NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH & THE VATICAN

@Mag6: "One thing I forgot to mention, but perhaps you folks know about it: apparently a group of Jesuits is lobbying for Judas Iskariot to be made a saint!"


Benefan: Oh, no.

Here's one Jesuit who's certainly not part of the liberal/lunatic fringe of his order.

Jesuit scholar says Gospel of Judas
does not merit name 'Gospel'

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- The Gospel of Judas was unimportant to most Christians when it was written hundreds of years ago and it is unimportant today, said a Jesuit professor who has convoked a series of ecumenical studies of the historical Jesus.

Jesuit Father Gerald O'Collins, a longtime professor of Christology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, said the text, like the gospels of Mary Magdalene and Philip, "does not merit the name 'Gospel.'"

The National Geographic Society unveiled the document April 6, posting a copy of it on the society's Web site, www.nationalgeographic.com, and releasing English translations of portions of the text.

"A 'Gospel' is a literary genre -- established by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- focusing on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus," Father O'Collins said.

While including events supposedly related to the life of Jesus, the Gospel of Judas and the others really are texts "attempting to bolster the importance" of the personalities they are named after, not of Jesus, the priest said.

"They are not summaries of the good news," he said.

The texts come from the gnostic tradition, a religious-philosophical current popular in the second, third and fourth centuries. The gnostics claimed to have secret knowledge unavailable to the vast majority of people and focused so strongly on the spiritual and intellectual that they despised material creation, including the human body.

In the year 180, St. Irenaeus condemned the gnostics, mentioning particularly a Gospel of Judas.

Father O'Collins said the most important thing about the text released in early April is that "it shows just how right Irenaeus was in saying the gnostics were against mainstream Christianity and Judaism, they were against our God."

"To give Judas greater credit," the Jesuit said, the gnostics "portray Jesus giving him secret knowledge. It was a nice try," but there is no evidence to support the claim.

"It was junk then and it is junk now," he said.

Father O'Collins, who between 1996 and 2003 convoked a series of ecumenical, interdisciplinary summits for scholars on the historical Jesus, said it was "ridiculous" for anyone to claim publication of the Gospel of Judas will challenge mainstream Christianity.

---------------------------------------------------------------
And if anyone is interested, check out Father Collins's authoritative book review published in December 2003 to dispute and refute the main factual and historical errors in DVC on
www.americamagazine.org/gettextBR.cfm?articleTypeID=31&textID=3339&iss...
[Thanks to Amy Welborn for this lead]

HONG KONG, China, 10 April 2006 (AP) -- Hong Kong's new cardinal said the Vatican and China are holding "real talks" in Rome about normalizing formal relations that were cut off more than five decades ago when the communists took over the mainland.

Cardinal Joseph Zen's comments on the Sunday TV talkshow "Newsline" on Hong Kong's ATV World were among the most detailed he has made about the nature of the meetings between the Beijing and Catholic leaders in Rome.

The show's host, veteran journalist Frank Ching, noted that a senior Chinese religious official, Ye Xiaowen, recently said Beijing and the Vatican have only been in "contact" about the issue of forging new relations.

But the outspoken Zen insisted the meetings were much more substantial than mere contacts.

"My impression is that they've entered into real talks," Zen said, adding that negotiators were meeting in Rome.

Zen said one sticking point has been who would have the authority to appoint bishops. He said the Vatican would be willing to show China a list of candidates and allow Beijing to share its opinion, but that the Vatican should have the final say.

"The final word should not be exclusively on the side of an atheist government," said Zen, who was appointed cardinal last month.

Since Beijing cut formal ties with the Vatican in 1951, the Communist government has only allowed the faithful to worship in churches run by the state-sanctioned Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association.

Zen said one of the Vatican's conditions for re-establishing relations was that there must be religious freedom in China. But he said the Vatican wasn't insisting on absolute religious freedom.

When asked whether the Vatican was satisfied with the level of religious freedom now, Zen did not directly answer the question.

"I think we can hope that the cage will become bigger and bigger, and we hope at the end they'll let the birds fly," the cardinal said.

Zen recently hosted a reception celebrating his new appointment, and officials from China's liaison office in Hong Kong were invited but didn't attend. Zen said they declined the invitations because they had other engagements or were traveling.

"I would not make a big issue of that," he said about the no-shows.

But he added that Beijing was still unsure about his new role.

"They are watching and they have not made up their mind yet about how to treat me. I'm a troublemaker," he said.

He he he he. I like this blunt assessment of the Jesuit father. Finds such as this Judas text in reality make it absolutely clear why gnostic stuff didn't make its way into the canon. It strengthens the fundamental theological position of Orthodox Christianity instead of weakening it.

[For the sake of your health, Teresa, don't read this article. Everybody else, go ahead.]

Canadian priest excommunicated for supporting women clergy
Mon Apr 10, 2:01 PM ET

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian priest has been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church over his support for the ordination of women clergy, a spokesman for the church told AFP.

Reverend Ed Cachia had expressed support in a local newspaper last year for nine North American women who were ordained, against the church's wishes, on a boat on the St. Lawrence River in eastern Canada in July, 2005.

But it was his more recent admission to the local bishop that he also celebrated Eucharist, a holy Catholic sacrament, with women priests in New York and California in the United States that forced the church to cut ties with him, spokesman Father Thomas Lynch said.

"He refused to change his position and said he would continue to celebrate the Eucharist with women. So, Bishop (Nicola) De Angelis had no choice but to take the position he did, which was to excommunicate Father Cachia," Lynch said.

Twenty-three women, at last count, have been anointed in river ceremonies in Europe and North America in recent years, and 65 more are hoping to join their ranks soon, said organizers of the last event, which was not authorized by the Vatican.

Organizers consider the unusual river locations for the ceremonies to be in international waters between countries, where no diocese has jurisdiction and thus cannot interfere.

The first seven women who ignored church doctrine against women priests and were ordained on the Danube River between Germany and Austria in 2002 were excommunicated by then-Cardinal Ratzinger -- now Pope Benedict XVI -- after they refused to retract their vows.

Five of them attended the North American ordination ceremony where nine women were named deacons and priests by three female bishops, who claimed to have themselves been anointed secretly by male counterparts.

"They have to make official statements against us, but privately, they (church members) encourage us," Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, one of the presiding female bishops, told AFP then.

"Eventually, there will be too many of us to ignore. The Roman Catholic Church will have to live with us," she said.

Lynch said the Vatican would remain firm that only men can become priests.

"There is no debate," he said.

Ousted Cachia's new Christ the Servant Catholic Church in Cobourg, Ontario, was also declared a schismatic church and local churchgoers at area masses on Sunday were warned to stay clear of it.

Despite the warning, some 300 people have followed Cachia to the breakaway church in a modest hall near the town, according to reports.

[More comments on some of the latest controversies in the media about Christian topics: walking on ice, a gospel from Judas, and a bit of the Da Vinci Code.]

First Things Online
April 10, 2006

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (a former Lutheran minister and editor of First Things magazine) writes:

When these holy days roll around, segments of the media, as reliably as clockwork, roll out the latest alleged debunkings of historically recognizable Christianity. There was, for instance, an item a few days ago about a climatologist who opined that back in the old days Galilee experienced cold snaps, so maybe Jesus didn’t walk on water but was standing on a block of ice. This, it is suggested, will force Christians to reconsider the foundations of their faith. It does raise a new question about why St. Peter stripped before jumping in to join his Lord on the ice.

But the big news this time around is the discovery of a fourth- or possibly fifth-century copy of what may be a second-century “Gospel of Judas.” Christians will be surprised, we are assured by the New York Times, that there are more than four gospels, and I suppose Christians who know little about the origins of Christianity will be surprised. The National Geographic Society disgraced itself by puffing this latest discovery. Elaine Pagels of Princeton, an advisor to NGS who has for years been touting sundry gnostic gospels, wrote an op-ed in the Times saying that the latest discovery will make her Easter ever so much more mysterious.

There is nothing at all mysterious about people who want a designer Christianity tailored to their own predilections. That’s how we got all those deviant Christianities in the first place. The apostles and their successors in episcopal office spent the first several centuries sorting through the various writings and teachings to establish what became orthodox faith and the canon of the New Testament.

According to Pagels and others, the apostolic community to which Jesus promised the guidance of the Holy Spirit was dominated by power-hungry masters of the patriarchy who were determined to deprive people of delicious variations by labeling them as heresies. As it happens, the Church’s task of sorting out continues to this day and will not end until Our Lord returns in glory. The propensity to come up with new Christianities conformed to human tastes and fantasies will always be with us. Witness the Da Vinci Code, to cite a current instance of a fabrication that has confused many of the uncatechized faithful.

[For more from Fr. Neuhaus, go to www.firstthings.com/ ]

[Modificato da benefan 12/04/2006 4.20]

[Did they get the point or not?]

Independence of Franciscans at Assisi curbed, reasons disputed

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

ASSISI, Italy (CNS) -- The Franciscan sanctuary of Assisi, long a haven of pilgrimage, prayer and social activism, has found its independence curbed under Pope Benedict XVI.

Inspired by the life of St. Francis and the interfaith outreach of Pope John Paul II, the Franciscan friars of Assisi sponsored a series of interreligious prayer meetings, peace marches and conferences on social justice over the last 25 years.

The guests included Buddhist monks and Muslim imams, no-global activists and death penalty opponents, and a slew of politicians. Former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, a Christian, lit a candle of peace in Assisi shortly before the United States invaded his country in 2003.

Seven months after his election, Pope Benedict issued a one-page document that gave the local bishop and the Italian bishops' conference control over all pastoral activities of Franciscans in Assisi. Later he named a papal delegate to keep closer ties with the friars.

In Italy, the move was immediately interpreted as a smack down. Vittorio Messori, who has written books with Pope Benedict, said the pope had, in effect, waited nearly two decades to settle an old score -- the 1986 interfaith prayer meeting for peace in Assisi, hosted by the Franciscans and presided over by Pope John Paul II.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope had expressed uneasiness over the meeting. In explaining why, Messori cited a story that has become something of an urban legend in Italy: During the 1986 encounter, he said, African animists slaughtered two chickens on the altar of the Basilica of St. Clare.

In Messori's view, the alleged sacrifice was emblematic of the abuses of dialogue at Assisi.

The Franciscans forcefully denied the chicken-slaughtering rumor, noting that the St. Clare church was not even open during the interfaith encounter.

In a recent interview with Catholic News Service, Conventual Franciscan Father Vincenzo Coli, the custodian of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, said the program for the 1986 meeting was set and monitored by the Vatican.

He laughed at the idea that the Franciscan friars had somehow hoodwinked Pope John Paul.

"It's offensive to Pope Benedict, too -- the idea that for 19 years he carried in his heart a desire for revenge. It's ridiculous," Father Coli said.

What was really behind Pope Benedict's recent move, Father Coli said, was that the Italian bishops had long wanted control over the Assisi sanctuary.

From an administrative point of view, he said, the idea of better coordination of pastoral activities at Assisi is logical. He and other Franciscan superiors have pledged to cooperate with the local bishop and the national conference under the new arrangement.

But Father Coli said the bishops would do well to remember that Assisi is a unique place of pilgrimage, with a mission that goes beyond diocesan or national boundaries.

"This is a universal sanctuary, and it cannot be closed inside the small world of a diocese," he said.

Father Coli said visitors to Assisi are about equally divided between pilgrims and tourists. But the pilgrims often end up interested in Assisi's art, and many of the tourists become fascinated by the story of St. Francis. That's one reason why openness to non-Catholics and nonbelievers is essential, he said.

"Over the last 25 years, Assisi has rediscovered a vocation: to be a place of dialogue, a place of encounter. We had this in our DNA, because of the charismatic figure of St. Francis, who is accepted and welcomed even by non-Christians," he said.

Asked whether Assisi has been politicized by some of the activities, Father Coli said that was always a risk.

"But if we're afraid of any possibility of being used, we'll never do anything. The key is to always act in a way that shows the world the values of St. Francis," he said.

The new rules requiring prior approval of activities affect both the Conventual Franciscans who care for the Assisi basilica, where St. Francis is buried, and the Friars Minor who care for the Portiuncula chapel outside of town, where St. Francis founded his order.

Bishop Domenico Sorrentino, recently appointed to Assisi, has been open and cooperative, Father Coli said. But already, the friars are discovering that most of their proposals are going to the national conference, because of their wider impact. So far, Father Coli said, nothing has been rejected. But he said the approval process could slow things down.

The bishops' conference, for example, is currently studying the Franciscans' plan to continue a series of concerts of sacred and nonsacred music, emphasizing three themes: the birth of Christ, human solidarity and ecology.

"It's a modest attempt to reach the many young people who need evangelizing. We hope (the bishops) approve it, but if they say no the world won't end," Father Coli said.

Many of the Assisi activities encourage dialogue, in the firm belief that while Christians need a strong faith identity they also need to be able to listen to and appreciate the good in the non-Christian, Father Coli said.

One event the Franciscans intend to continue sponsoring is a biennial peace march that has attracted up to 250,000 people -- including many European leftist political leaders. Father Coli said the church's participation over the years has helped bring balance to the event, highlighting St. Francis as a builder of peace but not necessarily as a pacifist in the modern sense of the term.

As with many of the Assisi activities, the march walks a fine political line -- a dimension of Italian life that Pope Benedict may not fully understand, Father Coli said.

"The pope is a very educated, respectful and attentive man. But Italy is complicated," he said.

The Franciscans in 2009 will celebrate the 800th anniversary of papal approval of the Franciscan rule. As part of the preparations for that event, Father Coli said it was hoped that Pope Benedict will visit Assisi next year.

I fully suspect Father Coli and his fellow friars at Assisi are just as misguided about their idea of what St. Francis stood for as the renegade Jesuits are openly defiant of what St. Ignatius asked of his priests.

He is also being disingenuous about the central issue here: No one objects to inter-religious dialog, least of all the Pope. The objection was and is to the performance of non-Christian rites inside Catholic sites [although he denies the chicken-slaughtering rite], and by extension, to the implied assumption that all religions are equal. How can anyone recite the Credo - unam sanctam catolicam apostolicam ecclesiam - and maintain that too? That's what Fr. Coli and his friars are doing, in effect.

And by the way, the Franciscan churches of Assisi are by no means the only churches in the world that are open to anybody, tourist or pilgrim, heathen or otherwise! Aren't all Catholic churches? You wouldn't think so by the way he talks.

How condescending he is, too, about Benedict not 'understanding' the Italian political situation after living in Rome for more than a quarter-century!

And all this rationalizing about extra-ecclesial concerns like peace marches and concerts for ecology or whatever! As the Pope reminded all priests this morning at the Mass of the Holy Chrism, activism may even seem heroic, but it is nothing if it is not grounded in prayer, and that above everything else, a priest is a man of prayer.

The Pope's decision not to issue a Maundy Thursday letter to priests was news yesterday. Now we know why he did not write a letter. He did not need to. What he had to tell priests he told them so directly, in his great homily about priesthood this morning. Surely, what the Pope articulates himself in a homily at St. Peter's that is broadcast around the world is far more effective than a letter.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/04/2006 2.54]

Theology Requires Assent
to Magisterium, Say Prelates

MADRID, Spain, APRIL 14, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Theology is true only insofar as it proceeds from the Catholic faith and "contributes to invigorate it and give it life," says an official of the Spanish bishops' conference.

Father Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, secretary and spokesman of the episcopal conference, said that that the "tension" between "communion and freedom" always has been present in the field of theology.

He was answering questions at a press conference this week, after the presentation of the pastoral instruction "Theology and Secularization in Spain 40 Years after the Second Vatican Council," which the bishops' plenary assembly approved March 30.

Father Martínez Camino explained that in theology "there is an enormous area for the imagination and for work." But if it is to be Catholic it must acknowledge Jesus Christ as "Savior who lives in the Church and the sacraments," and this is the only "limit" theologians must observe, he said.

The spokesman of the bishops' conference said that if this aspect is questioned, theology "denies itself" -- it is not "the freedom of theologians" that is denied.

"If it is denied that Christ is Savior, and this occurs in some cases, theology no longer is what it is" and this is "mortal for it," said the priest.

In this context, the priest stressed that the magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church, is the "authoritative interpreter of the faith," which has the "mission to direct theology," Father Martínez Camino said. The mission entrusted to the Church is "to show the figure of Christ," he added.

In regard to the concept of "dissent," in which some theological positions are expressed in opposition to the orthodoxy of the Church, the bishops' spokesman said that "to deny the magisterium" is something that has no place in Catholic theology.

By way of contrast, he mentioned the work of "hundreds of professors" who work in Spain in the line of "Catholic theology," though he acknowledged that minority groups on the "fringes" at times have great influence, and this repercussion -- not their number -- is what worries bishops.

According to Father Martínez Camino, the theologies that the pastoral instruction classifies as "deficient" are "disproportionately present in public opinion," when in fact they are "small groups in decline that do not represent the life of the Church in its main core and body."

The spokesman acknowledged that these currents are "very active and capable of being taken up."

Nevertheless, and as Point 4 of the instruction states, the priest explained that "the global analysis of theology in Spain isn't negative," but offers signs of hope. Quoting the document itself, he pointed out that it is a question of detecting "the shadows that darken a luminous picture."

Coptic Churches Attacked in Egypt
1 Person Dies and 5 Wounded

CAIRO, Egypt, APRIL 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- One person was killed and five injured in the Egyptian city of Alexandria when three churches of the Coptic-Orthodox community were attacked.

A 25-year-old Muslim was arrested after attacking Christian faithful Friday with a knife in two Churches in the center and east of Alexandria.

The Coptic Orthodox Church rejected the report by Egyptian authorities that the attacks were simply the act of a mentally unbalanced individual.

As a result, hundreds of Coptic Christians organized protests calling for the reinforcement of security measures around Christian churches.

Since Holy Saturday, security forces have been guarding the principal churches of Alexandria, where the Coptic patriarch has its headquarters.

The aggression was condemned by the leaders of the Muslim majority, as well as by President Hosni Mubarak, who said that he would not tolerate "attempts to undermine national unity" in Egypt, reported the local press.

Moreover, 88 deputies of the Muslim Brotherhood group, the main opposition force in Parliament, which has 454 seats, condemned the aggression in a communiqué issued in Cairo, the EFE agency reported.

The note states that aggression "benefits those who want to justify, the still enforced emergency law," implemented in the country since Mubarak's advent to power in 1981, and which the opposition hopes to abolish.

Friday's attack was the latest incident of violence between Muslims and members of the Coptic minority, since the disturbances that occurred last October in Alexandria, in the wake of a rumor that the church of Mar Girgis had issued a DVD ridiculing Islam and its prophet.

U.S. religious groups seek ban on same-sex marriage
By David D. Kirkpatrick The New York Times

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006


WASHINGTON A coalition of about 50 prominent religious leaders, including six Roman Catholic cardinals and a half-dozen archbishops, have signed a petition and pledged their influence to support a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.

Organizers of the petition said it aimed to revive the groundswell of opposition to same-sex marriage that played a major roll in moving conservative voters to the polls in 2004. Republicans are increasingly worried about turnout in the elections this autumn, and Republican Senate leaders have scheduled a vote in June on the proposed constitutional amendment.

No one expects it to pass, but conservatives hope to use the vote to rally their grass-roots supporters against liberals who oppose the measure as discriminatory toward gay people.

The petition's organizers said many of the clergy involved had committed themselves to distributing postcards or letters for their congregants to send to senators urging support for the amendment.

At the request of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Knights of Columbus printed 10 million postcards addressed to U.S. senators that they are distributing to Catholic churches around the country, said Patrick Korten, a spokesman for the group.

The petition included prominent evangelical Protestants, a few rabbis and an official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But organizers and gay rights groups both said the petition also reflected a new engagement on the issue by prominent Catholic officials.

Although the Roman Catholic Church has long opposed same-sex unions and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had previously endorsed the proposed constitutional amendment, evangelical Protestants generally led the charge for the amendment when it was debated in 2004.

"The personal involvement of bishops and cardinals is significantly greater this time than in 2004," Korten of the Knights of Columbus said.

The bishops conference often lobbies about subjects of concern to the church like abortion laws, and they have recently flexed their muscles by helping to turn out millions to rally for immigration changes.

Several people involved in the effort said it had been organized in part by Professor Robert George of Princeton, an influential conservative Catholic scholar with close ties to evangelical Protestant groups.

Others involved said aides to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, were involved in the planning as well.

At a meeting in Washington in February, Senate staffers recommended the postcard campaign, recalling a very effective campaign the Catholic bishops organized behind legislation banning so-called partial birth abortions a decade ago, said Archbishop John Myers of Newark, another early participant in the effort.

"Senate staffers told us it had more effect than people realized," he said. "We think the American people are on our side on this, and we want the Senate to know it."

The religious groups' campaign is welcome news for Republicans at a time when many in the party are increasingly worried that their core supporters may be too demoralized by the war in Iraq and other matters to go to the polls.

Drives to amend state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage proved powerful incentives to turning out conservatives in such pivotal states as Ohio and Missouri in 2004, and at least two states with contested Senate races - Tennessee and Pennsylvania, where Santorum is seeking re-election - are debating state constitutional bans on same-sex marriage this year.

But Ohio and other pivotal states have already amended their constitutions, the depth of popular demand for amending the U.S. Constitution over the issue has never been tested, and at least one survey has suggested that the public's opposition is cooling.

In May, a nonpartisan Pew Research Poll found that 51 percent of the public opposed legalizing gay marriage, down from 63 percent in February 2004.

Joe Solmonese, president of the gay group Human Rights Campaign, said supporters of the marriage amendment were out of touch.

"We have a war raging in Iraq, we have a Gulf Coast that needs to be rebuilt, we have an economy barely hanging on," he said, "The last thing America wants is this Republican-controlled Congress spending time writing discrimination into the Constitution."

Still, Matt Daniels, founder of the Alliance for Marriage, an umbrella group that supports an amendment, said the members of the religious groups involved represented "huge numbers" of people.

Those (journalists, vatican watchers, etc.) who criticized the Pope for sending Archbishop Fitzgerald off to Egypt to be nuncio should now understand his wise decision. I have all along believed that it is not a demotion for him but a necessity to gain firsthand exposure to interreligious tensions in Muslim countries.

And, with the establishment of diplomatic relations (Egypt and Arab League) and with such first-hand experience of Christian hatred in a Muslim country only then can a fruitful dialogue be opened and peaceful solutions be found.

I'm with you, PAPA !!

MAG6...Remember our little exchange on 4/10/06 about the Judas story and the so-called 'experts' who were being trotted out on the documentaries to try and make a mountain out of a molehill that had been decisively flattened almost two centuries ago? And how I expressed skepticism about one Elaine Pagels?

Read this very interesting article by a Jesuit priest at the Pontifical Biblican Institute in Rome for Catholic World News onhttp://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=43736
debunking Dr. Elaine Pagels's alleged 'expertise'.

It begins this way:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Two weeks ago, at the height of the Gospel of Judas mania, a Google News search of "Elaine Pagels" plus "expert" scored 157 hits; she was the media's prime go-to person for a scholarly read on the import of the Coptic manuscript. Pagels was most often cited in stories such as the following from the NYT:

Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton who specializes in studies of the Gnostics, said in a statement, "These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion, and demonstrating how diverse -- and fascinating -- the early Christian movement really was."

I am going to demonstrate that Professor Pagels's media reputation as a scholar is undeserved, her reputation as an expert in Gnosticism still less so. The case for the prosecution will require some careful reading...
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Gerald Augustinus at The Cafeteria is Closed for the lead...

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/04/2006 3.02]

I'm bringing this topic to where it belongs for the moment, rather than in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT. From Catholic News agency on www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=6558 -
here is the latest thus far on the 'condom' front:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Vatican office clarifies:
Teaching on condoms and AIDS
will not change

Vatican City, Apr. 24, 2006 (CNA) - An official from the Pontifical Council for Health and Pastoral Care, presided by Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, made it clear today that the recent interview given by the Mexican prelate to the Italian daily La Reppublica, doesn’t hint at any change in the doctrine of the Church on the use of condoms to fight Aids.

Over the weekend, numerous dailies and news agencies have headlined the Cardinal’s interview, in which he declared that: "This is a very difficult and delicate subject that requires prudence. My department is studying this closely with scientists and theologians expressly assigned to draft a document that will be issued soon," he said.

The prelate’s declarations became the basis of heavy speculations, especially his thoughts on making “the Church’s position more flexible,” in respect to the use of condoms.

Nevertheless, Msgr. Antonio Soto Guerrero, personal secretary of Cardinal Lozano Barragán, and member of the Pontifical Council for Health, told CNA that “the Doctrine of the Church remains firmly within the principles of Catholic moral. Facing AIDS, there is abstinence; we cannot forget that the issue has to do in large parts to a moral disorder facing the seventh commandment.”

In his remarks to CNA, Msgr. Soto said that “indeed, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , headed by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, is currently studying the possibility of drafting a document on the same issue, and for that reason he has asked for the opinion of the other dicasteries in the Vatican. “

“Our dicasteries have already sent very serious studies from members and consulters who are answering to consultations requested by the Congregation (for the Doctrine of the Faith). The Congregation will then carry out a thorough study that will last a few months before presenting the conclusions to the Pope, who will subsequently decide of the publication of a document.”

“The moral principle of the Church is the same,” he stressed, “but the situations we have to face changed. It’s rather about applying the doctrine of the Church to always new situations such as AIDS,” said Msgr. Soto.

“Let me take a specific example”, he told CNA, in which one member of a couple “has AIDS, and requests matrimony, has the other partner the right to protect his health in any way?”

“The principle”, he said, “remains the defense of life and the conscience that everything that sends back to the fifth commandment includes the seventh one too, the act of fornicating that implies defending life.”

Teresa, thank you. I'll go to this site. In the meantime I have also come upon other scholars' assessment of Elaine Pagels, even in a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Gnostic Gospels, a gift from a friend last Xmas. According to this author, who is a Christian of more orthodox leanings it seems, Pagels did a lot to make the general public aware of the Nag Hammadi texts and Gnosticism, but he finds that she has her own personal "spiritual" agenda and some serious wishful thinking in her exposition and advertisement for movements such as Gnosticism. So --I'm looking forward to the insights at the site you've posted above. I have read her Adam, Eve and the Serpent many years ago.

Coming back to National Geographic: I don't know if their programme schedules are the same in all countries, but tonight at 21h00 South Afr.time another documentary hits the screen which will concentrate apparently on other Messianic figures... Probably an old documentary that everyone has seen already, but I haven't. Very weird how they zoom in on stuff that basically tries to diminish the Christian faith. I've asked two orthodox theologian friends to view tonight's "show" which they will do with a critical eye and more background knowledge than I have, of course.

From the Wall Street Journal's online journal yesterday -

Church and (Communist) State
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
April 25, 2006

At the dawn of the 17th century, a Roman Catholic missionary priest named Matteo Ricci, a brilliant and audacious member of the newly founded Jesuit order, made his way to Beijing.

Known at court as Lì Madòu, Ricci dazzled the emperors with his command of Chinese language and culture, his mastery of Western science, and his creative fusion of Confucian and Catholic ideals.
He stood on the brink of converting the intellectual classes, until the Vatican lost its nerve over fears that its traditions would be assimilated into Chinese culture, and banned Ricci's so-called "Chinese rites." For the ensuing 400 years, China has remained basically a "closed shop" for Catholicism.

It wasn't for lack of trying. During the 19th and 20th centuries missionaries tried anew to penetrate China, beginning in the major ports and radiating outwards, but they were largely seen as agents of the colonial powers.

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, this historical resentment, combined with the Vatican's ties to the Chinese nationalists in Taiwan, made relations between Rome and Beijing impossible.

Pope John Paul II tried hard to break that stalemate. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, famously said in 1999 that his boss would move the Vatican embassy from Taiwan to the mainland "not tomorrow morning, but tonight," if only the Beijing government would negotiate.

Though there's scant indication of an immediate breakthrough, Pope Benedict XVI may make better headway. The People's Republic of China is one of just nine countries -- including North Korea and Saudi Arabia -- which have no diplomatic ties to the Holy See.

Vatican officials under both John Paul and Benedict have publicly stated that the pope is willing to compromise on a wide range of issues, including a role for Beijing in the appointment of bishops, in exchange for establishing formal relations.

Such eagerness may seem counterintuitive for a historically European institution that reaches less than 1% of China's 1.3 billion citizens, especially given the church's tradition of ferocious anti-communism. Given the Vatican's perceived interests, however, playing the "China card" makes all the sense in the world.

The pope's foremost concern is to defend the basic human rights of the estimated 13 million Catholics on the mainland. This isn't a negligible issue.

While antireligious persecution today is nowhere near as severe as in the heyday of the Cultural Revolution -- when all religions were persecuted, not just Catholics -- believers who don't worship through state-approved organizations do so at their peril.

The Cardinal Kung Foundation, an activist group, estimates that there are seven Catholic bishops in China currently in prison, 10 under house arrest and one in hiding -- not to mention 23 priests either in jails or forced labor camps.

To put this into perspective, official Chinese statistics put the total number of Catholic bishops in the country at 69, with some 5,000 priests, though perhaps as many as 40 "underground" bishops are not counted in those numbers.

Recognizing China's official Catholic Church would heal the schism between official and unofficial worshipers on the mainland. In China, the split is government-created: Beijing exerts tight government control over the church through its "Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association," a Communist Party-controlled agency that vets clergy, church construction, public activities, and other aspects of religious life.

But there's also an unofficial, "underground" church, known as the "church of the catacombs," that recognizes the Vatican's authority.

The Vatican abhors such formal ruptures in the church, which create the possibility of further division along the lines of the Protestant Reformation. So in China, the Vatican has quietly worked to heal the divisions.

Today, there's an informal understanding that the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association will not insist upon a bishop unacceptable to the Vatican, and the pope will recognize bishops that emerge from elections held under the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association's aegis.

On background, Vatican officials have told me and other reporters that more than three-quarters of the bishops in today's "official" church have been recognized by the pope.

That understanding, however, remains dependent on the goodwill of those in power in Beijing. The Vatican believes that formal diplomatic relations, with a promise of religious freedom, would end the era of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association altogether, thus erasing the distinction between the official church and that of the catacombs.

In so doing, the church in China would finally be unified, with the infrastructure and administrative capacity to absorb future growth. Beijing remains wary of such a move, conscious of what happened in Eastern Europe, where the Catholic Church bolstered opposition forces to the Communists and ultimately helped bring down the Soviet-backed regimes.

There's also a host of practical reasons why the Holy See wants to make up with the China's Communists. The Vatican sees China as the next, and perhaps the last, great missionary frontier for Catholicism.

Given the erosion of traditional Catholic cultures in Europe and North America, an Asian country with more than a billion people, with a deep hunger for moral and spiritual values as the old Communist ideology crumbles, and without any established national religion, appeals strongly.

Asia's other emerging superpower, India, will never offer as many potential converts, given the tight identification there between national identity and Hinduism. Behind closed doors in Rome, missionary orders and lay movements have been meeting for years, laying plans for expansion in China if and when the government relents.

That leaves the sticky issue of Taiwan, which China claims as its own -- and which the Vatican currently recognizes as an independent state. John Paul II repeatedly vowed that the church "will not abandon" its roughly 310,000 worshippers in Taiwan, regardless of where its embassy to China is located.

The fact that the pope has not appointed a full ambassador to Taiwan since 1979 -- sending a charges d'affaires instead -- is a clear signal that the Vatican is already preparing for the transition.

Ultimately, history will judge whether the Vatican's China policy is forward-looking or feckless.

If China can be persuaded to enter into diplomatic relations with the Holy See, or so the theory goes, it will have to make concessions on religious freedom, which will eventually mean that Chinese Catholics can worship more freely, travel more easily, construct churches more readily, and generally practice their faith without intimidation.

Seen from within a Catholic worldview, it is little wonder that once again, as in Ricci's era, Beijing is in the church's prayers.

Vatican Clarifies Its Condom-AIDS Study

For Internal Dialogue, Explains Cardinal Lozano Barragán

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See is preparing a "study" for internal dialogue, not a "document," on condoms and AIDS, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers.

Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, clarifying information published recently in the media, told ZENIT that this "profound study," requested by Benedict XVI, takes into account "both the scientific and technical aspects linked to the condom, as well as the moral implications in all their amplitude."

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers does not have the "competency to present a document to the Church. It is the Holy Father who has the competency or whoever he entrusts" with the task, the cardinal explained.

"In the last analysis this Vatican dicastery is not a doctrinal dicastery; this dicastery does not produce documents," he continued. "Herein lies the error of some information. We are a pastoral dicastery to carry out the Church's presence with the sick, in particular, those who suffer from the AIDS virus.

"Within this competency, we have our medical, technical and theological consultors and we are doing this study with them."

"We are in the first stage," the 73-year-old cardinal said. "This study is promoting a dialogue only at the level of the Holy See and it is not finished yet. Once it's finished, will there be a document? There might or might not be. To issue a document is not proper to this dicastery. That it is or is not issued by another dicastery depends on the Holy Father."

'04 foundation

The question the study addresses in particular is that of couples united in sacramental marriage, in which one of the spouses suffers from AIDS.

The discussion as to whether in such cases it would be licit to use a condom to save a life arose with the idea of the establishment of the Good Samaritan Foundation in September 2004. The Vatican-headquartered group aims to financially support the neediest sick, in particular those suffering from AIDS.

"In that process the discussion arose over the action of condoms in cases of married couples with AIDS," Cardinal Lozano Barragán said. "This discussion took place in John Paul II's last months of life, but John Paul II was very, very conscious of these problems. I know it through personal experience, because I had access to him in this respect."

"When the Holy Father Benedict XVI did me the favor of granting me an audience he told me that it would be appropriate to talk about this subject" among competent persons of the Holy See, the cardinal said. "It is a question of examining scientifically and morally how things are."

The study responds first to the question: What guarantee exists to prevent infection with AIDS through a condom? A second question is: Is it morally licit to use a "technical" condom?

To respond to these two questions, the cardinal explained, "there are two important principles, which are the Sixth Commandment that says, 'You will not commit impure acts,' and the Fifth, which must always be taken into account: 'You shall not kill.'"

General principles

"Both commandments must be taken into account," he said. "But these are very general principles. The study is being done reflecting on the different opinions of experts on the application of both principles to the concrete case of the condom in these specific circumstances.

"The theologians give their opinions. We, as a council, cannot say, 'I adopt this opinion.' We contribute the existing opinions to the dialogue that, on the other hand, are known."

Cardinal Lozano Barragán added: "The Holy Father will see the results of this dialogue and with the help he has from the Holy Spirit must tell us, if he wishes, where we must go. He might also think that it isn't the appropriate moment to pronounce himself.

"I repeat: What I think and my commitment is simply to be an echo of what the Pope says. I don't have a personal opinion as head of this dicastery. My official opinion is to reproduce exactly to the letter what the Pope says."
------------------------------------------------------------

After reading all the recent news about this subject, one wonders what's going on within this dicastery...

Date: 2006-04-26

Web Conference to Focus on Priestly Celibacy


ROME, APRIL 26, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican-organized Internet videoconference of theologians is scheduled this Friday on the theme of "Celibacy and the Priest's Paternity."

Monthly videoconferences organized by the Congregation for Clergy bring together leading theologians from around the world.

Friday's conference may be followed live beginning at noon, Rome time, and recorded through the congregation's Web page, www.clerus.org.

The original texts of the addresses will be posted later on the site.

Computers need Real Player installed in order to follow the event with images and audio.

Bosnia Pact Details Church's Juridical Status


VATICAN CITY, APRIL 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- An agreement signed between the Holy See and Bosnia-Herzegovina has regulated the juridical position of the Catholic Church in that country.

The Basic Agreement was signed April 19 in the Presidential Palace of Sarajevo, the Holy See reported today in a communiqué.

According to the note, the document "fixes the juridical framework of reciprocal relations taking into account the respective independence and autonomy of the state and the Church and of their willingness for mutual collaboration."

Regulated, in particular, are "the juridical position of the Catholic Church in civil society, its freedom and independence in apostolic activity and the regulation of the realms of its own competence; freedom of worship and action in the cultural, educational, pastoral and charitable fields and in the media."

The agreement also provides for "the management of Catholic schools; spiritual assistance to the armed forces, and in prisons and hospitals; and the organization of health and charitable Catholic structures."

According to some statistics, of Bosnia's 4.49 million inhabitants, 40% are Muslims, 31% Orthodox, 15% Catholics and 14% have other beliefs

[I think Teresa has already posted Papa's message to participants of this conference but this article explains what some of the group, including Mrs. Blair, have said on the subject under discussion.]


Papal message, speech by Cherie Blair open plenary on young people

By John Thavis

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With a hard-hitting message from Pope Benedict XVI and some practical advice from mother-of-four Cherie Blair, the Vatican opened a conference dedicated to the challenges facing young people today.

The April 28-May 2 plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences was dedicated to the theme: "Vanishing Youth? Solidarity With Children and Young People in an Age of Turbulence."

Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was a surprise guest at the opening session and spoke about her experience as a human rights lawyer, a Catholic and a mother.

One of her main points was that parents today need to carve time from their busy schedules and invest it in conversations with their children.

The adult-child relationship must be based not on "dogmatic assertion" but on love and listening, she said. The church's role, she said, is not just to prescribe a set of rules but to encourage youths to listen to their own consciences and look at social reality with an informed eye.

After her talk, she met privately with the pope, who did not attend the conference.

In his message to participants, the pope said young people are by nature receptive, generous, idealistic and open to transcendence. But he said many of them today grow up in a society "forgetful of God" and driven by a materialistic vision of life and happiness.

In family life, he said, the lack of creative love has caused many marriages to fail and birthrates to fall significantly.

"It is children and young people who are often the first to experience the consequences of this eclipse of love and hope. Often, instead of feeling loved and cherished, they appear to be merely tolerated," he said.

The pope also touched on one of the themes taken up by the conference -- the so-called "demographic winter" in many developed countries.

While statistics on population growth are open to interpretation, the pope said, there is general agreement that the planet is witnessing two significant and interconnected trends: an increase in life expectancy and a decrease in birthrates.

"As societies are growing older, many nations or groups of nations lack a sufficient number of young people to renew their population," he said.

The session was chaired by Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard professor and president of the academy, who pointed out that a panel of young people had been invited to attend the conference and give their own feedback at the end.

Introducing the conference agenda, academy member Pierpaolo Donati said the economic and technological changes related to globalization have helped put children at risk in many ways. He cited:

-- The manipulation of human procreation.

-- A weakening of the transmission of cultural values.

-- The erosion of the family, which removes many of the primary protections provided for children.

-- A new economic order dominated by productivity, which tends to disregard those too young to produce or illegally exploit them.