Pope Benedict Opposes Harry Potter Novels
RIMSTING, Germany, June 27, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As the sixth issue of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prior to his elevation to the Pontificate, had denounced the wildly popular series has resurfaced. In 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Catholic German critic of Harry Potter outlining his agreement with her opposition to Rowling's offerings.
As Amazon books touted over a million pre-orders for the newest in the Potter series, Spiritdaily.com, a Catholic news website with the flair of the DrudgeReport, recalled a German magazine article speaking of a letter from Cardinal Ratzinger to German Potter critic Gabriele Kuby.
That letter came to Kuby on March 7, 2003. A month before papers around the world were littered with false headlines such as "Pope Approves Potter" (Toronto Star), "Pope Sticks Up for Potter Books" (BBC), "Harry Potter Is Ok With The Pontiff" (Chicago Sun Times) and "Vatican: Harry Potter's OK with us" (CNN Asia). The stories were based on an off-hand comment in favour of the Potter books by a Vatican spokesman at a press conference on the release of a Vatican document on the New Age. (See the LifeSiteNews.com coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/feb/03020703.html )
A 1993 German-language interview with Kuby, the author of "Harry Potter - gut oder böse" (Harry Potter- good or evil?), by Zenit news summarizes Kuby's objections to Potter neatly as its theme being "My Will be done' opposed to 'Thy Will be done". In that interview Kuby readily admits that many people, Catholics included, do not see the dangers she sees in the Potter series. "I have no desire to see and depict devils where there are none, but when I see with my own eyes, when my intelligence and heart inform me, that there is a devil painted on a wall even though most everyone else sees on this same wall one flowery wallpaper design, then I feel obliged to give witness to the truth , whether convenient or unwelcome. There is such a thing as public deception - we Germans know about that," she says. (See the German Zenit interview http://www.zenit.org/german/visualizza.phtml?sid=45441 )
The main thrust of Kuby's objection to Potter is that the books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.
In the Zenit interview, Kuby quotes from the letter she received from Cardinal Ratzinger. In the letter, then-Cardinal Ratzinger specifically pointed to the fact that the danger in the Potter books is hidden was greatly concerning. "It is good that you shed light and inform us on the Harry Potter matter, for these are subtle seductions that are barely noticeable and precisely because of that deeply affect (children) and corrupt the Christian faith in souls even before it (the Faith) could properly grow and mature," said Cardinal Ratzinger.
Kuby's Potter criticism also received recognition in Germany from the city of Munich's office of Youth affairs, which at the time made headlines for indicating that the Potter books were not fit for children.
Regarding the harm to children from the Potter books, Kuby again quotes Cardinal Ratzinger's letter saying, "That they (children) are being cut off from God, the source of Love and Hope , so that they in sorrowful life conditions are without a foundation that supports them -that they lose the spirit of discernment between good and evil and that they will not have the necessary strength and knowledge to withstand the temptations to evil."
The most prominent Potter critic in North America, Catholic novelist and painter Michael O'Brien commented to LifeSiteNews.com on the comments of now-Pope Benedict saying, "This discernment on the part of Benedict XVI reveals the Holy Father's depth and wide ranging gifts of spiritual discernment." O'Brien, author of a book dealing with fantasy literature for children added, "it's consistent with many of the statements he's been making since his election to the Chair of Peter, indeed for the past 20 years. A probing accurate read of the massing spiritual warfare that is moving to a new level of struggle in western civilization. He is a man in whom a prodigious intellect is integrated with great spiritual gifts, as the father of the universal church we would do well to listen to him."
See O'Brien's essay analyzing the Potter series
See the LifeSiteNews.com Harry Potter controversy page:
http://www.lifesite.net/features/harrypotter
See Gabriele Kuby's, Michael O'Brien and Spiritdaily's websites:
http://www.gabriele-kuby.de/
http://www.studiobrien.com
http://www.spiritdaily.com
6.21.2005
Europe Facing Infertility Epidemic
Europe is already in a population crisis: the median amount of children per family is already less than replacement rate. If infertility treatments are available, women will continue to follow careers and utilize IVF and other treatments. Science makes ignoring God's plan in favor of your own very easy. No conscience necessary.
“Could threaten Europe's population”says Scientist
SHEFFIELD, England, June 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The prevalence of infertility in Europe, and presumably in other developed nations, is likely to double in the next 10 years – from one in seven couples now to approximately one in three, according to a UK scientist.
Sheffield University Professor Bill Ledger warned that the increased prevalence of sexually transmitted disease like Chlamydia is robbing women of fertility. Ledger presented his findings at a European conference on fertility. He said that the incidence of chlamydia, a STD that is known to cause infertility, has doubled over the last ten years.
“Young people of today will become tomorrow's patients in infertility clinics,” he said, according to a BBC report. The alarming increase in Chlamydia rates in young women will lead to dramatic rise in infertility, he said. “Later, when these young women want to become mothers, they find they can't conceive.”
Professor Ledger also said that the trend for women to focus on their careers while delaying having children until their late 30s is also a major factor, as fertility is greatest in late teens and early 20s. Dr. Ledger warned about the obvious consequences of a population with a 33% infertility rate: “The sustainability of the population of Europe is at risk because there are too few children being born. It is a threat to the future.”
Professor Ledger added, “Women are simply not as fertile after 35,” suggesting that a solution is to entice women to begin having families at a younger age. “It's easier and more straightforward to do whatever you can to encourage women to have children naturally, rather than waiting to the point at which IVF may be needed.”
The British Fertility Society’s Dr Allan Pacey said, “Nature designed women to have children in probably their late teens and early twenties, and many women are now waiting until they are over 35. The message has to be driven home that the sooner you do it, the more likely it is you will be able to conceive without medical assistance.”
6.16.2005
Chastity Pledge Study "Deliberately" Skewed to make Programs Appear Ineffectual
WASHINGTON, June 16, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A so-called scientific analysis of the efficacy of abstinence pledges that concluded that young people who make pledges of abstinence were at equal risk for sexually transmitted disease (STD) and more likely to engage in anal and oral sex has been criticized as “deliberately” misleading, “inaccurate,” and “junk science.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector and Dr. Kirk Johnson re-examined the data and claims as presented by professors Peter Bearman and Hanna Bruckner in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, concluding that “Bearman and Bruckner’s conclusions were inaccurate . . . Moreover, in crucial respects they deliberately misled the press and public.”
Explaining the deliberate misrepresentation of the facts, Rector and Johnson point out that Bearman and Bruckner “culled through the Add Health sample looking for tiny sub-groups of pledgers with higher risk behaviours,” then describing the high-risk behaviours of these tiny subgroups, allowing the press to draw their own conclusions, by inferring “that they are talking about pledgers in general.”
“The centerpiece of their argument about pledgers and heightened sexual risk activity is a small group of pledgers who engaged in anal sex without vaginal sex,” Rector and Johnson explain. “This ‘risk group’ consists of 21 persons out of a sample of 14,116. Bearman and Bruckner focus on this microscopic group while deliberately failing to inform their audience of the obvious and critical fact that pledgers as a whole are substantially less likely to engage in anal sex when compared to non-pledgers.”
“This tactic is akin to finding a small rocky island in the middle of the ocean, describing the island in detail without describing the surrounding ocean, and then suggesting that the ocean is dry and rocky,” they add. “It is junk science, a willful deception of the American public.”
Rector and Johnson conclude that virginity pledgers are substantially more likely to not engage in risky sexual behaviours, and that those who do break the pledge are still less likely than non-pledgers to engage in more risky anal or oral sex – a direct contradiction to the supposed conclusions reached by Bearman and Bruckner.
“Compared to non-pledgers from the same social backgrounds, pledgers have far fewer sex partners,” Rector and Johnson conclude. “Pledgers are also less likely to engage in sex while in high school, less likely to experience teen pregnancy, less likely to have a child out-of-wedlock, less likely to have children in their teen and young adult years, and less likely to engage in non-marital sex as young adults.”
Read Rector and Johnson’s paper: “Adolescent Virginity Pledges, Condom Use, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Young Adults (Draft)
The Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector and Dr. Kirk Johnson re-examined the data and claims as presented by professors Peter Bearman and Hanna Bruckner in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, concluding that “Bearman and Bruckner’s conclusions were inaccurate . . . Moreover, in crucial respects they deliberately misled the press and public.”
Explaining the deliberate misrepresentation of the facts, Rector and Johnson point out that Bearman and Bruckner “culled through the Add Health sample looking for tiny sub-groups of pledgers with higher risk behaviours,” then describing the high-risk behaviours of these tiny subgroups, allowing the press to draw their own conclusions, by inferring “that they are talking about pledgers in general.”
“The centerpiece of their argument about pledgers and heightened sexual risk activity is a small group of pledgers who engaged in anal sex without vaginal sex,” Rector and Johnson explain. “This ‘risk group’ consists of 21 persons out of a sample of 14,116. Bearman and Bruckner focus on this microscopic group while deliberately failing to inform their audience of the obvious and critical fact that pledgers as a whole are substantially less likely to engage in anal sex when compared to non-pledgers.”
“This tactic is akin to finding a small rocky island in the middle of the ocean, describing the island in detail without describing the surrounding ocean, and then suggesting that the ocean is dry and rocky,” they add. “It is junk science, a willful deception of the American public.”
Rector and Johnson conclude that virginity pledgers are substantially more likely to not engage in risky sexual behaviours, and that those who do break the pledge are still less likely than non-pledgers to engage in more risky anal or oral sex – a direct contradiction to the supposed conclusions reached by Bearman and Bruckner.
“Compared to non-pledgers from the same social backgrounds, pledgers have far fewer sex partners,” Rector and Johnson conclude. “Pledgers are also less likely to engage in sex while in high school, less likely to experience teen pregnancy, less likely to have a child out-of-wedlock, less likely to have children in their teen and young adult years, and less likely to engage in non-marital sex as young adults.”
Read Rector and Johnson’s paper: “Adolescent Virginity Pledges, Condom Use, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Young Adults (Draft)
6.13.2005
Abortion Breast Cancer Facts not Welcome at Halifax Conference
Now this doesn't surprise me one bit!
HALIFAX, June 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group providing information about the link between abortion and breast cancer were asked to leave an international conference on Breast Cancer in Halifax last week. Ellen Chesal of the group, Positive Options for Women, told LifeSite News.com that their table at the conference was very well received by most of the conference attendees. “We ran out of material and had to go out to run off more,” she said.
On the second day of the conference, however, the group was approached by one conference organizer and accused of misleading women. Chesal said, “A board member from the Breast Cancer Foundation approached us, enraged, and spitting out accusations about us having a hidden agenda and that we were presenting a lie to frighten
women from having abortions.”
The group was called to a meeting with conference organizers that afternoon and asked to leave. “They were very polite at the time,” said Chesal. Chesal presented the letter that had been sent months before clearly outlining their intention and the kind of material they would be presenting. At that point, the organizers changed tactics and said that the Muslim women in attendance were “completely appalled” by their mention of abortion. “We were accused of being ‘insensitive’ since in Muslim countries, one simply never mentions the word ‘abortion,’” said Chesal.
The group’s aim was to inform women of the well-documented connection between abortion and breast cancer, called the ABC Link. Most western cancer organizations, including the Canadian Cancer Society have vigorously denied the link and ignored the mounting medical and statistical evidence that a history of abortion increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by as much as 160%. 28 out of 37 worldwide studies have independently linked induced abortion with breast cancer since the question was first analysed in 1957. Since the advent of legalized abortion however, most groups and medical organizations have attempted to deny or cover up the link.
With the equating of women’s rights with abortion on demand, the suggestion that abortion could in any way be detrimental to women’s health has come to be seen as an attack on women’s freedom. Chesal found out to her surprise that the organizers were opposed to women even receiving information.
Chesal said that she felt their efforts were not wasted however, “Lots of information went out and many women from many countries,” she said. “A Nigerian woman was surprised we were leaving and took a lot of our stuff as we were packing up.”
“One woman from Mississippi said she had just finished counseling a sixteen year old with breast cancer. It was the youngest she had ever seen. She didn’t know at the time to ask if she had had an abortion. Now she knows about the link.”
For more information on the abortion breast cancer link:
http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/The_Link.htm
6.12.2005
The MSM surprises
Annie's Mailbox : Sunday, June 5 2005
Creators Syndicate
06-05-2005
Dear Annie: I'd like to respond to "Mama of Four in San Francisco," who was annoyed because people kept asking when she was going to STOP having children. I am the father of six. Over the years, we have received many comments regarding the size of our family, ranging from surprise to horror. When we were expecting our fourth, people thought telling us how foolish we were would keep us from doing it again. With the fifth, they decided we were nearing insanity. With the sixth child, they felt we were beyond salvage and gave up. One summer evening, we took our crew into a small ice-cream parlor. Two older women walked in, took one look at us and asked if we were a day care center.
When people say, "Don't you think it's time to get that fixed?" I respond, "Why? It seems to be working really well."
The joys of having a large family FAR outweigh the costs. We're like a party waiting to happen. -- Richly Blessed in Indiana
Dear Indiana: Most of our readers with large families agreed. Read on:
From the Midwest: My mother said she had so many kids because of her poor hearing. Whenever my parents would retire for the night, my dad would ask, "So, do you want to go to sleep, or what?" and Mom would always answer, "What?"
New York: When people ask when they will stop having children, she should tell them they'll stop when they can figure out where they are coming from. Sarasota, Fla.: I'll stop having kids when my libido slows down, and my oldest child's kicks in and gives me grandchildren.
Los Angeles: My reply is, "Who knows? We're only halfway through the Kama Sutra."
Ontario, Canada: When I have enough for a hockey team.
Tampa, Fla.: When I go through menopause.
Midwest: When my pediatrician finished checking my fifth newborn, he said, "You've got another beautiful baby. Are you done?" I said, "If the world is going to be overpopulated, it may as well have more beautiful people, and they might as well be mine!"
Flushing, Mich.: I would tell people it took the first four kids to figure out what was causing it, and the last one just to be sure we were on the right track.
Hershey, Pa.: Following the birth of our third child, an acquaintance asked me how many children we planned on having. I smiled, looked her in the eye, and replied, "Two." The questions were never as personal after that.
Texas: I have been asked several times why I would want to bring children into this cruel, harsh world. My response is that the world may be filled with a lot of bad people, but wouldn't it be better if we start making some good people for a change? I know my children taught me so much, and now I am a better person because of them.
Ohio: After our fourth child, I was amazed how many people thought they were witty by asking, "You know what's causing this, right?" I told them, "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with sneezing. Every time I sneeze, someone says, 'God bless you,' and He does -- again."
Claremont, Calif.: I say, "Thanks, we're just trying to raise the world's average IQ."
Ohio: When someone asks a friend (now pregnant with her eighth), "Aren't you done having children?" she responds, "Not until I have an ugly one."
Michigan: When a young couple asked how we could stand to have so many kids, I replied, "Which ones would you like me to send back?"
Creators Syndicate
06-05-2005
Dear Annie: I'd like to respond to "Mama of Four in San Francisco," who was annoyed because people kept asking when she was going to STOP having children. I am the father of six. Over the years, we have received many comments regarding the size of our family, ranging from surprise to horror. When we were expecting our fourth, people thought telling us how foolish we were would keep us from doing it again. With the fifth, they decided we were nearing insanity. With the sixth child, they felt we were beyond salvage and gave up. One summer evening, we took our crew into a small ice-cream parlor. Two older women walked in, took one look at us and asked if we were a day care center.
When people say, "Don't you think it's time to get that fixed?" I respond, "Why? It seems to be working really well."
The joys of having a large family FAR outweigh the costs. We're like a party waiting to happen. -- Richly Blessed in Indiana
Dear Indiana: Most of our readers with large families agreed. Read on:
From the Midwest: My mother said she had so many kids because of her poor hearing. Whenever my parents would retire for the night, my dad would ask, "So, do you want to go to sleep, or what?" and Mom would always answer, "What?"
New York: When people ask when they will stop having children, she should tell them they'll stop when they can figure out where they are coming from. Sarasota, Fla.: I'll stop having kids when my libido slows down, and my oldest child's kicks in and gives me grandchildren.
Los Angeles: My reply is, "Who knows? We're only halfway through the Kama Sutra."
Ontario, Canada: When I have enough for a hockey team.
Tampa, Fla.: When I go through menopause.
Midwest: When my pediatrician finished checking my fifth newborn, he said, "You've got another beautiful baby. Are you done?" I said, "If the world is going to be overpopulated, it may as well have more beautiful people, and they might as well be mine!"
Flushing, Mich.: I would tell people it took the first four kids to figure out what was causing it, and the last one just to be sure we were on the right track.
Hershey, Pa.: Following the birth of our third child, an acquaintance asked me how many children we planned on having. I smiled, looked her in the eye, and replied, "Two." The questions were never as personal after that.
Texas: I have been asked several times why I would want to bring children into this cruel, harsh world. My response is that the world may be filled with a lot of bad people, but wouldn't it be better if we start making some good people for a change? I know my children taught me so much, and now I am a better person because of them.
Ohio: After our fourth child, I was amazed how many people thought they were witty by asking, "You know what's causing this, right?" I told them, "I'm pretty sure it has something to do with sneezing. Every time I sneeze, someone says, 'God bless you,' and He does -- again."
Claremont, Calif.: I say, "Thanks, we're just trying to raise the world's average IQ."
Ohio: When someone asks a friend (now pregnant with her eighth), "Aren't you done having children?" she responds, "Not until I have an ugly one."
Michigan: When a young couple asked how we could stand to have so many kids, I replied, "Which ones would you like me to send back?"
6.06.2005
A Guaranteed Abortifacient Form of Contraception
Isn't this wonderful? One the one hand, the medical community has finally recognized the danger of the Pill. However, with the introduction of this new drug, we can guarantee that each and every fertilized ovum will be aborted. Notice the deceptive language being employed- " an embryo would not attach to the womb wall, and a pregnancy would be impossible."
And as this is reported, Blessed Mother says this at Holy Love:
Now the medical community can ensure that many more acts of coitus will result in abortion. Lord have mercy.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/06/05 23:14:41 GMT
Hope for new contraceptive option
Scientists are working on an alternative to the contraceptive pill which they hope would carry a lower risk of side effects.
A University of Cambridge team has discovered a molecule, STAT3, that helps embryos implant in the womb.
They say a drug that blocks STAT3 should act as a contraceptive without disrupting hormones, or raising the risk of blood clots, as the Pill does.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Cambridge team has shown that STAT3 plays a key role in signalling to the cells lining the womb that they should allow the embryo to attach.
Without that signal an embryo would not attach to the womb wall, and a pregnancy would be impossible.
Role in tumours
Drug companies are already researching ways to block STAT3 because it has also been implicated in the formation of tumours, and diabetes.
CONTRACEPTIVE PILL
Associated with higher risk of:
Breast cancer
High blood pressure
Blood clots
Associated with lower risk of:
Ovarian cancer
Endometrial cancer
Acne
Lead researcher Dr Andrew Sharkey said the latest research suggested the experimental compounds under development might also act as a contraceptive.
"These compounds may be effective at preventing implantation in humans if appropriate dose and delivery systems can be devised to target the uterus, such as gels."
The researchers are also investigating whether deficiencies in STAT3 signalling might be responsible for certain types of infertility.
They believe it might be possible to treat some cases of infertility by activating STAT3 signalling.
Dr Anna Glasier, director of family planning for Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, said molecules which had a specific effect on the body were the most likely to minimise the risk of side effects.
Risks and benefits
But she said modern contraceptive pills, although associated with side effects, including an apparent increased risk of breast cancer, also had beneficial effects.
For instance, the combined pill is associated with a decreased risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers, and can help to improve skin conditions, such as acne.
"If you get more and more specific in the molecules that are used to provide contraception, then you will lose all those non-contraceptive benefits," she said.
Toni Belfield, of the Family Planning Association, said: "All research into improving women and men's choices in contraception is to be welcomed.
"But what is just as important is to improve the information that we provide about current contraceptive methods, to remove the many myths and misinformation about their risks and benefits."
The research was funded by the World Health Organization as part of a programme to identify new targets for contraception development.
And as this is reported, Blessed Mother says this at Holy Love:
“You must understand that self-love has carried away the hearts of a vast majority of the world populace to the point of God’s Creation being convoluted towards the fulfillment of this disordered self-love. The life that God creates in the womb is defiled and discarded without regard for the soul that He creates at the moment of conception—discarded because life is not loved for what it is; or even worse, body parts are harvested as though the unborn child was a used car.”
“While Christians go to every extreme to limit reproduction and use sex only for pleasure, the nation of Islam is burgeoning forth and will soon outnumber all other populations. You do not see what lies hidden in some hearts, but I tell you that unnatural birth control is a tool Satan is using to bring destruction to your doorstep.”
Now the medical community can ensure that many more acts of coitus will result in abortion. Lord have mercy.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/06/05 23:14:41 GMT
Hope for new contraceptive option
Scientists are working on an alternative to the contraceptive pill which they hope would carry a lower risk of side effects.
A University of Cambridge team has discovered a molecule, STAT3, that helps embryos implant in the womb.
They say a drug that blocks STAT3 should act as a contraceptive without disrupting hormones, or raising the risk of blood clots, as the Pill does.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Cambridge team has shown that STAT3 plays a key role in signalling to the cells lining the womb that they should allow the embryo to attach.
Without that signal an embryo would not attach to the womb wall, and a pregnancy would be impossible.
Role in tumours
Drug companies are already researching ways to block STAT3 because it has also been implicated in the formation of tumours, and diabetes.
CONTRACEPTIVE PILL
Associated with higher risk of:
Breast cancer
High blood pressure
Blood clots
Associated with lower risk of:
Ovarian cancer
Endometrial cancer
Acne
Lead researcher Dr Andrew Sharkey said the latest research suggested the experimental compounds under development might also act as a contraceptive.
"These compounds may be effective at preventing implantation in humans if appropriate dose and delivery systems can be devised to target the uterus, such as gels."
The researchers are also investigating whether deficiencies in STAT3 signalling might be responsible for certain types of infertility.
They believe it might be possible to treat some cases of infertility by activating STAT3 signalling.
Dr Anna Glasier, director of family planning for Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, said molecules which had a specific effect on the body were the most likely to minimise the risk of side effects.
Risks and benefits
But she said modern contraceptive pills, although associated with side effects, including an apparent increased risk of breast cancer, also had beneficial effects.
For instance, the combined pill is associated with a decreased risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers, and can help to improve skin conditions, such as acne.
"If you get more and more specific in the molecules that are used to provide contraception, then you will lose all those non-contraceptive benefits," she said.
Toni Belfield, of the Family Planning Association, said: "All research into improving women and men's choices in contraception is to be welcomed.
"But what is just as important is to improve the information that we provide about current contraceptive methods, to remove the many myths and misinformation about their risks and benefits."
The research was funded by the World Health Organization as part of a programme to identify new targets for contraception development.
Pope calls on married couples to be witness of God’s fidelity
Vatican City, Jun. 06, 2005 (CNA) - During a meeting with the pilgrims from the Italian Diocese of Verona, Pope Benedict XVI called on married couples to be witnesses of God’s fidelity. “You have come to be confirmed in the faith,” he told the pilgrims, who are celebrating the end of a three-year long diocesan synod, “and I, called just a short time ago to this serious duty, am happy to greet (you) ... and to encourage you in the commitment of giving a Christian witness in today's world.”
He said that in this diocese, as in so many others, “divorces and irregular unions have increased and for Christians this is an urgent call to proclaim and give witness to, in its entirety, the Gospel of life and the family” which “is founded on indissoluble matrimony. Notwithstanding the difficulties and social and cultural conditionings of the current historical moment, may Christian couples never cease to be with their lives a sign of God's faithful love.”
He said that in this diocese, as in so many others, “divorces and irregular unions have increased and for Christians this is an urgent call to proclaim and give witness to, in its entirety, the Gospel of life and the family” which “is founded on indissoluble matrimony. Notwithstanding the difficulties and social and cultural conditionings of the current historical moment, may Christian couples never cease to be with their lives a sign of God's faithful love.”
6.05.2005
Notes of a Saint
John Paul II's Secretary Didn't Burn Notes
When I read John Paul's specific instructions on the event of his death, nothing troubled me more than the directive that his longtime secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz burn all of John Paul's notes. But shouldn't the writing of this saint and mystic be preserved?
WARSAW, Poland, JUNE 5, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Pope John Paul II's longtime personal secretary said he did not burn the late Pontiff's notes as his will demanded, arguing that the papers contain "great riches" that should be preserved.
"Nothing has been burned," said Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow to Polish state radio on Saturday, reported the Associated Press.
The Archbishop-elect also suggested that some of the notes could prove useful in the late pontiff's beatification process, especially after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the five-year waiting period to start the process.
Dziwisz said he took his own daily notes throughout John Paul's papacy, but didn’t say if he would publish them.
Like Pope John Paul, Pope Paul VI requested in his will that his personal unpublished writings be burnt. His personal secretary, Msgr. Pasquale Macchi, who later became the Archbishop of Loretto (Italy,) accomplished his will.
The archbishop, who worked with the Pope from 1966 until his death earlier this year, said that "nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for the future generations -- every single sentence."
"These are great riches that should gradually be made available to the public," he said.
See also Catholic News Agency
When I read John Paul's specific instructions on the event of his death, nothing troubled me more than the directive that his longtime secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz burn all of John Paul's notes. But shouldn't the writing of this saint and mystic be preserved?
WARSAW, Poland, JUNE 5, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Pope John Paul II's longtime personal secretary said he did not burn the late Pontiff's notes as his will demanded, arguing that the papers contain "great riches" that should be preserved.
"Nothing has been burned," said Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow to Polish state radio on Saturday, reported the Associated Press.
The Archbishop-elect also suggested that some of the notes could prove useful in the late pontiff's beatification process, especially after Pope Benedict XVI lifted the five-year waiting period to start the process.
Dziwisz said he took his own daily notes throughout John Paul's papacy, but didn’t say if he would publish them.
Like Pope John Paul, Pope Paul VI requested in his will that his personal unpublished writings be burnt. His personal secretary, Msgr. Pasquale Macchi, who later became the Archbishop of Loretto (Italy,) accomplished his will.
The archbishop, who worked with the Pope from 1966 until his death earlier this year, said that "nothing is fit for burning, everything should be preserved and kept for history, for the future generations -- every single sentence."
"These are great riches that should gradually be made available to the public," he said.
See also Catholic News Agency
6.03.2005
Hillary And Dean's Abortion Numbers Don't Add Up
When self-styled Defender of Life Bill Clinton was in the White House, he told us he wanted to make abortion "safe, legal, and rare." As we know, abortions of every kind, including the barbarically gruesome partial birth variety, remained legal throughout his eight years, and they were 100 percent unsafe for the unborn being aborted. As for rare ? Well, the best that can be said is that the small but statistically significant decline in the number of abortion that began during Reagan's term continued during Clinton's, no thanks to him.
But recently, Bill's senator spouse Hillary has alleged that the U.S. abortion rate has been rising during George W.'s time in office. She is joined in her accusations by, among others, John Kerry and Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean - all trying to make the case that draconian social and fiscal policies under Republican leadership are driving more poor women to resort to abortion. Under this interpretation of current events, Democrats like Hillary qualify (in their own minds, at least) as both pro-choice and "pro-life." This is because they favor the kind of spending that, they argue, would allow women in straitened circumstances to have their babies if they so chose. All this is part of the Democratic makeover that is supposed to lure significant voters in the middle come election time.
The problem is, the statistics they quote don't withstand scrutiny. Their source is an article by Glen Harold Stassen, an ethics professor at the Fuller Theological Seminary, published in the Oct. 2004 web and e-mail publication Sojourners. Stassen extrapolates from 16 states, four of which, he says, have issued statistics on abortion rates during the first three years of the Bush II era, and 12 of which have statistics from the first two years, 2001 and 2002. He finds decreases in rates of abortion (averaging 4.3 percent) in five states and increases (averaging 14.6 percent) in eight of them. He provided no data for the other 34, and there is no reason to think those he was looking at were somehow representative.
Stassen's article drew the surprised attention not only of pro-lifers, but of the venerable Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit (and left-leaning) organization named for a former Planned Parenthood president and describing its mission as protecting the reproductive rights of women. Guttmacher has been tracking national abortion statistics sine the 1970s, and their stats are relied upon by politicians and activists of all stripes. A reversal of the kind Stassen described struck them as unlikely, to say the least.
So the Guttmacher Institute undertook its own comprehensive survey of abortion providers, to update the one prepared for 2000, right before George W.'s first term. In findings released on May, 19, 2005, Guttmacher explained, first, that many of the small sample of states Stassen was using for his extrapolation historically rack up higher abortion rates than the rest of the country, and record sharper changes when rates rise. Second, two of the states Stassen pointed to for steep increases in abortion rates, Colorado and Arizona, had recently changed their reporting technique to compensate for past underreporting of abortions. Comparing the rates before and after these states changed their reporting procedures would be like comparing apples and oranges - you would have to know what both sets of numbers meant.
So what kind of numbers did the Guttmacher folks come up with? After analyzing data from 43 states, they found a decrease in the total number of abortions in the U.S. of 0.8 percent in 2001 and 0.8 percent in 2002. The rate of abortions - which differs from the total number in that it relates the number of women having abortions to the total population - decreased by a smaller but still significant one percent in 2001 and 0.9 precent in 2002. That still adds up to over a million too many abortions performed in the U.S. yearly, but Guttmacher's statistics should - if widely aired - contradict the line that George W. has somehow been a boon to the abortion industry.
But that's a big "if." St. Philip Neri once told a woman who had spread slanderous gossip that her penance was to rip open a pillow, let the feathers fly in the open air, and then gather up each one. Undoing the harm caused by spreading untrue or unsubstantiated stories, he told her, was just as difficult. The Alan Guttmacher Institute has done its part; now it's time for the Democratic leadership to engage in some truth-telling.
Madame X works in Washington DC for the federal government. Because of her employer, she must write under a pseudonym.
But recently, Bill's senator spouse Hillary has alleged that the U.S. abortion rate has been rising during George W.'s time in office. She is joined in her accusations by, among others, John Kerry and Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean - all trying to make the case that draconian social and fiscal policies under Republican leadership are driving more poor women to resort to abortion. Under this interpretation of current events, Democrats like Hillary qualify (in their own minds, at least) as both pro-choice and "pro-life." This is because they favor the kind of spending that, they argue, would allow women in straitened circumstances to have their babies if they so chose. All this is part of the Democratic makeover that is supposed to lure significant voters in the middle come election time.
The problem is, the statistics they quote don't withstand scrutiny. Their source is an article by Glen Harold Stassen, an ethics professor at the Fuller Theological Seminary, published in the Oct. 2004 web and e-mail publication Sojourners. Stassen extrapolates from 16 states, four of which, he says, have issued statistics on abortion rates during the first three years of the Bush II era, and 12 of which have statistics from the first two years, 2001 and 2002. He finds decreases in rates of abortion (averaging 4.3 percent) in five states and increases (averaging 14.6 percent) in eight of them. He provided no data for the other 34, and there is no reason to think those he was looking at were somehow representative.
Stassen's article drew the surprised attention not only of pro-lifers, but of the venerable Alan Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit (and left-leaning) organization named for a former Planned Parenthood president and describing its mission as protecting the reproductive rights of women. Guttmacher has been tracking national abortion statistics sine the 1970s, and their stats are relied upon by politicians and activists of all stripes. A reversal of the kind Stassen described struck them as unlikely, to say the least.
So the Guttmacher Institute undertook its own comprehensive survey of abortion providers, to update the one prepared for 2000, right before George W.'s first term. In findings released on May, 19, 2005, Guttmacher explained, first, that many of the small sample of states Stassen was using for his extrapolation historically rack up higher abortion rates than the rest of the country, and record sharper changes when rates rise. Second, two of the states Stassen pointed to for steep increases in abortion rates, Colorado and Arizona, had recently changed their reporting technique to compensate for past underreporting of abortions. Comparing the rates before and after these states changed their reporting procedures would be like comparing apples and oranges - you would have to know what both sets of numbers meant.
So what kind of numbers did the Guttmacher folks come up with? After analyzing data from 43 states, they found a decrease in the total number of abortions in the U.S. of 0.8 percent in 2001 and 0.8 percent in 2002. The rate of abortions - which differs from the total number in that it relates the number of women having abortions to the total population - decreased by a smaller but still significant one percent in 2001 and 0.9 precent in 2002. That still adds up to over a million too many abortions performed in the U.S. yearly, but Guttmacher's statistics should - if widely aired - contradict the line that George W. has somehow been a boon to the abortion industry.
But that's a big "if." St. Philip Neri once told a woman who had spread slanderous gossip that her penance was to rip open a pillow, let the feathers fly in the open air, and then gather up each one. Undoing the harm caused by spreading untrue or unsubstantiated stories, he told her, was just as difficult. The Alan Guttmacher Institute has done its part; now it's time for the Democratic leadership to engage in some truth-telling.
Madame X works in Washington DC for the federal government. Because of her employer, she must write under a pseudonym.
More absurdity from Planned Parenthood
Indiana Judge Demands Minors' Abortion Records from Planned Parenthood in Alleged Rape Cover-Up
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Indiana judge has ruled that Planned Parenthood must turn over to state investigators medical records for abortions committed on children under 14. Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for failing to report child abuse as mandated by state law.
A girl under 14 years of age who is pregnant is presumed to be a victim of rape, however Planned Parenthood argues that for them to comply with the underage reporting law would be a breach of the doctor-patient confidentiality agreement. Judge Kenneth H. Johnson, in his ruling Monday, disagreed: “The great public interest in the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of child abuse trumps even the patient's interest in privileged communication with her physician because, in the end, both the patient and the state are benefited by the disclosure,” according to an indystar.com report.
Attorney General Steve Carter said earlier that he is “obligated under federal and state statutes to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect by Medicaid providers, which include hospitals, nursing homes and other medical clinics that receive Medicaid reimbursement from the state.” Planned Parenthood receives Medicaid funding.
Indiana University School of Law professor Henry Karlson said that a doctor is obligated to report instances of abuse just as they are obligated to report gunshot wounds. “Clearly if a child under 18 comes in and says, ‘I need birth control,’ you (know) . . . that would lead a reasonable person to believe that they have been” abused, he said.
Mark Crutcher, President of Life Dynamics, called Planned Parenthood's argument a scam: “For the past thirty years, these people have been selling secrecy to men who rape children and now they're asking us to believe that they are hiding the records in order to protect the children who were raped. The whole thing would be laughable if it were not so obscene. The fact is, in our office we have a tape recording of Planned Parenthood's top two national attorneys admitting that child abuse reporting laws override confidentiality in every situation and in every state.”
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, June 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Indiana judge has ruled that Planned Parenthood must turn over to state investigators medical records for abortions committed on children under 14. Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit for failing to report child abuse as mandated by state law.
A girl under 14 years of age who is pregnant is presumed to be a victim of rape, however Planned Parenthood argues that for them to comply with the underage reporting law would be a breach of the doctor-patient confidentiality agreement. Judge Kenneth H. Johnson, in his ruling Monday, disagreed: “The great public interest in the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of child abuse trumps even the patient's interest in privileged communication with her physician because, in the end, both the patient and the state are benefited by the disclosure,” according to an indystar.com report.
Attorney General Steve Carter said earlier that he is “obligated under federal and state statutes to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect by Medicaid providers, which include hospitals, nursing homes and other medical clinics that receive Medicaid reimbursement from the state.” Planned Parenthood receives Medicaid funding.
Indiana University School of Law professor Henry Karlson said that a doctor is obligated to report instances of abuse just as they are obligated to report gunshot wounds. “Clearly if a child under 18 comes in and says, ‘I need birth control,’ you (know) . . . that would lead a reasonable person to believe that they have been” abused, he said.
Mark Crutcher, President of Life Dynamics, called Planned Parenthood's argument a scam: “For the past thirty years, these people have been selling secrecy to men who rape children and now they're asking us to believe that they are hiding the records in order to protect the children who were raped. The whole thing would be laughable if it were not so obscene. The fact is, in our office we have a tape recording of Planned Parenthood's top two national attorneys admitting that child abuse reporting laws override confidentiality in every situation and in every state.”
6.02.2005
Dignity of man, from conception until natural death, is primary, says Pope
Vatican City, Jun. 02, 2005 (CNA) - Today the Vatican released a letter from Pope Benedict XVI, commemorating John Paul’s visit, 25 years ago to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and reiterating the Church’s belief that true peace can only be reached by promoting human dignity, from conception until natural death.
The Holy Father’s message was sent to Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, who is currently in Paris representing the Holy See at a colloquium entitled "Culture, Reason and Freedom", commemorating the anniversary of the late John Paul’s UNESCO.
Pope Benedict’s letter noted the "immense recognition due to Pope John Paul who, with his personal and cultural experience, always underlined in his teachings the central and irreplaceable position of man, as well as his fundamental dignity, the source all of his inalienable rights.”
“Twenty-five years ago”, he said, “the Pope declared at UNESCO headquarters that 'in the cultural domain, man is always first: man is the primordial and basic fact of culture'."
The Holy Father also echoed John Paul's words to UNESCO, reminding members of their responsibility to, "Build peace by starting with the foundation: respect for all of man's rights, those linked to his material and economic dimension as well as those linked to the spiritual and interior dimension of his existence in this world."
Pope Benedict stressed the Vatican’s concern for and involvement in the work of UNESCO, through her permanent observer to the organization, saying that, "in a world which is both multiple and divided, and often submissive to the strong demands of globalization of economic relations and, even more, of information, it is important at the highest levels to mobilize the energies of intelligence so that man's rights to education and culture are recognized, especially in the poorest countries.”
“In a world where man must learn more and more to recognize and to respect his brother,” the Pope continued, “the Church wishes to make her own contribution to the service of the human community, while pointing out ... the relation that binds each person to the Creator of all life and the source of the inalienable dignity of each person, from conception to life's natural end."
The Holy Father’s message was sent to Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, who is currently in Paris representing the Holy See at a colloquium entitled "Culture, Reason and Freedom", commemorating the anniversary of the late John Paul’s UNESCO.
Pope Benedict’s letter noted the "immense recognition due to Pope John Paul who, with his personal and cultural experience, always underlined in his teachings the central and irreplaceable position of man, as well as his fundamental dignity, the source all of his inalienable rights.”
“Twenty-five years ago”, he said, “the Pope declared at UNESCO headquarters that 'in the cultural domain, man is always first: man is the primordial and basic fact of culture'."
The Holy Father also echoed John Paul's words to UNESCO, reminding members of their responsibility to, "Build peace by starting with the foundation: respect for all of man's rights, those linked to his material and economic dimension as well as those linked to the spiritual and interior dimension of his existence in this world."
Pope Benedict stressed the Vatican’s concern for and involvement in the work of UNESCO, through her permanent observer to the organization, saying that, "in a world which is both multiple and divided, and often submissive to the strong demands of globalization of economic relations and, even more, of information, it is important at the highest levels to mobilize the energies of intelligence so that man's rights to education and culture are recognized, especially in the poorest countries.”
“In a world where man must learn more and more to recognize and to respect his brother,” the Pope continued, “the Church wishes to make her own contribution to the service of the human community, while pointing out ... the relation that binds each person to the Creator of all life and the source of the inalienable dignity of each person, from conception to life's natural end."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)