Benedict XVI believes that the Church has an ethical contribution to make in a pluralistic democratic society. He affirmed that the Church serves all members of society "by shedding light on the foundation of morality and ethics, and by purifying reason, ensuring that it remains open to the consideration of ultimate truths and draws upon wisdom."
Benedict XVI again reiterated his plea that an alliance be re-created between humanity and the environment, urging that cooperation intensity in the promotion of the common good. "I desire that, on the part of everyone, cooperation intensify to the end of promoting the common good, development, and the safeguarding of creation, returning to the alliance between man and the environment, which must be a mirror of God the Creator, from whom we come and toward whom we are journeying."
Today the liturgy re-proposes for our meditation the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, one of the high points and one of the most moving of all pages of sacred Scripture. The evangelist Luke has gathered together 3 parables of divine mercy in this chapter.
Catholic Church officials in Munich have called on the city to withdrawal its approval for the MTV Europe Music Awards to be hosted in the Bavarian capital on a religious holiday, but the mayor said the show must go on.
The Defense Minister said he would give the order to shoot down a plane that has been hijacked for an attack, despite a ruling by the country's constitutional court banning such action.
Germany's military presence in Afghanistan is becoming so unpopular that it could force Chancellor Merkel's coalition government to reconsider its support for the US counterterrorism operation there, legislators said Sunday. The growing unpopularity stunned the government over the weekend when the opposition Greens voted against prolonging mandates that come up for renewal next month and in November, and when another opposition movement, the Left Party, held a big antiwar demonstration in Berlin.
The Prime Minister of Serbia has added his voice to a growing wave of anti-Western sentiment in his government, accusing NATO of trying to establish its own ministate in Kosovo, and ruling out his country's membership in the alliance. "How else can one name a structure in which NATO has unlimited powers but 'a NATO state.'"
The Russian president is at the top of his game, and he knows it. He is powerful, popular and master of a country that he has led from bankruptcy and despair to enormous wealth and power in the space of less than 8 years.
The EU's Afghan police-training mission is running into severe problems: Its commander has been sent home just months after his appointment, and Germany has refused to send its police trainers to the volatile southern provinces of the country. On Thursday, the NATO Secretary-General asked the German government to allow for its police trainers to be deployed in southern Afghanistan, where the international troops are waging intense battles against the Taliban and local warlords. The German government refused, stressing it would continue to focus on the northern provinces. The failed request comes as the Kabul-based German commander of the police training mission has been sent home for unknown reasons some 3 months after his appointment.
There are so many, still, who "can't handle the truth," and that is all too understandable.
A retired Israeli diplomat quoted in Al-Jazeera who has been negotiating with Syrian officials expressed his concern over the Israeli operation: "I see here an Israeli message that is very aggressive and I'm worried." Whether or not Syria is to be targeted as well as Iran, the Israeli action was meant to send a clear message that it is vulnerable and should not attempt to help Iran in the event of a US attack.
Late in August, Mohamed ElBaradei put the finishing touches on a nuclear accord negotiated in secret with Iran. With no advance notice or media strategy, ElBaradei ordered the plan released in the evening. And then he waited. The next day, diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the US marched into his office atop a Vienna skyscraper to deliver a joint protest.
President Ahmadinejad on Sunday proposed holding a public debate with Presdident Bush at the UN this month and a "global referendum" to decide who was right. "I proposed it last year. I will go to New York. Let's sit down and talk. But not behind closed doors. I propose discussing international questions at the UN General Assembly in order to solve them."
A warning from the French Foreign Minister that the world has to prepare for a possible war with Iran over its nuclear programme triggered alarm in the Middle East and elsewhere Monday. Iran's official media launched a scathing response to the remarks, made in a broadcast interview Sunday evening, and accused Paris of pandering to the US.
German Green legislators called on President Bush to abandon its "confrontational" policy vis-a-vis the Islamic Republic of Iran. "The recommendations of the non-partisan Baker-Hamilton commission which urged political initiatives in Iraq and the region, have to be implemented instead of having pointless military maneuvers. A confrontational policy towards Syria and Iran does not lead anywhere."
Quoting official sources, the Western media is now confirming, rather belatedly, that the Bush Administration's war plans directed against Iran are "for real" and should be taken seriously. "Punitive bombings" directed against Tehran could be launched within the next few months. Escalation could lead us into a WW3 scenario. Despite the overtly aggressive nature of US statements, these war plans directed against Iran, which in a real sense threaten the future of humanity, are not the object of public concern or debate. They are simply not front page news.
Despite the catastrophes that the Bush administration has created in Iraq and Afghanistan, all the evidence points to it launching a reckless, new military adventure against Iran with disastrous consequences, not only for the Iranian people, but throughout the region and internationally.
I have not been reticent about my belief that Bush is an evil man with no loyalty to the US or the Constitution, that he has never been a conservative. All that being said, I have always looked on with bemusement as the increasingly unhinged left wing of the Democratic party has raged irrationally about this supposedly "conservative" president. But after his comments about the state of the Iraqi occupation last week, I began to understand how incredibly infuriating the president's blithe and unblinking lying can be.
No, we can't change history; and yes, I know that the Constitution is accepted as not only legitimate, but authoritative, and binding. But the unpleasant history of the origin of the Constitution should at least help to quash the epidemic of Constitution worship among those who wish to return to its principles. Although we would certainly be much better off if we returned to the limited government that the Constitution was supposed to set up – and perhaps that is the best we can hope for – it would be better if we could return to the government that the Framers of the Constitution destroyed.
(WND op-ed: 220 years ago today)
The right wing consistently claims that the problem with this country (how come they're allowed to say there are problems with this country, but if anyone else suggests that America is anything less than perfect they are suspected of treason?) is moral relativism. Moral relativism, they claim, is tantamount to an "anything goes" philosophy where there is no right and wrong. Thus, people just "do their own thing," common decency and virtue go out the window, and society is destroyed. There are more things wrong with the right-wing claim above than I can hope to fit into this brief article, but I simply want to expand on a few of the more glaring problems.
Amid the clatter of popular books attacking religion, one of the more frequent accusations made is that faith is guilty of fomenting political conflict. Clearly, it can't be denied that religion is sometimes a factor in provoking dissension. On the other hand, it can also be powerful force for good both in national and international politics. A study published by the Washington, DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, provides an interesting overview of the interplay between faith-related factors and the foreign policy of the US.
Yes and no...
It's a question that strikes fear in the secular progressive. It sends shivers down the spine of a skeptic. It rattles the cage of cultural combatants. And it prompts flat out anger in the hearts of religious antagonists. Did our country's Founders build a nation upon the bedrock of Christian belief and practice? Or was their republic irreligious or a secular state, embedded within a dominantly deistic worldview?
[WAR: "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger and the staff in whose hand is My indignation. I will send him against an ungodly nation, and against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, to seize the spoil, to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets." (Isa 10:5,6); "But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away." (Jer 5:23); "Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their fathers have been in revolt against me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn." (Eze 2:3,4)]
On Wall Street, now more so than any time in recent memory, everyone is holding their breath and fearing the worst. Four of the biggest US investment banks will report 3rd-quarter earnings in the next several days.
The collapse of Britain's 5th largest mortgage lender, has added a new dimension to the global financial crisis.
All the evidence over the weekend suggested that neither the Bank of England nor the Government was knocking heads together in the City, either to reopen the money market for Northern Rock or to find a corporate saviour. There is a serious risk that Britain's controlled experiment in market-based central banking will go wrong – perhaps this week.
US house prices are likely to fall significantly from their present levels, Alan Greenspan has told the Financial Times, admitting that there was a bubble in the US housing market. In an interview ahead of the release today of his widely-anticipated memoirs, he said the decline in house prices "is going to be larger than most people expect".
We forget now, but Alan Greenspan first rose in Washington as a political aide to Richard Nixon - not as an economist. His mentor was Arthur Burns, the Fed chief who flooded the money supply to re-elect Nixon in 1972, and fathered the Great Inflation. A central banker should be feared, like a judge. Greenspan was too eager to please. By the end he had become a rock star, so enthralled by media attention that he was unwilling to retire quietly and leave his successor in peace.
Ethiopians just began the celebration of their year 2000, and the archbishop of the country's capital hopes this millennium will be a chance to make Ethiopia better known. According to the Ethiopian calendar, based on ancient Egyptian astronomical calculations and on the Coptic, Hebrew and Julian calendars, Ethiopia began the year 2000 on Tuesday.
Revelations From the Lost Pages of History.
A collection of historical quotations from every century where the Sabbath was observed by Christians around the world.
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