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Compiled by Steve Jalsevac
Christianity the reason for West’s success, say the Chinese – Iona Institute
In the West we are doing our best to destroy our Christian heritage but in China, Chinese intellectuals are coming around to the view that it is precisely this heritage that has made the West so successful.
Niall Ferguson’s new book, ‘Civilisation: The West and the Rest’, carries a quote from a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in which he tries to account for the success of the West, to date. He said: “One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world.
“We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. “Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. “But in the past twenty years, we have realised that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West is so powerful.
“The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is an instrument of the Chinese Communist government which spends a not inconsiderable amount of time and money persecuting Christians and is officially atheistic.
What’s wrong with the West? by Robert P. George and William L. Saunders – Mercator
Is the West in decline because it has lost touch with its Christian roots?
In the past, when armies of aggression threatened our society, those threats were met with nerve and with steel. We pray God that steel will never be necessary again, but certainly it will require nerves of steel – steely determination – to meet what may be the greatest threat Christianity has faced in its history.
…one thing that is wrong with the West is that while traditional Christians are dominant in terms of numbers of persons, they are quiescent, lulled to sleep by a luxurious materialism (available only to emperors and kings in the past) and by beguiling rhetoric about “human rights” and “fairness”, in the service of causes (secularism and materialism) that, in the end, will undermine those very concepts.
Church birth control commission docs unveiled By Russell Shaw – Our Sunday Visitor
New records show pope’s advisers were stacked in favor of changing Church teaching. Intentionally?
A Public Strategy for Bishops By Dr. Jeff Mirus
The primary responsibilities of a bishop are, of course, to teach, rule and sanctify in his diocese. Part of the teaching office, however, is to guide Catholics in their public responsibilities. When you add the temptations of “playerism” to the mix, then, we ought not to be surprised that a great many bishops have become consistent advocates for solving problems by the increasing application of national or international regulation, power and control.
But in today’s rapidly secularizing culture, almost nothing could be more inimical to the Catholic interest—or indeed to the entire common good—than a default position in favor of solving problems by increasing the responsibility and power of the highest levels of government. There is increasing evidence that Western bishops are slowly beginning to understand this; they are even beginning to feel, perhaps, like they are slowly being hung with their own rope.
Canada’s “Salt and Light” network, which has carved out a profile as a genuinely Catholic media operation without an ideological edge by John L Allen Jr – National Catholic Reporter
Fr Hans Kung exhorts Catholics to reject the authority of Magisterium as a ‘duty
It is incomprehensible that he remains a Catholic priest in good standing when he is publicly causing scandal by encouraging schism in the Church. Why does Fr Hans Kung appear to have ‘untouchable’ status?
It could be that the Holy See has come to the judgement that any action taken against Fr Kung would only serve to put him back into the media spot light, resulting in the wider dissemination of his dissent and giving him greater influence. The problem is that with the Holy Father’s apostolic journey to Germany later in the year, the German and international media will be beating a path to the door of Kung as an ‘expert’ commentator anyway.
Nurse Claims San Antonio Hospital Fired Her For Reporting “Abortion” to Archdiocese
A nurse from San Antonio-based Christus Santa Rosa Health System has filed a lawsuit against the Catholic system, claiming it knowingly allowed an abortion to be performed in 2009 and later fired her out of retaliation after she reported it to the Archdiocese of San Antonio, according to a San Antonio Express-News report.
The Archdiocese did not side with Ms. Perez’s concerns over the abortion, and she claims the hospital system’s “regional giant” status intimidated the then-Archbishop Jose Gomez from pursuing the matter.
Tony Blair’s priest parties with men dressed as ‘nuns’ – Daily Mail
He is the best-known Catholic priest in Britain after Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster. A close friend of Father Seed’s arranged the bash at the Pigalle Club — housed in a pink basement in London’s Piccadilly and known for racy floor shows — to mark the anniversary of the well-connected priest’s ordination into the Franciscan Friars Of The Atonement… these drag artists came on stage. Mouths dropped. Quite a few people scuttled off to the bar in embarrassment.
Tories had valid reasons to stop funding leftist church supported Kairos – National Post
Kairos also supports a broader agenda that, as Mr. Harper suggested on Wednesday, may indeed involve not spending grant money only to “help the people in the developing world.”
Kairos is supported by a grab bag of terminally declining religious denominations searching desperately for current relevance by adopting the commandments of the Church of Greenpeace. It speaks for the weasel concepts of social justice and sustainable development. That is, it believes that redistribution rather than investment is the answer to underdevelopment, and that capitalism can be “unsustainable.” It saw in the 2008 financial crisis the opportunity for a “New Global Order” — Read Socialism Redux
The techniques of Kairos, and NGOs like it, are transparent. They promote local agitation and then say “look at the agitation. The people must be unhappy.” They support lawsuits, then note that a project is beset by lawsuits….they have achieved extraordinary influence in Ottawa, often on the grounds that they must be credible because they receive government support! Kairos might be considered to meet CIDA’s traditional priorities all too well. CIDA, we might remember, was set up by a self-confessed socialist – Maurice Strong — to promote a Salvationist view of foreign aid that has proved to be an abject failure.
Philadelphia Priest List Release Stuns Boston Cardinal O’Malley – Fox News
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia is a church in crisis as the fallout from the latest grand jury report continues. A list of 21 suspended priests has surfaced but it was not released by the Archdiocese. But Cardinal Sean O’Malley in Boston said the news that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia allowed priests with allegations against them to remain in the ministry was “very disturbing.”
O’Malley said at a news conference whenever the Church “tries to cover up . . . it is just so disappointing to all of us, to the whole church.’’ O’Malley’s criticism was seen as unusual since it is rare for a top cleric to criticize another archdiocese. He’s not alone, as more bishops from around the country are criticizing what’s happening in Philadelphia.
No End to ‘V-Monologues’ Performances on Catholic Campuses in 2011 – Cardinal Newman Society
The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) has identified reports of fourteen Catholic colleges and universities—ten of them Jesuit—hosting productions of the vile play The Vagina Monologues in 2011.
Bellarmine University
Boston College
College of Saint Rose
College of the Holy Cross
DePaul University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
John Carroll University
Loyola University Chicago
Marquette University
Saint Mary’s College (IN)
Seattle University
University of Detroit Mercy
University of San Francisco
Human Rights Commission trumps Catholic Teaching in Catholic Schools By Leeda Crawford – Catholic Insight
In January 2011 the Toronto Catholic District School Board Student’s Senate released a document entitled: Equity and Inclusive Education: Embracing Anti-Homophobia Education. This position paper promotes acceptance of so called “gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgendered persons as virtuous.”
Massive rally in Bangalore against Government tolerance of Christian persecution
Tens of thousands of Christians hold an interfaith gathering, followed by a prayer vigil to protest against a distorted report on targeted attacks on churches in 2008.
Washington Post smears Catholic priests – Speroforum
Richard Cohen objects to the upcoming congressional hearings by Rep. Peter King on terrorism, arguing that if it is okay to probe Muslims for terrorism, it should be okay to probe priests for sexual abuse: “The organization BishopAccountability.org reports that ‘perhaps more than 100,000 children’ have been sexually abused since 1950 by Catholic clergymen of one sort or another.” The figure is wildly in error.
Anglican leader wrong on Muslims – Catholic League president Bill Donohue
It is precisely the political culture of Islamism that is the problem, not some faction. Here’s the proof: in a major survey published by the Pew Research Center, over 80 percent of Muslims in Pakistan favor stoning people who commit adultery and say the proper punishment for theft is whipping and cutting off of hands. Most important, 76 percent favor the death penalty for Muslims who convert. Moreover, it is ludicrous to say “a rational debate” about the blasphemy laws should take place: Bhatti and Taseer were murdered for discussing it! Not until Muslims renounce the sharia—the totalitiarian legal system that justifies oppression—will Christians be safe in Muslim-run nations. We’re not talking about a fringe group of fanatics, we’re talking about a large swath of the Muslim population.