ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS CELEBRATE TRANSFIGURATION

Orthodox Christians celebrate on Thursday the great (one of the twelve) feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, which is commonly called Yablochny Spas.

According to the Gospel, Jesus Christ told his disciples that He will have to go to Jerusalem, suffer a lot from the elders, high priests and scribes, be killed and rise from the dead on the third day.

"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

"And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

"And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

Catholic leader: Sudan crisis most dire in world

The refugee and military crisis in Sudan is without question the most dire humanitarian situation anywhere in the world, according to a top Catholic bishop who recently returned from a visit to the war-torn country.

Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., chairman of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee, said the international community must not wait for formal declarations of ethnic cleansing or genocide before acting.

'I don't think it matters very much to the people who are affected what name we give this," Ricard told reporters on a conference call.

The United Nations estimates that almost 1.4 million Sudanese have been displaced in ongoing violence committed by government-backed Arab militias against black African tribes.

Police investigate brothel on doorstep of cathedral

Setting up a brothel requires a certain disregard for the law but to establish one on the very doorstep of the Church of England's spiritual home shows a particular cheek.

Police said on Thursday they were investigating complaints that an apartment all of 100 metres (yards) from Canterbury Cathedral had been turned into a brothel.

"We are investigating and we will work with the landlord to try to sort this matter out," a Kent Police spokesman said.

Canterbury Cathedral, much of which was constructed in the 12th century, is the base of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican church.

French Catholic Church counts its losses after Pope’s visit to Lourdes

Pope John Paul II gave thanks on Wednesday for the strength which enabled him to make a weekend pilgrimage to Lourdes, which French bishops said had made a loss for the Catholic Church of EUR 1.3 million.

"I want to give thanks to God, who in His goodness, allowed me to go on a pilgrimage to Lourdes," the pope told hundreds of pilgrims during his weekly general audience in the courtyard of his summer residence outside Rome.

The pope was short of breath, but appeared to be in better health than during his visit, when he showed signs of exhaustion. The 84-year-old pontiff suffers from Parkinson's disease.

The Catholic Church in France was meanwhile counting the huge cost of the visit, and left pondering ways of how to make up a EUR 1.3 million shortfall after donations from the pilgrims failed to match costs

Court rules religious school voucher law unconstitutional

A Florida law that allows students at failing public schools to attend private religious schools at taxpayers' expense is unconstitutional, a state appeals court ruled Monday.

The 2-1 decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal upholds a ruling by a trial judge saying the state constitution forbids the use of tax money to send youngsters to religious schools.

"Courts do not have the authority to ignore the clear language of the Constitution, even for a popular program with a worthy purpose," Judge William Van Nortwick wrote in the decision.

Education Commissioner Jim Horne called the ruling unfortunate and said it would be appealed to the state Supreme Court. The law has been enforced as the case makes its way through the courts.

Church marks diverse history

It was an Italian real estate agent who, three-quarters of a century ago, donated enough land in Copiague for the Our Lady of the Assumption parish, and who later invited others to settle in what he called "an Italian village, close to the sea with jobs, water, gas, a school and the railroad."

Thousands did, and for years, the burgeoning Roman Catholic church on Molloy Street and its clergymen named Bruno, Roberto, Privitera, Parascandola and Capobianco was a true reflection of the community.

But 75 years later, although the red brick church and its thin, weather-worn steeple remain, the clergy and its congregation have changed.

Iran's sportswomen adapt to religious custom

Nassim Hassanpour, a teenage markswoman in the 10 metre air pistol event, is the sole female athlete the Islamic Republic of Iran sent to the 2004 Olympics. She was able to take part in Athens because shooting is one of the few events that allows Muslim women to wear the obligatory headscarf and long coat, thus respecting the cultural and religious values of the Iranian authorities.

Pope's Lourdes call for youth "breath of fresh air"

At the conclusion of yesterday's solemn Mass of his weekend trip to Lourdes, Pope John Paul II called young people to become a source of hope to the world through a life of prayer and austerity.

"I greet in particular all the young people, who are so much at home in Lourdes and have placed themselves so generously at the service of their sick brothers and sisters as hospitaliers," said the Holy Father.

He said that Our Lady of Lourdes "called for penance and prayer".

"She indicated to Bernadette a spring of water and asked her to drink of it. That spring of fresh water has become one of the symbols of Lourdes: a symbol of the new life which Christ gives to all who turn to him."

A weakened Pope John Paul had delivered to a crowd of more than 250,000 pilgrims, including many sick, a powerful call to defend life from the moment of conception to its natural end.

A Mass of healing on Boston Common

WHY WOULD lay persons want to sponsor a Mass on Boston Common -- a historic event -- in the midst of the turmoil that has characterized the Catholic Church in recent times? Is it to spotlight the pain of the parishes slated to close in the Archdiocese of Boston during the next six months? Is it to address the false hope of the assertion that the clergy sexual abuse crisis is history? Or is it in our nature as Catholics to gather together for healing and growth, to address our pain, and to celebrate the gifts we have been given?

Pope's frailty part of his message on gruelling Lourdes trip

Pope John Paul II showed his illness has become a part of his message during a draining pilgrimage to Lourdes, raising more questions over how long he can last, but the extent of his Parkinson's disease did not diminish a strong political content in his speeches.

In what has now become a standard of the sick 84-year-old pope's public appearances, anxious pilgrims chanted encouragement as he faltered during Sunday's giant open air mass in the French Pyrenees town, almost as if he were a boxer on the canvas with a referee about to count him out.

'Passion' named most pro-Catholic film

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ was ranked the most "pro-Catholic" film by readers of the National Catholic Register, while a panel of judges rated last year's The Order as the most recent "anti-Catholic" film.

Gibson's film received more votes than the next three finalists on the list combined. It has earned $370 million at the box office.

'Miracle' hoaxers to remain mystery

THE hoaxers behind the weeping statues at the Inala Vietnamese Catholic Centre are likely to remain a mystery despite more than $40,000 being raised from pilgrims to the so-called miracles in Brisbane's southwest.

Brisbane Catholic Archbishop John Bathersby yesterday said he had closed the file on the man-made phenomena after a financial probe cleared Vietnamese church leaders of fraud.

The audit found the Inala centre raised about $41,000 – $16,000 through the sale of statues and artefacts and a further $25,000 in increased Mass collections – from the thousands of people who flocked to witness the now discredited "miracles".

British decision prompts Vatican to renew stem cell warning

The Vatican reiterated its firm opposition to human cloning yesterday after a group of British scientists was given a licence to create stem cells used in medical research from a cloned human embryo.

The Courier-Mail reports that the green light was given to scientists from the Centre for Life at Newcastle University who aim to use the stem cells cloned to treat serious diseases.

"The Holy Father has always unequivocally condemned all forms of human cloning, even for therapeutic purposes," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

Kerry Supporting Catholic Website Says Bush is the “Antichrist”

The Catholics for Kerry 04 website has been blasted by the Catholic League for referring to President George W. Bush as the Antichrist. Under the heading “President Bush?”, the website says “Antichrist?” and links to comments by Wayne Madsden, who says, ”George W. Bush’s blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs and his constant references to ‘evil doers,’ in the eyes of many devout Catholic leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of Revelations—the anti-Christ.”

Catholic League president William Donohue blasted the website saying, “This is the language of a demagogue, and it has no legitimate role to play in presidential politics.”

The Catholics for Kerry 04 website has refused to remove the controversial statement and link from its site. In a rebuttal to Donohue, the website’s managers defended their move, saying, “It is simply a point of view we considered important for Catholics to be aware of.”

Pope plans rare honour for Lourdes shrine

Pope John Paul II will confer a rare papal honour - a golden rose - on the Lourdes sanctuary during his visit there this weekend.

Catholic World News reports that the golden rose is a precious object in itself, and a special mark of honour bestowed by the Roman Pontiff.

The tradition dates back to the 11th century, when the Pope would annually offer a golden rose to the king or prince. The rose - traditionally regarded as the most fragrant and beautiful of flowers - is a spiritual symbol as well as a gift of intrinsic beauty and value.

Catholic attorney draws on faith during nomination process

Catholic attorney Leon Holmes did not expect his nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas would hinge on what he co-wrote for a "church newspaper" six years ago.

"I was surprised. I was, yes," he said in an interview with the Arkansas Catholic, Little Rock diocesan newspaper.

Holmes submitted samples of his published writings to the Senate Judiciary Committee after his January 2003 nomination to the federal appeals court. Among the samples was a column by him and his wife, Susan, that appeared in the Arkansas Catholic in 1997.

Susan Holmes, who had conducted a Bible study about using gender-neutral language in Scripture, was the primary writer of the article titled "Gender-Neutral Language: Destroying an Essential Element of Our Faith," but Leon Holmes helped write portions of it and edited the piece.

Kerry Should Seek to Reduce Abortions

When I heard that refrain in Sen. John F. Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, it reminded me of why I am a Democrat at heart. In my lifetime, the Democratic Party has stood consistently on the side of the poor, the weak, the vulnerable.

But I have not cast my vote for a Democratic presidential candidate in 12 years because the Democrats have refused to extend their protection to the weakest and most vulnerable — unborn children.

Given the terrible number of abortions that are allowed each year, each day in our country — "1.31 million pregnancies were terminated by abortion in the U.S." in 2000, the most recent statistics available, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute — we surely can do better. And Kerry should make just such a proposition part of his campaign. I am not suggesting that Kerry commit himself to overturning Roe vs. Wade — although I think it should be overturned. But I am suggesting that he challenge those who are considering abortion to "do better," and that he challenge the United States as a nation to "do better" by them.

Which brings me to Kerry's other rhetorical flourish: "Help is on the way." I am confident that the Democrats could create a policy that the Republican Party, for all of its pro-life rhetoric, has to my knowledge never offered. Kerry could offer a guarantee that any woman with an unwanted pregnancy would be assisted by the federal government, perhaps in league with faith-based initiatives, and that she would be granted the kind of support that would help her consider her options. That means financial aid, adoption counseling and, most important, should she decide to raise her child, continuing material support after the birth.



Kerry, who as a Catholic professes a personal antipathy toward abortion, must understand that this is the right thing to do. After all, the immediate effect of his moral leadership in this matter would save lives, just as surely as young Lt. Kerry saved Lt. James Rassman's life on that uncertain day on the Bay Hap River.

But Kerry should also understand that it could go a long way toward sealing a Democratic victory in November. Providing options and support systems that could help limit the number of abortions would appeal to the majority who believe that abortion should be avoided whenever possible. It could galvanize many undecided antiabortion voters who, like me, long to return to the Democratic Party. And in a time of discouraging polarization, such a stand could create common ground that most of us can agree upon: Abortions are a catastrophe in our culture, not just another lifestyle choice.

Mary Jo Bane, a public policy professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the Department of Health and Human Services' assistant secretary for children and families during the Clinton administration, writes in a just-published essay that "we are all losing the opportunity to make important progress in limiting abortions." Kerry could, if he so chooses, live up to his rhetoric and lead our country to do better.

Young clergy follow pope's hard line

It's hard to miss Father Marcos Gonzalez, who wears an ankle-length black cassock every day, a garment most priests tossed out decades ago. But it's not just his clothes that bespeak an older, more traditional era of his Catholic Church.
When some priests spoke in favor of optional celibacy at a Los Angeles priest assembly last year - a position supported by most American Catholics today - Gonzalez booed in dissent. In premarital counseling, he tells couples to remain chaste until marriage, plunging into delicate territory some priests prefer to avoid. Gonzalez also believes that artificial birth control and homosexual sex are always a sin and opposes the ordination of women.

Such stances conform with Vatican doctrine, he says, but are at odds with many American priests and laypeople.

Yet Gonzalez, an associate pastor at St. Andrew's Church in Pasadena, Calif., is hardly a relic from a fading past. At 41, he offers one glimpse of the future as a member of a new breed of younger priests ordained during the 25-year papacy of Pope John Paul II and passionately committed to the pope's orthodox positions on issues.

As the health of John Paul - now 84 and the third-longest serving pontiff in history - continues to falter, men such as Gonzalez stand ready to guard and propagate his legacy. They represent a global trend toward Christian orthodoxy, in contrast to a generation of more liberal priests ordained during the 1960s reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

"We are very, very faithful to the Holy Father and not in any way dissenting from the teachings of the church," Gonzalez says of like-minded colleagues.

Hard-line Cardinal Ratzinger 'enforcer' of the Catholic faith

In a 1995 interview, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Catholic Church's doctrinal czar, was asked to describe what Pope John Paul II meant when he said that the third millennium would be a ''springtime of the human spirit.'' Ratzinger sketched the pope's hopeful vision that, after two millennia of division, the third millennium would be one of unity among peoples and religions, in which the entire human family would come together to build God's kingdom.

Then Ratzinger added dryly: ''At the moment, I do not yet see it approaching.'' That in a nutshell captures the difference between John Paul and the Bavarian theologian who has been his intellectual guru since 1981 and who is back in the headlines with a new critique of feminism. The pope and Ratzinger -- head of what is known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- share a basically conservative stance on most issues that constitute the culture wars in the West.

Yet John Paul plays the part of Ronald Reagan to Ratzinger's Pat Buchanan; the pope is optimistic, cheerful, brimming with confidence, and Ratzinger is less sanguine about the movements of history. Whereas John Paul sees a church on the brink of expansion, Ratzinger believes that Christianity must become smaller to be faithful.

This frank realism may explain why Ratzinger, who ironically started out as a liberal reformer at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, has been dubbed the ''Panzer-Kardinal'' by the German press. He is not one to apply a polite gloss, as the world saw anew on July 31 with his ``Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women.''

The letter pulls no punches. ''Radical feminism'' has promoted a climate of hostility between men and women, it argues, and has led women to deny or play down their distinctive maternal and nurturing instincts. It has also spread confusion about gender that promotes tolerance of homosexuality. The alternative vision, according to the letter, is ''the collaboration of men and women,'' meaning that differences between the sexes should be seen as complementary rather than competitive.

Feminism is merely Ratzinger's latest target. Since John Paul tapped him as the church's top theologian in 1981, he has been the driving force in several other battles:

• In the 1980s, Ratzinger cracked down on ''liberation theology,'' a movement in Latin America that sought to ally the Catholic Church with progressive efforts for social change. Ratzinger felt that the liberationists were Marxists who wanted to introduce class struggle in the Catholic Church.

• Under Ratzinger, the Catholic Church has emphatically criticized homosexuality and gay marriage. A famous 1986 Vatican document over his signature called homosexuality a tendency toward ''intrinsic moral evil.'' It is still the official position of the Catholic Church.

• In the 1990s, Ratzinger disciplined a series of Catholic theologians who expressed a belief that non-Christian religions are a positive part of God's plan.

• Ratzinger has made it much more difficult for Catholic theologians to challenge the Vatican or the bishops, insisting that even routine pronouncements enjoy a kind of infallibility.

• Most recently, a confidential memo was unearthed in which Ratzinger stated that pro-abortion Catholic politicians could be barred from receiving Holy Communion -- an explosive position that could affect Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and many other American politicians.

It's certainly possible that the Catholic Church would have taken many of these positions even without Ratzinger. Yet the intensity of the debates owes much to the man -- who, it should be said, comes across in person as meek and humble, not like the bull in a china shop that his public persona suggests.

Supporters believe that he has brought clarity to a muddled world, while critics say that he has put the Catholic Church on the wrong side of progress.

What's clear is that his effect has been felt far outside the Catholic Church, which is unusual for a Vatican official. His anti-liberation theology crusade, for instance, helped change the course of political development in Latin America, depriving progressive governments of Catholic support.

At 77, is Ratzinger's career at twilight? Not necessarily; at that age Cardinal Angelo Roncalli was elected pope as John XXIII in 1958. Indeed, there's a constituency in the College of Cardinals, the body that elects the pope, that would love to see the same thing happen to Ratzinger. Yet the likelihood is that age and controversy make him a long shot.

Even so, few figures in the last 100 years of Catholic history have done more to shape their times. Ratzinger is proof that even in a secularized, post-Christian world, the Catholic Church matters. Whether he has deployed its resources for good or ill largely frames the debate facing Catholicism today.

Southern Baptists look to brighten image, president says

The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention said Monday that his denomination must re-emphasize evangelization if it wants to reverse a troubling slump in baptisms and brighten its public image.

“Just about everybody in the world knows what we’re against,” the Rev. Bobby Welch said during a visit to Kempsville Baptist Church as a guest preacher. “The overriding thing that has to happen now is the world needs to be reminded in no uncertain terms of what we’re for.”

Jesuit Centre condemns detention centre climate of violence

An international report's condemnation of Australia as the only western nation in its list of 65 countries where religious violence is a concern, is disturbing, according to the Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre.

Uniya Director Sr Patty Fawkner was responding to annual Violence against Christians report of the German-based international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

The Report, available for download from the charity's Australian website, includes two separate incidences of violence which is claims were induced by religious persecution against Christian asylum seekers in the Baxter and Woomera detention centres.

Pope says predecessor Paul VI was an 'unforgettable pastor'

Pope Paul VI was an "unforgettable pastor", and the Church should always "treasure his example and his teachings", Pope John Paul II has said.

The present Holy Father was celebrating Mass on Friday's 26th anniversary of his predecessor's death.

Pope John Paul II celebrated the Mass in the chapel of the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, where Pope Paul died in 1978.

In addition to remembering the anniversary of Pope Paul's death and praising him as a "faithful imitator of his Lord", Pope John Paul also mentioned the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul's first encyclical, "Ecclesiam Suam" ("His Church"), on the mission of the church in the modern world.

Evanescence singer takes Christian band in new direction

Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee feels like she's had an entire career in pop music, and it hasn't even been 18 months since Fallen, the group's multiplatinum debut, was released.

She has fought with the Christian rock industry; won a Grammy; become a star; and cut ties with Ben Moody, the group's co-founder, all while selling 5 million albums.

Afghan Religious Leaders Decree Poppy Cultivation Is Illegal

Afghanistan's religious leaders decreed poppy cultivation, which makes the country the world's biggest opium producer, illegal, a move that will aid efforts to end the $2.3 billion drugs trade, the United Nations said.

Afghanistan's Council of Ulemas earlier this month issued a fatwa, or religious decree, saying the cultivation, processing trafficking and consumption of drugs must be prevented, said Mohammad Reza Amirkhizi, the representative in the country of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, according to a UN statement.

The order ``sends a clear message that opium poppy cultivation, even if it is not consumed by Muslims or if it is done out of poverty, is illegal,'' Amirkhizi said.

Nun challenges media mischief on Timor oil

Josephite Sr Susan Connolly has expressed her dismay at the "one-sided view" being taken by the Murdoch press in particular on the sea boundaries dispute between Australia and East Timor.

Sr Connolly, of the western Sydney-based Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies, is one of Australia's most respected advocates on behalf of the East Timorese people. She argues that an equitable distribution of access to oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea is "not a matter of charity but justice that the Timorese people receive the benefits of those portions of the resources that are their due".

Bullets sent to Catholic Politicians

The chairman of Down District Policing Partnership, Eamonn O'Neill, found ammunition in a sympathy card which was sent to his constituency office in Downpatrick.

Josephine O'Hare and Michael Carr, who are members of the Newry and Mourne DPP, also received bullets and sympathy cards on Thursday.

In the past year there have been several arson attacks and intimidation directed against Catholic members of the partnerships.

Mr O'Neill said those responsible were "faceless, fascist cowards".


"I and others in the SDLP will not be deterred from achieving our goal of delivering accountable and representative policing for all our community," he said.

Pell tells abuse accuser to go to police

Sydney's Cardinal George Pell has urged a Melbourne man who alleges he was brutalised at the Salesians' Rupertswood College at Sunbury outside Melbourne, to seek justice through the police or church processes in Victoria.

The Age today quotes Cardinal Pell's assurance that the allegations are "taken most seriously" and told the alleged victim, author and lateral thinker Michael Hewitt-Gleeson (pictured), to contact him if he needed help.

Pell instituted procedures to deal with abuse by Catholic priests and other church employees when he was archbishop of Melbourne.

In a statement to The Age on Monday, Dr Hewitt-Gleeson attacked the Salesian order of priests and brothers, which operates Rupertswood, for the physical violence inflicted upon him starting when he was aged eight. He sent a copy of his statement to Cardinal Pell, to the papal ambassador, the Apostolic Nuncio, and to the Provincial of the Salesians in Australia, Fr Ian Murdoch, detailing the alleged abuse.

Cardinal Pell, in an email to Dr Hewitt-Gleeson, said he had no jurisdiction over the Salesian order and urged him to enter the Catholic Church's Towards Healing process in Victoria, which deals with abuse claims, or go to the police.

The Age says Dr Hewitt-Gleeson said he thanked the Cardinal for his advice and would consider it, although he did not intend to refer the matter to the police.

When Bible Study Is Controversial

The recent battle to try to remove "God" from the Pledge of Allegiance highlighted the perpetual struggle between those who want "God" banned from public schools altogether, and those who don't. CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson notes that one controversial mix of religion and public schools is student Bible clubs, which are said to be growing in popularity.

Attkisson spoke with 16-year old Kara Meeks of Salisbury, Maryland. She leads a teen Bible study group.

During the school year, the group meets on the public high school campus, once a week for about an hour. It meets elsewhere during the summer.

School Bible Clubs face constant court challenges, but they're perfectly legal - as long as they follow strict rules to maintain the constitutional separation between church and state, as Kara's group does.

Though the Bible study is held on school grounds, it's held after school hours, it's student-organized, and no one is pressure to attend, so the school believes it doesn't cross any lines, Attkisson points out.

But Annie Laurie Gaylor, who leads the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national group of atheists and agnostics, insists school Bible clubs are divisive and inappropriate.

"We get complaints constantly by high schoolers who feel it creates a hostile environment where they feel aggressively prothetized, where the children and the students who belong to Bible clubs are being treated as better," Gaylor says.

Brisbane priest says rosary beads 'shed oil'

A priest whose church was the site of several so-called miracles told parishioners his personal rosary beads had shed oil during an interstate trip.

The Courier-Mail reports today that Fr Joseph Thanh Liem Nguyen, the chaplain of the Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre in Inala on Brisbane's south-western outskirts, made the claim in Vietnamese on a website used by the centre.

While the Courier-Mail article was published this morning, the website claim on which it is based appears to pre-date last week's announcement by Archbishop John Bathersby that a church investigation has found that oil-seeping and "bleeding" artefacts at the church were fake.

The paper reports that Fr Nguyen also said a statue of Mary and a portrait of Jesus at the centre seeped oil at the same time.

NARTH Rips Psychologists' for Sanctioning Homosexual 'Marriage'

The American Psychological Association's recent endorsement of homosexual "marriage" is based on "flawed" beliefs, a secular humanist worldview -- and the recommendation of a "group of gay and lesbian clinicians." That's according to a group of psychiatrists and behavioral scientists who are dedicated to the treatment and prevention of homosexuality.

Last week the APA issued a press release announcing its official endorsement of same-sex marriage and homosexual adoption. The APA said denial of access to marriage to same-sex couples is "unfair and discriminatory." The resolutions adopted by APA were based on recommendations from the organization's Working Group on Same-Sex Family and Relationships, chaired by homosexual activist Dr. Armand Cerbone. (See Earlier Article)

Six kids just what the doctor ordered

FOR Catherine Lennon, a practising GP and devout Catholic who is pregnant with her sixth child, family comes first.

The 34-year-old Sydney doctor, who had her first child in her final year of medical training, plans to continue working part-time following the birth of her next baby.

The new papal document on women, with its calls for more support for mothers, including mothers who work, was a positive move from the Vatican, Dr Lennon said.

She welcomed the statement by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger "for upholding the importance of women in the family in Australian society", she said.

"Working about 12 hours a week part-time over the past 10 years has allowed me to put my family first.


"I see my primary role as a wife and mother - it's my most important vocation.

A Look Inside the Koran and the Bible (Part 2)

(Zenit.org).- The Koran proclaims that Jews and Christians are "People of the Book," but the sacred text sometimes expresses ambivalence about the two faiths, according to a Semitic-languages scholar.

Father Sidney Griffith, a professor of Semitic and Egyptian languages and literature at the Catholic University of America, shared with ZENIT what the Koran says about Jesus, Mary and the followers of Abraham, and how it provides points of convergence for interreligious dialogue.

Part 1 of this interview appeared Monday.

Q: The Koran mentions Jesus and Mary. Could you explain the context?

Father Griffith: The Koran mentions both Jesus and Mary a number of times, always in terms of great personal esteem.

Most importantly, in Chapter 4, Verse 171, the Koran presents Jesus, the son of Mary, as the Messiah, as God's messenger; Jesus is seen as a word of God which he cast into Mary, and a spirit from him, who is nevertheless, in God's sight like Adam, a creature -- according to Chapter 3, Verse 59.

At one point the Koran says God asked Jesus, "Did you tell people to take you and your mother as two gods?" -- a question that Jesus answered in Chapter 5, Verse 116, saying, "It is not given me to say what is untrue." Clearly, in the Islamic view, both Jesus and Mary are human beings.

The Koran regularly follows the mention of Jesus, the Messiah, with the epithet "son of Mary," as if explicitly to deny the Christian belief that Jesus is the "Son of God."

At one point the Koran denies that Jesus' adversaries killed or crucified him, saying in Chapter 5, Verse 157, "it only seemed so to them," a statement that most Muslims take to mean that Jesus did not in fact die on the cross.

On the basis of a number of other passages in the Koran, most Muslims believe that there will be a role for Jesus on the final day of reckoning. Many Sufis, Muslim mystics, revere Jesus as a model holy man.

Q: For a non-Muslim, the Koran seems to contain a number of contradictions. How would a Muslim see it?

Father Griffith: The contradictions that non-Muslims claim to see in the Koran involve a number of perspectives, both internal and external to the text.

Internally, for example, non-Muslims often point to perceived inconsistencies or reversals of thought or practice between the Meccan and Medinan periods of Mohammed's prophetic career. Externally, they might cite differences between narratives concerned with biblical characters as they appear in the Koran and in the Torah or the Gospel.

Muslims would not consider these differences to be contradictions. Rather, they would think of the non-Muslim's perception of contradiction to be due to a failure in hermeneutics, that is, a failure to read and to understand verses in the Koran on their own terms, and within the interpretive frameworks of the Islamic communities.

Q: What elements in the Koran could open the way for interreligious dialogue? What elements could limit such dialogue?

Father Griffith: In many ways the Koran encourages dialogue with Jews and Christians -- "People of the Book" as the Koran calls them some 54 times. For example, Chapter 10, Verse 94, says, "If you are in doubt about what We have sent down to you, ask those who were reading scripture before you."

Chapter 29, verse 46, proclaims, "Do not dispute with the People of the Book save in the fairest way; except for those of them who are evildoers. And say: 'We believe in what has been sent down to us and what has been sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and to Him we are submissive.'"

But there is some ambivalence. It is also the case that the Koran provides a powerful critique of the religious beliefs and practices of Christians and Jews. It characterizes their beliefs as going beyond the bounds of religious propriety -- for example, in Chapter 4, Verse 171, and Chapter 5, Verse 77) and their customary behavior as morally objectionable.

On the one hand the Koran says in Chapter 5, Verse 82, that Christians are "the closest in affection to the believers."

On the other hand, in Chapter 5, Verse 51, it says, "Taken them not as friends." Another verse -- Chapter 2, Verse 120, says, "Neither the Jews nor the Christians will be pleased with you until you follow their religion."

And within the Islamic polity, as envisioned by the Koran in Chapter 9, Verse 29, the People of the Book are required to pay a special poll tax and to adopt a low social profile in return for the protection, "dhimmah," of the Muslims, hence the adjective "dhimmi," or "one under protection," as applied to Christians or Jews.

Nevertheless, the Koran provides numerous points of convergence for interreligous dialogue. One of the most important of them is the significance of the faith of the biblical patriarch Abraham.

While the Koran insists in Chapter 3, Verse 67, that he was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a submissive monotheist, it also speaks of the "religion of Abraham" in terms very close to those used by Jews and Christians. The Koran speaks of Abraham as God's friend; so do Isaiah 41:8 and James 2:23.

Q: What do you think attracts Western converts to Islam?

Father Griffith: There are many factors involved in the attraction of Islam to religious seekers in the West.

Positively, Islam is a compelling, reasonable, uncompromising monotheism with a biblical flavor. It provides a compelling moral code, which many moderns and postmoderns view as both realistic and honorable. The Koran's prophetology provides a congenial estimation of what it perceives to be the positive factors in earlier revelations, along with reasons why earlier peoples failed to heed them faithfully.

Islamic history and tradition in various times and places have produced societies with many admirable intellectual and scientific accomplishments. Many Westerners find Islamic mysticism attractive; others see in Islam an effective religious answer to what they view as the ills of the modern Western world.

On the negative side, many Christians who are attracted to Islam lack an adequate understanding of the history and teachings of the Church, and are easily deceived by the many hostile attacks on the Church's doctrines, practices and historical record.

They are unaware of the Church's answers to Islam's critique of Christianity. The shortcomings and moral failures they perceive in Christian communities sometimes dismay them. Often they are unaware of comparable problems in other communities of faith, including the Muslims.

The prevalent materialism and secularism of Western society has in many instances convinced potential converts to Islam that only in Islam can they find an effective antidote to it.

Sometimes potential converts to Islam are overcome in their own efforts faithfully to live the Christian life and, failing to find effective pastoral care from fellow Christians, or failing to follow it, they receive moral guidance and support from pious, observant Muslims.

A Look Inside the Koran and the Bible (Part 1)

WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 26, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Muslims think of the Koran as presenting in Arabic the same message that God had previously sent down earlier in the Torah, at the hands of Moses, and in the Gospel, at the hands of Jesus.

So says Father Sidney Griffith, a professor of Semitic and Egyptian languages and literature at the Catholic University of America.

Father Griffith shared with ZENIT how Christians can better understand the Koran and how its teachings on Christ and Revelation differ from those found among Christians.

Part 2 of this interview will appear Tuesday.

Q: What exactly is the Koran? How was it written?

Father Griffith: The Koran -- Qur'an, in the conventional transcription -- in the sense in which we normally use the term, designates the holy scripture of the Muslim community.

It contains the revelations in Arabic, which God, Allah, sent down occasionally by the agency of the angel Gabriel to God's messenger, Mohammed, from about the year A.D. 610 to his death in A.D. 632, the years during which the first Islamic community was assembling.

In the sense in which the term Koran is used in the text itself, it means the "reading" or "recitation" that God put on Mohammed's heart, commanding him to read it, or to proclaim it, to its audience. Accordingly, in its origins the Koran was an oral "scripture" and to this day one normally hears it presented in a cadenced chant.

A relatively short time after Mohammed's death, early Muslims collected the text of the revelations from the memories of the messenger's companions and from some written aides de mémoire into the form and organization of the scripture, substantially as we have it in the standard editions today.

It comprises verses, described as marvelous "signs" from God, arranged in 114 suras, or chapters, each with its own name, taken from a key word in the text.

Conceptually, Muslims think of the Koran as presenting in Arabic the same message that God had previously sent down earlier in the Torah, at the hands of Moses, and in the Gospel, at the hands of Jesus.

Q: What would be the hardest for a Christian to understand about the Koran?

Father Griffith: First of all, a Christian, or any other reader unfamiliar with the biography of Mohammed and the early history of the Muslim community, is normally first struck by what he considers to be the disorder of the text.

It seems on a first reading, while being formally highly structured, to lack any topical system of narrative presentation.

In fact, the Muslim reader brings with him to the text in his Islamic consciousness the paradigms which enable him immediately to attune himself to the messages of the verses.

Secondly, the Christian reader knowledgeable about the Bible and the lore of early Christianity often finds it hard to understand the Koran's way of dealing with biblical characters, stories and narratives familiar to him from the Bible and Christian tradition.

In fact, the Koran's intention is not to repeat them. Rather, the Koran presumes in its audience a previous knowledge of these matters, enabling the Koran simply to allude to them or to evoke them in its audience's mind for the purpose of making its own, often very different point.

Q: Briefly, could you explain the key differences between Islam and Christianity?

Father Griffith: The differences between Islam and Christianity are several; two of the most significant of them concern Christology and the theology of Revelation.

The Koran rejects the Christian confession of the divine sonship, that is, the divinity, of the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, as the Koran calls him. This denial in turn involves the rejection of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, on the grounds that it compromises the Christian profession of monotheism.

Furthermore, according to the Koran, the genuine, uncorrupted Gospel, together with the Torah before it, and the Koran after it, are on a par as revelations which God has sent down to human beings at the hands of the messengers: Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. In Chapter 33, Verse 40, it says that Mohammed is the last, or the seal, of the prophets.

But the Torah and the Gospel, in the form in which the Jews and the Christians actually have them, are considered by the Muslims to be textually corrupt and subject to distorted interpretations.

For most Muslims, the Koran is considered to be the uncreated word of God, whereas for Christians the Bible, under divine inspiration, is the word of God in the words of human beings.

Most of the other differences between Islam and Christianity flow from these fundamental differences in doctrine. There is also no clergy in Islam, comparable to Christian clergy; nor any authoritative, institutional magisterium, as in Catholicism.

Q: What part does the Koran play in Islam? Does it work along with Tradition, as in Catholicism?

Father Griffith: The Koran is the ultimate, revealed authority in Islam. There is no doctrine of a deposit of revelation both in Scripture and Tradition, as in Catholicism.

However, there is authoritative tradition, or "hadith," in Islam, both in what is called holy tradition -- "hadith qudsi" -- and prophetic tradition -- "hadith nabawi."

The former is a report of a divine saying, repeated by Mohammed, which was nevertheless not included in the Koran, and therefore does not have the authority of the Koran. The latter is a report of a saying or an action of Mohammed, or a fact about him.

Traditions were collected and carefully scrutinized from the earliest days of Islam; a detailed system to guarantee the authenticity, or soundness, of genuine traditions was elaborated.

Since the ninth Christian century there have been official collections of sound traditions available to Muslim scholars for help in interpreting the Koran, especially in the effort to discern how to apply Koranic teaching to the vicissitudes of human life.

The Koran and the sound traditions are together the authoritative sources of Islamic law, of the biography of Mohammed, and of much else in the life of Muslims.

[Tuesday: What the Koran says about other religions]

Pastoral Congress Urges Action to Halt Sex Tourism

VATICAN CITY, JULY 26, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Children trapped in the sex-tourism trade must not criminalized, says the final document of the 6th World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Tourism.

The congress held earlier this month in Bangkok, Thailand, was organized by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers in collaboration with the Thai bishops' Commission on Tourism. Its theme was "Tourism at the Service of Bringing People Together."

The final document underscores that the World Tourism Organization's approved "Global Code of Ethics for Tourism" has "already inspired the legislation of some countries and is still to be implemented in others," the Vatican Information Service reported today.

Particular attention was paid to suggestions on battling the scourge of "sex tourism."

The congress also noted that "the pastoral ministry for tourism should not forget the importance of solidarity with the disadvantaged and the poor, giving special consideration to the consequences of poverty for their family lives."

Among the congress's 16 recommendations, it called on governments to make higher allocations for the moral and human formation of people engaged in tourism.

It called for promotion of the awareness that tourism is a powerful instrument for bringing about justice and peace and a true encounter of peoples.

The congress further urged that travel agencies, airlines and hotels inform their clients about child victims of prostitution and the legal penalties for getting involved with sex tourism involving children.

"During the congress it was stressed that tourism, which has now become a social and economic phenomenon of global dimensions, should contribute to bringing together nations and cultures," the final document states.

It called for efforts against "all forms of discrimination and exploitation or, worst still, of sexual violence in relation to women and minors."

Among those who are exploited are "the most vulnerable and in urgent need of proper care are certainly, women, minors and children," the congress concluded.

Among its remaining recommendations the congress urged "that compassion, legal protection and the restoration of their human rights must be given to children" caught in the situation of sex tourism.

"The child must not be criminalized in cases where the contents of the Convention of the Rights of the Child have been violated, as in the case of sexual abuse," it added.

Further, the document urges "that state authorities give priority and urgency to counteracting trafficking and the economic exploitation especially of children in sex tourism."

Also, it suggested that "State institutions intensify the implementation of laws that protect children from sexual exploitation in tourism and bring to justice the offenders through intensive, coordinated and consistent efforts at all levels of society, and in collaboration with international organizations."

The final document also urged that "dioceses and communities concerned give due pastoral care to children exploited for sexual purposes in the tourist industry, ... [and] establish structures for the pastoral care of exploited children as an important aspect of their mission of evangelization."

Dioceses and communities are also encouraged to "support existing means of apostolate, or establish new ones, that will care for the victims with compassion and love and provide legal assistance, therapy and reintegration into society and, where Christians are involved, into the faith community."
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Mel Gibson's The Passion comes to Malaysia - but only for Christians

Censors in Malaysia have approved Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion of the Christ" for screening, but the government says only Christians will be allowed to watch it.

To ensure the government's restrictive policy is adhered to, tickets can only be bought at Christian churches.

Islam forbids the representation of animals and humans, including sacred figures. Its holy book, the Qu’ran, considers Jesus a prophet, not the crucified Son of God, and for this reason does not in principle allow his depiction.

Terri Schiavo's Parents Say Killing Her Would Violate Her Catholic Beliefs

"An attorney who represents Terri Schiavo's parents is trying a new legal approach in the battle to save the disabled woman from being euthanized by her estranged husband. Bob and Mary Schindler say Terri would not want to die because it violates her Catholic religious beliefs.
Pat Anderson, the Schindler's attorney, filed a motion in the Sixth Judicial Circuit on Tuesday citing recent comments by Pope John Paul II against the withdrawal of food and water for disabled patients in situations such as Terri's.
'As a practicing Catholic ... who was raised in the Church and who received 12 years of religious schooling and instruction, Terri does not want to commit a sin of the gravest proportion by foregoing treatment,' the motion states.
In the motion, Anderson says the withdrawal of food and water would be an act of euthanasia and violate Terri's religious beliefs.":

Milestone convenant signed with churches

The Catholic Church has signed a new covenant with Protestant Churches which has been described by church leaders as one of the most significant events in Australia’s ecumenical history.

The covenant was signed on Sunday 11 July by National Council of Churches of Australia (NCCA), of which the Catholic Church is a member.

Uniting Church National Assembly President Rev. Dean Drayton told his Standing Committee that such a covenant "would not be possible anywhere else in the world".

NCCA president Rev Prof James Haire said: "The US is working towards something similar, but that doesn’t include the Catholics.”

Culture of Death at Catholic Colleges in U.S. (Part 1)

The trend of Catholic colleges hosting abortion-rights advocates has grown so much that the U.S. bishops' conference has asked Church-related institutions to refrain from honoring those who act in defiance of Church teachings.

Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, co-authored a five-year study with the group's Erin Butcher investigating inroads made by advocates of abortion, contraception, premarital sexual activity and physician-assisted suicide on Catholic college campuses.

Reilly shared with ZENIT the importance of the U.S. bishops' statement and the danger of Catholic schools welcoming high-profile persons who publicly oppose the Church's fundamental moral principles.

Part 2 of this interview will appear Tuesday.

Q: In the recent statement, "Catholics in Political Life," the bishops' conference stated: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." What was the significance of the U.S. bishops warning schools against honoring dissenters?

Reilly: The statement is laudable, formally endorsing Cardinal Newman Society's long-held position against Catholic institutions honoring or inviting abortion-rights advocates.

Arrest In Seminary Sex Scandal

Prosecutors on Monday charged a 27-year-old Polish candidate for the priesthood with possession and distribution of child pornography, invoking a tough new federal law in a widening investigation into a vast cache of lurid images found at a seminary.

The student, whose name was not released, had downloaded "numerous" photographs from a Web site in his native Poland, state prosecutor Walter Nemec said in a statement. If tried and convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.

Flame of the Ancient Faith Still Flickers in Iran

Zoroastrians say the sacred spring at Chak Chak, a shrine perched beneath a towering cliff face in the searing desert of central Iran, has lost none of its miraculous healing powers.

"A 32-year-old Muslim came here as a last resort when he was dying from leukemia. I was not sure we should let a Muslim in but he insisted and spent the night here," said Goshtasb Belivani, a priest of Iran's ancient pre-Islamic religion.

"During the night he was visited by a beautiful woman dressed in green who gave him sherbet to drink," he continued.

For the last three months, since being given the all clear from his doctor, the young man has been a regular visitor to the shrine.

The beautiful woman was the ghost of Nikbanou, a 7th century Persian princess who fled to the mountain refuge, escaping Arab horsemen who thundered across the border and planted the green pennants of Islam in Iranian soil.

Saving 'Merry Christmas'

It isn’t exactly the season for “Jingle Bells” and Santa Claus, but one man is on a crusade to save Christmas anyway.

Manuel Zammarano has formed the Committee to Save Merry Christmas (search) to protest the fact that big retailers profit from Christmas shopping dollars but refuse to mention the holiday by name.

His group has boycotted Federated Department Stores Inc. (search), which owns Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s, for collecting Christmas cash without giving Christmas credit for all the end-of-year gift buying

Parliament of World's Religions opens in Spain

In 1893, in a Chicago hall crowded with mostly American and Protestant clergymen, a young swami from India stood in traditional dress and captured the imagination of the delegates with a dream of religious unity.

"If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this," said Swami Vivekananda, representing Hinduism. "It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church."

It has been a rocky century for religious harmony, but on Wednesday more than 7,000 people of faith gathered from five continents to commemorate that vision during a week of shared prayers, panels and discussion at the fourth Parliament of the World's Religions.

Key speakers will include Iranian Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi; prominent theologian Hans Kung;, Ela Gandhi, a South African peace activist and granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi; primatologist and activist Jane Goodall; health expert and author Deepak Chopra; and Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (known also as Amma) of India, known worldwide for her practice of warmly embracing each of her followers.

Portuguese beaches to mix sun and sacraments

Sunseekers in central Portugal will have no excuse for missing mass this summer -- a local bishop is reportedly planning to hold services at some of the region's most popular beaches.

"Rest should not be empty time. Leisure only makes sense when it serves as a time for personal enrichment," Bishop Antonio Marcelino of the central port city of Aveiro told the weekly Expresso.

He added the initiative would "permit, during a time when people are more relaxed, a more serene reflection about life."

Pope returns icon to Russia

Pope John Paul is to remove one of the Orthodox church's most revered icons from his private chapel and dispatch it to Moscow in an attempt to improve the Vatican's tense relations with the Russian Orthodox hierarchy.

The Madonna of Kazan has been a bone of contention between the two branches of Christianity since it was first hung in the papal apartments 11 years ago. It is to be handed over to the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexis II, at a ceremony in September

Parish has unity, even if it has no house of prayer

About 70 people sat under trees Sunday to celebrate the Mass on the Grass, as it was called, in between the golf course and the water park in Detroit's Chandler Park.

Seating was strictly BYO chair or blanket. A digital piano played over the hum of a small portable generator and the Rev. Ray Stadmeyer's altar was a folding card table covered with a crisp, white cloth. Stadmeyer's robes -- khaki shorts and a T-shirt emblazoned with a church slogan -- reflected the dress code for the day.

The people attending were what remains of St. John Berchmans-St. Juliana parish in Detroit. Two weeks ago the Archdiocese of Detroit closed the church after a study found the parish was down to 150 or fewer members.

Salesian priest quits Samoa

The head of the Salesian Catholic order of priests and brothers in Samoa, Father John M. Murphy, is reported to have left the country ahead of an investigation into whether he should be deported for supporting a visa application for a fellow Melbourne-based Salesian priest with child abuse convictions.

The departure of Father Murphy from the Order's Moamoa Theological College in the capital, Apia, has been reported by The Observer newspaper, according to Poloma Komiti, from the Samoan Prime Minister's office.

Salesians in Samoa have told The Age for several days they do not know where Father Murphy is, while the order's Melbourne headquarters says it does not know if he is in Australia

Brisbane miracle investigation report still weeks away

An investigation into the authenticity of weeping religious statues at a Brisbane church has become as much of a mystery as the incident itself, according to a report in Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper today.

The paper says it has been more than six weeks since parishioners at the Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre at Inala first saw what they said were blood and rose-scented oil coming from the statues. But an official inquiry into the incident is far from over.

Charismatic dropout, not religion,

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers have staged some of the world’s most devastating suicide bombings, but those who blow themselves up are not driven by religious fervour but veneration for their school dropout leader.

The Tigers have acknowledged losing 241 suicide bombers, more than any single Middle Eastern or Islamic group, but the rebels mostly practice Hinduism which considers suicide a sin.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who lost her right eye in a Tiger suicide bombing in December 1999, said the Tigers had denied involvement in the latest attack in Colombo on Wednesday but she would have it investigated.

For defence ministry officials and police, however, the explosion bore all the hallmarks of the Tigers as no other group in Sri Lanka is known to have the expertise to carry out suicide attacks.

The attack, in which four police and the bomber died, came two days after the Tigers marked the 17th anniversary of the first suicide mission, by a rebel known as Captain Miller who drove a bomb-filled truck and killed 40 soldiers.

"It is difficult to understand what drives Tigers to suicide bombings," said former Tamil rebel-turned-politician Dharmalingam Sidhathan. "It is not an act carried out in the heat of battle."

Remarkably, Judge with Religious Convictions OK'd by Senate

An attorney with a Christian legal firm says he's pleasantly surprised that a conservative Catholic from Arkansas won Senate confirmation to be a federal judge. At the same time, a legal watchdog group is charging that Christian bigotry was on display during the confirmation hearings.

Earlier this week, Arkansas lawyer Leon Holmes -- following six hours of sometimes heated debate -- was approved by the U.S. Senate (51-46) for the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Arkansas. During the confirmation process, much attention was focused on the faith and beliefs of Holmes, who is pro-life and also believes the biblical mandate that wives should be submissive to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24).

Pope may make first trip to Ulster

Speculation is mounting that Pope John Paul II will visit Ireland in the autumn and make his first journey to Northern Ireland, despite fears of Protestant protests.

Senior Irish bishops have sent an invitation to the Vatican and are understood to have discussed the visit with officials in Rome last week.

The 84-year-old pontiff cancelled an autumn visit to Mexico because of the strain of long-haul flights. It is thought a visit to Ireland would be an easier alternative and could go ahead in October or in the spring.

Stand against wayward politicians

''I oppose abortion personally. . . . I believe life does begin at conception.'' So said John Kerry last week in Iowa.

Remarkable. If Kerry believes that life begins at conception, he must concede that each time he has voted to fund abortions, he has voted to fund the killing of human beings. And voting to uphold Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abortion ban, Kerry voted against sparing tiny human beings from an excruciating form of execution.

How does John Kerry reconcile this?

''I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist,'' says Kerry.

But Kerry is not being asked to vote to force Jews or atheists to attend church on Sunday or recite the Apostles' Creed. He is only being asked to vote No to the spending of tax dollars to finance the destruction of what he himself says is human life.

What Future is in Store for Taiwan's Theological Schools?

"Where are Taiwan's theological schools to turn? A symposium sponsored by the Formosa Christianity and Culture Research Centre in Tainan was held to speak to this question on June 28 and 29. It brought together presidents and presidential representatives from several theological schools in this land, including Holy Light Theological College in Kaohsiung, Taiwan Theological College in Taipei, The Presbyterian Bible College in Hsin-chu, Yushan Theological College in Hualien and Tainan Theological College, where the event took place."

Manila - RP needs 25T Catholic priests: bishop

DEVELOPMENT and materialism are two of the causes for the decline in the number of persons responding to the call for priesthood, according to Imus Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle.

Tagle said the Catholic Church in the country needs 25,000 priests.

"We are seeing a decline," Tagle told reporters in a press briefing Wednesday at the World Trade Center where the five-day Congress of the Clergy is being held.

Tagle said the main reason why many young people are no longer interested in entering priesthood because most of them have been "corrupted with the present circumstances of material things."

Priests, lay leaders sad but supportive

The fax machine in the Rev. Peter Byrne's office at St. Ignatius Parish started whirring at 10 a.m. Tuesday. It was a letter from Archbishop John G. Vlazny announcing that the archdiocese was declaring bankruptcy.

Vatican lifts veil of secrecy from World War II documents

The Vatican decided on Tuesday to release from its secret archives documents from the period of World War II, which are expected to include information about the policy of Pope Pius XII toward the Nazi regime but not pertaining to the Holocaust.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League who is now in Rome, told Haaretz yesterday that "one cannot ignore the importance of the Vatican's decision to release further documents from the World War II period."

Foxman noted however that "the newly released documents are not especially significant to the problematic issues in Pius XII's controversial behavior vis-a-vis the Holocaust, which the Jews wish to look into."

Supreme Court says Jews can erect temporary religious huts on balconies

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of Montreal orthodox Jews who contested a ban on religious structures on their condominium properties.

The high court said Wednesday that religious freedoms take precedence over co-ownership contracts. Four Jewish families appealed rulings starting in 1998 by the Quebec Superior Court and Quebec Court of Appeal that said they didn't have the right to erect succahs on their balconies during the fall holiday of Succot.

The structures, made of wood and covered with cedar branches, are used each year for nine days to commemorate the difficult conditions Jews faced after fleeing Egypt.

Ethicist says fertility breakthrough sends wrong message

Salesian Fr Norman Ford of Melbourne´s Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics has said it would be wrong for fertile women to have a recently developed operation to allow them to give birth into their late 40s and 50s.

The media is reporting this morning on world-first surgery developed by Professor Jacques Donnez of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium offers new hope to women suffering cancer, and those who want to cheat their biological clocks.

Doctors yesterday announced a cancer patient had become pregnant after her ovaries were removed and frozen six years ago.

A new documentary questions the Catholic Church's views on celibacy.

The basic contention of Celibacy, a new documentary by the Emmy-winning director Antony Thomas (tonight at 10 p.m. ET on HBO), is that sexuality is the Galileo of today's Roman Catholic Church. In 1632, when that Italian physicist published his revolutionary heliocentric theory, he was threatened with torture by the Inquisition. Galileo recanted, but it would take until 1992—the year of the Rodney King riots and Bill Clinton's defeat of George H.W. Bush—for the church to admit that, yes, perhaps the earth really did revolve around the sun. The doctrine of imposed celibacy for all ordained clergy seems to be stuck in a comparable limbo, a lapse between theory and practice. If Roman Catholicism wishes to survive, shouldn't it rethink its mandate of complete abstinence for priests and nuns?

Bible Belt churches putting Bush in more than prayers

The smiling face of President Bush is on prominent display in the Rev. David Johnston's office at King of Kings Church, superimposed on a thank-you letter for a $2,000 campaign contribution.

Johnston's 120-member evangelical congregation backs the president wholeheartedly on social issues most important to his church. There is even a red-white-and-blue church Web site, saveamericanow.us, that King of Kings started in part to campaign against gay marriage

Vatican birth control policy spurned

The Vatican's conservative policies on birth control have received a blow from one of the Roman Catholic Church's most loyal regions after opinion polls showed overwhelming support in Latin America for measures of contraception.
The move also represents an assault on US policies which, under George Bush, have blocked aid to organisations supporting abortion.

The polls, released at an inter-governmental health conference in Puerto Rico, show at least three quarters of those questioned in Mexico, Colombia and Bolivia supporting contraception being made available to adolescents and even higher majorities in favour of the use of condoms to prevent HIV/Aids

Catholic politicians' dilemma an old one

The current pressure on Sen. John Kerry and other Catholic politicians from fellow Catholics on the political and ecclesiastical right is not a new phenomenon. Ever since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, abortion has become a highly sensitive political as well as moral issue within the Catholic church.

Catholic politicians -- mostly liberal Democrats but also a few moderate Republicans -- have found themselves under a special kind of fire since the mid-’70s. In the mind of their Catholic critics, Roe v. Wade (1973) was an illegitimate decision, and Catholic legislators and executives are still bound by the moral principle that abortion is tantamount to murder and, as such, always to be prevented at whatever cost.

However, once the Supreme Court had determined abortion to be a constitutionally guaranteed right, Catholic legislators were faced with the dilemma of either upholding their oath of office to enforce the law regardless of their personal beliefs or of subordinating the laws of the land to the teachings of their church

Pope Hopes for 'Leap Forward' in Catholic-Orthodox Relations

Pope John Paul II welcomed the leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians to the Vatican on Tuesday (June 29) with an appeal for a "leap forward" in relations between the long-divided Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Britons pick sterilisation as contraceptive

British adults have the highest sterilisation rate in Europe, according to research published today.

Experts said men and women were turning to the most drastic form of contraception because they were not being given access to or information about other methods which could give them equal confidence that they would not risk an unwanted pregnancy.

Six out of ten women who had been sterilised said that doctors had not discussed long-term contraceptive alternatives such as the coil or hormonal implants.

Clerical Errors

The basic contention of Celibacy, a new documentary by the Emmy-winning director Antony Thomas (tonight at 10 p.m. ET on HBO), is that sexuality is the Galileo of today's Roman Catholic Church. In 1632, when that Italian physicist published his revolutionary heliocentric theory, he was threatened with torture by the Inquisition. Galileo recanted, but it would take until 1992—the year of the Rodney King riots and Bill Clinton's defeat of George H.W. Bush—for the church to admit that, yes, perhaps the earth really did revolve around the sun. The doctrine of imposed celibacy for all ordained clergy seems to be stuck in a comparable limbo, a lapse between theory and practice. If Roman Catholicism wishes to survive, shouldn't it rethink its mandate of complete abstinence for priests and nuns?

In Asia, a Trend to Destroy Catholic Schools

The destruction of Catholic schools has become a new trend to suppress religious freedom in Asia, warns a priest-journalist.

Father Bernardo Cervellera, director of AsiaNews, described this problem when presenting the "2004 Report on Religious Freedom," written by the pontifical association Aid to the Church in Need, of which he is a collaborator.

"In Communist areas and those influenced by religious fundamentalism, they are no longer content with suppressing individuals; they destroy all objects and buildings linked to freedom of worship," Father Cervellera said.

"Of course, churches are destroyed, as happens in Indonesia, China and India, " he said.

Catholic priest from central Wisconsin heads to war in Iraq

A Roman Catholic priest from central Wisconsin has been called up to the war in Iraq - not to fight, but to counsel soldiers who do.

The Rev. Dan Farley, an Army chaplain since 1995, said Monday that he got a call at the beginning of June informing him he was being involuntarily mobilized.

He requested and was granted an extension to July 7 so that he could be on hand when his Portage County parish's new $2.5 million church was dedicated Sunday.

"When I first received the call, I was angry, I was hoping that I'd be able to stay here longer," Farley told The Associated Press. "But then I came to see that it was a new door that was opening, and the work that I was doing here was coming to completion."

Muslims Find Recognition Elusive in Catholic Italy

It is only a short metro ride from Milan's chic designer stores but the city's most controversial mosque may as well be a world away.

Surrounded by dull apartment blocks and grimy warehouses, the Viale Jenner mosque is a microcosm of the problems of Islam in Catholic Italy.

And, since Sept. 11, 2001, it has come under a microscope of suspicion.

Questioning Catholic hierarchy's priorities

Raw, anti-Catholic bigotry sank Democrat Al Smith's 1928 bid to become the first Roman Catholic U.S. president. It almost cost Democrat John Kennedy the presidency 32 years later.

Senator John Kerry is expected to become the Democratic standard bearer in this year's presidential election. A former altar boy, he's a practising Catholic and, like Kennedy, he has said his Catholicism would not prevent him from acting in the best interests of his country.

But there's an ironic twist this time round. While Smith and Kennedy struggled to neutralize fears that a Catholic president would be a Vatican puppet, many U.S. Catholics accuse Kerry of not being Catholic enough.

Spit it out: Catholic schools ban chaw

REGINA - Regina's Catholic schools have banned chewing tobacco. According to the division's superintendent, many students were using the tobacco in the classroom.

School officials fear students may mistakenly think smokeless tobacco is a healthy alternative to smoking.

A study done four years ago showed nearly 20 per cent of Grade 9 students use chewing tobacco, while six per cent of Grade 6 students use it.

What has faith got to do with votes? Kerry can learn from Clinton

WHEN former United States president Bill Clinton was eight, he started taking himself to church. When he was 10, he publicly committed himself to Jesus. As a boy, he begged his Sunday school teacher to take him to see evangelist Billy Graham. And as anybody watching his book roll out knows, he still exudes religiosity. He gave Dan Rather of CBS News a tour of his Little Rock church, and talked about praying in good times and bad.

More than any other leading Democrat, Mr Clinton understands the role religion actually plays in modern politics. He knows Americans want to be able to see their leaders' faith. A recent Pew survey showed that for every American who thinks politicians should talk less about religion, there are two Americans who believe politicians should talk more about it.

New Age: Conference affirms need for new analysis/response

An international conference on the New Age celebrated in the Vatican on June 14-16, an initiative of various dicasteries interested in studying sects and new religious movements, has come to a close. Delegates from episcopal conferences from twenty-two countries, members of the Roman Curia and a representative from the General Union of Superiors participated in the study session.

During the conference, the episcopates' answers to questions on the document, "Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the 'New Age'" (2003), were examined and, in addition to the summary of these answers, two fundamental aspects were studied: the discernment of the techniques and finalities of the New Age, and the comparison between Christian spirituality and the mystical experiences proposed by the New Age.

Child Soldiers and human trafficking

Rebels arrive in your village. Your parents and the parents of your neighbours are beaten, speared and bludgeoned to death in front of you and your friends.

Everyone between the age of 8 and 16 is rounded up. Then, loaded on your backs with loot taken from your own families you are force-marched across the country. The abuses continue. You watch friends murdered for lagging behind and their corpses left to rot where they fall or are thrown into the surrounding bushes

Priests Risking Their Lives in Colombia

After meeting with leaders of a right-wing death squad, the Rev. Leonel Narvaez was driving home along a pitted rural road when he heard rattling in the car's engine compartment.

Pulling over to investigate, he popped the hood - and discovered two hand grenades on the verge of exploding, their safety pins nearly jiggled loose.

Brushes with death are becoming common for priests in Colombia's civil war. Going beyond their normal duties of baptizing babies, celebrating Mass and hearing confession, they intervene to secure freedom for hostages, escort civilians to safety through combat zones and broker temporary truces.

CHRISTIANS IN EUROPE, ATHEISTS IN RUSSIA MAKING ROOM FOR OTHERS

The controversy in the EU over who and how will make political and economic decisions in accordance with the common constitution has moved to the background another dispute, a religious one. Despite dramatic protests from the Poles, Italians and Spanish, the European Union Constitution has got no reference at all to the Christians roots of European civilization.

Actually, by adopting this wording of its fundamental law, Europe which was built by the Christians and on Christian blood is quite purposefully changing its spots. It is becoming ever more Voltairean with a kind of deistic approach or ever more secular and multi-confessional: a huge inflow of Moslem immigrants couldn't but change the religious climate on the Old continent. St. Bartholomew's night has gone into the oblivion and most European leaders are not campaigning today for the only rightful Christian faith professed by their subjects but competing in political correctness.

As a result, the Vatican is offended, which has been voiced by its spokesman Joaquin Navarro, and the all-European constitution can expect no easy approval at referendums in Catholic countries.

Pope Disappointed by Absence of Christianity in Eurotext

Constitutional Treaty Still Faces Votes in Member States

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 20, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II publicly expressed his disappointment over the text of the constitution, backed by European Union leaders on Friday, which fails to mention the continent's Christian roots.

"We cannot be severed from our roots," the Pope said today in Polish before bidding farewell to the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square to pray the Angelus.

The Holy Father saluted his homeland, whose government tried to have the role of Christianity mentioned in the Constitutional Treaty.

"I thank Poland which, in the European forum, faithfully defended the Christian roots of our continent, from which arose the culture and development of the civilization of our time," he said.

On Saturday, Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro Valls published a statement saying that the "Holy See cannot but express its distress over the opposition of some governments to the explicit recognition of the Christian roots of Europe."

"It is a question of disregard of the historical evidence and of the Christian identity of European peoples," said the director of the Vatican press office.

"The Holy See expresses heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to those governments that, aware of the past and of the historical horizon in which the new Europe is taking shape, worked to express concretely its recognized religious heritage," Navarro Valls continued.

"Not to be forgotten is the intense commitment of different entities to have the Christian heritage of Europe mentioned in this treaty, stimulating the reflection of political leaders, citizens, and public opinion on a question that is not secondary in the present national, European and world context," he said.

The Vatican spokesman expressed satisfaction over Article 51 of the constitution, "which safeguards the status of religious confessions in the Member States, and commits the Union to maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with them, recognizing their identity and specific contribution."

The EU leaders must now turn to their own citizens for approval of the constitution. If approved in all 25 EU nations, the text will replace the existing five treaties which govern the union, set up in 1957 to promote economic and political integration to prevent future wars.

Religious network plans Christian 'American Idol'

The Wright Entertainment Group, best known for managing the careers of teen stars such as Britney Spears and 'N Sync, is negotiating to create a Christian version of the popular TV show "American Idol."

The show, to be called "Gifted," is scheduled to debut in October on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world's largest religious television network.

A spokesman for Orlando-based Wright Entertainment, Philip McIntyre, confirmed Thursday that the company is part of a joint venture with Matt Crouch, son of the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, to create the talent-search show. The joint venture, now called Wright Generation, is negotiating with a private investor, whom McIntyre declined to name, to finance the project.

Melbourne boy gets "divorce" from mother

A 14-year-old Melbourne boy has been granted a divorce from his mother on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

According to the report published in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday, the "divorce" was sanctioned by the Children´s Court last month after counselling for the warring parties failed. A family court spokesperson and a parents´ rights activist said it was likely he was the youngest Australian child to have divorced his family.

The newspaper says the boy´s distraught mother, a laboratory technician, said she felt let down and betrayed. She said it was ludicrous that a boy could divorce his family

VIRGIN MARY OF TIKHVIN ICON RETURNS TO RUSSIA

The Virgin Mary of Tikhvin Icon is returning to Russia through Latvia after 60 years in the U.S.

The legend runs that the icon was painted by one of Christ's apostles Luke in the first century AD in Jerusalem when Virgin Mary was still alive. Then the image went to a specially built church in Constantinople to be a main relic of Byzantine Empire, the world-first Orthodox Christian state. In 1383 the icon disappeared and emerged in some time in Rus (Russia) on the bank of the river Tikhvinka flowing into Lake Ladoga (Russia's northwest). Soon it became one of the most celebrated Russian religious relics. From 1560 into the 1920s the icon was kept in the Tikhvin Uspensky (Dormition) Monastery built on Ivan the Terrible's order. The Nazis who occupied the region during WWII withdrew the relic first to Pskov and then forwarded to Riga

The `sex priest' stuns Argentina and titillates it

They used to call him the "Click Priest," because he was best known for signing off the programming on an Argentine TV station each night.

But Friar Jose Mariani has now become Argentina's "Sex Priest" following the publication of a book of racy memoirs that is on track to become a global publishing phenomenon.

Pope singles out Madonna for criticism

Madonna might start singing, “Pope, Don’t Preach.”

The lapsed-Catholic diva has come under scrutiny from the Vatican because of her support of Kabbalah. The former Material Girl has become the world’s highest-profile member of the Kabbalah Centre, a controversial offshoot of Judaism, and has even taken on the Jewish name Esther. But now, the Vatican is holding a special summit with Catholic leaders from around the world, hammering out a way to deal with so-called “New Age” religions and fads that pose a “threat” to Christianity.

The council, which met last week, singled out “Kabbalah as espoused by Madonna” — as well as a number of other faddish religions, according to a report.

“In the past, the Pope has criticized Madonna for the contents of her concerts,” says cult expert Rick Ross, who has closely followed the activities of the Kabbalah Centre. “Now, ironically, it’s become a theological issue.”

Bishops: Kerry, Pro Choicers 'Cooperating with Evil'

Politicians who support abortion "are cooperating with evil" and should not receive Communion U.S. Catholic bishops said in a statement, approved in vote of 183 to six, and issued Friday at their meeting in Denver.

But the bishops left it up to pro-abortion politicians to refrain from receiving Communion when they are in a state of serious sin, which includes support of abortion, while approving of fellow bishops who deny the sacrament to pro-abortion lawmakers if they choose.

Peruvian cathedral restoration finished

After 9,000 gallons of paint, more than 600 new lights and hundreds of hours of painstaking cleaning and rebuilding, Lima's 400-year-old Roman Catholic cathedral celebrated its restoration Thursday.

Located in the former capital of Spain's South American colonial empire, the Lima cathedral oversaw much of the evangelization of indigenous peoples on the continent.

Cardinal Ratzinger Joins U.S. Bishops Debate On Withholding Eucharist from Pro-Abort Politicians

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has weighed into the debate within the American hierarchy, saying that public figures who openly dissent from Church teachings should not receive Communion. In an official letter to the US bishops, which has not been made public, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith writes that Catholics who are "living in grave sin" or who "reject the doctrine of the Church," should abstain from the Eucharist.

Cardinal Ratzinger's letter was prompted by the sharp differences among American bishops on the question. These differences have been discussed at length by US bishops and Vatican officials in recent weeks, as the American bishops made their ad limina visits to Rome. The existence of Cardinal Ratzinger's letter was first reported by the Italian daily La Reppublica, and subsequently confirmed by informed sources at the Vatican.

Bishops are likely to decide key issue

Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis said Thursday that despite "a difference of opinion" he expects a statement on Communion and Catholic politicians will come today from the nation's bishops.

"You can imagine there's been a lot of discussion about it," he said.

Lost Catholic community found in China after 50 years

The Catholic agency AsiaNews.it reports today that a community of 5,000 lay Catholics has been located in a remote part of China who have "kept the faith" without a priest and without contact with the universal Church for 50 years.

It has taken a further two years for the news to seep back to the media that a Catholic priest has been in regular contact with them again since 2002.

Monks count unusual blessing - 06/13/04

They still tool around these gently rolling green hills in the same sturdy Chevys. They still wear their same black robes. Their rooms are spartan as ever, and still called cells.
And the soothing Gregorian chants echo deep from these sandstone walls just as they have for 150 years.

For the monks of St. Meinrad Archabbey, life follows immutable rhythms: Bells peal crisply from Romanesque towers, noontime prayers are read from white oak choir stalls, breakfast and dinner are eaten in silence.

Not much can change this brotherhood of holy men who have taken a vow of poverty. Not war, not peace and certainly not money.

Not even a gift of nearly $27 million

Can Mel Gibson add another credit to his success?

"Can the popular film maker Mel Gibson now claim some credit for having triggered the beatification of a saint?Catholic News Service reports today the Vatican 'has confirmed that Pope John Paul II plans to beatify a controversial 19th-century nun whose visions helped inspire Mel Gibson to make the movie 'The Passion of the Christ'.'

'German Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich will be proclaimed 'blessed' along with four others Oct. 3 in a Mass at the Vatican, officials at the Congregation for Saints' Causes told Catholic News Service June 16. Beatification is a major step toward sainthood.'"

The Catholic Communications Office - Press Release

The Catholic Communications Office
PRESS RELEASE
16 JUNE 2004
STATEMENT FROM CATHOLIC BISHOPS ON THE OUTCOME OF JUNE 2004 MEETING IN MAYNOOTH

Mass Translation: Irish Bishops want new draft

In a media release received early this morning (Australian time) from the Irish Bishops' Conference it has been confirmed that the Irish Bishops have requested a new draft English translation of the Mass that, while "faithful to the Latin original" reflects "a style that is contemporary and accessible to people in their worship and prayer".

The Irish Bishops join a growing chorus of Bishops from the English speaking world, including the Australian Catholic Bishops, who are unhappy with the present draft translation that has been circulated for comment.

The issue of the English translation of liturgical texts has been controversial since the mid-1990s when, at the behest of conservative lobbyists around the world, the Vatican intervened in the affairs of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy in an endeavour that has been widely interpreted as seeking to give more power to those wanting more centralisation of power in the Church on politically and theologically conservative lines

Woman admitted to parish after death

After a family's appeal, St. Louis' archbishop has made an exception and posthumously let a woman become a member of an independent Polish parish at odds with the cleric over its control.
Virginia Swiercz — baptized 95 years ago at St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Church, where she also was married — had sought to become a member of the parish after more than a half century away

Voices raised to question, challenge centuries-old dictate for Catholic priests

The requirement of celibacy for priests -- a centuries-old dictate of the Roman Catholic Church -- is increasingly being questioned if not challenged outright.
Yet for many priests, as well as parishioners, celibacy is valued as an act of total self-giving -- a way to demonstrate one's devotion to prayer, commitment to a holy life and total allegiance to priestly duties.

Bringing the issue to the forefront are two topics taken directly from the headlines -- sexual abuse by priests at various dioceses across the nation and a growing priest shortage. Some Catholic laity and priests say that the two are reason enough to open discussion on allowing priests to marry.

Catholic Church may dump gay employees who marry

Catholic church leaders across the state are considering rewriting employment policies in the wake of legalized gay marriage and may go so far as to call for the firing of church workers who tie the knot with same-sex partners.

The proposed new policies - which also include a more lenient proposal to let employees follow their own consciences - are articulated in memos circulating among the state's four bishops and their staffs. No decision on which policy to embrace is imminent, said several people who have seen the documents.

Catholic Teaching: Does abortion trump all other issues?

When Dick Durbin's hometown priest slammed the Senator's pro-choice voting record, Durbin's office did not sit idle. It compiled a scorecard ranking 24 Catholic Senators by their votes on issues of concern to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Abortion made the list, but so did the minimum wage, the death penalty and media ownership, all weighted equally. Democrats did better than Republicans, and the test's high scorer was John Kerry. An incensed (and low scoring) Senator Rick Santorum fumed that abortion and "how many television stations somebody owns ... are not equivalent moral issues." True, but Durbin did express a prevalent Democratic curiosity: Does the church see the right to life as trumping all its other concerns?

Kerry's Choice for Religious Outreach Director 'Confounding,' Group Says

Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has hired a new director of religion outreach, who is being described by a Catholic group as "a curious choice."

Mara Vanderslice, who formerly worked as religion outreach director for Democrat Howard Dean, was raised without any faith and didn't become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism, the Catholic League said on Monday.

According to Catholic League President William Donohue, when Vanderslice was in college she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism.

Vatican summit aims to combat threat of 'alternative' religions

Catholics from more than 25 countries are in Rome this week to hammer out a strategy for combating the threat posed to Christianity by "New Age" religions and fads.

"Astrologers believe that the Age of Pisces - known to them as the Christian age - is drawing to a close," explained an exhaustive report on the New Age produced by the Catholic church last year. And as priests around the world watch their congregations dwindle through boredom or plain disbelief, the Church believes that the moment has come to fight back.

Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, one of the authors of the report, said those at the closed-door conference include priests and lay people from Latin America "worried that they can be pushed out by something that has come from abroad", and from Asia where "a lot of traditional religions are reviving".

Faith-based investing: Taking God's name in gain?

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is reviewing an unorthodox IPO for the public to subscribe to shares to buy a foreclosed property from its mortgagee bank. However, the shares will not be traded on the Singapore Exchange. Investors will get, instead, annual dividends if there are profits from its operations as well as a share in the proceeds when the property - the 45-unit Alocassia Apartments in Bukit Timah - is eventually sold.

The problem is that the IPO prospectus scarcely mentions it is slated for religious use, a theme which is trumpeted on the website of the company, Aloecassia Ltd. However, as long as a supplementary or replacement document is issued to address the deficiency, the initial public offering can be salvaged.

Report finds outsourcing of religious services in US

Facing shortage of priests, Roman Catholic Churches in the United States, Canada and Europe have for years been "outsourcing" religious services to India and other developing countries, says a newspaper report.

Priests in India are handling Mass for special "intention" or requests for services to remember deceased relatives and thanksgiving prayers.

In Kerala, which has one of the largest concentrations of Christians in India, churches often receive intentions from overseas.

Vatican hesitant on US Communion debate

Vatican officials do not have easy answers to the questions raised by the US debate on communion for politicians says respected Vatican reporter, John Thavis of CNS.

In one of its main reports this week, Catholic News Service is carrying a story from respected Vatican reporter, John Thavis, that the Vatican might not have any easy answers to the questions raised by the debate in the US on denying individuals communion.

Thavis writes: "Despite the divergent policies adopted by several U.S. bishops, the Vatican has been slow to intervene, and it may choose not to do so publicly. One reason is that the Vatican does not want to be seen as telling the U.S. bishops what to do. Another is that Vatican officials do not have easy answers to the questions raised by the debate."