2. C.S.F. Dispatch 4 on Spain
3. Current Spain
4. The Secret Genocide and the Obscene, Fruitless Same-Sex Union
5. Who to vote for ?
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1. Peter says….
Pope to Youth: Look to Eucharist for True Immortality
Marks 25th Anniversary of San Lorenzo Center 
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Those looking for the fountain of life should look to the Eucharist, the only true source of immortality, says Benedict XVI.The Pope said this today upon celebrating a Mass marking the 25th anniversary of the San Lorenzo International Center, attended by an international group of 200 young people.
Pope John Paul II inaugurated the San Lorenzo International Center, located near St. Peter’s Basilica, on March 13, 1983. During the inauguration the Polish Pope expressed the hope that the center become “a forge for the formation of authentic young Christians who are capable of bearing coherent witness to the Gospel in today’s world.”
Benedict XVI put aside his text for the homily and offered a meditation on the meaning of life and death in light of this Sunday’s Gospel on the resurrection of Lazarus.The human being is not only a biological being, the Pope explained, speaking at the Church of San Lorzenzo in Piscibus, which forms part of the center.
“Although he is part of the this great biocosmos, man transcends it because, certainly, man is always man with all his dignity, even if he is in a comatose state, even if he is an embryo; but if he only lives biologically not all of the possibilities of his being will be realized, which open new dimensions,” he said.
The first dimension is that of knowledge, the Holy Father continued, a knowledge that in man, as distinct from animals, is identified with a “thirst for the infinite.”
We all aspire to “drink from the fountain of life itself,” he said, and to do so we entrust ourselves to the “second dimension of human nature,” which is love.
Social beingBenedict XVI continued, “Man is not only a being that knows, but he lives in a relation of friendship and love. Beyond the dimension of knowledge and truth there exists, inseparably from the latter, the relational dimension. Here one draws closer to the fountain of life, from which one wants to drink to have life in abundance, life itself.”
Science, the Pope added, and medicine in particular, represent a great struggle for life, but they cannot satisfy the desire for eternity that is proper to man, not even if the pill of immortality is discovered.
The Holy Father said, “Let us imagine what would happen with an immortal biological human life: a world grown old, a life that would no longer leave room for young people, for youth, for this newness of life.“So, this cannot be that immortality [that comes from] drinking of the fountain of life, which we all desire.”The only true medicine of immortality is the Eucharist, he said, and the certainty of being loved by God.
Celebrations
Benedict XVI made special mention of the Emmanuel Community, “who for 20 years has with great fidelity coordinated various initiatives.” He also praised the involvement of young people of various movements and communities and mentioned.The Pontiff’s Mass began a series of celebrations of the Center’s 25th anniversary that will culminate on Palm Sunday, March 16, with the youth pertaining to the center attending Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, presided over by Benedict XVI.On Thursday, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity will preside over a Eucharist celebration to be followed by a prayer vigil and adoration until midnight.
On Saturday, a gathering will be held on the theme of the history and mission of the San Lorenzo International Center to be attended by Cardinal Rylko and Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, who promoted the foundation of the center.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7287071.stm
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Fewer confessions and new sins
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 The Vatican has brought up to date the traditional seven deadly sins by adding seven modern mortal sins it claims are becoming prevalent in what it calls an era of “unstoppable globalisation”. Those newly risking eternal punishment include drug pushers, the obscenely wealthy, and scientists who manipulate human genes. So “thou shalt not carry out morally dubious scientific experiments” or “thou shalt not pollute the earth” might one day be added to the Ten Commandments.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell”. The new mortal sins were listed by Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti at the end of a week-long training seminar in Rome for priests, aimed at encouraging a revival of the practice of confession – or the Sacrament of Penance in Church jargon. According to a survey carried out here 10 years ago by the Catholic University, 60% of Italians have stopped going to confession altogether. The situation has certainly not improved during the past decade. Catholics are supposed to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year. The priest absolves them in God’s name. Talking to course members at the end of the seminar organised by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican department in charge of fixing the punishments and indulgences handed down to sinners, Pope Benedict added his own personal voice of disquiet. “We are losing the notion of sin,” he said. “If people do not confess regularly, they risk slowing their spiritual rhythm,” he added. The Pope confesses his sins regularly once a week. Greatest sins of our times In an interview with the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Archbishop Girotti said he thought the most dangerous areas for committing new types of sins lay in the fields of bio-ethics and ecology. He also named abortion and paedophilia as two of the greatest sins of our times. The archbishop brushed off cases of sexual violence against minors committed by priests as “exaggerations by the mass media aimed at discrediting the Church”.
Father Gerald O’Collins, former professor of moral theology at the Papal University in Rome, and teacher of many of the Catholic Church’s current top Cardinals and Bishops, welcomed the new catalogue of modern sins. “I think the major point is that priests who are hearing confessions are not sufficiently attuned to some of the real evils in our world,” he told the BBC News website. “They need to be more aware today of the social face of sin – the inequalities at the social level. They think of sin too much on an individual level. “I think priests who hear confession should have a deeper sense of the violence and injustice of such problems – and the fact that people collaborate simply by doing nothing. One of the original deadly sins is sloth – disengagement and not getting involved,” Father O’Collins said. The Jesuit professor now teaches at St Mary’s University in Twickenham. “It was interesting that these remarks came from the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary,” he said. “I can’t remember a time when it was so concerned about issues such as environmental pollution and social injustice. It’s a new way of thinking.” |
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2. C.S.F. Dispatch 4
One fascinating aspect of the Old Testament is God’s interventions favoring those who do all they possibly can while facing overwhelming odds and counting on Him to do the impossible. As we read about David and Goliath, Gideon and the Battle of Jericho, the Maccabees and others, we have the impression that God actually dons armor and goes to battle on their side. New Testament history counts a number of such interventions. Among these is the marvelous story of the Reconquista, or recapture of Spain from Islamic domination.
Less than seventy years after the death of Mohammed in 632, his followers had already conquered most of the Middle East and North Africa. In the beginning of the eighth century, the leaders of the new religion turned their eyes to Christian Europe, dreaming of new Moorish conquests. On the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, Visigoth Catholic Spain was in a state of decadence, undermined by the Arian heresy, steeped in vice, its army and people lax, and its leaders divided. In 711, because of internal divisions, traitors informed the Muslims about the weak points along the Spanish southern coast. Not waiting for a second invitation, the Islamic army landed. The poison of treachery added to the ruthlessness of the scimitar conquered all of Spain in a few years. But the Lord of Hosts had long prepared the Spanish David who would face the new Islamic Goliath.
A Warrior, a Cave and a Queen
The Cantabrian Range in northern Spain forms a natural fortress of lofty peaks, deep gorges, narrow valleys, steep cliffs and evergreen forests. This region numbers among the “Peaks of Europe” and was once the paradise of hermits, and the home of bears, mountain goats and soaring eagles. It is also known as the cradle of Catholic Spain, and it is the starting point of our marvelous saga. One day, around the year 718, a troublemaker clambered desperately up rocks and boulders fleeing from a young warrior intent on his capture. Suddenly, the pursued man dashed into a large cave and disappeared into its dark depth. Chasing after him, the warrior found the troublemaker clinging desperately to a venerable hermit. Beside the old man stood a small image of Mary Most Holy with the Infant in her arms. At the hermit’s request, the warrior granted the troublemaker sanctuary and gave up the chase. “God will bless you for this, my friend,” spoke the hermit. The troublemaker’s and the hermit’s names perished with history, but the young warrior’s name was Pelayo, a nobleman of royal lineage and fearless disposition. The cave is known to this day as Covadonga, and the diminutive image of Mary venerated there as Our Lady of Covadonga, Deliverer and Queen of Spain.
The Fateful Battle of Guadalete
Finally, King Rodrigo was able to gather an army of 100,000 ill-trained men and met the Muslims in Guadalete. In the heat of the battle, the supporters of Vitiza and his sons joined the invading Moors, and attacking from behind decided the day for Ziyad. King Rodrigo was killed and his body vanished. Centuries later his tomb was discovered in Portugal.
Pelayo Emerges
In that battle, Pelayo, whose father the Duke of Fáfila had been killed by Vitiza, also fought. After the defeat of Guadalete, Pelayo fled with family members to Asturias in northern Spain.
Not My Sister
Meanwhile Nusayr grew jealous of Ziyad and decided to share in the glory and the spoils of con-quering Spain. He crossed the Strait of Gibraltar with a powerful army and, with it, conquered Granada, Malaga, Merida, Seville and Zaragoza. Continuing to join infamy to treachery, Vitiza’s followers surrendered town after town to the invader. Like dominoes, region after region fell, leaving only a few towns free from Muslim domination in the Cantabrian region near the Pyrenees. The Muslim Munuza was appointed governor of Gijón in this region and was to cross paths with Pelayo by falling in love with the Spaniard’s sister. Pelayo opposed the match and was sent prisoner to the south of Spain. Evading his captors, he returned to his family to find Munuza planning a wedding. His opposition enraged the governor, who ordered his imprisonment.
The Resistance Begins
Warned by friends, Pelayo sought refuge in the mountains of the Cantabrian region and swore to resist the new regime. His natural leadership, his fame as a fearless warrior and his rank as a prince of royal lineage attracted many Catholics who wished to combat the invader. Around him gathered a force of about a thousand strong. Unanimously, they proclaimed Pelayo king in 716 or 718. Tradition says that since the crimson flag of the Goths had disappeared in the fateful battle of Guadalete, the hermit who inhabited the cave of Covadonga placed in Pelayo’s hand a wooden cross saying, “Behold the sign of victory.” Pelayo positioned this cross at the top of his standard to be carried in battle.1 Noticing that Islamic attention was now focused on trying to conquer France,2 Pelayo launched forays against Muslim strongholds obtaining successive victories. Hearing of the insurrection, Munuza sent word to Alahor, the Emir of Córdoba, who in turn sent his lieutenant Alkama with a large force to crush the rebels. With him, Alkama brought Don Opas, the bishop of Seville, a relative of Pelayo and a Muslim collaborator, hoping that he might convince Pelayo to give up the impossible task. Meanwhile, Pelayo had distributed his small force throughout strategic positions of the Cantabrian Range while he with a few men took their positions inside the cave of Covadonga where the image of Mary Most Holy was venerated.Interview with Don OpasBefore the battle, Alkama sent Don Opas to try to persuade Pelayo to put down his sword by promising pardon and many benefits. Don Opas is quoted as saying, “Brother, I am sure that you work in vain. What possible resistance can you put up when all of Spain and its armies could not resist the Ismaelites? Listen to me. Settle down, and enjoy your many possessions in peace with the Arabs like everyone else is doing.” To this, Pelayo answered, I want no friendship with the Islamites and will not be subject to their empire. Don’t you know that the Church of God is like the moon that once eclipsed returns to her fullness? We trust in God’s mercy and know that from this mountain will emerge the health of Spain. You with your brothers as well as Olian, minister of Satan, decided to give to these people the reign of the Goths. But we, having Our Lord Jesus Christ as our advocate before God the Father, despise this multitude of pagans in whose name you come. And by the intercession of the Mother of God, who is Mother of mercy, we believe that this small army of 105 Goths will multiply like seeds from a tiny grain of mustard.3 Realizing there was no compromise in Pelayo, Don Opas returned to the Muslim army and said, “Go on to the cave and fight because only the sword will obtain anything from him.”
The Battle (718–722)
On that day, two different civilizations and religions faced each other. Islam, which had triumphed over the Middle East and North Africa, was now poised to crush the last stronghold of a ruined country, a destroyed civilization, an enslaved people and a profaned religion. There, at Covadonga, was to be decided whether Spain would be an extension of Islam or the spearhead of Christian Civilization. As Pelayo and his men looked down from the cave of Covadonga they saw a massive Muslim horde. Alkama and his men jeered, sure of an easy victory. A chill of fear compounded the chill of the cave but the indomitable leader, pointing to the small image of Our Lady of Covadonga, reminded his brave men to place all their confidence in her protection. This little Lady “beautiful as the moon, brilliant as the sun, terrible as an army in battle array,”4 could not disappoint their trust. Thus began that terrible, unequal fight. At a signal from Alkama, a multitude of stones and arrows were hurled against the men in the cave. It was then that a wonderful thing happened. The acclaimed sixteenth-century Spanish historian, Father Juan de Mariana, describes the battle: They fought at the entrance to the cave with all sorts of weapons, and a shower of stones. Then it was that God’s power was manifest, favorable to ours and contrary to the Muslims because the arrows and spears that the enemy launched returned to them causing great harm among them. The enemy was astounded at such a miracle. Heartened and on fire with the hope of victory, the Christians emerged from the hideout, few in number, soiled and ragged, and engaged in a melee. They fell fiercely upon the enemy who, thrown off balance, turned and ran.5 Meanwhile, the other warriors, placed in strategic positions throughout the mountains, pushed down huge boulders and tree trunks on the Muslim army now trapped in the deep valleys of the region. Others shot their arrows. At the same time, a frightful storm broke out, which added to the panic, and caused the Muslims to flee in disarray. Pursued by the Christians, they were killed in the Cangas Valley in a terrible battle. The traitorous Don Opas was taken prisoner, and Alkama was slain along with thousands of Muslims. The remaining Moorish army took flight only to be buried by a mountain close to the Deva River that suddenly fell upon them and drowned them in the river. For centuries after that, whenever the river swelled in winter, bones and parts of armor floated to the top. Back in Gijón, on hearing of the astounding defeat, Munuza fled with his troops, only to be pursued by the Spaniards who caught up with him near Oviedo, killing him and his men.
Growing Support For the Cause of
Spain; Don Pelayo After Covadonga
Encouraged by such a victory and Pelayo’s example, an increasing number of Christians joined him. One of them was Alfonso, the son of the Duke of Viscaya, who left his father and his lands to join the fight at Pelayo’s side. Alfonso later married the hero’s daughter, Ormisinda, and at the premature death of Pelayo’s son Fávila, became King Alfonso I the Catholic. Rather than establishing his court in Gijón, the most important city of Asturias, Don Pelayo chose Cangas de Onis, in the region of the “Peaks of Europe,” since it was a more defensible position. Pelayo did not enjoy much peace. He neither sought it nor could he expect it from the Muslims. He spent the rest of his life battling the Moorish invader. He died from natural causes in Cangas de Onis in 737 and was buried by his wife Gaudiosa near the altar of Our Lady in the Cave of Covadonga. The epitaph on his tomb reads: Here lies the holy king Don Pelayo, elected on the year 716, who in this miraculous cave began the restoration of Spain.. . .
Generations of Heroism
The defeat at Covadonga cost the Islamic cause dearly. Arab historians lament that they had despised the Spaniards as “only thirty hungry men who lived on the honey of bees made in the cracks of rocks; and what can thirty men amount to?” Given the consequences of this defeat for the Islamic world, their historians morosely comment, “A grave miscalculation which was the cause of great affliction for Islam.”6 Indeed, this was a miscalculation of historic proportions for, according to the Spanish historian Menéndez Pidal, the average Spaniard was a man who endures the lack of amenities with strong resignation; resists all covetousness and the disturbing allurement of pleasures; is ruled by sobriety, which inclines him to a certain ethic austerity applied to all of life; his is a habitual simplicity of customs, dignity and noble stance, evident even in the humbler classes; he is strong in the family virtues; and when necessary, capable of a heroism rarely imitated.7 In other words, Islam chose the wrong country through which to begin the invasion of Europe. For, after Pelayo, and under the patronage of the Lady of Covadonga, a host of warriors undertook the eighthundred- year war to reconquer for the Cross what the Crescent and treachery had taken in a decade. Outstanding in heroism and dedication to the cause were men like Fernán González (930–970), who defeated the Muslims in the great three-day battle at the Valle de las Espadas (Valley of the Swords), where it is said that Saints James and Millan appeared to aid the Christians in the battle. Another hero of the Reconquista is Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, better known as El Cid (1040–1099), the epitome of manly honor and loyalty to the cause of Spain despite rejection by his own king. Another outstanding figure is Saint Ferdinand III of Castille and León (1199–1252). This holy king, with a tender devotion to Our Lady, had a precious ivory statue of the Mother of God and her Infant Son, “The Virgin of Battles,” set in his saddle horn. He never lost a battle. When he breathed his last at fifty-three, exhausted by a warring life, only the kingdom of Granada in the south of Spain was still in Islamic hands, though reduced to being a vassal state to the Christian kingdom. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Kings, after a long, tedious war, received the keys of Granada from its last Muslim king, Boabdil el Chico. The recapture of Spain was complete. May Don Pelayo and all the saints and heroes of the Reconquista pray for all Catholics who, though in different circumstances today, feel backed into a “cave” pressured by the universal “politically correct” call to compromise or dilute their Catholic convictions and principles. Unfortunately, at times, the clamor even comes from individual members of the clergy more intent on conforming to the spirit of the age than to the spirit of immutable Truth, Our Lord Jesus Christ. The deposit of God’s Truth in the Divine Magisterium of His Church is the sure beacon, and the eternal inspirer of all those willing to attempt the possible knowing that they can then expect the impossible from the Lord of Hosts and His Holy Mother. “
Notes:
1. Later, Alfonso III had this cross covered in gold and precious
stones. Today, it is kept in the Cathedral of Oviedo with the
name of “Cross of Victory.” http://www.arbil.org/(31)pely.htm.
2. Charles Martel, son of Pepin of Herstal and father of
Charlemagne, defeated Islam at the battle of Tours. See
“Charles Martel,” http://www.newadvent.org?/cathen/03629
a.htm.
3. http://www.arbil.org/[31]pely.htm.
4. Canticle of Canticles 6:9.
5. From an article by José Maria dos Santos, published in
Catolicismo (October, 2002), based on Father Juan de Mariana,
Historia General de España, vol. I, enriched and completed by
Eduardo Chao (Imprenta y Libreria de Gaspar Roig, Editores,
Madrid, 1848), 308.
6. From an article by José Maria dos Santos, published in
Catolicismo, based on Menéndez Pidal, España y su Historia,
vol. I (Ediciones Minotauro, Madrid, 1957), 247, 248.
7. Ibid., 15, 16.
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3. Current Spain
Man ‘who used to be next leader’ tries again
Paul Hamilos profiles the leader of Spain’s opposition Popular party, Mariano Rajoy
The leader of Spain’s opposition Popular party, Mariano Rajoy. Photograph: Miguel Gomez/AP
Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the rightwing People’s Party (PP), is the polar opposite of the socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
With his grey beard and stiff manner, Rajoy always comes off worse in popularity polls when compared with his more relaxed opponent. His conservative views on social policies, from gay rights to immigration, make it easy for voters to draw the conclusion that Spain would be a very different country had he been in charge for the last four years.
And that is what should have happened. When José María Aznar stood down after two terms in 2004, it was expected that Rajoy, as his chosen successor, would slip easily into his shoes. But the Madrid train bombings of 2004 changed all that, and instead Rajoy became the Al Gore of Spanish politics – the man who used to be the next leader.
Unlike Gore, Rajoy has the chance to do something about it, and as the election date of March 9 draws closer, it looks like he might pull it off. For Rajoy has enjoyed a stroke of luck. The recent downturn in the economy means that many of the middle-class Spaniards who voted for Zapatero last time are now more concerned about paying their mortgages than supporting social reform.
The large turnout that brought about the Socialist victory in 2004 is unlikely to be repeated this time. This should help the PP, which has a rock-solid core of just under 10 million voters who will turn out come what may. Rajoy’s stolid character, and the reputation of the PP for its handling of the economy, might just be what Spanish voters decide they need at this time.
Rajoy is an experienced politician. Born into a leading political family in Galicia, in the north-west of Spain, he served as culture, education and interior ministers and finally as deputy prime minister under Aznar, whose successful campaign for re-election in 2000 was led by Rajoy.
He will need this experience if he is to defeat Zapatero, who is popular with younger voters and women. To this end, Rajoy has run a populist campaign, guaranteed to capture the core vote, but also targeting lower-middle class voters worried about the economy and rising immigration.
Over the last decade Spain has changed dramatically with hundreds of thousands of immigrants coming from South America, north Africa and eastern Europe to work in the construction and service industries. Ten percent of Spain’s 45 million inhabitants are now foreign-born.
For a long time, this caused few problems, but immigration has become an issue at this election. Rajoy has called for restrictions on the Islamic veil and said that immigrants should sign a legally binding contract promising to integrate into Spanish society.
With the end of the building boom leaving many immigrants without work, Rajoy proposed that they be forced to leave Spain if they cannot find a job after one year and be expelled if they commit crimes.
Other signs of a rightward shift by the PP came in January when Rajoy barred the popular, liberal mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, from standing at the elections.
While some saw this as part of the inevitable jockeying for position in the event that Rajoy should lose the election, he has recently made it clear he would not stand down if defeated. Many analysts argued it would scare off potential floating voters – they say that instead Rajoy should do more to make the party appeal to the centre ground, and to adopt more progressive positions in areas such as social reform and the environment.
When Spanish bishops last month issued a communiqué indirectly telling Catholic voters to support the PP, Rajoy was careful not to align himself too closely with the church, fearing it might scare off large parts of Spain’s increasingly secular electorate.
Most polls still have Rajoy a few percentage points behind Zapatero, but they said the opposite in 2004. They were wrong then; they might just be wrong now.
http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/14215/zapatero-backtracks-on-abortion-law-reform
http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_printcontent/0,,3053802,00.html
14.01.2008
Spanish Election Showdown Over Abortion, Gay Marriage
With national elections looming, Spain’s politicians have been sidestepping controversial issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Yet recent mass demonstrations and strikes show the issues aren’t going away.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has developed an image as a firebrand ready to shake up Spain’s conservative Catholic establishment. His Socialist party passed Europe’s most progressive same-sex marriage legislation, introduced fast-track divorce and chipped away at religious education in public schools.
But ahead of a fiercely-contested national election scheduled for March 9, Zapatero is trying to polish his credentials as a moderate. His nemesis, conservative Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy, is doing the same.
Both parties are desperate to win over undecided voters. The Socialist party is leading by only a few percentage points in the polls and it’s likely that the race will remain close to the end. The PP won in 1996 and 2000, largely by winning over moderates. But the Socialists attracted enough swing votes to win the last elections in 2004.
Going for the political middle
Spain’s swing voters are set to decide the elections again this year, said political scientist Pablo Onate of the University of Valencia. Spanish voters have a history of punishing parties that are not seen as being close enough to the center, Onate said.
“This is another case in which that is going to happen,” he said. “Both parties are trying to be center-orientated.”
Spain’s parliament was dissolved on Jan. 14. A 15-day electioneering period starts Feb. 22, but Spanish politicians are in full pre-election swing, trying to define the most important issues for the voters. Political parties will definitely spend a lot of time talking about the economy and terrorism, but social issues are where the parties most differ and will therefore play an important role in the political debate, Onate said.
The Spanish population, while still conservative compared with Northern Europe, is much more liberal today than it was 10 or 15 years ago, Onate said. Yet the Socialists still rely on support from voters ambivalent about issues like abortion. And the PP needs the votes of young people more accepting of gay rights.
Downplaying the abortion issue
Reforming Spain’s restrictive abortion laws seemed like a social issue Zapatero would embrace. Indeed, in December he promised to make the issue part of this year’s electoral campaign. He reversed his line a short time later, saying only that he wants to reassess current abortion laws.
The PP would also rather not talk about abortion, said Onate. The party did nothing to restrict abortion laws during its time in office.
Yet both parties might find it hard to ignore the issue. On Jan. 8 abortion clinics launched a five-day strike to protest what they feel is lack of government support and harassment from officials and pro-life activists. The issue came into the spotlight after allegations surfaced that illegal abortions were being done at clinics in Barcelona.
Spain’s Catholics assert themselves
One hot button issue for conservative Catholic voters is Spain’s legalization of gay marriage in 2005. The Spanish Roman Catholic Church jumped into the fray, warning that the country faced a grave moral danger. The Socialists pushed through the legislation anyway.
That issue continues to incense voters. More than 150,000 people demonstrated in Madrid on Dec. 30 for a “Christian Family Day” rally organized by Catholic bishops. The event was billed as a defense of traditional family values. But it took on a political edge as the bishops denounced politics which they say threaten the family.
The government is “shaking the foundations of the family with its unique and unjust laws,” Cardinal Antonio Canizares of Toledo said at the Madrid rally.
Cardinal Agustin Garcia-Gasco of Valencia criticized “the culture of radical secularism is a deception which only leads to abortions and fast-track divorces.”
The Catholic Church should be making its opinion known on issues such as family, said Jose Carlos Martin de la Hoz, a prominent Catholic historian and theologian. Spain’s Catholics shouldn’t keep quiet in the face of secularization which they see as destroying the fundaments of family, he said.
The recent demonstration was an example of Catholics taking part in the dialogue about social issues, Martin de la Hoz added.
Gay marriage likely to motivate voters
Rajoy, who has repeatedly denounced the same-sex marriage laws, is not turning out to be the strong ally conservatives had hoped for. In an effort to make himself attractive to moderates and to show his political independence from the Catholic Church, Rajoy promised last week that the PP won’t repeal Socialist legislation on abortion, same-sex marriage and fast-track divorce.
This infuriated many conservative groups like “Hazte Oir” (Make Yourself Heard). Hazte Oir’s president, Ignacio Arsuaga, said he sees same-sex marriage as a key issue in the upcoming election. The PP has said it would like to see the term “marriage” dropped in favor of a civil union, but has promised to let a court make the final decision. Rajoy also promised to appoint a family minister.
While that’s a start, it’s not good enough, said Arsuaga. Hazte Oir launched a campaign to put pressure on the PP to take a stronger stand on the issue. They’re also planning demonstrations and advertising campaigns.
Antonio Poveda, president of the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays and Transsexuals (FELGT), a group essential in organizing massive gay pride demonstrations in favor of same-sex marriage, said his group wasn’t planning any street protests. But they would be engaging in public information campaigns ahead of the election, he said.
Poveda said Spain has become one of Europe’s most progressive countries in same-sex issues, with same-sex marriage continuing to have 60 percent approval.
He thinks the recent attacks on gay marriage by conservative Catholics will backfire because “people are sick of having that type of doctrine imposed on them.”
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4. The Secret Genocide and the Obscene, Fruitless Same-Sex Union
http://www.c-fam.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=733&Itemid=102
| EU Split Widens as Abortion Roils UN Negotiations/Pro-Lifers Complain About UN Security |
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March 6, 2008
Volume 11, Number 12
By Samantha Singson (NEW YORK — C-FAM) A split in the European Union (EU) over abortion continued to shape negotiations at the UN this week during the annual meeting of the Commission at the Status of Women (CSW) in New York. Last week non-EU member Norway, likely acting as a stalking horse for pro-abortion EU countries, proposed inclusion of the term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” in the draft agreed conclusions. Norway’s move caused increasing dissent among EU members. Last week Poland and Malta spoke out against Norway’s proposal causing Slovenia, the president of the EU, to announce that the normally unified EU bloc would not have a common position on the Norwegian proposal. While the majority of the EU member states strongly supported inclusion of “sexual and reproductive rights” in the document, Poland, Ireland and Malta broke ranks from their EU colleagues and called for the deletion of the Norwegian language. The term “sexual and reproductive health and rights” has never been agreed to in any negotiated UN document but certain UN committees and officials have misinterpreted the term “reproductive health” as including abortion. During negotiations, the United States stated that the term was extremely problematic for many delegations and that insistence on its inclusion might prevent a consensus. El Salvador, Syria, the Holy See and Iran also called for deletion of the term. Kiribati called for deletion of the term and proposed “access to basic maternal and newborn health care as necessary to promote a healthy outcome for mother and child.” Pro-life and pro-family groups have been closely monitoring parallel negotiations where attempts to insert abortion and homosexual marriage into other documents are happening behind closed doors. The draft resolution entitled “Women, the girl child and HIV/AIDS” includes references to “sexual and reproductive health and rights” but also takes note of another document entitled the “Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.” The Guidelines, which date back to a 1996 meeting in Geneva, call for “safe and legal abortion” and for protective law “to reduce human rights violations against men having sex with men…These measures should include providing penalties for vilification of people who engage in same-sex relationships, giving legal recognition to same-sex marriages and/or relationships with consistent property, divorce and inheritance provisions.” A draft resolution called “Ending Female Genital Mutilation” contains a controversial reference to the Maputo Protocol, an African regional document which mentions female genital mutilation, but also contains abortion rights. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) helped draft the protocol which stipulates that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to… protect the reproductive rights of women by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the fetus.” The majority of African nations have not ratified the protocol. Pro-life lobbyists are also reporting that UN security personnel are closely monitoring their activities. One lobbyist told the Friday Fax, “There are hardly any lobbyists from the other side this week and it is obvious that some pro-abortion delegation complained about our presence, so security is closely watching us.” The lobbyist added this is “par for the course at the UN.” Negotiations on the CSW draft agreed conclusions and draft resolutions are expected to wrap up at the end of the week. |
Saturday, 1st March 2008
Pope speaks of abortion, gays
Pope Benedict, ahead of his first trip to the US, praised Americans yesterday who oppose gay marriage and abortion and called for global nuclear disarmament.
In an address to new US ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Pope Benedict touched on issues he will likely raise on his April 15-20 visit, during which he will meet President George W. Bush in Washington and address the UN.
In his address to Ms Glendon, 69, a Harvard law professor who has been a consultant to various Vatican departments, Pope Benedict touched on sensitive political issues. He said Americans’ appreciation of religion’s role in public life is “reflected in the efforts of so many of your fellow citizens and government leaders to ensure legal protection for God’s gift of life from conception to natural death”.
Pope Benedict also spoke of safeguarding the family and “the institution of marriage, acknowledged as a stable union between a man and a woman”.
Gay marriage is a hot political issue in the US. Massachusetts is the only US state that allows same-sex marriage while several states allow civil unions for gay couples. More than 25 states have constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage.
The Pontiff also told Ms Glendon, a close friend of President Bush, that the world’s problems extended well beyond terrorism.
“The progress of the human family is threatened not only by the plague of international terrorism, but also by such threats to peace as the quickening pace of the arms race and the continuance of tensions in the Middle East,” the Pope said. He called for “trust in, and commitment to” international organisations like the UN to foster dialogue to diffuse global tensions. His call for “patient and transparent” nuclear disarmament negotiations came as the US pushes ahead with plans to build a global missile defence shield, opposed by Russia. Washington says the shield is meant to protect it and allies from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.
Ms Glendon, a Pittsfield, Massachusetts native who in 1994 became the first woman to lead a Vatican delegation to a UN conference, said the German-born Pontiff would receive a warm welcome in Washington and New York.
“You will be among friends,” she said, noting that Pope Benedict’s predecessor John Paul II made seven US visits that were “opportunities for a conversation on the important issues of the day”.
http://www.washblade.com/2008/3-7/news/national/12158.cfm
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GAYS AND LESBIANS READY TO MEET THE POPE – LEST WE FORGET THAT AT SODOM THEY WERE BLINDED BY THE ANGEL OF GOD!!
Gay Catholics to ‘address’ Pope during Washington visit LOU CHIBBARO JR
The gay Catholic groups Dignity USA and New Ways Ministry are planning to send a respectful but forceful message affirming the presence of gay people in the Catholic Church during Pope Benedict XVI’s April 14-18 visit to Washington. New Ways Ministry, which has advocated for reconciliation between gay Catholics and the church hierarchy for the past 31 years, announced plans for four prominent gay and lesbian Catholics to deliver statements to the Pope about their “lives, loves and hopes for the church” at an April 10 news conference at the National Press Club. Among those addressing the Pope at the news conference will be Heather Mizeur, the openly gay member of the Maryland House of Delegates, whom New Ways Ministries says is a practicing Catholic. “The status of lesbian/gay people in Catholicism is one of the most controversial topics in the church today,” said Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministries’ executive director. “Since Pope Benedict has not offered an opportunity for lesbian/gay Catholics to share their views, we will meet with him through the airwaves, the newspapers and the Internet.” The Pope is scheduled to arrive in Washington on April 15 on the first leg of a five-day visit to the U.S. He is scheduled to meet with President Bush at the White House on April 16 and celebrate Mass for more than 40,000 Catholics the following day at the Washington Nationals’ new baseball stadium before meeting Catholic educators later that day at Catholic University. According to an itinerary released by the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, Benedict will depart for New York on April 18, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly and visit Ground Zero. He is scheduled to celebrate Mass for thousands of New Yorkers at Yankee Stadium on April 20 before departing for the Vatican. Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of Dignity USA, whose local chapters organize weekly Sunday Masses for gay Catholics, said representatives of her group plan to greet the Pope with signs along his motorcade route in Washington. “We will present a positive message in a respectful way to counter the hurtful things he has been saying about GLBT people for so many years,” Duddy-Burke said. “The policy we have for the Dignity events is to keep them peaceful, prayerful and positive,” she said. “We want to let people know we have great joy in our lives, that we are productive citizens and that we have faith in our lives.” Church observers note that Benedict has been among the leading conservative theologians arguing against homosexuality dating back to his years as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, when he served as the Vatican’s chief enforcer of Catholic orthodoxy. Since becoming Pope, he has spoken out against a proposed law in Italy calling for domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples. Bob Miailovich, a member of the board of Dignity-Washington, which is working with Duddy-Burke to organize Dignity demonstrations along the Papal motorcade route, said organizers will soon announce the locations of the sign-holding events and the dates they will take place. “Our objective is to inform him that we’re gay and we’re Catholic and we want you to see us,” Miailovich said. “We’re glad that you’re here but we’re there too,” he said, in describing the group’s intended message to the Pope. In addition to Heather Mizeur, the other gay Catholics scheduled to speak at the New Ways Ministries press conference on April 10 are Teresa DeCrescenzo, executive director of Gay-Lesbian Adolescent Social Services (GLASS) of Los Angeles and professor at the University of California at Northridge; Gregory Maguire, author of children’s and adult novels, including the novel “Wicked,” which has been adopted into a Tony award-winning show on Broadway; and Richard Rodriquez, author and social and cultural commentator and regular contributor to PBS’ “News Hour with Jim Lehrer.” DeBernardo said New Ways Ministries is inviting its constituents and supporters to write their own letters to the Pope, which the group will hand-deliver to the Vatican Embassy in Washington on April 10. He said the group invites people to send these letters to its offices by postal mail or e-mail by April 5, so organizers can assemble the letters and arrange for their delivery to the Vatican Embassy.
Take a stroll in the Park and what ?**!!!… you can witness some lurid homo action scene for free…. yeah thats right…. all gratuitously brought to you by the Dutch Government!! – Parks are now a no-go in Holland!! what next?? the City Hall? Squares? Markets??
SHAMELESS LICIT SEX IN THE PARK – THE DUTCH STATE IS SO ADVANCED THAT IT IS FLINGING 4000 YEARS OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INTO THE GARBAGE AND IS TAKING ITS PEOPLE STRAIGHT BACK TO THE DAYS OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH !- HOWEVER THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT IS PLACING SEVERE RESTRICTIONS – “GAYS HAVE SEX PUBLICALLY AS LONG AS YOU FORNICATE AFTER 12:00 NOON” !! VERY VERY RESTRICTIVE !! Ohh you Dutch how very disciplined………..
Police: Allow Sex in All Dutch Parks
NIS News ^ | March 2008Posted on 03/08/2008 9:35:13 AM PST by knighthawk AMSTERDAM, 08/03/08 – The police’s National Diversity Expertise Centre (LECD) wants sex allowed in all public parks in the Netherlands. The police institute has advised the cities to follow the example of Amsterdam, De Telegraaf newspaper reported Friday. In Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, owners of dogs let off the leash can be fined, but sex will shortly be permitted. “Why should we try to maintain something that is actually impossible to maintain, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually signifies much pleasure?” says Paul van Grieken, the responsible Alderman in the Oud-Zuid district of Amsterdam. Van Grieken confirmed that the plan to tolerate public sex in Vondelpark is part of a draft version of new rules of conduct for the city’s best-known park. The regulations are to come into force after the summer. “Of course there are strict rules attached. Thus, condoms must always be cleared away, it must never take place in the neighbourhood of children’s playgrounds and the sex must be restricted to the evening and night-time.” The draft memorandum says that fines will be maintained for dogs running around off the leash that, for example, cause nuisance to sunbathing or cycling users of the park. “The research showed that many people find this disturbing,” according to the alderman. LECD is now calling on Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht to tolerate ‘cruising’ gays in all their parks. In a letter to the administrators of the three cities, the police institute says that by regulating sex in public, the safety of homosexuals from ‘queer-bashers’ can be better guaranteed. Thus, it says in the recommendations that “officers must not disturb the activities, as long as they do not cause any actual nuisance” and they would “only have to take corrective action if there is a question of actual offensive behaviour that is visible from the public path.” Homosexuals’ organisation COC is pleased that the Amsterdam Oud-Zuid district is to be the first to tolerate sex in the Vondelpark. “Cruising is something belonging to all time and banning it does not work anyway. They do it surreptitiously and mostly without others being annoyed by it. But homos at cruising spots are often attacked. By now agreeing rules of behaviour on this, safety can be increased,” according to COC Amsterdam chairman Dennis Boutkan.
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http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/2006jan/Resolution_vote.htm SAME-SEX IS IN FASHION – HUSBAND AND WIFE COUPLES YOUR END IS IN SIGHT !!!
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5. Who to vote for ?
OOPS…. I was caught…. what now?
Family Research Council + 1 VS New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer 0 and under…
Conservatives Say Good Riddance to an ‘Anti-Family’ Politician
By Susan Jones CNSNews.com Senior Editor March 11, 2008 (CNSNews.com) – New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, has riled conservatives for years, and news of his self-induced downfall has produced “widespread disgust,” according to one pro-family group. Just last month, another conservative group sought prayers to stop Spitzer’s pro-abortion crusade. “More than any governor, Spitzer has tried to destroy the man-woman marriage definition and to license homosexual ‘marriages,’ Randy Thomasson, president of the California-based Campaign for Children and Families, said on Monday. “As Attorney General, he harassed pro-life crisis pregnancy centers,” Thomasson said, noting that as news was breaking about Spitzer’s alleged involvement in a prostitution ring, Spitzer was scheduled to speak to New York’s largest pro-abortion organization, Family Planning Advocates. Thomasson said the group supports unlimited tax-funded abortions, without regard to a girl’s age or the number of tax-funded abortions in a calendar year. “Spitzer has embraced anti-family public policies since day one,” said Thomasson. “Is it any surprise that his so-called ‘private’ policies are also destructive to his own family? His immoral practices have made him unfit for public office. It’s sad that his wife stood next to him, instead of distancing herself to show her real hurt and disapproval.” Thomasson said a person’s character and private life do matter. “What is inside eventually shows on the outside. The reason that America is disgusted with the alleged prostituting lifestyle of Eliot Spitzer is because America’s moral compass is still working. Fortunately, the United States has not forgotten how to blush.” ‘May God intervene…’
The Family Research Council warned on Feb. 28 that Spitzer was preparing for the possible reversal of Roe v. Wade by pushing for a state law that would declare abortion to be a “fundamental right” for women. The FRC described Gov. Spitzer as a “long-time abortion advocate who rose to power with support from NARAL and Planned Parenthood.” Moreover, in 2002, while serving as New York attorney general, Spitzer “embarked upon a failed effort to close down New York’s Crisis Pregnancy Centers, planning to charge them with practicing medicine without a license.” Spitzer was forced to back down under public pressure, the FRC noted. Then came the FRC’s prayer pitch: “May God intervene to stop Governor Spitzer from succeeding in this evil ambition to make abortion a “fundamental right” in New York! May pro-life New Yorkers somehow prevail, even as they did when he pursued Crisis Pregnancy Centers in 2002! May New Yorkers arise and stir their neighbors to understand the consequences of pursuing this course, and may this bill be defeated!” the FRC wrote on Feb. 28.
http://www.lifenews.com/state2997.html New York Pro-Life Advocates Must Stop Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Abortion War
by Alice Lemos LifeNews.com Note: Alice Lemos is a spokesperson for New Yorkers for Parental Rights and a single parent and cancer survivor. She is a contributing writer for Human Life Review and holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from Brown University. She is active in Republican politics and her proudest achievement is her son, Jesse. The rumor is that Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York State would like to become president one day. Hopefully that won’t happen since apparently over two thirds of New York voters – an overwhelmingly Blue State – disapprove of his first year in office. During his first year, he fought with State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (of course, a Republican) and attempted to sic the State troopers on him to keep track of his comings and goings for the purpose of sliming him.
He also tried to force through a bill which would have given drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens, a bill so liberal that even the super liberal Mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg, disapproved.
Spitzer’s latest gambit is the radicalization of New York’s already liberal abortion laws at a time when there is growing disapproval; – even in New York State – of abortion on demand. If Spitzer should succeed, New York would become the Mecca of Late Term Abortion, a title that no state should be proud of.
During a debate at Pace University before the election, both Spitzer and his Republican opponent, John Faso (a fiscal and social conservative who unfortunately received little backing) were asked if they would sign a bill to ban partial birth abortion, a ghastly procedure which is defended by few New Yorkers. Faso said that he would sign it, but then Attorney General Spitzer stated that he would not sign it “unless it contained an exception for the woman’s health” (which we know is the bogus exception that abortionists can use to justify any and all abortions). Spitzer went even further, by attacking pro lifers and claming that “they harassed women near clinics.” Spitzer also bragged of the fact that Planned Parenthood had endorsed both him and his running mate, David Patterson. Spitzer has had a long history of dislike for pro lifers and for crisis pregnancy centers. In 1998, at the behest of NARAL, he attempted to shut down several of them by claming that “they give out false information” to women (without bothering to ascertain the false information given to women by Planned Parenthood who still refers to unborn babies as “blobs of cells” or the “product of conception”. Eventually Spitzer backed down after being blasted by columnist Michelle Malkin and by the Attorney General of the State of South Carolina, among others. Spitzer, by the way, became Attorney General because Republican candidate Dennis Vacco had foolishly turned down the Right to Life line, giving Spitzer his small margin of victory so that he could prepare his path to the governorship. Now Spitzer’s radical abortion agenda is being played out with the introduction of RHAPP, the so-called “Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act”, which would make legalized abortion a civil right in New York This bill, sponsored by Democrat Andrea Stewart Cousins in the State Senate (held by the Republicans by only one vote as the party goes to extinction in New York State) would allow non doctors to perform abortions; allow the abortionist to determine the “viability” of the fetus; would not allow the criminal prosecution of an abortionist who maims or kills a woman; would obliterate the conscience clause for Catholic hospitals, in effect forcing them to perform abortions, and would force religious institutions to pay for abortion coverage in their health insurance policies. The irony, of course, is that even in Blue State New York the abortion rate is falling, apparently to the chagrin of Spitzer, Patterson, and most of the Democratic members of the State Senate and State Assembly. In the last special election, a pro life Democrat defeated a pro choice Republican, proving that the local GOP has lost its way by fielding candidates that violate the beliefs of what is left of its base. It will be a sad day should this bill come to a vote and pass because of the demise of a once vibrant GOP that, ten years ago, had a U.S. Senator, a Governor and the state attorney general despite a much higher enrollment in the Democratic party. Should this bill pass, the “underground radical feminist railroad” which brings in underage girls from Pennsylvania and other states which have parental consent laws, will be emboldened and countless women and young girls will be maimed in risky abortion procedures performed by non-doctors. And the authorities will not be able to prosecute these abortionists. At a time when the country is turning against abortion, presenting abortion as the only state sanctioned “choice” would be travesty as well as a tragedy.
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Hillary: “I Have Felt the Presence of the Holy Spirit” (was it
Bill Clinton?)
LOL – would this be a case for a … lol ?
March 6, 2008 In July of last year, Hillary Clinton gave an interview to New York Times reporter Michael Luo about her faith. It’s a fairly in depth interview. Well, for your listening pleasure, The Brody File found the actual audio from the interview and it’s really interesting. Reading the transcription of the interview is one thing, but hearing Hillary Clinton talk about her faith is very different. Listen here. You can read the transcription here. At the time, the article got significant play but some of the quotes from the whole interview never got used in the article. Here are some key quotes that I thought you might be interested to look at: Hillary Clinton: I believe in the father, son, and Holy Spirit, and I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit on many occasions in my years on this earth. Reporter: Can I ask you theologically, do you believe that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, that it actually historically did happen? Senator Clinton: Yes, I do. Reporter: And, do you believe on the salvation issue — and this is controversial too — that belief in Christ is needed for going to heaven? Senator Clinton: That one I’m a little more open to. I think that it is, as we understand our relationship to God as Christians, it is how we see our way forward, and it is the way. But, ever since I was a little girl, I’ve asked every Sunday school teacher I’ve ever had, I asked every theologian I’ve ever talked with, whether that meant that there was no salvation, there was no heaven for people who did not accept Christ. And, you’re well aware that there are a lot of answers to that. There are people who are totally rooted in the fact that, no, that’s why there are missionaries, that’s why you have to try to convert. And, then there are a lot of other people who are deeply faithful and deeply Christ-centered who say, that’s how we understand it and who are we to read God’s mind about such a weighty decision as that. Reporter: And your attitude toward the Bible about how literally people should take it. Senator Clinton: I think the whole Bible is real. The whole Bible gives you a glimpse of God and God’s desire for a personal relationship, but we can’t possibly understand every way God is communicating with us. I’ve always felt that people who try to shoehorn in their cultural and social understandings of the time into the Bible might be actually missing the larger point that we’re supposed to take from the Bible.
 “Kemm hu sabih!”Barack Hussein Obama the First Christo-Islamic American President ? Whatever that might be!!
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2965
The First Muslim-Born Leader of the WestFrom the desk of Thomas Landen on Wed, 2008-02-13 17:51
If I had been asked two months ago “Which Western country runs the greatest risk of electing a Muslim-born leader and how soon do you think this is going to happen?” I would have bet on the Netherlands somewhere in the next decade. Today, it looks as if the first Western country with a Muslim-born leader might very well be the United States next year, when President Barack Hussein Obama enters the Oval Office. The Europeans do not mind being surpassed. Obamania has struck Western Europe. Two weeks ago, in an attempt to explain Europe’s enthusiasm for Mr. Obama, the left wing German weekly Der Spiegel pointed out that the Illinois senator is the most “European” of all the candidates in the U.S. presidential race. “Many in Europe would like nothing more than a ‘European’ America […] Obama personifies Europe’s hopes for a modern America: black, socially minded and gentle,” the German magazine wrote. As if Europe is black, socially minded and gentle… Last week, Algemeen Dagblad, a newspaper in the Netherlands, asked the 150 members of the Dutch House of Representatives how they would vote in the U.S. elections if they could. Mr. Obama got 58 votes, Mrs. Clinton 40, while a mere 23 Dutch parliamentarians – fewer than those who said they had no opinion – would vote Republican. There is little doubt that if Europe were to decide the American elections the next POTUS would be Barack Hussein Obama. In November we will know whether letting Americans decide their own future makes any difference. The Europeans hope it does not. Europe is preparing itself for a Muslim take-over. Last year, an influential French Catholic archbishop told the American Catholic scholar Richard John Neuhaus that in the not-so-distant future Europe will be an Islamic continent. “We are preparing ourselves for soft Islamization,” the French archbishop said. Last week, the archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, advocated the adoption of certain aspects of Islamic Sharia law in the British legal system. His remarks caused indignation from people who do not seem to realize that several Sharia courts already sit across England, Scotland and other Western countries. Perhaps Mr. Obama strikes the Europeans as the “most European candidate” because he was born a Muslim. If America can have a Muslim-born leader, why not Europe, many Europeans will ask. They know that the latter is “unavoidable” (to use the archbishop of Canterbury’s words). In America, Mr. Obama’s Muslim family background (unlike Mr. Romney’s Mormonism) is a non-issue because he attends a Christian church. Nevertheless, being born from a Muslim father, raised by a Muslim stepfather, having been enrolled at school (in Indonesia) as a Muslim and having attended Friday prayers at the local mosque as a young boy, he cannot be seen by Muslims as anything but a Muslim, especially because he has never explicitly rejected the faith of his fathers nor said anything negative about it. The day Barack Hussein Obama comes to the White House many Muslims, also in Europe, will see it as a vindication of recent announcements by radical Islamists that the green flag of Allah will soon fly over the White House, Buckingham Palace, the Vatican and the other “fortresses of the West.” Since perception is often more powerful than reality the importance of an Obama presidency cannot be underestimated. The American political establishment, including the Republicans, are very naive about the Islamic threat to Europe. Rather than working against the Islamization of Europe American policies tend to hasten the process. America is an ally of Saudi Arabia – a dictatorship which funds the most extremist Islamic organizations. America pushes for the independence of Kosovo, which will establish an Islamist regime in the heart of Europe. America wants the European Union to accept Turkey as a member state. If Mr. Obama proceeds with these policies (as he is likely to do) and withdraws from Iraq, thereby indicating that America has lost the war, the radical Islamists in Europe will become even more arrogant than they are today. Obviously, America is not to blame for Europe’s present predicament. The demographic and religious vacuum in Europe, which is being filled by Muslim immigrants and by Islam, is entirely of Europe’s own making. The Europeans – and they alone, not the Americans and not even the Muslims, who were welcomed to Europe – are to blame for the Islamization of the old continent. The irony, however, is that America does not seem to draw lessons from Europe’s predicament. The specter of Islam is haunting the world. The Europeans, who lack America’s fighting spirit, are trying to appease their enemy and are hoping for “soft Islamization.” America, sadly, does not even seem to have noticed that there is a problem. It called Mr. Romney to account for his Mormonism but has yet to ask Mr. Obama for his views on Islam.
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From TheCorrespondent Interesting perspective, don’t you think?? Wow ! Wake up Europe, America and the world ! click below.
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The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, New York,
USA
March 6, 2008
McCAIN’S NEXT MOVE
Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued the following remarks today regarding Sen. John McCain’s ties to Pastor John Hagee:
“Now that he has secured the Republican nomination for president, and has received the endorsement of President Bush, McCain will now embark on a series of fundraising events. When he meets with Catholics, he is going to be asked about his ties to Hagee. He should also be asked whether he approves of comments like this: ‘A Godless theology of hate that no one dared try to stop for a thousand years produced a harvest of hate.’
“That quote is proudly cited by David Brog in his recent book, Standing with Israel. Both Brog and Hagee clearly identify the Roman Catholic Church as spawning a ‘theology of hate.’
“This is nothing if not hate speech. There are so many good evangelical leaders in this country—Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Richard Land, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, Dr. Al Mohler, Chuck Colson—and none has ever insulted Catholicism. To be sure, they have expressed theological differences, and that is to be expected; that is all fine and good. But they have never sought to denigrate Catholicism. That’s what makes this situation so outrageous. Of all the great evangelical leaders, the one McCain cites as ‘the staunchest leader of our Christian evangelical movement’ just happens to be a Catholic basher.
“In 2005, when I was fighting with those senators who were making it all but impossible for pro-life Catholics to get on the federal bench, I said the following: ‘So as not to be misunderstood, let me repeat what I’ve said before: the Catholic League believes there are no anti-Catholic senators.’ That remains true.
“So no one should take from my criticism of McCain on this issue that I in any way think he is anti-Catholic. If anything, John McCain has been a good friend to Catholics. But he and his staff have thus far grossly mishandled this issue. We await their next move.”
McCAIN DENOUNCES ANTI-CATHOLICISM;
CITES HAGEE’S ROLE
March 10, 2008
It was reported over the weekend that Sen. John McCain denounced anti-Catholicism and explicitly mentioned Rev. John Hagee’s role. McCain said that “I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics.” Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows:
“Sen. McCain has done the right thing and we salute him for doing so. As far as the Catholic League is concerned, this case is closed.”
”Hagee I can now see what you cannot understand!!”
McCain backs away from Hagee - about
time !!
Candidate repudiates San Antonio pastor’s anti-Catholic views
12:00 AM CST on Saturday, March 8, 2008
NEW ORLEANS – Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday repudiated any views of San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, who endorsed him last month, “if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics.” Mr. McCain has come under fire since Mr. Hagee endorsed him on Feb. 27, but until Friday his response had been tepid. He said in an interview with The Associated Press that he had been hearing from Catholics who find the pastor’s comments offensive.
“We’ve had a dignified campaign, and I repudiate any comments that are made, including Pastor Hagee’s, if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics,” Mr. McCain said.
“I sent two of my children to Catholic school. I categorically reject and repudiate any statement that was made that was anti-Catholic, both in intent and nature,” he said.
Mr. Hagee’s endorsement had been intended to shore up Mr. McCain’s support among evangelical Christians, many of whom distrust him for some of his more moderate views and his willingness to work with Democrats.
Mr. McCain gave the interview backstage as he prepared to address the Council for National Policy, a group of the country’s most influential social and Christian conservatives.
Asked about the influence of religion in his life, Mr. McCain said, “It is an important factor in my life, obviously, very important.”
He also invoked his faith at a campaign event Friday morning at the Atlanta headquarters of Chick-fil-A Inc., whose founder S. Truett Cathy is a devout Baptist.
“It’s harder and harder trying to do the Lord’s work in the city of Satan,” Mr. McCain said of Washington.
The Associated Press
http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17445
| 2007-03-30 |
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Evangelical leader’s speech backing Israel alarms some
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The tent-revival pro-Israel speech by the Rev. John Hagee thrilled many delegates at the recent policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).However, others were alarmed. It was not by Hagee’s message, which was hardly new, but by the reaction of a pro-Israel community that chooses to see only one side of a man and a movement with a complex agenda and a knack for recasting it for different audiences.Jewish leaders say that with Israel increasingly pilloried by mainline Protestant groups, the motives of the evangelicals don’t matter, just the ardency of their support. So do many on the Israeli right. This week, the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, in partnership with a Christian group that is working for the “restoration” of Israel, held its first Jerusalem Assembly for Christian Zionists.
Hagee stirred the AIPAC crowd with his promise that “50 million evangelicals and 5 million Jews” will work to solidify support for Israel. Mainstream pro-Israel leaders welcome the Christian Zionists’ numbers, their willingness to raise money for Israel, their political clout and their tourism in Israel, even when fearful Jews stay home.
Israeli right-wingers love the Christian Zionists for another reason: Unlike most American Jews, these Christians believe that giving back the West Bank violates God’s covenant with Israel.
However, there are also dangers centering largely on the motives of these lovers of Zion. When addressing Jewish groups, Hagee and others focus on only a biblical mandate to love the Jewish people and stand up for Israel. But to fellow Christians, the focus is on biblical prophecy about new and horrific wars, death on an unimaginable scale and a peace that can come only with the ‘Second Coming of Jesus.’
In Hagee’s 2005 book, “Jerusalem Countdown,” he writes “no prophetic scripture is more crystal clear than Ezekiel’s vivid and specific description of the coming massive war in the Middle East that will sweep the world toward Armageddon.”
In a book emphasizing the Iranian threat, Hagee writes, “God holds the future of Israel in HIS hands, and it will be a glorious future.” What he neglects to tell Jewish audiences is that the glory part applies only to Jews who have accepted Christ. “David’s son, King Jesus, will rule and reign for one thousand years in the golden age of peace from Jerusalem,” he writes.
Jewish leaders aren’t unaware of this theology, but they dismiss it as irrelevant. We’ll find out who the real messiah is when he comes, they flippantly say, and in the meantime, gladly accept their political support.
But these same Jewish leaders value this new alliance precisely because they believe the Christian Zionists are politically powerful. And Hagee, his eyes alight with the promise of the Christian redemption, seems unlikely to use his political clout to press for peaceful solutions that will avert the prophesied horrors.
Hagee has publicly called for pre-emptive attacks on Iran and linked that to Bible prophecy, promising that “the greatest war the world has ever seen will soon envelop Israel and Jerusalem.” How, exactly, is that good for the Jews?
Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, co-founder of Jews on First, a Web site that opposes Christian-right church-state policies, said that Hagee’s “push for an attack on Iran is not based on a logically constructed policy but on cherry-picked biblical verses. And it is only the first step to the end-times scenario that Hagee enthusiastically predicts will engulf Israel in a devastating war.”At the same time, his growing connections to pro-Israel groups — and his rapturous reception at AIPAC earlier this month —can only reinforce the dangerous charge that Jews are pushing America into yet another war.If opposing any possible peace process results in horrific new wars, what’s the problem? Isn’t that what their prophecies demand as the birth pangs of the new millennial age? Confined to a church or revival tent, these views just seem wacky to outsiders, not scary.
Jewish leaders are increasingly willing to overlook how their partnership with the religious right advances a prophecy-driven approach to U.S. policy that proclaims a “love” of Israel but demands unimaginable new suffering for its citizens.
They also choose to ignore how the new alliance legitimizes a radical domestic agenda that stands in stark opposition to the views of a vast majority of American Jews.
They also ignore the tarnish to the whole pro-Israel movement that occurs when nonevangelicals see Jewish groups linked to one of the most polarizing, extreme forces in American society.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/193041?eng=y
A Bishop and a Rabbi Defend the Prayer for the Salvation of
the Jews - including the New Age Illuminists and their so
called Sephirot Seminaries!
The bishop is Gianfranco Ravasi. The rabbi is Jacob Neusner. The prayer is the one for Good Friday in the ancient rite. This is why Benedict XVI wanted to change the textby Sandro Magister
ROMA, March 7, 2008 – Some leading representatives of the Jewish world had protested vociferously against the new formulation ordered by Benedict XVI for the prayer for the Jews in the liturgy of Good Friday according to the ancient rite.An authoritative response has now come to these protests, in a note published in the latest edition of “La Civiltà Cattolica,” the magazine of the Rome Jesuits printed after line-by-line scrutiny by the Vatican secretariat of state.Moreover, in recent days important personalities of the Catholic Church and the Jewish world have spoken out in defense of the new formulation: from one side, archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the pontifical council of culture, and from the other, rabbi Jacob Neusner (in the photo), a professor of Jewish history and theology at Bard College in New York, an author extensively quoted by Benedict XVI, with reciprocal esteem, in his book “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Until one year ago, in the liturgy for Good Friday according to the ancient rite – the use of which was liberalized by pope Joseph Ratzinger with the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum” of July 7, 2007 – the Latin text appeals for prayer on behalf of the Jews, “that our Lord and God may lift the veil from their hearts, that they may recognize Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
And immediately after, the prayer continued:
“Almighty and eternal God, who do not exclude from your mercy even Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people; that acknowledging the light of your truth, which is Christ, they may be delivered from their darkness. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”
Benedict XVI, with a note from the secretariat of state published on February 6, 2008 in “L’Osservatore Romano,” changed the words of both the appeal for prayer and the prayer that follows it.
The pope provided that, in the liturgy of the ancient rite, prayer should be asked on behalf of the Jews in these terms: “May the Lord Our God enlighten their hearts so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.”
And then the following prayer is pronounced:
“Almighty and everlasting God, you who want all men to be saved and to reach the awareness of the truth, graciously grant that, with the fullness of peoples entering into your Church, all Israel may be saved.”
In Latin, the new text of the invitation is the following:
“Oremus et pro Iudaeis. Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum.”
And that of the prayer:
“Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.”
According to the note published in “La Civiltà Cattolica,” this was the reason for the change:
“In the current climate of dialogue and friendship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people, it seemed right and opportune to the pope [to make this change], in order to avoid any expression that might appear in the least to offend or displease the Jews.”
The words of the previous formulation which appeared offensive to many – both Jews and Catholics – were above all “blindnes” and “darkness.” Both have disappeared from the new formula.
But this has not prevented the emergence of new protests from the Jewish world.
The harshest of these has come from the assembly of the Italian rabbis. In a statement signed by their president, Giuseppe Laras, this said that the new prayer constitutes “a defeat for the very preconditions for dialogue” and is “only apparently less strong” than the previous version. It “also legitimizes in liturgical practice an idea of a dialogue aiming, in reality, at the conversion of the Jews to Catholicism, which is obviously unacceptable to us.” And therefore, “in relation to the continuation of dialogue with Catholics, at the very least a pause is required for reflection that would permit understanding fully the actual intentions of the Catholic Church concerning dialogue itself.”
Other Jewish communities, especially in the United States, have reacted less harshly, denying that the new prayer puts dialogue with the Church at risk. This is a dialogue that in itself – “La Civiltà Cattolica” has observed – “does not aim at the conversion of the Jews to Christianity, but proposes a deepening of mutual understanding in the religious field, the growth of reciprocal respect and of collaboration in the areas of peace and progress, which today are in grave danger.”
As for the new formulation of the prayer, the note in “La Civiltà Cattolica” concludes in this way, in a somewhat convoluted manner:
“This contains nothing that is offensive toward Jews, because in it the Church asks God what St. Paul asked for Christians: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ may enlighten the eyes of the Ephesians’ hearts, that they may understand the gift of salvation that they have in Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 1:18-23). The Church, in fact, believes that salvation is only in Jesus Christ, as is said in the Acts of the Apostles (4:12). It is clear, besides, that Christian prayer can be nothing other than ‘Christian’, meaning that it is founded upon the faith – which is not that of all – that Jesus is the Savior of all men. For this reason, the Jews have no reason to be offended if the Church asks God to enlighten them so that they may freely recognize Christ, the only Savior of all men, and that they too may be saved by the One whom Shalom Ben Chorin, a Jew, calls ‘Brother Jesus’.”
Naturally, the new formulation of the prayer applies only to the liturgy of the ancient rite. So in almost all of the Catholic churches next Good Friday, prayer for the Jews will continue to follow the formula of the missal of Paul VI from 1970.
According to this formula, which is universally the most widespread, prayer is offered for the Jews so that God “may help them to increase always in love of his name and in fidelity to his covenant.”
Unobjectionable words – and, in effect, they have never been challenged – but also less rich in biblical references, to the Old and the New Testament, than those introduced by Benedict XVI with his variation of the ancient text of the prayer.
With the new formula, in fact, pope Ratzinger did not attenuate, but instead greatly reinforced the prayer with more pregnant Christian content.
From this point of view, then, the new prayer for the Jews in the liturgy in the ancient rite does not weaken, but postulates an enrichment of the meaning of the prayer in use in the modern rite. Exactly like in other cases, it is the modern rite that postulates an enriching evolution of the ancient rite. In a liturgy that is perennially alive, as the Catholic liturgy is, this is the meaning of the coexistence between the two rites, ancient and modern, as intended by Benedict XVI with the motu proprio “Summorum Pontificum.”
This is a coexistence that is not destined to endure, but to fuse in the future “in a single Roman rite once again,” taking the best from both of these. This is what then-cardinal Ratzinger wrote in 2003 – revealing a deeply held conviction – in a letter to an erudite representative of Lefebvrist traditionalism, the German philologist Heinz-Lothar Barth.
Returning to the new formulation of the prayer for the Jews in the ancient rite, here is how Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi – president of the pontifical council for culture, but also a biblicist of worldwide fame – explained the stupefying richness of this in an article in “L’Osservatore Romano” on February 15, 2008.
Immediately after this is an essay by American rabbi Jacob Neusner, published in Germany on February 23, 2008, in “Die Tagespost” and in Italy in “il Foglio” on February 26, also in defense of the new formulation of the prayer.
1. “Oremus et pro Iudaeis”
by Gianfranco Ravasi
One day, responding to his friend Gustav Janouch who was asking him about Jesus of Nazareth, Kafka said: “That is an abyss filled with light. One must close one’s eyes if one is not to fall into it.”
The relationship between the Jews and their “older brother,” as the philosopher Martin Buber had curiously called him, has always been intense and stormy, reflecting in part the much more complex and tormented relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Perhaps, despite its simplification of the formula, there is suggestive value in the phrase of Shalom Ben Chorin in his essay with the emblematic title “Brother Jesus,” from 1967: “The faith of Jesus unites us to the Christians, but faith in Jesus divides us.”
We wanted to recreate this foundation, which in reality is much more vast and varied, in order to situate more consistently within it the new “Oremus et pro Iudaeis” for the liturgy of Good Friday.
There is no need to repeat that this is a matter of the modification of a text that has already been codified for specific use, concerning the liturgy for Good Friday according to the “Missale Romanum” in the form promulgated in 1962 by Blessed John XXIII, before the liturgical reform of Vatican Council II. This is a text, then, that has already been crystallized in its composition and circumscribed its current use, according to the well-known dispositions contained in the motu proprio by Benedict XVI “Summorum Pontificum” from July of 2007.
Within, then, the nexus that intimately unites the Israel of God and the Church, let us seek to identify the theological characteristics of this prayer, in dialogue also with the severe reactions that this has raised in Jewish circles.
* * *The first is a “textual” consideration in the strict sense: it should be recalled, in fact, that the word “textus” refers to the idea of a “cloth” that is woven together from different threads. So then, the approximately thirty substantial Latin words of the Oremus are almost entirely the result of a “weaving” of expressions from the New Testament. This is a matter, then, of a language that belongs to Sacred Scripture, the guiding star for Christian faith and prayer.First of all, it calls for prayers that God may “enlighten their hearts” so that the Jews as well “may acknowledge Jesus Christ, the savior of all men.” Now, that God the Father and Christ may “enlighten the eyes of [your] hearts” is a hope that Saint Paul had expressed to the Christians of Ephesus, who were of both Jewish and pagan origin (Ephesians 1:18; 5:14). The great profession of faith in “Jesus Christ, the savior of all men” is expressed in the first letter to Timothy (4:10), but it is also stated in similar forms by other New Testament authors, for example, by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, who puts on the lips of Peter this testimony before the Sanhedrin: “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved” (Acts 4:12).At this point, this is the horizon that is truly depicted by the prayer: it asks God, “who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth,” to obtain that when “the full number of the Gentiles comes in . . . all Israel will be saved.” The solemn epiphany of the almighty and eternal God is raised on high, his love extending like a mantle over all of humanity: he, in fact, as is also written in the first letter to Timothy (2:4) “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” At the feet of God there moves something like a great planetary procession, made up of every nation and culture, and Israel almost in a privileged rank, with a necessary presence.
This is a prayer, therefore, that corresponds to the classical Christian method of composition: to “weave” invocations on the basis of the Bible, so as to interweave closely together belief and prayer, the “lex credendi” and the “lex orandi.”
* * *
At this point, we can propose a second reflection more closely focused on the content of the prayer. The Church prays to have beside itself, in the one community of believers in Christ, faithful Israel as well. This is what St. Paul, in chapters 9-11 of the Letter to the Romans referred to above, awaited as the great eschatological hope, as the approach of the end of history. And this is the same thing that Vatican Council II itself proclaimed when, in the constitution on the Church, it affirmed that “those who have not yet received the Gospel are related in various ways to the people of God. In the first place we must recall the people to whom the testament and the promises were given and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh. On account of their fathers this people remains most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues” (Lumen Gentium, no. 16).This intense hope is obviously proper to the Church, which has at its center, as fountain of salvation, Jesus Christ. For the Christian, he is the Son of God and is the visible and efficacious sign of divine love, because as Jesus had said that night to “a ruler of the Jews,” Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (cf. John 3:16-17). It is, therefore, from Jesus Christ, son of God and son of Israel, that there arises the purifying and fecundating stream of salvation, for which reason one can also say in the final analysis, as Christ does in John’s Gospel, that “salvation is from the Jews” (4:22). The estuary of the history hoped for by the Church is, therefore, rooted in this spring.We repeat: this is the Christian vision, and it is the hope of the Church that prays. It is not a programmatic proposal of theoretical adherence, nor is it a missionary strategy of conversion. It is the attitude characteristic of the prayerful invocation according to which one hopes also for the persons considered near to oneself, those dear and important, a reality that one maintains is precious and salvific. An important exponent of French culture in the 20th century, Julien Green, wrote that “it is always beautiful and legitimate to wish for the other what is for you a good or a joy: if you think you are offering a true gift, do not hold back your hand.” Of course, this must always take place in respect for freedom and for the different paths that the other adopts. But it is an expression of affection to wish for your brother what you consider a horizon of light and life.
____________
2. Israel also asks God to enlighten the hearts of the Gentiles
by Jacob Neusner
Israel prays for the Gentiles. So the other monotheistic religions, including the Catholic Church, have the right to do the same thing, and no one should feel offended. Any other attitude toward the Gentiles would block them from encountering the one God revealed to Israel in the Torah.
The Catholic prayer manifests the same altruistic spirit that characterizes the faith of Judaism. The kingdom of God opens its gates to all of humanity: when they pray and ask for the swift coming of the kingdom of God, the Israelites express the same degree of freedom of spirit that impregnates the papal text of the prayer for the Jews (better: “Holy Israel “) to be recited on Good Friday.
I will explain myself. For the theology of Judaism in regard to the Gentiles, I base myself on the standard liturgy of the synagogue, repeated three times each day.
The text to which I refer is the Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire (London, 1953), which contains the English translation of a prayer for the conversion of the Gentiles, the recitation of which concludes the public rite performed three times a day, every day of the year.
In this text, Israel, as a sacred people (not to be confused with the state of Israel), thanks God for having made it different from the other nations, and asks that the world be brought to perfection, when all of humanity will invoke the name of God, kneeling before Him.
The text of the prayer begins with the words “It is our duty to praise the Lord of all things,” and thanks God for having made Israel different from the other nations of the world. Israel has its own “destiny,” which consists precisely in being different from all the other nations. God is asked to “eliminate the abominations of the earth,” when the world will reach perfection under the reign of the Almighty.
This prayer for the conversion of “all of the impious of the earth” – who are “all the inhabitants of the world” – is recited not once a year, but every day. It has a parallel in a passage from the Eighteen Blessings, in which God is asked to sweep away “the dominion of arrogance.”
We can therefore affirm that in Judaism, God is asked to enlighten the nations and to gather them into his kingdom. Precisely in order to emphasize further this aspiration, the prayer “It is our duty” is followed by this Kaddish: “May He establish his kingdom during our lives and in the days and in the lives of the whole house of Israel.”
These passages, taken from the daily liturgy of Judaism, leave no doubt about the fact that, when Israel gathers in prayer, it asks God to enlighten the hearts of the Gentiles. The eschatological vision finds its proper nourishment in the prophets and in their vision of a single, reunited humanity, in addition to a freedom of spirit that is extended to all humanity. The condemnation of idolatry does not grant much relief to Christianity or Islam, which are not mentioned. The prayers ask God to hasten the coming of his kingdom.
These Jewish prayers are the counterparts of the one desired by Benedict XVI, which asks for the salvation of all Israel when time reaches its fullness and all humanity enters into the Church. The prayers of Jewish and Christian proselytism share the same eschatological spirit, and keep the gate of salvation open to all men.
Both the prayer “It is our duty” and the Catholic “Let us pray also for the Jews” are the concrete expression of the logic of monotheism and of its eschatological hope.
WHO IS LIKE UNTO
GOD?
How to solve the mess?
PRAY THE ROSARY
Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a disgrace to any people.
Proverbs 14:34
Can Spain ever again produce Catholic soldiers such as the ones who fought at Lepanto ??
THE TRUE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON -
THE ETERNAL ARK OF
THE COVENANT
AWAITS OUR CONVERSION
LET US RUN TO HER SON THE GOD-MAN
