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| VATICAN CITY STATE | SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15
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Historic Anniversary
Marking the 40th anniversary of Vatican II, Pope John
Paul II said the council's documents continue to be a "sure compass" for
the Church.
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| AMERICA MAGAZINE
USA -
The memory of the Second Vatican Council, 40 years after
the opening of the council, continues to arouse both acclamation and vilification.
Its champions, in many cases, see it as having liberated
Catholics from a long night of oppression, thus restoring to the people of
God their rightful liberties.
Its detractors blame it for shattering the unity and
order of the church and introducing an era of contestation and doubt. While
reformers caricature the preconciliar church as tyrannical and obscurantist,
traditionalists idealize the preconciliar church as though it were a | |
lost paradise. In part, the quarrels are due to a conflict of interpretations.
The council documents, like most committee products, reflect some compromises.
Four factors make the interpretation especially difficult.
The council fathers, under the direction of Pope Paul VI made
every effort to achieve unanimity and express the consensus of the whole
episcopate, not the ideas of one particular school.
Fr. Thomas Reese, S.J., discusses two articles which examine Vatican II, featured in this week's America magazine...>LISTEN |
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Test of Faith
School Religion
Exam | A.D. 2000 AUSTRALIA
- Since
1998, the Sydney Catholic Education Office has been running a religious education
test for Grade Six students in the archdiocese. In June 2002, over 5,000
sat for the test, including, for the first time, children from five Armidale
Diocese schools. The test covers the areas of beliefs and symbols, decision-making,
Mass and the Eucharist, sacraments, saints, Church, prayer, liturgy and Scripture.
Michael Gilchrist of A.D. 2000 has
more...>LISTEN |
| France
Again Says "Non"
A Love-Hate
Affair | THE TABLET
UK -
Back from his relative success at Camp David, where he
persuaded George Bush to envisage a second United Nations
resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq,
Tony Blair four days later
in the French seaside town of Le Touquet sought to persuade President
Jacques Chirac to swallow the same bitter medicine.
John Wilkins of The Tablet... >LISTEN | |
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| C A T H O L
I C P U B L I C A T I O N S |
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| | | Outreach to Hispanics
Welcome the immigrant | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR USA
- When she lived in New York,
in the 1980s, parish volunteer Teresa Aldahondo lobbied
for a Spanish-language weekend Mass for the Hispanic
immigrants arriving from the Caribbean. The time slot
her pastor allotted for the Spanish Mass was at 2
p.m. on Saturdays - in the basement of the church,
recalled the Puerto Rican-born woman.
In 1987,
Aldahondo moved to Raleigh, N.C., where she started
volunteering with Hispanic ministry in the early 1990s.
Just a decade ago, the Spanish-speaking population
in North Carolina almost entirely comprised Mexican
farm workers who spent their summers around Raleigh,
Durham, and Chapel Hill.
Gerald Korson, editor of Our Sunday Visitor...>LISTEN
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| | War with Iraq
Must Catholics Be Opposed? | THE CATHOLIC HERALD
UK -
As war in Iraq -- despite current manoeuvrings by the
French and German governments to impede the forward momentum of Anglo-American
policy -- seems to become ever more inevitable, how are we to perceive the
moral issues involved?
For Catholics, it might now seem, the issues
have been made clear beyond any doubt, by the virtually unanimous consensus
of the world's bishops. In the words of the bishops of South Africa, "to
wage war at this stage is immoral and illegal, and therefore must be excluded.
The fight against terrorism cannot be achieved through a war that will inevitably
kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people."
Simon Caldwell of The Catholic
Herald has more......>LISTEN |
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THE SOUTHERN CROSS
SOUTH AFRICA -
Addressing a Christian business forum at St Joseph's
church in Durban, Archbishop Emeritus Denis Hurley challenged businessmen
to tackle the issue of economic inequality. The archbishop quoted from
statistics of the United Nations Human Development Report (1998/9) to indicate
the grave problem of global economic inequality.
* About 1,5 billion people live in absolute
poverty at the beginning of the new millennium. It would take
just 5% of the wealth of the world¹s richest 225 people to
provide food, shelter, basic health care and education to
every one | |
in the world who lacks access to these basic needs.
* The top three billionaires in the world hold assets
worth more than the combined gross national product of all 48 least developed
countries, with their population of about 600 million. Is it possible to contemplate a huge concerted
effort throughout the whole church, making it a driving force enabling Christians
to do their share in solving the devastating problem of poverty?
Gunther Simmermacher of The Southern Cross has more... >LISTEN |
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Unbridled Capitalism
"The West cannot keep living in an island of abundance, surrounded by an ocean of suffering." Pope John Paul II |
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