The Vatican will determine whether to defrock a priest accused of fathering a child with a high school graduate, a relationship that became public after the girl's parents captured the couple on a video camera secretly set up in the parents' basement.Meanwhile, the Berks County district attorney said Tuesday his office won't press charges against the Rev. Luis A. Bonilla Margarito because a police investigation determined that the relationship started when the girl was 18.
Over the weekend, the church began putting together paperwork for the process known as "removal from the clerical state," popularly known as defrocking, said Matt Kerr, a spokesman for the Diocese of Allentown. The information will be sent to the Vatican for a decision. A timetable was not known.
Bonilla, 41, is not on assignment and has not functioned as a priest since November, when the diocese found out about the relationship, Kerr said.
Upon learning of the relationship, the diocese notified the prosecutor's office, Kerr said. The church initiated the defrocking process after "new information" was learned last week, but Kerr declined to say what that information was. Kerr also said he could not specify what documents were being turned over to the Vatican as part of the church investigation.
The Berks County criminal investigation was closed after police determined that the relationship began when the girl was 18, Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said.
However, her parents filed a lawsuit Thursday, alleging that Bonilla had a sexual relationship with their daughter while he was the chaplain of Reading Central Catholic High School and she was a senior there.
They became suspicious and installed a camera in their basement, where Bonilla and their daughter were spending a lot of time. The camera recorded the couple having sex in November 2009, after she had graduated, according to the suit.
Bonilla and the teen are now evidently living with each other, and she has given birth to a girl. Bonilla has declined comment about the lawsuit. A telephone listing in his name has been disconnected.
Bonilla was removed from his dual posts as chaplain and pastor of St. Joseph Church in Reading after the girl's parents took the tape to the diocese.
He acknowledged having an "inappropriate relationship" at the time with the teen, according to a diocesan news release.
SIC: AP
Those who have ruined the country came through a mostly Catholic schools system without any sense of being part of a society.IN HIS speech in Rimini last week Diarmuid Martin said: “School catechesis, despite the goodwill of teachers, does not produce young Catholics prepared to join in the Christian community.
Sometimes, after 15 years of catechesis, young people remain theologically illiterate.”
He might have been referring to me.
I had to look up what catechesis is. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is the education of people in Christian doctrine, so that they may experience “the fullness of Christian life”.
I also looked up what theology is and found it is the study of religious faith and of spirituality.
I have never understood what spirituality is. Anytime I have asked the response has been bathed in waffle.
The following description comes from the web: spirituality is an ultimate or immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; an experience of connectedness with a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self with other individuals or with nature or the cosmos.
See what I mean?
I do not intend to ridicule belief in God or the search for the ultimate meaning. I am merely saying that I usually have no idea what people are talking about when they get into this area, even people who are thoroughly comprehensible when talking about almost anything else.
But I want to get back to the illiteracy that Diarmuid Martin talks about, after years of Catholic education. I want to make the point that it is not only in the arena of theology that people are illiterate after all that schooling; they are illiterate in areas that, in my opinion, are of far more consequence.
Just look around at our society in politics, business, banking, medicine, law, accountancy, stock broking, estate agency, the media.
Everywhere scandal, people behaving crookedly, dishonestly, self-servingly, ripping off or seeking to rip off the rest of society.
No sense of social solidarity, certainly not in a sense that is in any way genuine. This is not true of all society or of everyone in the areas I have mentioned, but isn’t it commonplace in the wealthier reaches of society?
If it weren’t how could we have got into the appalling mess in which we find ourselves: the State’s coffers, broke; the banks broke, all of them; businesses broke all over the country; ghost estates; close to half a million unemployed.
One of the most unequal countries in the world, certainly in the developed world. A political culture that ordains that the most obvious remedies to our predicament – a radical redistribution of wealth – is almost unmentionable and certainly unrealisable.
Even a bloke from Standard Poor’s said last week that Ireland was not a basket case – not yet anyway – because we were so wealthy. And that we are – probably no more than 15 countries richer than us on a per capita basis but that means nothing at all because of the way we have screwed up things so comprehensively.
Just think of the thousands of lawyers, accountants, bankers, stockbrokers and others who must have colluded in criminality over the last decade or so, in fraudulent accounting, in fraudulent trading, in fraudulent preference, in insider dealing.
And such is our public culture that not one of them has been charged with a crime and, very probably, not one of them will go to jail. Many of them have made fortunes and many of them have retained fortunes.
These people didn’t come from nowhere. They came out of our schools, most of them Catholic schools and they came out not just theologically illiterate but socially illiterate as well. Most of them are without any sense of being part of a society; they have no sense or little sense of being social beings, of having responsibilities to others.
No sense of sharing or wanting to share. Instead they have a highly individuated sense of themselves, out for their own advancement and enrichment and, if society suffered as a consequence, nothing to do with them.
The culture that allowed this and that nurtured this was formed by the media, by education and by religion.
Some Catholic schools, the posh Catholic boys schools anyway, and I suspect the posh Protestant boys schools too, went on a lot about character, character formation, that sort of stuff.
Not quite “stiff upper lip” but a bit of that: being a man, keeping one’s head while all about were losing theirs.
That Kipling If palaver:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
Yeah?
What is more you’ll be a sociopath, my son!
Not a single whisper in the poem about anything to do with social responsibility, just character stuff; and that was (is?) the ethos of the posh schools that brought us the criminal generation.
Diarmuid Martin was fortunate to have avoided the posh schools.
That might have something to do with the fine, courageous fellow he has become.
SIC: IT
THE Roman Catholic Church has been accused of being selective in its acceptance of inquiries into Northern Ireland's troubled past.
In anticipation of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to England and Scotland from September 16 to 19, several of the United Kingdom's Catholic bishops have produced videos to recount their most profound experiences of the presence of God. The probing and introspective interviews draw their inspiration from the motto of Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, "Heart speaks unto heart" (in Latin, "Cor ad cor loquitur"), which has been chosen as the theme of the Pope's visit to the U.K.
Cardinal Newman will be beatified by the Holy Father on September 19.
Each of the bishops was asked to reflect on an instance in which God "spoke to their hearts." Several described difficult circumstances in which they found consolation through prayer, turning to God in the face of a personal challenge, lingering resentment, or significant loss.
An Auxilary Bishop of Westminster, John Arnold, said in his video that God had given him a sense of acceptance and peace on the day of his mother's death.
"Of course, I knew I was going to miss her," he said, but he described clearly knowing that "God was present when he invited her to himself."
The experience of God's love during the difficult parting helped him understand how "we are all held in his hands."
Bishop Edwin Regan of Wrexham recalled having his youthful doubts about God's existence met with a sudden realization of the world's order and beauty. As he looked up at the sky during his early morning paper route, "it was just full of stars. They were sparkling and gleaming, scintillating."
The incident made him realize that "someone must have made it all," and it suggested a transcendent beauty "at the heart of everything."
Other bishops' interviews focused on events that had challenged and deepened their faith, or given them a greater insight into the realities of Christian history.
Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool recounted a visit to the Holy Land, during which he found himself completely alone at the site of Jesus' crucifixion on Mount Calvary.
He said that the concrete reality of the sacred place made him confront the challenges of Christian faith once again: "Here, not in some other city, on a Friday . . . God, in Christ, reconciled the world to himself."
Archbishop Kelly said that the Holy Father's visit to the United Kingdom would provide a similar occasion for reflection on the meaning of Christian discipleship, which originates in "an encounter with an event, with a person . . . Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God."
Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton spoke of his experience celebrating Mass in the Roman catacombs where many of the earliest Christians were buried.
At the moment in the Mass which commemorates the dead "who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith," he said that "a number of people were moved to tears," realizing there were "thousands of those people here now."
That experience, Bishop Conry said, made him aware of his responsibility to transmit the faith for generations to come. "We've received the message," Bishop Conry said, "we've taken it into our hearts, and we've passed it on."
SIC: CNA
A leading adviser to the Archbishop of Westminster has blamed abortion and gay rights for turning Britain into a "selfish, hedonistic wasteland" which has become "the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death". Edmund Adamus, director of pastoral affairs at the diocese of Westminster and an adviser to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, said Parliament had turned Britain into a country which is more culturally anti-Catholic than nations where Christians are violently persecuted such as Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan.
His comments, made with only weeks to go before Pope Benedict XVI's historic state visit to Britain, will cause embarrassment between organisers of the visit and government officials, because they reveal how some members of the Church's hierarchy believe that the pontiff is travelling to a hostile and anti-Catholic country.
In an interview with Zenit, a Catholic news agency with close links to the Vatican, Mr Adamus railed against five decades of equality legislation and the availability of abortion services in modern Britain.
"Whether we like it or not, as British citizens and residents of this country – and whether we are even prepared as Catholics to accept this reality and all it implies – the fact is that historically, and continuing right now, Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death," he said.
"Our laws and lawmakers for over 50 years have been the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage, in essence one of the most anti-Catholic landscapes, culturally speaking – more than even those places where Catholics suffer open persecution."
The expression "culture of death" was first coined by John Paul II and is frequently used by Catholic traditionalists as a catch-all phrase covering the practice of abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
Mr Adamus' comments are significant because of his senior position in one of the most influential dioceses in the country. His role as pastoral director gives him access to some of the Church's most senior figures, including Archbishop Nichols. He was once a priest at St Augustine's in central Manchester but he left the clergy and married.
In the same interview, he spoke at length about marriage and the role of men and women, pleading with Catholics to "exhibit counter-cultural signals against the selfish, hedonistic wasteland that is the objectification of women for sexual gratification."
He added: "Britain in particular, with its ever-increasing commercialisation of sex, not to mention its permissive laws advancing the 'gay' agenda, is such a wasteland."
Last night, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales distanced himself from the interview. A spokesperson for Archbishop Nichols said the views expressed by Mr Adamus "did not reflect the Archbishop's opinions".
Mr Adamus's comments, however, drew widespread criticism from gay rights groups and secularists. Peter Tatchell, a leading figure behind the Protest the Pope coalition, said: "The suggestion that gay equality laws make Britain a moral wasteland is insulting but not unexpected. The Pope supports legal discrimination against gay people. He says we are not entitled to equal human rights.
"[But] to claim that Britain is the centre of a culture of death is absurd. We are a world leader in scientific research to develop new medical treatments to save lives and we make a significant contribution to helping combat hunger and poverty in developing countries."
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, added: "This anti-Catholicism of which Adamus complains is shared by most British Catholics, sickened by their church hierarchy's dogma-driven policies on contraception, homosexuality and even abortion. That is why mass attendance here has halved in just 20 years and why only a quarter of Catholics agree with the official line on abortion – and fewer still on homosexuality and contraception."
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay rights group Stonewall, said Mr Adamus's comments would do little to foster a healthy atmosphere for the Pope's visit.
"Of course the Pope should visit Britain. But the gratuitously offensive comments being made by the Archbishop's adviser are hardly likely to promote sensitive debate about respect for religion in the 21st century. You would think that, given its present status, the Roman Catholic Church in Britain would be slightly more sensitive about wagging its finger at other people," he said.
SIC: TIUK
A group of Catholics formed to put the Church's case during Pope Benedict's visit will later this week oppose the 'Protest the Pope' coalition at a debate organised by the Central London Humanist Group and the British Humanist Association.
The former Bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly has claimed that he does not know why the RUC did not arrest Fr James Chesney if they had reasonable suspicions that he was involved in the Claudy bombings. Speaking this week to the Derry Journal newspaper Bishop Daly said that he spoke to Fr Chesney in 1974, shortly after his own appointment as Bishop of Derry and asked him, “to keep his political beliefs to himself.”
He said, “I interviewed Fr Chesney, along with my Vicar General at the time Monsignor Bernard Kielt, in June 1974. He certainly made no bones about his sympathy for republicanism but denied absolutely any activity in the movement and was very vehement in his denial.”
“After he was photographed on the front of a Loyalist magazine in 1977 he came to me and asked to be moved to another parish as he was too accessible in his Malin Head parish.”
He was subsequently moved to Sligo for eight months and later to Fahan where Bishop Daly says “he did good work.”
Bishop Daly claimed that the Claudy bombings in 1972 were a serious and vile crime but he had serious doubts about the involvement of Fr Chesney.
However, he added, “The failure of the RUC to arrest and question Fr Chesney in 1972 or after is beyond understanding. If they had done so we wouldn't be where we are today.”
”I think that was a grave injustice to the families.” He said that with Fr Chesney having died 30 years ago he was prepared to “leave him to the Lord.”
SIC: CIN
When attending Mass and receiving the Eucharist, Catholics must be filled with gratitude for God's great gifts, Pope Benedict XVI told a group of his former students.
A Vatican official criticised Tuesday Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's reported call for Islam to become the religion of all of Europe, labelling it disrespectful to the Pope and Catholic Italy."To speak of the European continent converting to Islam makes no sense because it is the people alone who decide consciously to be Christian, Muslim or to follow other religions," Archbishop Robert Sarah told the La Repubblica daily.
Kadhafi made his controversial comments on Sunday in front of 500 women paid to attend his lecture.
He was on an official visit to Rome to mark the second anniversary of a friendship treaty with its former coloniser Italy.
According to one of the women present, the firebrand leader had said "Islam should become the religion of all of Europe" and that "Islam is the last religion and if we are to have a single faith then it has to be in Mohammed."
Sarah, the Vatican's secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, said he was not particularly concerned by Kadhafi's remarks, labelling them "a non-solicited provocation lacking seriousness."
He said the "true danger for Europeans is relativism, the lack of attention to faith, the weakness of religion, indifference to the sacred."
These, he said, are "true enemies for our faith which could create a fertile ground for the eventual future penetration of Islam in all of Europe."
Sarah, who is in charge of the congregation's overseas Catholic missions, also lamented a lack of "reciprocity between Muslim countries and the West" and problems linked to "religious freedom in Muslim areas."
However, "in many countries like Mali, Guinea and in North Africa, the relationship between Christians and those of other religions are excellent," he said.
"This is why Pope (Benedict XVI) tirelessly continues to promote interreligious dialogue," he added.
Kadhafi ignited further controversy on Monday when he said that the EU should pay Libya at least five billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) a year to stop illegal immigration and prevent a "black Europe."
EU Commission spokesman on immigration issues, Matthew Newman, would not comment on the statement Tuesday but said the EU was trying to improve dialogue with Libyan authorities to prevent "irregular migration flows from Africa".
SIC: AFP
The BBC has today unveiled more details of its extensive plans for coverage of the forthcoming UK visit by Pope Benedict XVI, with more than 10 hours of live broadcasting on BBC1 and BBC2.In addition to about 12-and-a-half hours of live programming on the two main TV channels, Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and other BBC TV, radio and online services will be contributing to the coverage.
Huw Edwards will be the main television anchor for the pope's arrival, broadcast live on BBC1 from Edinburgh on Thursday, 16 September, when the pope will also meet the Queen.
Edwards will give commentary on the Westminster Abbey service the following day on BBC2, which will also be on Radio 4 Longwave, covered by Ed Stourton.
On Saturday 18 September, Edwards will present coverage of a mass at Westminster Cathedral, where he will be joined by Monsignor Mark Langham.
Sunday coverage will include the beatification mass of Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park in Birmingham, which will air on BBC2. The programme will be fronted by Edwards, joined by Stourton and Langham.
On the same day, Radio 4's Sunday Programme and a special edition of Sunday Worship will also be broadcast live before the main ceremony.
In addition to the blanket live coverage during the papal visit, there will be "some current affairs programming looking at the different aspects of the Catholic Church".
There are also a wide range of papal-themed documentaries. BBC2 is airing two documentaries, Benedict: Trials of a Pope and Newman: Saint or Sinner? fronted by Ann Widdecombe, plus highlights of the trip in The Pope's Visit.
BBC 4 is screening Vatican – The Hidden World of God's Servants and Radio 4 is airing The Pope's British Divisions, which will feature Mark Dowd examining the impact of the sex abuse crisis in Britain's Catholic community, plus highlights of the beatification of Cardinal Newman.
Radio 2 will air a special hour-long edition of Sunday Half Hour from a vigil in Hyde Park, while Radio 5 Live will have "extensive" coverage led by Shelagh Fogarty and including live broadcasts of the Pope's arrival in Edinburgh on 16 September and of his first mass the same day during 5 Live Drive.
The following day Fogarty will present 5 Live Breakfast from Twickenham, where Pope Benedict will be staying, with "live coverage of his official engagements throughout the day", plus broadcast of the final mass of the visit.
The BBC said it "will also be covering other events during the papal visit on the BBC News Channel".
Aaqil Ahmed, BBC commissioning editor for television and head of religion and ethics, said: "This is the first papal visit to Britain for 28 years and the first ever state visit and is of great significance not only to the millions of Catholics in this country but to the countless others who will be watching in the UK and around the globe. I am delighted that the BBC is bringing together a team of presenters and specialists who can provide insight into such an historic occasion."
It is understood that the BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, has been invited to some of the events but it is not yet clear if he is attending as a BBC spokesman said that his "plans haven't been finalised yet".
SIC: TGUK
NO SINGLE future awaits the billion-strong multitude that presently forms the Roman Catholic Church worldwide.But initially at least, the largest grouping of Catholics is likely to consist of those who remain unconvinced that any substantial reform is necessary; nothing more than a clearance of maverick clerical and religious abusers and dealing with other incidental occurrences of that regrettable ilk.
The welcome and willing leader of this grouping is the current pope, a mere mortal man convinced of his supreme infallible power to dictate what we, all “children of our holy father”, are to believe and practise in life liturgical and moral.
As he illustrated so graphically in his letter to the Irish church, in which he blamed our priests, bishops and religious and our whole secularised community – and asked God’s forgiveness for all, excepting himself – he is a man in total denial of his own mistakes and his equal if not greater moral guilt in the matter.
The Continuity Papal Church has a long future ahead of it, albeit with ever declining membership.
It has been fossilising for some time, and fossils survive longer than any living species. For example, recent popes have increasingly used their supreme power to ensure that every new appointment to episcopacy goes to reliable yes men.
And there will always be a majority who prefer a judgmental God for whom punishment is the primary instrument of love (as the Archbishop of Dublin would put it) to the father of the prophet Jesus.
Particularly as this majority sees itself as so especially God’s people, and he their special God, that they have privileged access to the sacramental means for escaping punishment both here and hereafter.
Yet another grouping – probably a scattering of groupings – will remain in the church and refuse to be put out, hoping desperately to reform from within.
That these are capable of deep theological insights for reform is illustrated by a statement from a women’s group: “We have long given up on the idea of God having his innocent son ritually killed by a priest for the sins of the race.”
However, the massed reactionary ranks of hierarchy and a compliant laity must suggest very long odds indeed on bets that these little groups can succeed, although it would not be the first time, nor likely to be the last, that the Creator Spirit chose the weak of this world to overcome the strong; and that by sheer inspiration rather than enforcement with threats of excommunication.
A further option, though one taken by fewer Catholics, is offered by the other Christian churches – there being no “one true church”: the option to leave their church for one of the others.
Or since the Roman Catholic deformation of the Eucharist as Jesus celebrated it is among the worst, Catholics might be better advised to stay put, but to go often to join the tables of the Lord in other Christian churches.
That would at least help a stalled ecumenical movement to restore a truly Eucharistic community in the world, such as Jesus so clearly envisaged for all who could then claim to be his disciples.
There are yet other options for disenfranchised Catholics: decamping to other religions or to none at all; and many take this option.
It is a reasonable option, particularly in the case of Christianity’s two sibling religions, Judaism and Islam.
For Jesus was a prophet in and for Judaism and Muhammad received him as a prophet on a par with himself; and it can be seen and shown that both of these sibling religions retain some features more faithful to the faith of Jesus than are their current Roman Catholic counterparts.
The same can be true in varying degrees for other world religions, and primal religions, and for the personal spiritualities of people disenchanted with organised religion as such.
For God has left no one ever without evidence of the utterly gracious and eternal presence; as the Masai woman introduced in earlier instalments quite amply illustrates.
SIC: IT
Conservative bishops in Africa issued a communiqué expressing concern over "progressive developments" in the West and committing themselves to tackling the social ills of their continent. The statement came at the conclusion of a weeklong conference in Uganda, where bishops from more than 400 dioceses met to discuss the crises they face within the church and outside the church.
The bishops agreed in their communiqué that "in order to keep the ethos and tradition of the Anglican Communion in a credible way, it is obligatory" of all provinces in the global Anglican Communion to continue to observe and honour the moratoria on the ordination of partnered homosexuals, the blessing of same-sex unions, and cross-border interventions.
The conservative bishops said they were "very saddened" by the recent action of The Episcopal Church in the United States to consecrate a partnered lesbian in Los Angeles. The Rev Mary Glasspool was the second openly homosexual bishop to be consecrated in the US body despite calls for restraint by the wider Communion.
Two Anglican provinces were sympathetic to the hurt and anger felt by most of the bishops in Africa but opposed severing ties with The Episcopal Church.
"We recognise that all the Provinces and diocese in Africa do not condone TEC's action. However, Provinces differ in their relationships with TEC in light of their actions," the provinces of Central Africa and Southern Africa stated in a letter, according to VirtueOnline.
"Some Provinces continue to value their historical partnerships with TEC and its organs. To discard these relationships would be tantamount to abandoning our call of the gospel to struggle with each other's failure as we journey with Christ in the spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation as we were passionately reminded and to live with our rich diversity."
Also, while many of the bishops in Africa have formally recognised a newly formed Anglican body in North America that is seen as a rival to The Episcopal Church, the two African provinces said they do not support the new body's "position for legitimacy through the elimination of TEC".
"Any thought of abandoning our Communion with any member of the body will hurt; for when one part of the body is injured the whole suffers," they stated.
The Anglican Church in North America was established last summer.
During the 2nd All Africa Bishops Conference, several bishops met with the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of the Church of Uganda was among those who told Williams that there should be no more diplomacy on the matter of homosexuality, as reported by CNN.
"He (Williams) spoke what was on his mind and we also spoke," Orombi explained. "We impressed it on him that he had totally gone in a different direction and he has to sort it out.
"We sympathise with his position as head of the Anglican communion suffering disunity on moral grounds and teaching of the Scripture," he added. "We made our minds very clear and he is going back knowing there is no grey area on our part."
Though the conference last week addressed the highly publicised and divisive issue of homosexuality, development issues in Africa were at the top of the bishops' agenda, according to Williams.
Part of the African bishops' statement reads: "We must be actively involved in working with partners at all levels to ensure equal access to medical care, food security and the promoting of good health practices to prevent the major causes of death on the continent, with particular attention to primary health care for African families, especially mothers, children and the elderly.
"The Anglican Church in Africa must join the global movement that refuses to stay silent about the current socio-economic and political state of affairs. We should stop agonizing over the deplorable state of African underdevelopment and start organising towards a proactive, pragmatic engagement with good governance and infra-structural development."
The bishops also called for commitments to bring an end to all forms of abuse and slavery, and to promoting education.
In reference to France's recent expulsion of immigrants living in the country, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto emphasized God's desire for “decent” lives and the “common good” of all peoples. On Saturday, Archbishop Marchetto, the secretary for the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, observed his namesake's feast day at the Church of St. Augustine in Rome.
The same day, the prelate also celebrated his own birthday.
The archbishop has been particularly vocal recently in criticizing the French government for its policies directed specifically at Gypsies and those of Roma ethnic origins.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has cracked down on their caravan camps, disbanding the encampments and offering a pay off to those willing to be sent home this month.
According to French news reports, in September the policy will change to one of deportation without compensation.
Speaking with the French news outlet I.Media last week, Archbishop Marchetto said that deportations, such as these, hit "weak and poor people who have been persecuted, who were also themselves victims of a 'holocaust'.”
At St. Augustine parish in Rome, the secretary for migrants spoke of the "four great and important columns of the building of peace," which are: truth, love, justice and freedom.
Peace, he said, "is the great desire of every man. It is human, truly human, and as such, each of us in his small world contributes to this great desire which is the desire of God."
His desire, said the archbishop, is for "a world that is open to man, a decent life for all, a desire for the good - the common good - and also the national (good) ... in a universal context, because we live in a world that is becoming, in a certain sense, ever smaller and is certainly, in many aspects, globalized."
SIC: CNA
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi announced on Tuesday that a German journalist has been given permission to publish a series of his conversations with the Holy Father.Journalist Dr. Peter Seewald previously published two collections of interviews with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Permission to publish was granted the week of July 26 at the Pope's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo while the interviews – conducted in German – took place.
Seewald's two books, which resulted from interviews with then-Cardinal Ratzinger, are titled ‘Salt of the Earth’ from 1996 and ‘God and the World’ published in 2002.
Fr. Lombardi announced that the new series of conversations is slated for publication before the end of the year in both German and Italian.
SIC: CNA
The post office of the Isle of Man, a small independently-governed island near the U.K., issued a set of commemorative stamps this month honoring Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, along with Pope Benedict XVI.The stamps were part of a miniature sheet issued on August 11, the 120th anniversary of Cardinal Newman's death.
Since then, the Isle of Man's department for stamps and coins has been working with the Vatican Post Office to produce additional commemorative materials for the September 19 beatification.
Since Newman's beatification was originally scheduled to take place at Coventry Airport, the stamps give the original location for the announced ceremony rather than the new site at Cofton Park in Birmingham.
Stamp collectors, however, often increase the level of an artifacts' value to apparent discrepancies of this kind.
Newman is depicted in two photographs, one taken in his residence at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in 1883, when the cardinal was 82.
The other was taken around 1866, just over two decades after his conversion from Anglicanism and reception into the Catholic Church.
The photograph of Pope Benedict XVI was taken during a General Audience in St. Peter's Square on June 10, 2009.
Among the materials to be produced jointly by the Isle of Man Post Office and the Vatican, will be a special welcome message to the Pope from Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster.
Announcing the stamps in a press conference earlier this summer, Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham said that they “highlight the importance” of the “first time a Pope has been welcomed to the United Kingdom on a State Visit.”
A prior visit by Pope John Paul II in 1982, which was the first ever visit by a Pope to the U.K., was a pastoral visit and not undertaken in his capacity as the head of the Vatican City State.
Describing Cardinal Newman as an “example of holiness “ as well as a “figure of international significance,” Archbishop Longley hoped the stamps would “introduce Cardinal Newman and his witness to goodness and truth, to many people throughout the world who may not yet know him."
SIC: CNA
Almost fifty years ago, Justo Gallego wanted to thank God for curing his tuberculosis, so he decided to build a cathedral — by himself.Today the cathedral is more than half done and has made its creator and his hometown famous throughout Spain. But at the age of 85, Gallego knows he will never see his project to the end.
His hope is that the local diocese will take it over when he's gone.
Instead, a problem with zoning permits may mean Spain's one-man cathedral will have to come down.
For almost half a century, Gallego has relied on his instinct and "God's guiding hand" — no blueprints, no equipment — to build the pillars, walls and arches of his cathedral, mostly out of discarded construction materials. It comes complete with two towers, a crypt, cloisters, offices, a library and a 130-ft.-high (40 m) dome modeled on the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
"They called me crazy and laughed at me, but look at it," Gallego says defiantly as he paints a steel beam on one of the 147-ft. (45 m) towers. "I started with a cross and then just kept on building."
But the future of Gallego's legacy is uncertain. He is building his cathedral, which isn't officially recognized by the church, without any permits.
Municipal authorities admit privately that for decades they looked the other way as Gallego raised his structure only a couple of blocks from city hall, in part because he is now beloved in town, but also because few actually thought he would succeed.
That tactic won't work for much longer, though, as Gallego prepares to leave his incomplete masterpiece to the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares, which will have to decide whether to keep building the cathedral or destroy it.
"What Don Justo has done is admirable. I kneel before his faith," says Father Florentino Rueda, vicar and legal adviser of the diocese.
"But this construction is illegal, which means we could inherit a problem."
The story of Gallego's quixotic quest dates back to Spain's civil war. Gallego, born in 1925, was too young to fight, but the war brought his schooling to an abrupt end and he spent most of his youth working on his family's farmlands.
A devout Catholic, he left home and joined a monastery when he was 27 with plans of becoming a priest, only to have his dreams dashed nine years later when he was expelled for contracting tuberculosis.
After his recovery — which involved spending two years in a hospital — he returned home to Mejorada del Campo and decided to "marry" the Church his own way: by consecrating his life to building a cathedral for Our Lady of the Pillar, whom he had prayed to while he was ill.
Back then, in the 1960s, Spain was ruled by the dictatorial General Francisco Franco and a government strongly aligned with the Catholic Church. Local authorities extended Gallego an open building permit for the cathedral on his land in the middle of town.
With sporadic help from his nephews and money he got from selling other properties he had inherited, Gallego began construction in 1963. For inspiration, he looked to just three books about cathedrals and castles.
At first, the cathedral was the object of ridicule, but in time, Gallego earned the respect of many of his neighbors. Then people from across the region volunteered for days or weeks at a time to help and construction companies donated surplus building materials and money. But even after Franco's death in 1975 and Spain's return to democratic rule, nobody brought up the permit issue.
Then, in 2005, the cathedral was used in an advertising campaign for the energy drink Aquarius, catapulting Mejorada del Campo to national fame. The rural village became a tourist magnet, with visitors arriving from around Spain by the busload to see Gallego's work.
After touring the grounds littered with scrap metal and other building materials — with no apparent concern for health and safety regulations — they can buy calendars and books on Gallego at the door.
The attention has now brought the building-permit problem out into the open, but nobody is willing to be the villain who puts an end to Gallego's quest. "The entire country would condemn them if they tried," Father Rueda says.
Officially, the cathedral is "in legal limbo," a city hall official says, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Mejorada del Campo has asked regional and national authorities to intervene, but the ultimate jurisdiction is municipal.
"The work is very advanced and we don't know how to stop it," the official says. "We are all concerned about what happens if this thing falls down, but nobody wants to be responsible for stopping [the construction]. Many people here have grown up with the cathedral."
What happens next is anybody's guess.
"We would like to legalize it, but how much is it going to cost? Is it even possible? And who's going to insure this?" Father Rueda asks.
But Gallego isn't worried about permits and costs — those are issues to be dealt with once he's gone.
"I trust the laws of God, which helped me come this far," he says.
For now, he is focused simply on dedicating the rest of his life — however little time that may be — to bringing his dream as close to reality as possible.
SIC: TIME
Vatican condemnation be damned, on Saturday Elaine Groppenbacher became the forth female to be ordained a Catholic priest in the Phoenix area.
Cardinal Seán Brady has faced widespread criticism over his handling of a clergy child abuse scandal, and for his refusal to apologise after a priest was allowed to evade questioning over an IRA bombing. But he defiantly told an Irish newspaper that he would not be stepping down and that he hoped to attend many of the engagements during Benedict XVI’s historic state visit to Scotland and England in three weeks’ time.
“I plan to accompany Pope Benedict in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Birmingham,” said Cardinal Brady, the head of the church in Ireland.
His presence at public events in Britain will likely lead to increase turnout at protests, as the country’s Roman Catholic church has so far escaped much of the criticism leveled at Ireland.
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society which is leading opposition to the Pontiff’s visit, said: “This graphically illustrates the innate arrogance of so many in the Catholic hierarchy.
“If the Pope permits Cardinal Brady to accompany him on his travels through the United Kingdom he will be giving tacit approval to the Cardinal’s disgraceful behaviour.
“How can we be convinced that Pope Benedict means what he says about clearing up the child abuse scandal when he permits someone with Cardinal Brady’s past to continue in office?”
It emerged earlier this year that Cardinal Brady, 71, was personally involved in the cover-up of clergy child abuse many years ago.
As a priest in Co Cavan in 1975, he had been present at meetings where young victims signed vows of silence over complaints against a notorious paedophile monk, Fr Brendan Smyth.
The Church claimed the boys were told to sign oaths “to avoid potential collusion” in an internal inquiry, but Cardinal Brady did not tell police about the crimes and Fr Smyth went on to abuse more children.
In his St Patrick’s Day Mass, Cardinal Brady apologised to those he had let down and added: "Looking back I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in."
But although abuse survivors and politicians called on Cardinal Brady to resign, he did not.
He was rumoured to have tendered his resignation in Rome before Easter but insisted to the Irish Independent: "This is not true about my resigning. I am not resigning."
Cardinal Brady faced more criticism last week after a report by the police ombudsman found that the church hierarchy and the British government had colluded and allowed a priest suspected of involvement in the Claudy bombing, which killed nine people, to travel across the border from Northern Ireland to another parish rather than face justice.
The Cardinal issued a statement agreeing that Fr James Chesney’s terrorist activity was “shocking” but insisted there had been no cover-up.
The public is being urged to back a campaign to scrap a 300-year-old law which prohibits Catholics ascending the throne, ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain next month. The Coalition Government is currently asking voters to nominate laws which they think restrict civil liberties and should be abolished or amended. The suggestions will form the basis of the so-called Freedom Bill, announced with much fanfare by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, earlier this year.
At the same time, however, ministers have said that they have no plans to change the Act of Settlement, which also bars members of the Royal family marrying Catholics.
Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP for the Western Isles, has called for a mass online vote for a change in the law, which he denounced as “state sectarianism”, ahead of the Pope’s visit.
Introduced in 1701, the Act of Settlement states that no sovereign “shall profess the Popish religion or shall marry a Papist”.
The exclusion of Catholics was designed to ensure a stable monarchy, after decades of rows over the state religion.
More than three centuries since its inception, it continues to affect the Royal family.
In 1978, Prince Michael of Kent, the Queen’s cousin, lost his place in the line of succession after marrying a Catholic.
Just two years ago, Autumn Kelly, a Canadian and the new wife of Peter Phillips, the Queen’s grandson, renounced her Catholic faith to allow her husband to remain in succession.
Before he became Prime Minister, David Cameron indicated that he would like to see the Act changed.
But within weeks of the coalition taking charge in May, it was announced that there were “no current plans” to amend it.
This triggered a furious re-action from Scottish Catholic leaders, who accused ministers of backtracking.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholics, and Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell, both accused Mr Cameron of discrimination and “arrogance” over the decision.
With the Pope’s visit due to start in just over a fortnight, Mr MacNeil said that now was the time for the law to be changed.
“The Act of Settlement represents clear institutional discrimination against millions of our fellow citizens, and the Coalition Government’s refusal to consider its repeal is lamentable,” he said.
“Nick Clegg has lauded the Freedom Bill, and fancies himself as a great reformer, but his words are not matched by actions or even intentions.
“There is no better example of an outdated law that should be removed from the statute book and, with Pope Benedict visiting next month, we need to put this on the agenda,” added Mr MacNeil.
“This is an issue of cross-party and cross-faith concern.
“The Act is state sectarianism and has no place in a modern society.”
He added that there had been a groundswell of support for a repeal of the Act in recent years, including from the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and the Catholic Church in Scotland.
“Changing the Act of Settlement allows us to deal with a fundamental issue of discrimination; it enables us to state clearly that discrimination is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in a modern country,” he said.
SIC: HSUK
The Catholic leader of England and Wales denied Tuesday that asking the faithful to pay a contribution to see the pope when he visits Britain next month would "dampen enthusiasm" for the trip."I don't think it will dampen enthusiasm at all. I'm confident there will be large crowds," Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic church in England and Wales, told reporters in London.
He repeated his denial that the contributions -- ranging from five pounds for a vigil in London and 25 pounds for an open-air mass in Birmingham -- were akin to charging an entrance fee to see the pope.
"Those contributions only cover the costs of the transport and the security provisions," the archbishop said, adding: "It includes their travel so it's not as if it is a payment to go to mass."
People attending the various events also receive a "pilgrim pack" which includes a CD and booklet about the pope's visit, he said.
Pope Benedict XVI is holding an open-air mass near Glasgow on the first day of his state visit to Britain on September 16 and will hold a prayer vigil in London's Hyde Park on September 18.
He will also celebrate the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman -- a 19th century cleric who converted to Catholicism from the Church of England -- at a mass in Birmingham on September 19, before flying home.
The costs of the papal visit to Britain, where only 10 percent of the population are Catholic, has caused concern in some quarters as the country struggles with huge spending cuts designed to pay off a record budget deficit.
Chris Patten, who is organising the visit on behalf of the government, confirmed the cost to the taxpayer would be between 10 and 12 million pounds, a significant increase on the eight million that was originally envisaged.
The Catholic church will also be contributing "in the region of nine to ten million pounds", Nichols said, of which six million had already been raised.
Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Britain is only the second since English King Henry VIII broke with the church in Rome in 1534.
Pope John Paul II visited in 1982, although his was a pastoral visit, rather than a state visit.
SIC: AFP
Secret recordings reveal a senior figure in the Catholic church pleaded with a sex abuse victim to delay going public about his ordeal until the 73-year-old bishop who had abused him resigned, writes Jonathan Rugman.The self-confessed abuser was 73-year-old Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges (pictured right), who was forced to resign in disgrace earlier this year after his nephew accused him of abuse from the age of five to 18.
But the apparent cover up goes even higher up the Catholic Church than that: to the Bishop's former boss, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the ex-head of the Church in Belgium. He was secretly taped in April - before the Bishop resigned - urging the victim not to go public.
The tape was made by the abuse victim, now a 42-year-old man, who has said he made the recording to counter rumours apparently put about by the church that he had received hush money from his uncle to gain his silence.
The recording was made on 8 April and lasts for more than 18 minutes. In order to counter the charge that it has been selectively edited, the transcript was published in full in two Belgian Flemish newspapers over the weekend.
"The Bishop will resign next year, so actually it would be better for you to wait," the Cardinal tells the victim, when they are discussing whether to go public on the abuse.
The victim replies: "No, I can't agree that he takes his leave in glory, I can't do that."
The Cardinal says: "I dont think you'd do yourself or him a favour by shouting this from the rooftops," before imploring the man not to drag the Bishop's "name through the mud".
"He has dragged my whole life through the mud, from five until 18 years old," counters the victim. "Why do you feel so sorry for him and not for me? You're always trying to defend him. I thought I was going to get some support, but I have to sit here and defend myself against things I can't do anything about."
The Cardinal's spokesman says he has been quoted selectively but a spokesman for his successor has said the transcript speaks for itself. Child abuse scandals have swept the Catholic church worldwide, but what makes this one different is that we have a verbatim transcript of a Cardinal's response.
Speaking not 10 years ago, but in April this year, and claiming in the tape that he has no authority over the offending Bishop, because authority, he says, rests with the Pope himself.
This was just after Pope Benedict had apologised to victims of abuse in Ireland and when damning evidence of older cover-ups from Germany and the United States was coming to light through the press.
SIC: C4
NSW MPs have been urged by the Catholic and Anglican leadership to defeat a same-sex adoption bill, although the independent MP proposing it said the bill would exempt church agencies.A letter co-authored by the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell and the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, arrived on MPs' desks yesterday urging them to vote down the bill, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Independent state MP Clover Moore moved to shore up support for her same-sex adoption bill by giving church adoption agencies the right to refuse services to gay and lesbian couples without breaching anti-discrimination laws.
"Some members of Parliament have told me that they will not support reform without an exemption for church-based adoption agencies," she told the Herald.
"While the amendments do not reflect my strong belief that there should be no exemptions in the Anti-Discrimination Act, the bill is so important to the security of families headed by same-sex couples that I cannot risk possible defeat."
The convener of the NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, Kellie McDonald, said the group had argued against the amendment, but was taking a pragmatic approach.
The Christian Democratic MLC, the Reverend Fred Nile, said the proposed amendment would not alter his view.
"I'm pleased that [Ms Moore] is amending it," Mr Nile said. "But it doesn't change our opposition in principle to the objects of the bill. I believe every child has a right to a mother and a father".
SIC: CTHAUS
American nuns are to host a Nun's Beach Surf Invitational in New Jersey, to raise funds for the maintenance of their mother house. Sister James Dolores, 73, from the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, says: "I'm really getting the hang of this. No one ever thought they'd see me on a board."
Pictured in the New York Post posing on a surfboard on the beach, the nun has a special relationship with local surfers, said the report.
It was forged more than 60 years ago when local surfers approached the nuns' beach-front retreat asking if they could ride its waves.
The nuns warmly greeted the beach bums, and the swath of surf was soon dubbed "Nun's Beach."
The sisters often sit on the beach and even draw spiritual inspiration watching the wave-riders.
"It's very peaceful," said Sister James, the retreat's property manager. "You see how the water holds them up, balances them and if you ride with the water, it will get you where you want to go. That's how it is with the grace of God."
Bill Deger, now 64, and his surfing buddies once coaxed an 83-year-old nun onto a surfboard.
"One of her life's dreams was to be able to surf," Deger, 64, said of the late Sister Loyola. "So we got her out in knee-deep water and held her on. She loved it. It was an incredible experience."
But in 1996, a small group of surfers led by Larry Gehrke and Deger decided it was time to give back to the nuns - by running a contest to help fund the retreat's upkeep.
SIC: CTHAUS
Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller has called for compassion for Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers who have landed in British Columbia. Archbishop Miller says now is the time to remember the fundamental dignity of each human person, News 1130 reports.
He stresses the men, women and children must not become “scapegoats” in immigration debates.
He says while responsible governments need to find out the identities of newcomers so as not to open a door to a potential security risk, the Catholic Church maintains people who are victims of armed conflicts must be recognized as refugees and offered international protection.
The archbishop says Canada has a solid reputation as a nation of immigrants and refugees and a long of history of welcoming people seeking a haven from injustice.
However, Canadian polls suggest a majority of respondents support sending the migrants back to Sri Lanka.
SIC: CTHAS
The Catholic Church in Germany has issued tougher guidelines on the handling of reports of sex abuse. The revised rules insist all allegations must be reported to prosecutors in an attempt to prevent cases being covered up.
But critics say the new advice does not go far enough to tackle the issue.
The Catholic Church in Germany and other European countries has been hit by repeated accusations of abuse.
Since the start of 2010, at least 300 people have alleged sexual or physical abuse by priests across Germany, the Pope's home country.
The new code firms up existing guidelines from 2002 which were criticised as being too weak.
The old guidelines had not required cases to be reported to law enforcement agencies, and had instead only "advised" it if the allegations were "proven".
'Imprecise'Bishop of Trier, Stephan Ackermann, said the change of emphasis would mean cases being sent to police more quickly and that no-one found guilty of abuse would be able to work with children.
"The dreadful findings and experiences of recent months have shown us that the (previous) guidelines of 2002 were imprecise in some areas," he said.
"We also want to make sure that as many victims as possible... have the courage to come forward," he added, speaking in Trier in western Germany.
The code requires each diocese to have a "commissioner" who would serve as the first point of contact for anyone reporting abuse perpetrated by a Church insider.
But Christian Weisner of the We Are Church group said he did not believed the rules were broad enough, and said he wanted Germany to have a "zero tolerance" policy towards the issue.
"Once he has been an offender, we really don't want someone like that in the diocese anymore, even working in a nursing home or a prison," Mr Weisner told AP news agency.
He added that the guidelines also did not address financial compensation for victims.
The Church has acknowledged that it has failed to adequately investigate cases of abuse, and in some cases there was a cover-up with those accused being moved to a different diocese.
Many cases relate to abuse that occurred several decades ago.
SIC: BBC
On Thursday, the President of the State of Israel, will be received in Audience at Castelgandolfo by Pope Benedict XVI.It is difficult to foresee that the visit of Peres to the Pope will have any specific effect on practical details of these relations, which in substance are being dealt with through other channels. The President, in Israel, is an almost exclusively symbolic figure, while the executive power is exercised by the Government.
More probably, President Peres’s travels are in the context of the task he has for a while now assigned himself of cultivating Israel’s international image, given wide-spread skepticism concerning the intentions of the Government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Prime Minister himself will on that day be in Washington, for the start of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, “Abu Mazen” – negotiations convened by President Barack Obama of the United States.
As for the bilateral relations with the Catholic Church (or as is improperly said in the televised interview, “the Vatican”), these are now at a phase of special importance. Since 29 July 1992, the Holy See and Israel are committed to concluding a series of “concordat-type” treaties, which together are meant to achieve legal and fiscal security for the Catholic Church in Israel.
Two of those treaties were already signed and ratified some years ago: The “Fundamental Agreement” (30 December 1993), a kind of “Bill of Rights” for the Church in the Jewish State, and the “Legal Personality Agreement” (10 November 1997), which recognizes for civil purposes too the legal personality of the Church and of Church bodies.
However, neither of these treaties has been introduced into Israel’s own legislation, which means that their usefulness is at present limited.
Since 11 March 1999, the Parties have been negotiating a third Agreement, for the purpose of confirming the fiscal status of the Church in Israel, especially the historic fiscal exemptions, which are an essential requirement for the ability of the Church to continue to carry out her functions of representing in the Holy Land the world-wide Church and of caring for the faithful locally.
This third Agreement will also have to safeguard the Church’s properties in Israel, the Holy Places above all, and to provide for the restitution of certain such properties, such as for example the church-shrine in Caesarea, which was expropriated and razed to the ground in the 1950’s.
The next “plenary” meeting of the negotiators – who together constitute the “Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel” - is scheduled for 6 December this year. In the meanwhile, well informed sources say, the negotiators are working intensively.
The United States, France, Italy and other nations are closely (though discreetly) following the course of the negotiations, consistently with their support – and that of their Catholic citizens – for the presence and work of the Church in the Holy Land.
Once this Agreement is made (and it is impossible to foresee when this may be), or even before then and parallel to the talks about it, the “agenda” foresees several more Agreements of no lesser importance. In the course of the years, three subjects in particular have been publicly emphasized.
First of all, an agreement that would guarantee and regulate in a stable manner the issuance of entry visas and residence permits for Church personnel from elsewhere. Here the State’s policies have varied over time, though their overall direction has been rather restrictive.
More than anything else, it is the lack of legal certainty that is problematic, namely the lack of officially published criteria.
Then there is this subject that is of the greatest pastoral concern, norms to guarantee the access to pastoral care of members of the faithful who find themselves in circumstances of limited mobility, specifically prisoners, members of the military and hospital patients.
The accord on these matters between the Government of Italy and the Union of the Jewish Communities in Italy is often mentioned as a model, given the analogy between the small Jewish minority in Italy and the small Christian minority in Israel.
The third subject often publicly mentioned in these years is a review of the presentation of Christ, Christianity and the Church in Israel’s school system. It would serve to verify effective reciprocity in relation to the immense undertaking by the Catholic Church over recent decades to ensure a correct, indeed a friendly, presentation of Judaism and the Jews in Catholic education.
There is then still some way to go in order for the “dialogue” mentioned by President Peres to achieve its purposes completely. However, the forward-looking optimism of the President of Israel is promising, and in fact it seems that both Parties are working towards that goal and are making steady progress.
Thus the Franciscan jurist, Father David-Maria A. Jaeger, an expert on Church-State relations in Israel, tells AsiaNews: “Especially in the last few years, it appears that the negotiations, which in effect constitute this ‘dialogue’ – to which President Peres refers – between the Holy See and the State of Israel, are being pursued by both Parties with great seriousness and commitment, as is evident from the ‘Joint Communiqués’ released from time to time by the Bilateral Commission.
Though without ignoring the problems in various sectors of the day-to-day relations between the Church and the State, optimism is obligatory, and such optimism in itself has a decidedly beneficial influence.”
He adds too: “In the end, obstinate optimism endows the experience of daily life with an eschatological horizon.”
SIC: AN
