"The WAR on error"
For years it was derided by unwilling schoolboys for being "as dead as dead could be". Now, despite the Vatican's best efforts, the Pope's top adviser on Latin has reluctantly joined them by saying the language of St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas is almost extinct. "It is dying in the Church. I'm not optimistic about Latin. The young priests and bishops are not studying it."
Here is a translation of the pastoral letter written by Archbishop Forte, member of the International Theological Commission, on the theme "The Word for Living: Sacred Scripture and the Beauty of God."
The rich, the poor and their advocates, lay and clerical, gather in different places to ponder the fate of the earth. The Catholic church has been an advocate for the poor—even more so under Pope Benedict XVI. On his watch, the church has spoken up more in favour of debt relief, land rights and fair elections. In his previous role as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was harsh on “liberation theology”, which sought to equate salvation with socialism. But as pope, he has certainly not discouraged social welfare activities to help the poor.
Among some Catholics in Nairobi, there was a clear trace of sympathy for the “Christian socialism” proclaimed by leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Bolivia's Evo Morales, and Nicaragua's newly returned Sandinista, Daniel Ortega. Mr Chávez swore himself in for a second term earlier this month “in the name of Christ, the greatest socialist in history”.
Religion is also present in Davos, if you know where to look amid the lords of Mammon. A bit of healthy competition, then, to find out which miracle is easier to perform: answering the cries of the poor or muffling the sound of civilisations clashing.
The foreign minister said he won't resign over intensifying accusations that he blocked a US offer to release an innocent Guantanamo Prison inmate.
With residents of a Berlin neighborhood deeply unhappy about the opening of a new Scientology center, city officials have found a creative way of limiting the church's activity. Because Scientology is considered a business and not a church in Germany, it falls under the country's rigid Sunday closing law.
(WND: "Never on Sunday")
As one of the most famous Holocaust deniers goes on trial in Germany, the EU takes steps to criminalize denying the Shoah.
Holocaust denial is profoundly wrong. But should it be illegal?
Germany's economy has regained its lost competitiveness, but it may come at the expense of Spain, where wages are rising fast. Spain now has the2nd-largest current-account deficit in the world in dollar terms and looks dangerously overheated. Germany's resurgence has set a challenge for the euro zone's southern members. Without the option of devaluation, their medium-term outlook looks less than rosy.
A new economic history argues that Europe's institutions must adapt if the continent is to thrive in future. There are two popular views of the European economy: it is either a “phoenix” or a “basket case”.
The EU is a model that could work anywhere, says the new EU ambassador to Korea; the question is, is there the political will to go down that path? Along with the newly opened EU Center at Seoul National University, the embassy will hold a seminar to discuss the EU as a model and how some of its principles can be applied to this part of the world. While details are still being hammered out, the ambassador was able to announce that the prime minister of the German state of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber, will be coming to Seoul.
Facts: Kosovo is Serbian. The Serbian nation has always included Kosovo. Kosovo is the heart that beats at the centre of the Serb psyche. The recent meddling by Martti Ahtissaari with his absurd plan for independence not only defies logic, its acceptance by 5 of the 6 members of the Group of Contact (also G8 members) must have Mussolini and Hitler laughing in their graves, for this was their plan for a Greater Albania. History yet again proves Albania wrong and Serbia right.
Prior to the onset of European colonization a century ago, generations of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Palestinians cohabited in the Holy Land with little or no conflict. Zionism’s arrival opened a vein of intolerance that eventually grew into a river of bloodshed that flows directly into the sea of violence and chaos gripping the region today.
A 3rd World War is already underway between Islamic militancy and the West but most people do not realize it, the former head of Israel’s Mossad said in an interview published yesterday in Portugal.
UPI analysis
The last month has seen a period of heightened levels of instability and suffering in the Middle East.
Two colonels, one lieutenant colonel and two command sergeants major were among the 12 soldiers killed last weekend in a Black Hawk helicopter crash northeast of Baghdad, the Pentagon said. It appeared to be the largest number of key officers and command sergeants killed in a single incident since the Iraq war started. The loss of such pivotal figures is likely to be a severe blow to their units.
Hmmm...
The Foreign Ministry spokesman said today that Iran was pondering a message received from certain US officials and politicians. Asked what the message was, he refused to say what it was, saying only that "it will be divulged in due time." Asked to name the US officials or politicians who sent the message, he replied that their names could not also be announced at this time.
Iran's Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs said yesterday that enemies are waging a psychological war on Iran to make it yield to their demands. "The enemies are using various kinds of psychological warfare, including spreading of rumors of an impending military attack on Iran." He said that even if the US did have the desire to attack Iran, it could not because of several reasons: Iran's military strength, geographical location and US military failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Saudi Arabia told an Iranian envoy this month that Shia power Iran was putting the Gulf region in danger. King Abdullah also issued a veiled warning to Iran to quit what he said were efforts to spread Shi’ism in the Sunni-dominated Arab world.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said he would demand an explanation from the US over its military build-up in the Middle East and criticised Washington for "hardline" policies against Iran.
Some involved in the increasingly aggressive standoff over Iran fear tensions will reach snapping point between March and June this year, with a likely scenario being Israeli air strikes on symbolic Iranian nuclear plants. The sense of imminent crisis has been driven by statements from Israel, not least from Prime Minister Olmert, who has insisted that 2007 is make-or-break time over Iran's nuclear programme. The escalating sense of crisis is being driven by two imminent events, the 'installation' of 3,000 centrifuges at Natanz and the scheduled delivery of fuel from Russia for Iran's Busheyr civil nuclear reactor, due to start up this autumn. Both are regarded as potential trigger points for an Israeli attack.
America’s moral authority is plummeting as Washington does its best spreading its arrogance and egoism all over the world.
There is much less than meets the eye to Bush's supposed concessions. Generally, they mask the fact that he either got what he wanted from Congress or found a way to add some other veneer of legitimacy to his lawless behavior. The campaign to expand presidential power goes on.
History teaches that all nations, like all individuals, have a beginning and an end. No country is immortal. No nation is invincible. To make the point less delicately, America will one day cease to exist. And it may be useful, especially given the multiple crises now developing, to contemplate the mortality of the world’s most powerful country.
Three hundred years ago this month, the land of my birth gave up its own parliament, and hence its legislative sovereignty, under the terms of the Act of Union with England. This was far from an inevitable English takeover, since the Scots had (and retain) their own distinct legal system and Presbyterian Church.
Ministers from 24 key trading nations yesterday backed a "quick resumption" of the frozen Doha Round of global trade talks after a meeting in Davos.
UPI analysis
For business executives and others on the world's A-list of wheelers and dealers, Davos remains a place to network on a global scale. The question remains, though, whether the hobnobbing actually translates into achieving the objectives that organizers of the World Economic Forum have outlined.
News from the now concluded Davos 'World Economic Forum' event in Switzerland: US officials were given a hard time and were hauled over the coals by senior foreign Government figures who individually and collectively expressed their disgust and anger at the continued corruption of the US authorities and of named holders of high office. Concerning holders of high office, Henry M. Paulson is still in office but is not in power. Following his arrest fiasco, his wings have been severely clipped, and he has not been in control of the financial levers for many weeks.
Paranoid Protestant Preaching Prophecy Poop...
God has given us all a look at the future in the last book of the New Testament, called the book of Revelation. As a student and teacher of Bible prophecy for over 30 years, it is my understanding that the next event on the prophetic calendar will be the disappearance of millions of Christians simultaneously around the world.
When they arrived in America in 1620, the most precious cargo the Pilgrims carried with them was the Bible. Have you ever wondered which version of the Bible they brought to America on the Mayflower? It was not the King James Version of 1611. It was an earlier version not sanctioned by the government – the 1599 Geneva Bible, a forgotten yet priceless treasure.
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