"The WAR on error"
The Second Vatican Council teaches that "the Church celebrates the Paschal Mystery every seventh day, which day is appropriately called the 'Lord's Day' or 'Sunday'". From the very outset, this has been a stable element in the perception of the mystery of Sunday: "The Word", Origen affirms, "has moved the feast of the Sabbath to the day on which the light was produced and has given us as an image of true repose, Sunday, the day of salvation, the first day of the light in which the Savior of the world, after completing all his work with men and after conquering death, crossed the threshold of Heaven, surpassing the creation of the six days and receiving the blessed Sabbath and rest in God." Inspired by knowledge of this, St Ignatius of Antioch asserted: "We are no longer keeping the Sabbath, but the Lord's Day."
B16 on the path to peace (part 1)
On the World Day of Peace, Benedict XVI warned that the path to peace will be uncertain and wayward if it is not paved with a "true integral humanism."
Peace in the Church and the world is Benedict XVI's priority, says the Vatican secretary of state.
The Roman Catholic Church sees itself as the custodian of Polish culture. Even today, it still carries weight in the nation's politics. But fewer and fewer people are obeying its commandments.
More than 60 years after the end of WW2, the Germans seem ready to laugh about Hitler. But they might not split their sides if they go to see the country's first film comedy about the dictator which opens this week. It just isn't funny enough, say reviewers.
Right-wing violence in Germany has been on the rise in recent years. Now, the government in Berlin wants to do something about it. A new program aims at strengthening democratic values in the country.
For two years, I was Germany's only Euro-sceptic columnist. The editor of Die Welt had approached me because, tellingly, he couldn't find a single German writer prepared to criticise Brussels. The readers' letters I got during those two years opened my eyes to a very different Germany. Die Welt is, as it were, Germany's Daily Telegraph: intelligent, cultured, Right-of-centre. Its readers were cosmopolitan, and they loathed the Brussels racket. Every article I wrote provoked a crop of exasperated emails. "Why does it take a foreigner to write as you do," they would ask. "Why won't anyone in Germany say these things?"
Centre-right MEPs from the biggest political group in the European Parliament have elected a new chairman - Joseph Daul from the UMP party of French president Jacques Chirac.
Germany and the European Commission have downplayed a series of recent clashes over EU policies such as energy and justice matters. Commission officials throughout last year complained about Berlin obstructing key policy initiatives.
In a hearing at the European Court of Justice, EU member states argued about the extent to which a country can protect itself against competition from areas with weaker workers' rights — a topic exposing an ideological rift between old and new EU members over labor market restrictions designed to defend Western Europe's cherished social model.
The crisis over Russian oil supplies escalated into a full-scale confrontation with Europe yesterday as Chancellor Merkel condemned Moscow's decision to turn off the tap as "unacceptable". She said Russia's tactics were destroying its credibility as a reliable energy partner.
The sudden spike of alarm about Russia turning off the oil to Europe shows why Angela Merkel has picked the right moment to sound tough on Moscow.
Angela Merkel has been refreshingly undiplomatic in her response to Putin's latest bully-boy posturing over energy supplies.
German papers...
The latest energy spat between Russia and one of its former Soviet neighbors has cut off oil supplies to western Europe and led to fresh concerns over the west's dependence on Russian oil. It highlights how ruthless and arrogant Russia has become with its energy policy, and forces Europe to step up its search for alternative supplies, say German media commentators.
An unyielding President Putin raised the possibility of diverting oil transit routes away from Belarus, a day after Moscow cut off pipeline deliveries of crude oil headed to customers in Eastern and Central Europe through the country.
The interruption of oil supplies through the most important pipeline between Russia and Europe has unleashed a vigorous debate over the future supply of power to Europe. The current conflicts surrounding Russian energy supplies and the corresponding international reactions underscore the impossibility of any rational and peaceful use of world resources under a social system controlled by powerful companies and dominated by the drive for profit.
For Bush, victory is indeed at hand. It could come at any moment now, could already have been achieved by the time you read this. And the driving force behind his planned "surge" of American troops is the need to preserve those fruits of victory that are now ripening in his hand. At any time within the next few days, the Iraqi Council of Ministers is expected to approve a new "hydrocarbon law" essentially drawn up by the Bush Administration and its UK lackey. The new bill will "radically redraw the Iraqi oil industry and throw open the doors to the 3rd-largest oil reserves in the world."
The United Nations and European Union led international criticism yesterday of the US air strikes on Somalia amid fears they could contribute to an escalation of the conflict in the Horn of Africa.
It was the nightmare scenario that many across the Horn of Africa feared. Ethiopia invades Somalia.
"Everyone has a responsibility at this juncture of defending the national culture in an ongoing clash of thoughts." He said that hegemonic powers have "launched a cultural confrontation with independent nations aimed at flushing out their national identity, dignity and aspirations."
"Enemies are frustrated with the fruitlessness of their efforts to discredit the Iranian nation from outside the country. They now turn their efforts to sowing discord and cracking the unity enjoyed by the nation in order to obtain their goals."
Is the surge an orchestrated distraction from the real war plan? A good case can be made that it is. The US Congress and media are focused on President Bush’s proposal for an increase of 20,000 US troops in Iraq, while Israel and its American neoconservative allies prepare an assault on Iran.
Just days after the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed on his “700 Club” program that God had warned him of “mass killings” that would occur in the United States late in 2007, God held a rare press conference today to deny having spoken to the controversial televangelist. "I want to make it clear that at no time at the end of the year did I have any conversation with the Rev. Pat Robertson. Personally, I think the guy is delusional.”
Finally, some good news!...
Barely half the French population describe themselves as Catholic, according to a poll released yesterday, sparking a leading religious publication to declare France "no longer a Catholic country".
A house divided...
A titanic power struggle is being waged within the policy elite or power elite, or more simply the U.S. ruling class. The clash is taking place over the war on Iraq, U.S. policy toward Israel - and ultimately over the best way to run the U.S. empire.
To understand what it means to have the Democrats take control of Congress, you must look beyond Iraq—and past Ronald Reagan.
The CIA could be responsible for manufacturing the nearly-perfect counterfeit 50 and 100-dollar-notes that Washington pins on North Korea. The charge comes after an extensive investigation in Europe and Asia by the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung, and after interviews with counterfeit money experts and leading representatives of the high-security publishing industry. The sources, which do not wish to be identified, allege that the CIA prints the falsified "Supernotes" at a secret facility near Washington to fund covert operations without Congressional oversight.
There is a major conflict of views going on today. On one side are creditors. On the other side are stock investors.
The US agency best known for eavesdropping on telephone calls had a hand in the development of Microsoft's Vista operating system, Microsoft confirmed.
Yep!...
Fashions in female beauty come and go, but the desirability of a slim waist remains a constant, a study suggests.
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