Benedict XVI presented his theological master, Augustine of Hippo, as a model for conversion in today's world. "In this hour let us thank God for the great light that radiates from the wisdom and humility of St. Augustine."
The prior general of the Augustinians says that Benedict XVI's reflections on the Fathers of the Church is the apex of the re-evalution of those figures begun with the Second Vatican Council. The bishop of Hippo was the topic of the then Father Joseph Ratzinger's doctoral thesis. In this interview, the prior general reflects on the pope's fascination with St. Augustine.
The Pope has spoken out on a number of occasions on matters related to poverty and economic development. "Once again I invite the leaders of the wealthiest nations to take the necessary steps to ensure that poor countries, which often have a wealth of natural resources, are able to benefit from the fruits of goods that are rightfully theirs." The Pope also called for a renewed commitment to solidarity and cooperation between states. By so doing the spirit of justice, peace and harmony will be built up among peoples, he concluded. A timely message for a world in which many suffer from material and spiritual poverty.
Access to water is in fact one of the inalienable rights of every human being, because it is a prerequisite for the realization of the majority of the other human rights, such as the rights to life, to food and to health. For this reason, water "cannot be treated as just another commodity among many, and it must be used rationally and in solidarity with others. ... The right to water ... finds its basis in human dignity and not in any kind of merely quantitative assessment that considers water as a merely economic good. Without water, life is threatened. Therefore, the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right"
Germans are not ready yet to mothball their country's 17 nuclear power plants despite government plans to gradually abandon atomic energy by the year 2021. CSU leader Edmund Stoiber urged the center-right government to renege on its grand coalition agreement with the co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) to shut down Germany's remaining nuclear reactors in a bid to lower Germany's dependence on foreign energy sources. "One should be able to discuss this without provoking a fight within the coalition."
Differences between Soviet newcomers and longstanding members looks set to fracture the Jewish community in the German capital.
Referendum double-talk in London, and danger in Berlin. The EU bureaucracy has become a burden for the European nations. The constitutional treaty would only make that worse.
A new "Battle of Kosovo" is fast approaching and the first shots have already been fired. This stage of the struggle will be between diplomats. Behind the scenes, some diplomats and others have already begun to mull over what may happen if Plan A fails. However, no one wants to talk about this in public. Nobody - yet - wants to contemplate disaster in Kosovo.
Syria aided by Iran is making preparations for a summer war with Israel, including acquisition of advanced weaponry, placement of missiles near the Jewish state's border, and training and movements of strategic troop battalions, Israeli security officials told WND. (They said) Syria is preparing for a summer war, but said the war preparations are defensive in nature.
The Zionists have adopted a strategy similar to the one they adopted after the Oslo Accords, i.e. they are killing time and trying to create division among the Palestinian resistance groups in order to force them to drop their demands.
One wonders if these officials ever bother with a casual reading of the Israeli press to check if these venerable orthodoxies are holding water. Orthodoxies are hard to question even when they fly so blatantly in the face of facts. Notions like the "road map" and the "two-state solution" are recipes for further aggravating the situation graphically evident in this weekend's Israeli press.
For some time, the US had had an emergency plan to attack Israel, a plan updated just prior to the 1967 war, aimed at preventing Israel from expanding westward, into Sinai, or eastward, into the West Bank.
Iran's Oil Minister said that an Iran-Austria $30 billion agreement was the major step towards export of Iranian gas to Europe. "Given the world's limited energy reserves and the decisive role of gas in the energy basket of consumer countries, Europe held talks with Iran about purchase of gas. The document, which was signed on Saturday afternoon, is an agreement on sale of LNG and participation in a joint project."
Iran rejected Western calls for a suspension of its sensitive nuclear activities just days ahead of crucial talks on its atomic drive with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. "Halting uranium enrichment is definitely deleted from the literature of Iran's nuclear activities. In our negotiations the halting of this activity has not been on the table and going back on time is not envisaged."
"Ass to the blast"...
A joint task force involving the military, Department of Homeland Security and police is set to begin a sophisticated and realistic drill today on how to respond to a terrorist nuclear bomb detonated on US soil. Dubbed "Nobel Resolve '07," the series of tests are a follow-up to a similar operation last year called "Urban Resolve" and will run through Friday.
Police and EMT workers at Virginia Tech tell us that campus police were given a federal order to stand down and not pursue killer Cho Seung-Hui as Monday's bloodshed unfolded. This explains the complete non-response of the police in the 2-hour gap between Cho's first 2 murders and the wider rampage that would follow later that morning.
The Prime Minister was yesterday said to be preparing to stand down on May 9. That will trigger a seven-week leadership election process in the Labour Party and a new PM - probably Gordon Brown - will move into 10 Downing Street at the end of June.
[WAR: Blair's last day is on the last day of Unleavened Bread ... how 'bout that.]
Centre-right Nicolas Sarkozy will face socialist Segolene Royal in a second round battle in two weeks time, following a huge turn out for the first round of French presidential elections.
(LX op/ed: Le Choix)
(LT op/ed: France needs Sarkozy)
Whether it's $50 to fill up your Prius or $130 for the Ford Expedition, $4-a-gallon gasoline is coming to a pump near you. Fuel prices are rising at a pace not seen since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita knocked out a third of the US oil refining industry in 2005.
The US dollar has dropped to a 27-month low against the euro as signs of slowing inflation and growth lessen the currency's appeal.
The EU and the US have agreed details of an economic pact to be signed off at a bilateral summit later this month, with common standards for companies and new posts to deal with transatlantic issues both in Washington and Brussels on the table.
Germany believes Paul Wolfowitz's position at the helm of the World Bank has become unsustainable, a German minister was quoted as saying. "The situation, as it is, is no longer acceptable. My conclusion is that Wolfowitz should do the bank a service and take the consequences himself. The sooner, the better."
The church of global free trade, which rules American politics with infallible pretensions, may have finally met its Martin Luther. An unlikely dissenter has come forward with a revised understanding of globalization that argues for thorough reformation. This man knows the global trading system from the inside because he is a respected veteran of multinational business. His ideas contain an explosive message: that what established authorities teach Americans about global trade is simply wrong - disastrously wrong for the US.
This week, while on his first visit to Canada, Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's millions of Anglicans, stepped into the debate which many see as on the verge of ripping the world-wide Anglican Community apart. During his stay in Canada, the Archbishop chose to weigh in on the hotly contested homosexuality debate raging among the various "provinces" of the Anglican Communion. he Archbishop of Canterbury stated that conservative Christians often misread portions of Romans chapter 1 in order to condemn the practice of homosexuality. He said that the passage is really meant to warn Christians not to have self-righteous attitudes when others fall into sin, and have very little, if anything, to do with homosexuality.
Most of the primary evidence, such as it is, about the life of Jesus is embodied in the Bible and the Koran. This writer, like most folks, has been taught that the New Testament was originally written in Greek (Koine). However, there are some who claim the NT was originally written in Aramaic.
Today we don't always agree on the names and times of our meals. Some of us have dinner at eight, while others have supper at five. It wasn't always that way.
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