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Pope Names Four New Saints, Including First Indian Woman

CitizenSugar — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:00:56 -0700

Thousands of people appeared in St. Peter’s Square yesterday to watch as Pope Benedict XVI gave the Roman Church four new saints, one of who was of particular importance to Indian Catholics. Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, is the first Indian woman to achieve sainthood. Her nomination is seen as a comfort to those who have recently suffered at the hands of Hindu violence in India.

The three other saints are: Gaetano Errico, a Neapolitan priest who created an order of missionaries in the 19th century, Sister Maria Bernarda who dedicated her life as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran, another woman who aided the sick and poor in Ecuador. Mother Teresa was beatified in 2003, and though she's usually associated with India, she was Albanian.

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Crackdown on Tickling: Will Rules For Priests Stop Abuse?

CitizenSugar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:00:21 -0700

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has released the most comprehensive list of rules to date addressing behavior between priests and children. Among other changes is the requirement of those who have contact with kids to get background checks. Victim advocates support the new rules but realize they're not a panacea. Specific rules also address conduct and communication through touch. On the list of appropriate touches: side hugs, pats on the head, holding hands during prayers. Inappropriate moves include bear hugs, kissing, lap-sitting, and tickling. The sexual abuse scandals have haunted the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict XVI has been including apology outreach as part of nearly every official trip, from Boston to Australia. The new rules are similar to those teachers already have to abide by, with rising teacher/student scandals causing states to crackdown as well. Should religious figures be considered in the same realm as secular adult/child relationships? Will outlining what's appropriate stop abuse, or is it just a bunch of words?Source

Crackdown on Tickling: Will Rules For Priests Stop Abuse?

It's a move in the right direction. Applying standards and enforcing them will really help.

If the rules don't stop abuse, at least it gets the topic in the open and removes secrecy.

A list of rules on paper will not fix anything. The problem is too deeply rooted.

Other. I'll tell you my opinion in the comments.

Should Contraception Be Considered Abortion?

LibertySugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:45:07 -0700

Right now Church and State aren't looking so separate in the US. Both the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control as well as the Bush Administration's similar attempt to limit access to contraception by defining it as abortion, have been openly criticized this week by contraception advocates. An open letter, written by over 50 international Catholic dissent groups, asks the Pope to lift the Church's ban on birth control. Taking out an ad in an Italian newspaper, the groups point to the important role contraception plays in the fight against AIDS, especially in poor countries. But the plea fell on deaf ears, as the Vatican quickly denounced the ad as propaganda, adding that condom policies have failed to fight AIDS.Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton wrote an open letter to her supporters, hoping to raise awareness about Bush's plan to put "ideology before science and women's health." Clinton explains that the Department of Health and Human Services wants to make it harder for women to access common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception, and IUDs by labeling them "abortion." Proposed regulations would allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it, disproportionately impacting uninsured and low-income Americans. Source

Should Contraception Be Considered Abortion?

Absolutely! Contraception facilitates the attitudes that lead to abortion.

No! Widespread contraception is the most effective way to prevent abortion.

Maybe. If the method prevents a newly conceived embryo from implanting in the womb.

Other. I'll tell you in the comments.

Party Like a Pilgrim! Pictures From Catholic World Youth Day

LibertySugar — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:30:09 -0700

If you were wondering what the Pope was doing driving around Sydney in the Pope mobile, his Holiness is in town for World Youth Day. The world's largest youth event, organized by the Catholic Church, has brought almost 125,000 international visitors to Sydney, more than the 2000 Olympics!

Every two or three years the Pope invites young pilgrims to celebrate their faith's international counterparts. Pope John Paul II started the event in 1984. This year the celebration being held in Sydney, Australia, from July 15 to July 20, includes an opening mass, catechesis (teaching) sessions, and a pilgrim dance party. One Vietnamese pilgrim said: It's like a big family, the Church gets to see how people from all over the world live their faith and it is interesting to see and it is inspiring to me."

From the look of these pictures, this "promotional event" seems like it gets young people excited about the Church. But, some Australians see the event as "propaganda" and are protesting the event, which received some public funding. A MySpace survey of Australian youth found that 77 percent of respondents felt the Catholic Church was "out of touch" with youth. Does this event help it get in touch?

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Tom Hanks/ Prof. Robert Langdon Not Welcomed in Church

LibertySugar — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:30:21 -0700

Tom Hanks is a persona non grata in all of the churches of the Vatican and Rome. The Vatican has banned the filming of Angels and Demons, Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vinci Code because it is "an offense against God."

The head of the Vatican's Prefecture For Economic Affairs said:

[The stories] turned the Gospels upside down to poison the faith. It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into mendacious films in the name of business.

The Church did not even read the script, as the name Dan Brown was enough to merit a ban. In The Da Vinci Code, Brown suggests that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children, and Angels and Demons paints a picture of corrupt leadership in the Catholic Church.

I'm still trying to decide whether viewers are sophisticated enough to distinguish between fiction and accepted theology. Still, while modern moviegoers may wish the Catholic Church lightened up for the sake of art and entertainment, it's hard to imagine the Church freely giving its stamp of approval. Would it not lend credibility to the theology created by Dan Brown? Do you approve of the Church's disapproval?

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Church Not Down With Human-Animal Hybrid Embryos

LibertySugar — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:00:38 -0700

The leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland plans on lambasting Gordon Brown this Easter Sunday for the prime minister's proposal to use animal-human hybrid embryos for medical research. Supporters of the bill believe that the fusion will lead to significant advances in combating multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.

In his sermon on Sunday, Cardinal Keith O'Brien will call the bill "grotesque," "hideous," and an approval of "Frankenstein" experiments.

If you had a family member suffering from a life-threatening disease, would you want all avenues of research pursued, even if you initially opposed the techniques in the abstract? If you're religious, do the views you hear at services influence your politics?

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Packing Heat, Rosaries: Priests Bear Arms to Protect Churches

CitizenSugar — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:00:19 -0700

Thieves are figuring if they're already committing a sin, they might as well go large. A recent spate of church robberies is forcing some Russian priests to consider bearing arms to protect their religious icons. One such attack inside the Golden Ring in Russia (near Moscow, with long historical ties to orthodox Christianity) ended with thieves holding a priest at automatic gunpoint while they relieved the church of its prized medieval icon.

The brains behind the Glocks for Jesus plan? The police. Acknowledging that abysmal area roads would make responding to calls for help too little, too late, the authorities have advised priests to apply for licenses and carry firearms. The thieves know the police can't get to churches in time and have taken to using off-road vehicles. This combined with rising drug and alcohol addictions, fuel the thieves' quests for the valuable pieces and also makes them more violent.

The diocese does not see carrying guns as a solution, and according to a spokesman the plan is fundamentally flawed. "Of course it's nonsense for priests to have a gun. . . there must be a state program to protect churches. It is not only up to the church to defend itself because this is everyone's heritage."

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Osama bin Laden Releases New Single Threatening Europe

LibertySugar — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:00:53 -0700

Osama bin Laden took a break from condemning America, instead taking aim at the European Union and the Catholic Church. In an audio tape tentatively attributed to the fugitive terrorist, his first message of 2008, bin Laden threatened the European Union "grave punishment" for publishing offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. His new single is titled: "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear."

In 2006, 50 people were killed after a Danish newspaper republished cartoons of the Prophet with a bomb as a turban. Many saw the cartoons as an attack on Islam. Enraged by the infamous cartoons, bin Laden called them a part of a "new crusade" and accused Pope Benedict XVI of being involved.

Are you troubled by this new tape? Do you think the constant reminder that bin Laden is still at-large gives his followers motivation to keep fighting?

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