Benedict XVI defines programs with content that is violent, antisocial or degrading of human sexuality as "unacceptable." The Pope's statement provoked applause from the tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square.
Here is a translation of the Pope's introduction to Cardinal Bertone's book "The Last Fatima Visionary: My Meetings With Sister Lucia."
A suicide attack by the Taliban, which killed 3 German soldiers and injured 5 others, has brought renewed calls from the left for the government to rethink the Bundeswehr's mission in Afghanistan.
Trade unions across the EU are preparing themselves to go on the offensive against the "big beasts" of private equity and hedge funds, believing their profit-oriented drive is undermining the bloc's social fabric.
Reviving European co-operation will be the top priority of Nicolas Sarkozy's first full working week as French President, with a Brussels visit planned to resolve the impasse over the EU's constitution.
The Turks may not have liked it, but the Israelis were intrigued. From Tangier to Tobruk, the area was last week weighing with suspicion an invitation from President Sarkozy to join a Mediterranean Union for settling regional woes. Some called it the "Club Med" – a joking reference to the holiday resorts – but the idea of binding European, Middle Eastern and north African countries in an economic bloc like the original European community was making diplomatic waves as the dynamic new French leader set about making his mark on the world stage.
Contrary to common perception, Jewish anti-Zionism is not restricted exclusively to the well know Jewish anti-Zionist movements such as Satmar and Neturei Karta. There are in fact many Jewish movements, groups and organizations whose ideology regarding Zionism and the so-called "State of Israel" is that of the unadulterated Torah position that any form of Zionism is heresy and that the existence of the so-called "State of Israel" is illegitimate.
The government of Israel will present a counter-proposal to the Arab peace initiative recently reaffirmed by the Arab League, Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Sunday during a panel debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.
Pakistan's top judge, whose suspension has destabilised President Musharraf, will address lawyers next weekend at an event likely to heighten the crisis, it was announced Sunday.
The Italian government on Saturday pressed Ethiopian troops to pull out from lawless Somalia and urged the rival factions there to observe a truce ahead of a key reconciliation conference in June.
Germany's Finance Minister warned that China's lending policies in Africa risked saddling the continent with a new round of crippling debt. China "largely ignores aspects of good governance in its policy of lending to countries such as Sudan and Angola," Berlin complained.
What's at stake in the battle for Darfur? Control over oil, lots and lots of oil. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples' National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control.
Iranian adviser to the judiciary Mohammad Javad Larijani has denied Tehran is promoting the policy of wiping Israel off the map. He blamed a deliberate distortion by the Western media and said, "Let me tell you one thing about taking Israel off the map. It was a by-product of the Western media." Similarly, Iran's Foreign Minister said in this regard during a G8 summit in Jordan, "One cannot wipe a country off the map. Every schoolboy knows you can't just erase a state from the face of the map, that is very clear."
Al-Qaida is aggressively recruiting black Americans for suicide operations against the homeland, say FBI analysts who have reviewed recent videotaped messages from the terror group's leaders.
The harshness of the critique was virtually unprecedented for an ex-president commenting on the performance of a successor, not to mention a key US ally. It was all the more unusual since it was directed against a sitting president. In the final analysis, Carter's denunciations of the Bush administration's policies reflect the extreme tensions and recriminations that are roiling the US ruling establishment as a result of the debacle that has been created by US policy in Iraq.
The US is the most hated country on the planet, followed by, to the extent that there is a distinction, Israel. So far as I know, there are no other contenders. No country ever lives up to its own PR, but there was a time when America was widely admired. Now, almost universally, it is seen as a rogue state. And is.
The average price of self-serve regular gasoline hit a record high of $3.18 per gallon, rising more than 11 cents over the past 2 weeks.
The price is raising questions about whether there is price gouging in the oil market. The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on investigations is to hold a hearing Tuesday into evidence of possible price gouging and other market manipulation by oil companies.The Joint Economic Committee is set to hold a hearing Wednesday entitled "Breaking Up the Oil Companies," on whether US consumers have been harmed by industry megamergers.
For the time being, US dependence on Venezuelan oil will sustain Chavez's plan to nationalize other industries such as banking and steel, and continue to push Latin America away from the Washington Consensus.
The Consummation of the Affair
The older Christian wedding vows contained these amazing words: "With my body, I thee worship." Maybe our forefathers weren't so prudish after all; maybe they understood sex far better than we do. To give yourself over to another, passionately and nakedly, to adore that person body, soul, and spirit—we know there is something special, even sacramental about sex. It requires trust and abandonment, guided by a wholehearted devotion. What else can this be but worship? After all, God employs explicitly sexual language to describe faithfulness (and unfaithfulness) to him.
For us creatures of the flesh, sexual intimacy is the closest parallel we have to real worship. Even the world knows this. Why else would sexual ecstasy become the number one rival to communion with God? The best impostors succeed because they are nearly indistinguishable from what they are trying to imitate. We worship sex because we don't know how to worship God. But we will.
We have grown cynical, as a society, about whether intimacy is really possible. To the degree that we have abandoned soul-one-ness, we have sought out merely sex, physical sex, to ease the pain. But the full union is no longer there; the orgasm comes incomplete; its heart has been taken away. Many have been deeply hurt. Sometimes, we must learn from what we have not known, let it teach us what ought to be. God's design was that the two shall become one flesh. The physical oneness was meant to be the expression of a total interweaving of being. Is it any wonder that we crave this? Our alienation is removed, if only for a moment, and in the paradox of love, we are at the same time known and yet taken beyond ourselves. (The Journey of Desire , 134–35)
We have grown cynical, as a society, about whether intimacy is really possible. To the degree that we have abandoned soul-one-ness, we have sought out merely sex, physical sex, to ease the pain. But the full union is no longer there; the orgasm comes incomplete; its heart has been taken away. Many have been deeply hurt. Sometimes, we must learn from what we have not known, let it teach us what ought to be. God's design was that the two shall become one flesh. The physical oneness was meant to be the expression of a total interweaving of being. Is it any wonder that we crave this? Our alienation is removed, if only for a moment, and in the paradox of love, we are at the same time known and yet taken beyond ourselves. (The Journey of Desire , 134–35)
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