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Vatican City, Oct 7, 2016 / 03:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- For the second year in a row the Sistine Chapel Choir has recorded an album inside the chapel of its namesake, this year selecting pieces by Palestrina that focus on mercy in honor of the Jubilee.

Created in partnership with the classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, the second album was released Oct. 7 and is titled “Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli/Motets.”

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who lived from 1525-1594, is an Italian Renaissance sacred music composer, and is perhaps one of the most well-known composers of sacred polyphony.

His most famous piece and the only one of his compositions dedicated to a Pope is his “Missa Papae Marcelli,” which takes up the first five of the 14-track CD.

It contains the music of the original printed edition of the Mass in 1567, as well as two previously unpublished motets, “Veritas mea et misericordia mea” and “Iubilate Deo.”

The CD was presented Oct. 7 inside the Vatican's Press Office by the Prefect of the Pontifical Household Archbishop Georg Ganswein, as well as Clemens Trautmann, president of Deutsche Grammophon.

In his speech for the event, Archbishop Ganswein said the CD and accompanying booklet make one immediately aware of “the spiritual reasons for a music so refined and sublime.”

With this Mass Palestrina, “the prince of Roman polyphony” both tried and succeeded “to respond to what the Council of Trent asked of liturgical music, that is, the intelligibility of the text united to the quality of the music,” he said.

Though Pope Marcellus II would never live to hear the Mass composed in his name, having died after only 22 days as Pope in the middle of the Council of Trent, his hope that music would be both “a vehicle of beauty and a help in the elevation of the soul in liturgical prayer without falling into self-reference,” would be accomplished by Palestrina, the archbishop continued.

This challenge, he said, “remains relevant even today” in the effort to compose music that both incorporates and respects the ancient roots of sacred music, yet also experiments with “new ways of updating” encouraged by the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council.

“So the purpose of this, which is presented and is a cultural undertaking,” contributes in the communication of “the essence of the mission of the Catholic Church, which is to evangelize, to announce the Good News,” Archbishop Ganswein said, noting that this is also done “through beauty.”

“All of this seeks to express that Church which goes out, of which Pope Francis speaks to us, a Church that isn't afraid to speak the language of man and of his needs, of which music is a high and universal expression.”

Also present at the presentation of the CD was Massimo Palombella, director of the Sistine Chapel Choir. Formed of 20 adults and 30 young boys, the Sistine Chapel Choir is the oldest choir in the world.

Palombella told journalists that the choir, having released their first CD “Cantate Domino” last year, will record one annually, always from inside the Sistine Chapel itself. Proceeds from the CDs sold will, as last year, be given to the papal charities.

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Oslo, Norway, Oct 7, 2016 / 04:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to secure peace with the FARC rebel group, despite the rejection of a proposed peace deal in a national referendum.

“I am infinitely grateful for this honorable distinction with all my heart,” President Santos said Oct. 7. “I accept it not on my behalf but on behalf of all Colombians, especially the millions of victims of this conflict which we have suffered for more than 50 years.”

“It is for the victims and so that there not be a single new victim, not a single new casualty that we must reconcile and unite to culminate this process and begin to construct a stable and durable peace,” he added.

Since 1964, when the FARC uprising began, as many as 260,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Colombia’s civil war.

The conflict has caused the rise of right wing paramilitaries aligned with the government, as well as secondary rebel groups such as the National Liberation Army.

The Norwegian Nobel committee said it hoped the prize would encourage all parties to continue peace efforts, The Guardian reports.

The proposed peace accord followed four years of negotiations in Cuba. The deal was to have incorporated some of FARC’s leadership into the government in exchange for their disarmament and renunciation of kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Pope Francis had expressed approval of the proposed peace deal when it was approved by Colombian government and FARC leaders in August. Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, attended the Sept. 26 signing in Cartagena.

When the peace deal was put to a vote Oct. 2, it narrowly failed. About 50.2 percent of voters rejected it, while 49.8 percent approved.

Fewer than 38 percent of voters participated in the referendum, and the result was divided regionally: voters in outlying provinces were in favor of the peace agreement, while those more inland tended to oppose it.

Kaci Kullmann Five, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman, said there is a real danger of an end to the peace process and renewed civil war.

“This makes it even more important that the parties, headed by President Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, continue to respect the ceasefire,” she said.

Five said the vote against the peace agreement was not necessarily an end to the peace process. She said the Nobel committee wanted to stress the importance of Santos’ invitation to all parties to a national dialogue to advance peace.

Many Colombians who voted against ratification charged that it was too lenient on FARC. Members who confessed to crimes were to have been given more lenient sentences, and not face conventional jail time. Opponents of the deal, including former president Álvaro Uribe, wanted to renegotiate the agreement, with fewer concessions made to FARC.

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New York City, N.Y., Oct 7, 2016 / 04:29 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The United Nations Security Council has selected committed Catholic and human rights advocate as the nominee for Secretary General of the international organization.

“I have two words to describe what I'm feeling now – gratitude and humility,” António Guterres said.

“Humility about the huge challenges ahead of us, the terrible complexity of the modern world. But it is also humility that is required to serve the most vulnerable, victims of conflicts, of terrorism, rights violations, poverty and injustices of this world.”

Should Guterres' nomination be approved by the 193-member UN General Assembly, he will begin his tenure as UN Secretary General Jan. 1, 2017. Guterres will replace outgoing secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who has served two five-year terms.

From 2005 to the end of 2015, Guterres ran the UN refugee agency, where he has oversaw aid and assistance for more than 60 million refugees and displaced persons around the world. As high commissioner, Guterres reformed the internal administration of the UN Refugee Agency and coordinated and expanded the response to the Syrian refugee crisis and refugee crises in Iraq, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among other locations.

While at the UN, Guterres also received a reputation for being a skilled diplomat, as well as for challenging wealthier and more powerful nations to do more to help the vulnerable and those facing human rights crises.

Previous to his work at the UN, Guterres also helped to found Portugal’s Socialist party and served as head of the party and then Prime Minister of the country from 1995-2002. Wile prime minister, he helped overturn attempts to legalize abortion in Portugal.

Guterres was also involved in combating Portugal’s heroin addiction problem through decriminalization accompanied by the promotion of therapy, family support, and social reintegration. In the 15 years since the implementation of the program, drug use and health problems related to addiction have dropped precipitously.

Guterres was selected as the nominee for UN Secretary General by representatives of the 15-member Security Council, which includes the United States, United Kingom, France, Russia and China, along with 10 temporary members from around the world. Also running for the position were 13 other candidates, including a record seven women. The United Nations has not been led by a woman in its 71-year history.

While Guterres has been the front runner due to his strong record with refugees and human rights, his selection did not come without conflict. His nomination has been criticized by those who hoped a woman would lead the international organization. Guterres has also been opposed by abortion-supporting organizations and advocates of same-sex marriage, who decry his for his defense of life as well as statements he has made in the past against same-sex marriage and concerns he has raised regarding the LGBT movement.

To address the issue of gender equality within the United Nations, Guterres has vowed gender parity in making appointments to high-level UN positions.

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By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Most people who keep an eye on life issues know the shorthand about the Hyde Amendment -- that it bars the federal government from funding abortions through Medicaid.

But the amendment does more than that -- although not everything pro-lifers may wish it could do -- and with the amendment's 40th anniversary Sept. 30 just passed, it may do well to remember how it all came about.

It was in 1973 that the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases were decided by the Supreme Court, which ruled that women could obtain abortions virtually on demand. From that point, politicians and citizens opposed to abortion in both parties were looking for ways to overturn the decision, or at least place restrictions on abortion.

It was a time that "we didn't know which part would claim to be the party of life," said Michael New, a visiting professor of education at Ave Maria University, during a Sept. 29 anniversary observance in Washington sponsored by the March for Life organization.

The bipartisan nature of the Hyde Amendment is reflected in its origin.

According to Bart Stupak, who represented Michigan's Upper Peninsula for 18 years as a Democrat in the House of Representatives, the amendment was developed by James Oberstar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota. But because Oberstar was serving on what is now known as the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, he didn't have a path to shepherd the bill.

However, another House freshman, Henry Hyde, a Republican representing Chicago's northwest suburbs, was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and could see the amendment through to passage. Hyde and Oberstar, Stupak told Catholic News Service in an Oct. 5 telephone interview, were then co-chairs of the House Pro-Life Caucus.

Because of the huge Democratic gains in the House resulting from public disgust over Republican Richard Nixon's resignation as president two years previously, Democratic votes were needed to ensure passage. Stupak said Oberstar got Democrats who sat on the Judiciary Committee to vote for the amendment.

The rider passed Sept. 30, 1976, on a 207-167 vote. It was seen as the first significant victory for the pro-life movement. Not only did it bar the use of federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortions, it also banned the use of federal funds to pay for the abortions of women serving in the military outside the United States. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Hyde Amendment as constitutional.

Today, while abortion opponents still reject the notion that abortion on demand is settled law, the Hyde Amendment itself is not settled law. As a rider to congressional budget appropriation measures, it is subject to renewal with each new federal budget.

"It's been contentious all the way through those 24 years I've been around Washington," said Stupak, who joined a Washington law firm after leaving Congress in 2011. He is still active with the Washington-based Democrats for Life, and plans to write a book about the history of abortion legislation in Congress.

In 1993, pro-lifers came up a few votes short to renew the Hyde Amendment, Stupak told CNS. Planned Parenthood of Michigan sued to release federal funds for abortion. The court ruled that, absent legislative guidance one way or the other, a federal agency's policy is equivalent to law, so this permitted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to release Medicaid funds to pay for abortions.

When the "Contract With America" Republicans took over both houses of Congress in 1995, the Hyde Amendment was restored. "President (Bill) Clinton, I must say, was always very good about it," Stupak recalled. "He recognized there were the moderate-conservative Democrats who were very important and very sincere about our position, and he respected that. If we wanted to have Democratic majorities, we needed to have pro-life members."

The 1996 Democratic Party convention platform -- for an election that followed the 1994 congressional licking, not to mention the 1992 imbroglio over party officials refusing then-Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey a speaking slot at the convention because of his pro-life views -- tried to erect a big tent. "We were successful at putting a provision in the platform: We realize there is a difference of opinion on the sanctity of life, pro-choice issues, the pro-life members of our caucus are valuable members of our caucus," Stupak said.

"For 30 years if you will, there was always a truce between pro-life and pro-choice," he added. But that fell apart in 2007, when "Democrats took back the majority (in both chambers) and (Nancy) Pelosi became speaker. ... It was luck. We won our riders, even though the head of the Rules Committee was Louise Slaughter (D-New York), who was head of the Pro-Choice Caucus; to get your rules, you had to get through the Rules Committee."

At one point, Stupak and other pro-life Democrats had to threaten to attach the Hyde Amendment to every piece of legislation, and scuttle others' amendments, to force a vote on Hyde.

During the 2009-10 debate over the Affordable Care Act, Stupak inserted the Stupak Amendment into the bill, which would have codified Hyde into law. He won in the House, but could get only 45 votes in the Senate. The Stupak Amendment was a precursor to the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which has been introduced in 2011, 2013 and 2015 by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, current co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus. The 2015 version passed in the House but has languished in the Senate Finance Committee since it was referred there in January 2015.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said she believes the Hyde Amendment should be made permanent. "Having to go through this year by year or every couple of years, however it comes about, is ridiculous," she declared. "Two-thirds of the American public do not want their tax dollars to be used for abortion. We should not have to go through that to keep that as law."

But the 2016 Democratic Party platform signaled the opposite with a plank that supports the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. "Rather than expand the culture of death and shred the Hyde amendment -- as (Democratic presidential nominee) Hillary Clinton promises -- women and men of conscience have a duty to protect the weakest and most vulnerable from the violence of abortion," Smith said in remarks on the House floor Sept. 28 before the House went into a pre-election recess.

All this still begs the question: If the levers of government can be pulled to keep poor women from getting abortions, what can be done to reduce the abortion rate among women with the financial means to pay for one?

Tobias has a suggestion: "Where the pro-life movement has been very effective in keeping abortion as the issue that no one wants to talk about, it is still not socially accepted. Women might be talking to a co-worker, 'I won't be in tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment, a dentist's appointment.' They don't say, 'I'm not coming in to work tomorrow because I'm having an abortion,'" she said.

"By keeping that stigma attached to abortion, that's why more and more women are not choosing abortion, and choosing life" instead.

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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

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