Sr. Doris Barbero. Credit: Archdiocese of Sydney.
October 7 (CNA) .- An Australian sister and her colleagues at a Samoan primary school saved the lives of 320 school children when she quickly moved them to higher ground after an earthquake triggered a tsunami warning.
The Queensland-born Sister Doris Barbero, a Salesian, was teaching at St. Joseph's Primary School on the edge of the sea in a village in southwest Western Samoa. The school is sponsored by Catholic Mission in Australia.
Pakistan: Using firearms and explosives, thousands of Muslims destroyed the Christian village of Korian in the province of Punjab in eastern Pakistan. A Christian family in the village had been accused of blaspheming Islam.
“One cannot but weep upon seeing the trail of destruction left behind,” said Father Aftab James Paul, director of of the Diocese of Faisalabad’s commission for interfaith dialogue.
SOURCE: CCN
LINUNDUS says ...
You can deduce for yourself the difference of attitude between the two faiths.
In advance of Pope Benedict's meeting with President Barack Obama on July 10, several major American media outlets advanced the theme that the Pontiff, unlike some American bishops, was likely to show sympathy for Obama's political approach.
However, a Vatican statement released soon after the Friday meeting indicated that the Pope had spoken directly into a discussion of issues involving the sanctity of human life, on which Obama differs markedly from the Catholic Church. The Vatican said that the "cordial" conversation "turned first of all to questions which are in the interests of all and which constitute a great challenge for the future of every nation and for the true progress of peoples, such as the defense and promotion of life and the right to abide by one’s conscience."
The conversation also touched upon embryonic stem-cell research, and the Pope gave his guest a copy ofDignitas Personae, the Vatican document that explains the Church's teaching on cloning, stem-cell research, and in vitro fertilization. Obama promised to read the document during his flight to Ghana.
The Pontiff and the American president also spoke about the quest for peace in the Middle East, concern for the environment, and efforts to relieve poverty.
Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, told reporters that the Pontiff was impressed by the American president. Father Lombardi emphasized in his own comments to reporters that President Obama had spoken at length about his commitment to reduce the number of abortions performed in the US. Thus the papal spokesman-- who has issued public statements reducing the force of papal pronouncements on several recent occasions-- delivered the message that the White House had clearly hoped to convey to the world's media.
President Obama reportedly gave Pope Benedict a private letter from Senator Edward Kennedy. Although the contents of that letter were not disclosed, Obama did ask the Pope's prayers for Kennedy, who is suffering from a brain tumor.
Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.
Reports in Vietnam's state-controlled media claim that government authorities now have enough evidence to arrest a Redemptorist priest on charges of counter-revolutionary activity and damaging national unity.
On Tuesday, June 30, the People's Public Security Newspaper and other state-run media outlet reported that Father Joseph Le Quang Uy had “bent his head, admitting that he had committed crimes against people and the government.” The newspaper, run by the Vietnamese police force, went on to state that the day before “at the headquarters of the customs at Tan Son Nhat airport, Mr. Le Quang Uy signed a statement admitting that had committed offenses against the law.”
According to the paper, Father Joseph Le had violated the law restricting publishing in Vietnam. Customs officials at Tan Son Nhat airport reportedly discovered in his laptop computer documents and emails with “bad contents” that could damage national unity and the development of the country, distort Vietnamese history, and undermine the policies of the government.
Since February, the state-owned media have repeatedly accused Father Joseph Le of “conducting propaganda against the state” and “plotting to overthrow the communist regime,” calling for "immediate and severe punishment." Under Article 88 of the Penal Code, if convicte he faces a 3- to 20-year prison sentence. There is a possibility that he might face the death penalty.
Father Joseph Le Quang Uy, a pro-life hero and an outspoken critic of recent bauxite-extraction mining in the Central Highlands region, was detained at Tan Son Nhat airport on Saturday June, 6 as he was returning home from a pastoral trip abroad. His luggage had been searched meticulously and his laptop was confiscated by the airport security and customs agents. The priest was later released with a citation that required him to come to the Office of Cultural Inspection for follow-up meetings.
Responding to the charges, Fathere Joseph Le denied all accusations against him, stating that police had altered and distorted the statement he signed on June 29 at Tan Son Nhat airport. According to his own account, most of the documents on his laptop were drafts of his sermons. A few were articles reflecting his opposition to bauxite extraction in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. However, he points out that since these were merely drafts of statements, kept on his own laptop, they could not fall under the provisions of the law governing published material.
The Vietnamese authorities have recently arrested at least 30 dissidents, including a number of prominent lawyers, in a crackdown that raises concerns about a stifling of freedom of expression and freedom of association.
There is growing concern, too, over reports of an imminent crackdown against the Redemptorist priests in Vietnam, who have repeatedly called for the restoration of Church properties confiscated by the government, and petitioned for a halt to the mining of bauxite in the central high plains-- an initiative which they fear would cause irreversible damage to the environment and to the local residents, many of them members of ethnic minority groups.
[By J.B. An Dang]
It can be surmised that Obama wanted the meeting both as a matter of diplomatic propriety and to further enhance his legitimacy in the eyes of Catholics. The President is well aware of the divisions in the Catholic community, and he has proven himself a master of staffing his administration with Catholics who disregard the Magisterium of the Church. The degree to which such Catholics have chosen to ally themselves with Obama's programs is well illustrated by a recent feature story in Catholic World Report by Anne Hendershott:Obama and the Alternative Magisterium. All the more reason, then, to pray that the meeting with the Pope will be a different kind of "Catholic" experience for our President, an experience leading to conversion. One would also hope that Obama's contact with American bishops would be a catalyst for conversion. Unfortunately, some bishops still get sidetracked into dubious political issues, as when the head of the USCCB's Committee on International Justice and Peace wildly endorsed an enormously expensive piece of legislation designed to reverse global warming: US Catholic hierarchy shows support for legislation requiring massive tax hike. The reality is that something far worse than global warming is at work in our culture. I refer to continuing moral and spiritual deterioration, which really is the province of the bishops. This deterioration is frequently promoted through the pervasive media influence which shapes us all. Here's a timely reminder of how carefully parents need to control their children's use of new means of social communication: Can Teens Stay Connected Without Losing Touch? Combating these influences is most successfully done by actually developing a counter-culture. I've been reflecting (again) on what this means. Here are my latest ideas on How Culture Is Done.
You are free to decide where and with whom you stand. You do not, however, have the right to try to change the Catholic Church to suit your opinions or wishes. No matter how brilliant you are, you are not above the Magisterium. No matter how persuasive the political position, you cannot ignore the law of the Church and the Natural Law. Doctrine and Orthodoxy may be distasteful words in this age of personal freedoms, but if you call yourself Catholic, you need to know what Catholic doctrine actually says and follow it.
You are free to decide where and with whom you stand. You do not, however, have the right to try to change the Catholic Church to suit your opinions or wishes. No matter how brilliant you are, you are not above the Magisterium. No matter how persuasive the political position, you cannot ignore the law of the Church and the Natural Law. Doctrine and Orthodoxy may be distasteful words in this age of personal freedoms, but if you call yourself Catholic, you need to know what Catholic doctrine actually says and follow it.
Are you Catholic because your parents were Catholic, because their parents were Catholic because their parents were Catholic? Is it your culture or your faith? Is it your present choice or your history? Is it your conviction or a “hat” you put on for baptisms, weddings and funerals?
Shamefully, the fact is that Catholics are largely responsible for electing our current government. That means that the majority of Catholics in America either don’t truly know their faith and what it means, or they don’t care, or they lack the courage to make their choices in properly informed by their faith.
It’s pathetic that so many who say they belong to Christ are so easily beguiled and deceived. The sacrifice of the Cross must not mean very much to many of us because we’re willing to sell it real cheap in exchange for the good opinion of those who would silence Christ. Precious Blood was spilled for our sins. Today our leaders and our culture want to wash away Its saving stain, and the majority of Catholics are quietly watching them mop… even handing them a bucket.
It’s not enough to be culturally Catholic, a holiday Catholic, or Catholic by ancestry. It is certainly not good enough to profess a Catholic faith in church, and then deny it by our life’s choices. Hear these words from our faithful Archbishop:
“In a culture which embraces an agenda of death, Catholics and Catholic institutions are necessarily counter-cultural. If we as individuals or our Catholic institutions are not willing to accept the burdens and the suffering necessarily involved in calling our culture to reform, then we are not worthy of the name Catholic.”
[...]Learn your Catholic faith, understand it correctly and LIVE IT out in public without apologizing. Stop compromising the truth. Quit trying to rewrite Church teaching to bring it “up to speed” with modern times. The Church is not out of step with society; society is out of step with the Church. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and thus His Church is timeless, ageless and always perfectly relevant. It is not the Church who needs to change her thinking; it is society that needs to CORRECT its thinking.
READ MORE HERE
Deacon Keith Fournier asks that you join with us and help in this vital mission by sending this article to your family, friends, and neighbors and adding our link (www.catholic.org) to your own website, blog or social network. Let us broadcast, we are PROUD TO BE CATHOLIC!
Following President Obama's new policies on stem cells, announced March 9th, the question of embryonic research has again moved to the fore. Yet the obfuscation of this issue by politicians and journalists over the past three months has been nothing short of mind-boggling. I devote my weekly column to this darkening of the mind: On the Misappropriation of Words. A related misuse of words is covered in my recent blog entry: A Note on Terrorism and the Pro-Life Movement. Because embryonic stem cell research must be faced again, I'll deviate here from my usual policy of highlighting only new additions to our resources in order to give you a convenient list of the rich offerings CatholicCulture.org already has available. Here is a whole series of pertinent ecclesiastical statements over the past ten years:
Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged all Catholics-- but especially young people-- to put modern means of communication to their best use in spreading the Gospel. "The new technologies have brought about fundamental shifts in the ways in which news and information are disseminated and in how people communicate and relate to each other," the Pope observed, as he called attention to the May 24 observance of the World Day for Communications. "Employ these new technologies to make the Gospel known, so that the Good News of God's infinite love for all people, will resound in new ways across our increasingly technological world!" The Pope added an appeal to "all those who access cyberspace to be careful to maintain and promote a culture of respect, dialogue and authentic friendship."
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Reviewers at the Vatican's newspaper have passed judgment on "Angels & Demons," finding the religious thriller commercial and inaccurate, but concluding it is "harmless" entertainment and not a danger to the church.
L'Osservatore Romano ran a review and an editorial in Wednesday's edition, critiquing the movie based on the Dan Brown best-selling novel of the same name.
"Angels & Demons" had its world premiere Monday in Rome, after director Ron Howard charged that the Vatican interfered with getting film permits to shoot scenes in the city — a contention the Vatican said was a publicity stunt.
The newspaper wrote that the movie was "a gigantic and smart commercial operation" filled with "stereotyped characters." The paper suggested moviegoers could make a game out of finding the many historical inaccuracies in the plot.
However, L'Osservatore praised Howard's "dynamic direction" and the "magnificent" reconstruction of locations like St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Much of the film was shot on sets that painstakingly recreated church landmarks.
The film offers "more than two hours of harmless entertainment, which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity," L'Osservatore's reviewer wrote. It's "a videogame that first of all sparks curiosity and is also, maybe, a bit of fun."
"Angels & Demons" features Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon of "The Da Vinci Code" fame, played by Tom Hanks. In the film, the Vatican turns to Langdon after an ancient secret brotherhood called the Illuminati kidnap four cardinals considered front-runners to be the next pope, and threaten to kill one an hour and then explode a bomb at the Vatican.
On Sunday, Howard said the Vatican had interfered with his efforts to get permits to shoot some scenes. A Vatican spokesman said the statement was designed purely to drum up publicity for the film.
Top church officials strongly objected to "The Da Vinci Code" because it was based on the idea that Jesus married and fathered children and depicted the conservative Catholic movement, Opus Dei, as a murderous cult.
.jpg)
