Catholic News 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Two bodies and the wreckage of a small plane were found Sunday by divers searching in the water off Southern California for evidence following a midair collision believed to have killed three people, authorities said....
NEW YORK (AP) -- From a strange creature called "Puppymonkeybaby" to a tear-inducing Audi ad, Super Bowl ads ran the gamut this year from offbeat humor to heartfelt messages....
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- A reborn Orange Crush might have sent Peyton Manning into retirement with a Super ending to his career....
WASHINGTON-Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on everyone "concerned about the tragedy of abortion" to recommit to a "vision of life and love, a vision that excludes no one" on January 14. His statement marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cardinal Dolan chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops."Most Americans oppose a policy allowing legal abortion for virtually any reason - though many still do not realize that this is what the Supreme Court gave us," wrote Cardinal Dolan. "Most want to protect unborn children at later stages of pregnancy, to regulate or limit the practice of abortion, and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of unborn children. Yet many who support important goals of the pro-life movement do not identify as 'pro-life,' a fact which should lead us to examine how we present our pro-life vision to others.""Even as Americans rema...
WASHINGTON-Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York called on everyone "concerned about the tragedy of abortion" to recommit to a "vision of life and love, a vision that excludes no one" on January 14. His statement marks the 43rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. Cardinal Dolan chairs the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"Most Americans oppose a policy allowing legal abortion for virtually any reason - though many still do not realize that this is what the Supreme Court gave us," wrote Cardinal Dolan. "Most want to protect unborn children at later stages of pregnancy, to regulate or limit the practice of abortion, and to stop the use of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of unborn children. Yet many who support important goals of the pro-life movement do not identify as 'pro-life,' a fact which should lead us to examine how we present our pro-life vision to others."
"Even as Americans remain troubled by abortion," wrote Cardinal Dolan, a powerful and well-funded lobby holds "that abortion must be celebrated as a positive good for women and society, and those who cannot in conscience provide it are to be condemned for practicing substandard medicine and waging a 'war on women'." He said this trend was seen recently when President Obama and other Democratic leaders prevented passage of the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act, "a modest measure to provide for effective enforcement" of conscience laws.
"While this is disturbing," said Cardinal Dolan, "it is also an opportunity." Pro-life Americans should reach out to "the great majority of Americans" who are "open to hearing a message of reverence for life." He added that "we who present the pro-life message must always strive to be better messengers. A cause that teaches the inexpressibly great value of each and every human being cannot show disdain or disrespect for any fellow human being." He encouraged Catholics to take part, through prayer and action, in the upcoming "9 Days for Life" campaign, January 16-24. More information on the campaign is available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJwfcefUiU
He also cited the Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis as a time for women and men to find healing through the Church's Project Rachel post-abortion ministry.
The full text of Cardinal Dolan's message is available online.
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Keywords: Roe v. Wade, anniversary, Pro-Life, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, 9 Days for Life, USCCB, U.S. bishops, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Year of Mercy, Project Rachel, Pope Francis
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MEDIA CONTACT
Don Clemmer
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WASHINGTON-The Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, February 1, on behalf of USCCB, the Texas Catholic Conference and several Christian partners in support of a Texas law mandating health and safety standards protecting women who undergo abortions. Other groups joining the brief include the National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. The case is Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, currently before the U.S. Supreme Court."There is ample evidence in this case that hospital admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements protect women's lives and health," said the brief. "When such requirements are not enforced, abuses detrimental to women's lives and health arise."The brief noted that some abortion clinics have decla...
"There is ample evidence in this case that hospital admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements protect women's lives and health," said the brief. "When such requirements are not enforced, abuses detrimental to women's lives and health arise."
The brief noted that some abortion clinics have declared the standards too strict, although the standards are similar to those issued by the abortion industry. It added that abortion providers "should not be allowed to rely upon their own failure to comply with health and safety laws" as a reason to strike such laws down. The brief said the providers' resistance to such regulations is not in the best interests of women's health and safety. It also noted that over 40 years of precedent, including the Court's 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, reaffirms that states may regulate abortion to protect maternal life and health.
Full text of the brief is available online: www.usccb.org/about/general-counsel/amicus-briefs/upload/Whole-Woman-s-Health-v-Hellerstedt.pdf
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Keywords: General Counsel, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Texas law abortion, amicus curia, National Association of Evangelicals, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, U.S. Supreme Court
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Vatican City, Feb 7, 2016 / 04:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s recent financial reforms have the common good – not just efficiency – as their end, said an economist on the Holy See’s financial council. “With a more efficient system, with the elimination of waste, we would be able to release more funds which can go for the poor and which can go for the marginalized to be able to build more hospitals, to build more educational facilities,” said Joseph Zahra, a Maltese economist who serves on the Holy See’s Council for the Economy, at a Feb. 4 presentation at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.“It’s not just we need to have a more efficient system,” he continued, “there is ultimately a return out of these reforms.”Joseph F. X. Zahra, a top advisor for and architect of the Vatican’s recent financial reforms, formerly directed the Central Bank of Malta and headed the Bank of Valet...
Vatican City, Feb 7, 2016 / 04:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s recent financial reforms have the common good – not just efficiency – as their end, said an economist on the Holy See’s financial council.
“With a more efficient system, with the elimination of waste, we would be able to release more funds which can go for the poor and which can go for the marginalized to be able to build more hospitals, to build more educational facilities,” said Joseph Zahra, a Maltese economist who serves on the Holy See’s Council for the Economy, at a Feb. 4 presentation at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
“It’s not just we need to have a more efficient system,” he continued, “there is ultimately a return out of these reforms.”
Joseph F. X. Zahra, a top advisor for and architect of the Vatican’s recent financial reforms, formerly directed the Central Bank of Malta and headed the Bank of Valetta. He is currently vice coordinator of the Holy See’s Council for the Economy – their “finance cabinet” as he described it – and is the highest-ranking lay person on the council.
Zahra spoke on Pope Francis’ financial reforms at the Vatican and how they reflect his calls for a reform of the global economic system.
Pope Francis has insisted that the economy must be at the service of the common good, Zahra explained, but as a man of action, he wanted to put his words into action.
Ultimately, he introduced changes in the Vatican Curia to ensure that “a higher level of efficiency in administration, better allocation of resources in administration, a higher level of professionalism in the way things are done would ultimately give us a return which has a direct impact also for the common good,” Zahra explained.
In 2013, Pope Francis created an investigatory commission to examine the Holy See’s administrative structures, the “Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See.” On it were seven lay experts, one clerical secretary, and external consultants.
The members worked from August of 2013 until May of 2014 and made recommendations to ensure greater simplicity, transparency, integrity, and accounting standards within the Vatican.
Two members of the commission were later arrested in 2015 for stealing and leaking confidential information about Francis’ papacy. Pope Francis, however, was insistent that the financial reforms continue. “This sad fact certainly does not deter me from the reform efforts which we are pushing forward with my collaborators and with the support of all of you,” he told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 8, 2015.
In his Feb. 2014 apostolic letter “Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens,” the Pope announced structural changes in the Curia.
He created the Council for the Economy, a “finance cabinet” of eight cardinals and seven lay experts. He established the positon of Secretariat for the Economy which is akin to a country’s Minister of Finance, Zahra explained. The Pope also created the Office of Auditor General, an autonomous office with the power to conduct special investigations.
With these actions, he explained, the Pope wanted to emphasize the universal Church through universal representation within the Roman Curia, not just a heavily Roman or European representation.
He also wanted to incorporate technical expertise from lay financial experts, to update the Vatican’s accounting to modern international standards.
The ultimate goal, Zahra explained, is that greater efficiency and transparency with the Vatican’s finances will yield higher gains and ultimately benefit the common good. The Vatican Bank reported $75.5 million in net profits in 2014 after only $3.2 million in profits in 2013 largely due to the costs of the reforms.
Pope Francis could then, with approval of the bank’s commission of cardinals, dispense the majority of the profits to charities.
The Pope is so concerned about the global economy – and the Vatican’s finances in particular – because he has taught that the human person is at the heart of the economy, Zahra explained, and that behind the recent economic crisis was an even greater “human crisis.”
“What saddens the Pope,” Zahra said, “is really also the monstrosity of social decay, the monstrosity of poverty, the marginalization which is…most of the time the result of human abuse of the way we do economics.”
These economic abuses are reflected in decision-making of both business owners and consumers -- “greed, selfishness, dishonesty, lack of transparency,” he listed. When these abuses are rampant, the dignity of the human person is discarded or marginalized.
This leads to what the Pope has called “an economy of exclusion and inequality” where many persons are unable to put their God-given talents to use for the greater common good because they are either unemployed or exploited by their employers.
“We all have our own talents, and different talents. And if these talents are not being used or are not being given the opportunity to use them,” he explained, “then what you end up with is really a situation of misery.”
The solution to this is “solidarity,” he insisted, an economic system which is rooted in human dignity and that empowers everyone to become “artisans of their own destiny.”
In a free market that is ordered to the common good, people are able to put their talents and creativity to use for society through work and innovation, he said. The common good, he clarified, is not just the good of today’s society but the good of future generations.
This responsibility for the impact our decisions have on future generations was highlighted in Pope Francis’ recent encyclical Laudato Si, Zahra explained.
TAINAN, Taiwan (AP) -- The death toll from a powerful earthquake that toppled a high-rise apartment building in Taiwan rose to at least 34, according to government figures Monday, with rescuers digging through rubble for survivors more than 48 hours after the quake struck....
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) -- Bernie Sanders promises voters a "political revolution" that will fundamentally remake the American economy and its education and health care systems....
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Security video footage taken at Mogadishu airport shows two men handing what looks like a laptop computer to the suspected suicide bomber after he passed through the security checkpoint, Somalia's government spokesman said Sunday....
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council on Sunday strongly condemned North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket that world leaders denounced as a banned test of dangerous ballistic missile technology and another "intolerable provocation." The U.N.'s most powerful body pledged to quickly adopt a new resolution with "significant" new sanctions....
