'" that started to quash liberation-theology movements, particularly in Latin America. His tenure as prefect became synonymous with a host of conservative positions on abortion, homosexuality, and birth control, earning him the informal nickname of "the enforcer."

In 2002, he was made dean of the College of Cardinals, the pope's right-hand man. In the first year, he issued "Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life" that requested bishops not to allow communion to politicians that did not uphold the church teachings on abortion.

Pope Benedict's press officer, Fr. Federico Lombardi, told the Monitor that the church is not changing its theological positions but is simply clarifying them and seeking to "end the confusion" inside Catholic seminaries about church beliefs. He felt the main difference is a stronger emphasis on "Catholic identity," however. Mr. Garrone argues that the church must appear to have continuity and can't admit it is changing.

"Many nuns, priests, sisters, theologians, and Catholics felt that Vatican II was a new beginning in the history of the church. But by emphasizing 'continuity,' Benedict is saying the second Vatican council was not a new beginning." The new papal favoring of Latin Mass is an example. Also known as the "Tridentine" Mass, it is performed by priests who turn their back to the congregation and speak in Latin.

This Mass was largely abandoned after Vatican II, partly because it was incomprehensible to lay Catholics and because it contained negative references to Jews. The Latin Mass has long been hated by Jews for its emphasis on the Jewish role in turning Jesus over to the Romans for crucifixion and for its call for Jews to come into the church. Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, described the Latin Mass initiative as "a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations."

While the Vatican is not forcing local Catholic churches to say the Latin Mass, it is encouraging local members who want it to lobby their parishes. Some priests argue that this may create further strains on their resources and possibly bring contention. On July 10, the Vatican issued "Regarding Certain Aspects of Church Doctrine."

It argued that churches emerging from the Reformation outside the direct authority of Rome "cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense." Protestants, in particular, "suffer from defects," are properly called communities, not churches, and must one day recognize "the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him" — a major affirmation of papal authority.

While Catholics may engage in ecumenical activities, they must do so through a stronger sense of Catholicism as the true church. Not surprisingly, the July 10 statement brought a mixture of anger and irritation in other churches. The Rev. David Phillips, an Anglican official, described it as "ludicrous" to "accept the idea that the pope is in some special way the successor of the Apostle Peter," and added: "We are grateful that the Vatican has once again been honest in declaring their view that the Church of England is not a proper church. We would wish to be equally open; unity will only be possible when the papacy renounces its errors and pretensions."

The Vatican said it was surprised Protestants would feel anger at being described as less than churches in hundreds of stories in English-language papers around the world and asked them not to "overreact." "This isn't about Protestants, it is an internal theological document for purposes of clarity,"

Father Lombardi stated. Some analysts say that, as with the September controversy over Islam, the Vatican sought to downplay the issue even as the hard-line message was amplified in the world media, putting Rome in the position of defining the issue. "Benedict wants to say that Vatican II is not threatened, but the document on July 10 shows a very different reading," says Christian Mercier, religion editor of the Paris-based Catholic magazine, La Vie. In the past year, the pope has visited the mosque in Turkey, met with Eastern Orthodox prelates, written to Catholics in China, visited Brazil, and authored a best-selling book about Jesus.

Many theologians say the shifts under Pope Benedict aren't simply a small matter of rules, rituals, clarifications, and a tidying up of doctrine. Perhaps one of the most significant, though little noticed, changes has to do with the changing concept of the meaning of the kingdom of heaven.

The current pope has a different vision of time and eschatology. Under Vatican II, it was accepted that the coming of the kingdom is possible to experience on Earth and not simply in the afterlife. Vatican II stressed concepts like "becoming," "change," and "newness," and championed social justice and liberty as linked to ideas of grace. Pope Benedict has begun to roll back such ideas, says Mr. Flinn, the Catholic theologian at Washington University in St. Louis, and his theology is "pessimistic, in the sense that heaven and Earth are separate concepts, and that Christ's kingdom can't be experienced here."

"It is the old vertical eschatology," Flinn says. "Liberal Catholics read the scriptures as saying the kingdom is already here, but not yet. The Vatican seems to be saying the kingdom is not yet, not yet, until the end of time, when Jesus returns. Meanwhile, the church is in charge, the pope is the vicar of Christ, and the church has the full truth."

© Copyright 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.

East and West Form One Church, Says Pope
Addresses Visiting Bishops From Ukraine

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, SEPT. 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).-

Benedict XVI affirmed that Eastern and Roman Catholics are united in forming one Church.

The Pope said this today when receiving in audience the bishops of the Latin rite of Ukraine, in Italy for their five-yearly visit and accompanied by Greek-Catholic bishops from that country. They visited Benedict XVI at the papal summer residence south of Rome.

The Holy Father stated: "In the variety of its rites and historical traditions, the one Catholic Church in every corner of the earth announces and bears witness to the one Jesus Christ, the Word of salvation for all men and for all of man."

It is for this reason that the effectiveness of all our pastoral and apostolic projects depends, above all, on faithfulness to Christ."

The Pope asked for an intensified collaboration between the Latin-rite bishops and the Greek-Catholic bishops in Ukraine "for the good of the entire Christian people."

Testimony"Animated by this spirit," the Pontiff told the prelates, "it is not difficult for you [...] to intensify cordial cooperation between Latin bishops and Greek-Catholic bishops, for the good of the entire Christian people. Thus you have the opportunity to coordinate your pastoral plans and your apostolic activities, always offering testimony of that ecclesial communion which is also an indispensable condition for ecumenical dialogue with our brethren in the Orthodox and other Churches."

The Holy Father suggested to the Latin and Greek-Catholic bishops that they meet at least once a year, reaching "agreement between yourselves in order to make pastoral activity ever more harmonious and effective. I am convinced that fraternal cooperation between pastors will be an encouragement and a stimulus for all the faithful to grow in unity and apostolic enthusiasm, and that it will also favor fruitful ecumenical dialogue."

Benedict XVI highlighted the prelates' efforts "to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel in the dear land of Ukraine, sometimes encountering no small number of difficulties but always supported by the awareness that Christ guides his flock with a sure hand, the flock that he himself entrusted to your hands as his ministers."

Pope: Terror fight must respect law
By Ariel David, Associated Press
Article Launched: 09/22/2007
Long Beach Press

VATICAN CITY - Democratic societies have the right to defend themselves against terrorism but must also respect laws and human rights - or they risk endangering the very freedoms they want to protect, Pope Benedict XVI said Friday.

"In democratic systems, the use of force in a manner contrary to the principles of a constitutional state can never be justified," the pope said at an audience with members of the Centrist Democrat International, an association of center-right parties from around the world.
"Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God's name and harbor an inexcusable contempt for human life," Benedict said.

The pope said that some terrorist networks justify their actions by "shamelessly" exploiting the charge that society has forgotten God, and he said that a greater respect for religion could help counter that accusation.

"Society naturally has a right to defend itself," but the struggle against terrorism must respect moral and legal norms, the pope said.

"How can we claim to protect democracy if we threaten its very foundations?" Benedict said. "It is necessary both to keep careful watch over the security of civil society and its citizens while at the same time safeguarding the inalienable rights of all."

The pope did not mention specific countries or people.

Benedict urged the politicians to spread values he said are being endangered by changes in their communities. He urged them to oppose abortion, divorce and ideologies that view financial gain as the only good.

The pope also spoke out in defense of religious freedom, which he said includes the right to choose one's faith.

"The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice," he said

Religion tells you to forgive but Pope Benedict could be excused for not forgiving US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice for a remark back in 2003.

In March 2003, just before the Iraq war, Condolezza Rice met with a special envoy from the Vatican Rome and told them that the Bush administration didn’t care about the views of the late Pope John Paul II on the immorality of its planned military actions in Iraq.

Ties between the Washington and the Vatican were plunged in further disarray after criticism from the Pope that Iraqi Christians under the new Iraqi Constitution is “unacceptable”.

The bad blood between the Pope and Rice were made public after it was revealed in an Italian newspaper that the Pope refused a meeting request from the US Secretary of State to discuss Iraq.

BBC News, which appears to have confirmed the Italian paper's story, says: "Instead of meeting the Pope, Ms Rice had to make do with a telephone conversation with the Vatican's number two, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was visiting the U.S. during August on other business."

AFP reported that the reply "'illustrated the divergence of view' between the Vatican and the White House about the 'initiatives of the Bush administration in the Middle East.'"

AND

Vatican confirms pope's UN visit in spring, other stops undecided

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI plans to travel to the United States in the spring to address the United Nations, but other possible U.S. stops have not been confirmed, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Benedict accepted an invitation from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and will address the General Assembly.

American bishops and the Vatican also have been discussing other possible stops, including Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington. But only the spring visit to New York has been confirmed, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman.

A stop in Boston would send a particularly poignant message of papal concern over the clerical sex abuse scandal, which erupted there in 2002 and forced its archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law, to resign in disgrace.

The planning for the trip is delicate because it would come during the presidential election campaigns.

The trip is Benedict's first international visit planned for 2008. In July, Benedict is due to attend World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. Later in the year, plans to visit the shrine in Lourdes, France, which in 2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Madonna.

Pope John Paul II visited the United States seven times during his nearly 27-year pontificate, the last in 1999.

The 80-year-old Benedict completed his seventh foreign trip as pope earlier this month with a three-day visit to Austria.

Pope's Message for Catholic-Orthodox Symposium
"We All Look With Hope" Toward Full Communion
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, SEPT. 17, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the Sept. 12 message Benedict XVI sent to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, on the occasion of the 10th Inter-Christian Symposium, dedicated to dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox.* * *

With great joy I learned that the Tenth Inter-Christian Symposium, promoted by the Franciscan Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical Antonianum University and by the Department of Theology of the Theological Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessalonica, will take place on the Island of Tinos, where Catholics and Orthodox live together in brotherly love.

The ecumenical cooperation in the academic field contributes to maintaining an impetus toward the longed for communion among all Christians. To this regard, the Second Vatican Council had glimpsed in this field a possible opportunity to involve all of God's people in the search for full unity. "This importance is the greater because the instruction and spiritual formation of the faithful and of religious depends so largely on the formation which their priests have received" ("Unitatis Redintegratio," 10).

The theme of the symposium: "St. John Chrysostom: Bridge Between East and West," coinciding with the 1,600th anniversary of his death on Sept. 14, 497, will offer the occasion to commemorate an illustrious Father of the Church venerated in the East as in the West -- a valiant, illuminated and faithful preacher of the Word of God, upon which he founded his pastoral action; such an extraordinary hermeneutist and speaker that, from the fifth century, he was given the title of Chrysostom, which means golden-mouthed.

A man whose contribution to the formation of the Byzantine liturgy is known to everyone. For the courage and faithfulness of his evangelical witness he was able to suffer persecution and exile. After complex historical events, from May 1, 1626, his body reposed in St. Peter's Basilica, and on Nov. 27, 2004, my venerated predecessor John Paul II gave part of the relics to His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and, thus, this great Father of the Church is now venerated in the Vatican basilica as well as in the Church of St. George in Fanar.

The reflection of your symposium, which will deal with a theme related to John Chrysostom and communion with the Church of the West while analyzing some problems that exist today, will contribute to upholding and corroborating the real -- though imperfect -- communion that exists between Catholics and Orthodox, so that we may reach that fullness which will one day enable us to concelebrate the one Eucharist. And it is to that blessed day that we all look with hope, organizing practical initiatives such as this one.

With these sentiments, I invoke God's abundant blessing upon your meeting and all of the participants: May the Holy Spirit illuminate the minds, warm the hearts and fill each one with the joy and peace of the Lord.

I would like to take this opportunity to send a brotherly greeting to the Orthodox and Catholic faithful in Greece, and in a truly special way, to the archbishop of Athens and all Greece, His Beatitude Chrystodoulos, wishing him a full recovery in health, so that he may return to his pastoral service as soon as possible, and I assure my prayers for this intention. May the "Theotokos," loved and venerated with special devotion on the island of Tinos, offer her motherly intercession so that our shared intentions will be crowned by the much wished for spiritual successes.

From Castel Gandolfo,

Sept. 12, 2007

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

New York Times
September 7, 2007
Muted Expectations as Benedict Heads to Austria
By IAN FISHER

ROME, Sept. 6 — For all the reverent round-the-clock coverage, a papal trip is not really aimed at the general public. Popes travel to talk to believers — and that will be the case too when Benedict XVI arrives in Austria on Friday.

But the three-day visit to Austria, an overwhelmingly Catholic country with a strained relationship with its faith, highlights a central — and difficult — question of Benedict’s papacy: Which believers, exactly, does this pope talk to?

“We are good Catholics, of course,” said Martha Heizer, vice president of We Are Church, a group that neatly symbolizes the troubles that Roman Catholicism faces in Europe. “We are in the church and stayed in the church.”

Planning for We Are Church began in Austria in 1995 and the organization has since grown into one of the largest and most vocal Catholic groups. The group asked, but Benedict will not meet with its leaders on this trip to discuss problems facing Austria in particular, but many other once solidly Catholic countries as well: declining Mass attendance, lingering anger over pedophilia scandals, an unmet desire for renewal of church life.

The problem is that We Are Church is a liberal group that embraces marriage for priests and ordination of women — two positions that earned the group condemnation from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in a letter he wrote in 1998, seven years before he was elected Pope Benedict XVI. The group, he wrote, has “an understanding of morality which directly contradicts Catholic teaching.”

And so Austria is one key battleground in the larger war over the soul of a church evermore in decline in Europe. That struggle explains why, to some degree, excitement over the visit from a fellow German-speaker seems muted in Austria, so much so that the Vatican has lowered expectations over how big the crowds might be.

At the heart of the struggle is how to reconcile competing visions for rejuvenating the church.
In a papacy that seems increasingly conservative, Benedict seems intent on achieving this by engaging more traditional believers like himself.

This summer he loosened rules on saying the old Latin Mass, aimed partly at mending a rift with ultra-traditionalist Catholics on the church’s right wing. He also repeated his contentious belief that Catholicism is the only true church, a statement many in the church’s left and middle worry will hurt ties with other denominations.

Many liberal Catholics generally complain that the pope barely acknowledges them, and that their vision of the church could also help revive it. In Austria, that seems to have added to anger and frustration that has simmered since at least 1995, when a major scandal over pedophile priests erupted there, a painful preview of later scandals in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere that gave birth to We Are Church.

“In the beginning of his papacy the pope was for many people ‘simpatico,’ ” said the Rev. Rudolf Schermann, who edits a Catholic magazine in Austria that has pressed for changes in the church. But more recently, he said, the view has grown more skeptical, with the feeling that Benedict is unlikely to veer far from his view of church tradition or consult with those unlike him.

“The people of Austria are believers, but not without criticism,” Father Schermann said.
To be sure, the problems of the Austrian church, and of the churches around Europe, run deeper than the question of which wing of the church the pope engages. For decades in decline, the number of Austrians who call themselves Catholic has dropped, in a recent survey, to 74 percent, along with the numbers of those paying a state-administered “church tax” of $340 a year.

Colliding with this larger cultural shift away from Catholicism, anger exploded in 1995 over charges that Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, the archbishop of Vienna at the time, had molested youths two decades earlier.

“Don’t leave the church!” Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, exhorted Austrians on his last trip there in 1998. Even then, crowds far smaller than expected embarrassed the Vatican.
Since 2004, defections from the faith have reportedly risen again, after some 40,000 pornographic images, including those of children, were discovered at a seminary near Vienna.
On the eve of the pope’s trip, there has been no disguising the difficulties of the Austrian church. The nation’s leading cleric, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, contended recently on Vatican Radio that “after very difficult times,” he saw a “great awakening” in Austria among those who understand that “our society needs the Gospel, prayer, faith.”

One unanswered question is whether Benedict will acknowledge the scandals, or even offer some apology for them, something Catholics of all leanings say they would like. Many expect some gesture.

“What the pope wants to do is simply to establish again a trust in the Catholic church, to say, ‘These terrible things happened but the church is aware of this,’ ” said Andreas Englisch, the Vatican reporter for the German newspaper Bild and author of books about John Paul and Benedict.

On whether Benedict might change his mind and reach out to groups like We Are Church, on this trip or anywhere else, Mr. Englisch and others are far more skeptical.

“He loves talking to people with a different opinion,” he said. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he engaged in public forums with nonbelievers like the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas and Marcello Pera, former president of the Italian senate.

“But he is talking to someone else — it is out of the church,” Mr. Englisch noted. Dissenting inside the church, he said, is a more difficult question for Benedict, who often speaks of church doctrine as truth, not negotiated but accepted.

Some experts question whether Benedict really intends to freeze out liberal groups. The Rev. John Paul Wauk, professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, noted that Benedict met with his old liberal rival, the Rev. Hans Küng, in the early days of his papacy and that he maintained ties with a left-leaning Italian group, the Community of St. Egidio.
Beyond that, Father Wauk said, he is not sure a papal trip is the best venue for discussing dissent in the church.

“He is there to teach the faith of the church,” he said. “That’s his role. In a public manner, the pope’s vocation as pastor of the church is not academic dialogue, one-on-one, which clearly Cardinal Ratzinger was comfortable with.”

But many point to his session with Dr. Küng, for years a harsh critic of Cardinal Ratzinger, as the only known meeting with a liberal.

In a telephone interview, Dr. Küng declined to comment directly on the meeting, instead speaking generally about the coming visit.

“I still hope that the pope would address the real issues of the church in Austria: the tremendous lack of priests, the exit of hundreds of thousands of people, the decay of this church, and to give constructive practical answers, and not only exhortations.”

If in fact it is the pope’s strategy to ignore the liberal wing, not everyone is certain he is mistaken, either on doctrine or strategy. Like Cardinal Ratzinger, many conservative Catholics argue that some liberals stand against church doctrine and deserve isolation. Some liberals worry not about their orthodoxy but whether their time may be passing.

The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, director of the Institute of Pastoral Theology in Vienna, noted that a recent survey showed the most excitement about the pope’s visit among Catholics under 20. He said the young were more conservative, and were not joining groups like We Are Church.

“Liberals are decreasing in numbers,” he said. “They are elderly people. They are people like me. They were involved and very hopeful that the church could make changes. But the church is not now a church of changes.”

Some things just need to be called to the attention of others. I loved this Letter to the Editor from Fr. Eric Groner in Greenville, Mississippi

From the Delta Democrat Times Newspaper

Just who's the thug? The pope or the professor?

To the editor:

Does professor Walter E. Williams of George Mason University write like a thug?

This is the question I pose after reading Professor Williams' column, “Pope Benedict XVI sanctions the OECD thugs” on Aug. 29, 2007.

According to Webster's Dictionary, a thug is a “thief, brutal ruffian or assassin: Gangster, killer.”

Has the OECD ever killed, beaten up or stolen something from anyone?Are the members of the OECD wanted by the law enforcement agencies around the world?

If the answer to these questions is no, then the thug title doesn't fit them. In a free society, we can disagree with other people's politics and philosophies of life, but that doesn't give us the right to call them names and cast aspersions on them. The mere inference that Pope Benedict supports or sanctions thugs in some way, shape or form is over the top. One might even say that an attempt to smear, steal or kill another person's good name whom we disagree with is a thuggish act.

In our society today, many writers engage in attention-grabbing headlines to entice people to read their work. It seems that professor Williams in his article doesn't understand what “tax evasion” means, why it is bad for a society governed by the rule of law and why Pope Benedict is against this type of behavior.

Maybe we should call Professor Williams “the nutty professor” for his own myopic world view and critique of an unfinished document that he hasn't even read. The nutty professor is complaining about an encyclical that is still in the writing stage, and his sources are based on hearsay information. A true gentleman and scholar would at least reserve judgment and not engage in such thuggery until after reading the finished encyclical.

I think one answer to the tax evasion/tax avoidance question that Professor Williams might want to consider can be found in the Bible. Jesus was asked if it was right to pay taxes to the emperor, and he responded that we should give to God what is God's and give to Caesar what is Caesar's.

Father Eric Groner, SVDSacred Heart ChurchGreenville

Pope urges young to care for planet
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press WriterSun Sep 2, 4

The planet risks irreversible decline from environmentally unsustainable development, Pope Benedict XVI warned Sunday, urging young Catholics to take the lead in caring for the Earth and its precious resources.

During an open-air Mass on the final day of a weekend religious youth rally that drew about 500,000 people to the town of Loreto, Italy's most important shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Benedict said the world's water supply particularly needed to be preserved and shared equitably to avoid conflicts.

The Loreto meeting organized by the Italian bishops' conference carried a strong environmental message. Participants were given biodegradable plates, recycling bags for their trash and a hand-cranked cell-phone recharger.

Benedict told the crowd, camped out under umbrellas and tents on a vast, dusty field on the Adriatic coast, that it was up to them to save the planet from development that had often ignored "nature's delicate equilibrium."

"Before it's too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth," Benedict said in his homily. "We need a decisive 'yes' to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible."

He said water needed to be preserved since "it unfortunately becomes a source of strong tensions and conflicts if it isn't shared in an equitable and peaceful manner."

Benedict lamented this week the environmental impact of recent forest fires in Italy and Greece. And during his summer vacation in the mountains, he spoke frequently about the importance of nature — God's creation — in inspiring spirituality.

Under Benedict, the Vatican has been taking steps toward greater environmental sustainability. It has joined a reforestation project aimed at offsetting its CO2 emissions, and has also said it was installing solar cells on the roof of its main auditorium.

Benedict urged the young to "go against the grain" and not be seduced by pressure, including from the mass media, to succeed at all costs in arrogant, egotistical ways.

"Be vigilant! Be critical! Don't get swept up in the wave of this powerful persuasion," he said. "Don't be afraid, dear friends, to take the 'alternate' path indicated by true love: a sober and solid lifestyle, with loving, sincere and pure relations, an honest commitment to studies and work, and the profound interest in the common good."

Andrea Ringressi, 29, and his girlfriend of three years, Marta Iuzzolini, 27, said they appreciated the pope's green message, particularly during an event that was producing small mountains of plastic water bottles and other refuse.

"It's a good idea here, because there's so much garbage!" Iuzzolini said as she surveyed the grounds, which by the end of the weekend had turned into a very un-ecological field of plastic tarps and garbage bags.
But the couple, who traveled across Italy from the Tuscan city of Pisa for the event, said Benedict's other main message — about how young people should not be afraid to commit themselves to marriage even though so many marriages fail — had particular resonance.

"Marriage is a challenge that we are thinking about," Ringressi said, as he snuggled with Iuzzolini under an umbrella. "I appreciate that he says there are difficulties, but that if you have this desire, this will to follow your dreams, confide in Jesus."

The meeting was an Italian warm-up for next year's World Youth Day, in Sydney, Australia, which the 80-year-old pope plans to attend.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Pope says Mother Teresa felt "God's silence"
Sat Sep 1, 2:38
Pope Benedict said on Saturday that even the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta "suffered from the silence of God" despite her immense charity and faith.

The Pope, addressing a youth rally in central Italy, referred to a new book that reveals that the Roman Catholic nun was deeply tormented about her faith and suffered periods of doubt about God.

It is significant that the Pope mentioned Mother Teresa's torment about God's silence as not being unusual because there was some speculation that the letters could hurt the procedure to make her a saint.

"All believers know about the silence of God," he said in unprepared remarks. "Even Mother Teresa, with all her charity and force of faith, suffered from the silence of God," he said.
He said believers sometimes had to withstand the silence of God in order to understand the situation of people who do not believe.

Due out on September 4, the book, "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light" is a collection of letters written to colleagues and superiors over 66 years.

The ethnic Albanian nun, who dedicated her life to poor, sick and dying in India, died in 1997 aged 87.

Mother Teresa had wanted all her letters destroyed, but the Vatican ordered they be preserved as potential relics of a saint, according to a spokeswoman for Doubleday, the U.S. publisher of the book.

Mother Teresa has been beatified but has not yet been made a saint.

Time magazine, which has first serial rights, published excerpts on its Web site last month.
When the German-born pontiff visited the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz last year, he publicly asked why God was silent when 1.5 million victims, mostly Jews, died there.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.