Catholic News 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An actor who played a police officer on the TV show "The Shield" was sentenced Friday to 40 years to life in prison after tearfully apologizing for fatally shooting his wife but still insisting he didn't mean to kill her....
DALLAS (AP) -- A police officer shot and wounded a man Friday outside baggage claim at a Dallas airport after the man attacked a woman believed to be the mother of his children and then threatened the officer with a large rock, police said....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gawker is filing for bankruptcy protection and will sell itself rather than pay $140 million to pro wrestler Hulk Hogan....
BEIRUT (AP) -- Kurdish-led fighters completed their encirclement Friday of a key town held by the Islamic State group in northern Syria, part of a Western-backed offensive that could see a major strategic victory over the militants....
NEW YORK (AP) -- Weary Republicans are looking for assurances that Donald Trump can maintain the discipline needed to stay on message as he prepares for a bruising general election run-up against Hillary Clinton....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Clinton blasted Donald Trump in front of a room full of pro-choice advocates, while Trump declared himself a good Christian in a speech targeting evangelicals, as the presidential race shifted to the nation's capital on Friday....
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Muhammad Ali made his final journey through his hometown Friday - past the little pink house where he grew up and the museum that bears his name - as an estimated 100,000 mourners along the route pumped their fists and chanted, "Ali! Ali!" for the former heavyweight champion of the world known simply as The Greatest....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Far from ending the two wars he inherited from the Bush administration, Barack Obama is wrestling with an expanded set of conflicts in the final months of his presidency, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, with no end in sight. In Afghanistan, where a Taliban resurgence has upset Washington's "exit strategy," Obama is giving the U.S. military wider latitude to support Afghan forces, both in the air and on the ground....
(Vatican Radio) Chesterton & Eugenics: the challenge of our time, is the focus of an international conference exploring this major theme of the great 20th century English journalist and cultural critic, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, which opened Friday, June 10th, on the island of Malta. The conference is being organized by the Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University in West Orange, New Jersey, USA, and Malta’s own Life Network Foundation.The President of the Chesterton Institute at Seton Hall and editor of the Chesterton Review, Fr. Ian Boyd, CSB, is among the featured speakers at the event, along with his Seton Hall colleague and friend, Prof. Dermot Quinn.Fr. Boyd and Prof. Quinn visited Vatican Radio ahead of the conference, and spoke with us about the conference’s theme, explaining in a nearly hour-long conversation with Chris Altieri how Chesterton’s understanding of the threat of the eugenic movement was profound, far-sig...
(Vatican Radio) Chesterton & Eugenics: the challenge of our time, is the focus of an international conference exploring this major theme of the great 20th century English journalist and cultural critic, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, which opened Friday, June 10th, on the island of Malta. The conference is being organized by the Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture at Seton Hall University in West Orange, New Jersey, USA, and Malta’s own Life Network Foundation.
The President of the Chesterton Institute at Seton Hall and editor of the Chesterton Review, Fr. Ian Boyd, CSB, is among the featured speakers at the event, along with his Seton Hall colleague and friend, Prof. Dermot Quinn.
Fr. Boyd and Prof. Quinn visited Vatican Radio ahead of the conference, and spoke with us about the conference’s theme, explaining in a nearly hour-long conversation with Chris Altieri how Chesterton’s understanding of the threat of the eugenic movement was profound, far-sighted, and even prophetic.
"Eugenics] does sound nice," said Prof. Quinn, examining the Greek root of the English word, which means literally "good birth" but that refers to the program of selective breeding and more broadly to the coercive social policy to implement such a program. "It's not," he continued, "and I think, that's probably the theme of our conference and in many ways the theme of the Chesterton institue: to try to explore the ugly aspect of something that seems rather attractive."
"A great deal of what's wrong in the modern world," Fr. Boyd explained, citing George Orwell (who wrote early in his career for G.K.'s Weekly, a periodical publication Chesterton wrote from 1925 until his death in 1936), "is the use of euphemism that we find: of course, 'eugenics' was an example of it - a beautiful word for an ugly thing."
Click below to hear their extended conversation
Chesterton led a campaign against a proposed law in the UK - the The Mental Deficiency Act 1913, an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that sought to provide for the institutional treatment of people deemed "feeble-minded" and "moral[ly] defective" - which some eugenics proponents argued ought to have contained compulsory sterilization and other provisions that were highly controversial at the time. The bill passed and became law, though without the provisions Chesterton considered most offensive.
Fr. Boyd and Prof. Quinn both warn that, in our day, policies and programs once rejected as inhuman are making their way - have already made their way - into law and gained social acceptability in many countries.
(Vatican Radio) The Press Office of the Holy See released a statement on Friday, clarifying the reason for which the independent audit of some areas of Vatican finances being conducted by the financial services agency, PricewaterhouseCoopers, had been suspended, and announcing a new agreement between the parties, under which the accounting firm shall resume its work. Below, please find the full text of the official English-language statement.**************************************************As previously noted, with respect to the relationship between the Holy See and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) it was deemed useful to suspend auditing activity to examine the meaning and scope of certain contract clauses, as well as to examine the manner in which the contract was executed. Together with PwC, those issues were duly examined in an atmosphere of serene collaboration, resolving the questions originally identified. In particular, it was recognized that, by law, the task of performing ...
(Vatican Radio) The Press Office of the Holy See released a statement on Friday, clarifying the reason for which the independent audit of some areas of Vatican finances being conducted by the financial services agency, PricewaterhouseCoopers, had been suspended, and announcing a new agreement between the parties, under which the accounting firm shall resume its work. Below, please find the full text of the official English-language statement.
**************************************************
As previously noted, with respect to the relationship between the Holy See and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) it was deemed useful to suspend auditing activity to examine the meaning and scope of certain contract clauses, as well as to examine the manner in which the contract was executed. Together with PwC, those issues were duly examined in an atmosphere of serene collaboration, resolving the questions originally identified. In particular, it was recognized that, by law, the task of performing the financial statement audit is entrusted to the Office of the Auditor General (URG), as is normally the case for every sovereign state. Given that, in conformity with the legal framework in force this institutional responsibility falls upon the URG, PwC will play an assisting role and will also be available to those dicasteries that wish to avail themselves of its support and consulting services. It is important to clarify that, contrary to what has been reported by some sources, the suspension was not due to considerations regarding the integrity or the quality of PwC’s work, nor is it attributable to the desire of one or more entities of the Holy See to hinder reforms. The path towards a correct and appropriate implementation of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) is normally complex and prolonged. That path requires a series of legislative choices as well as the adoption of administrative and accounting procedures, which are presently under development. Keeping in mind the valued activity already carried out by PwC, the Holy See announces that the parties, have entered into a new agreement which, in conformity with the institutional framework, provides for a broader collaboration with PwC that is adaptable to the Holy See’s needs. This agreement permits all of the entities of the Holy See to participate more actively in the reforms under way. With this initiative, the Holy See will promptly reassume its collaboration with PwC. The commitment to the economic-financial audit of the Holy See and of the State of Vatican City has been, and remains, a priority.
