Articles for Month: April 2008

Polls indicate overwhelming public support for extending exemption to sisters living together

New incoming government is expected to be more pro-life

By Hilary White VANCOUVER, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Anglican Church of Canada has lost another prominent member due to its “poisonous liberalism” which holds homosexuality in high esteem but increasingly marginalizes Christian morality and scriptural tradition. James Innell Packer, a British-born Canadian theologian in the Calvinistic or Evangelical Anglican tradition, has announced that he will be aligning himself with the groups of Anglicans who have left the jurisdiction of the ultra-liberal Anglican Church of Canada and are seeking episcopal oversight from more traditional wings of the Anglican Church. On April 23, Dr. Packer handed in his clergy licence to […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman MONTEVIDEO, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Representatives of seven different religious groups in Uruguay have made a joint declaration supporting president Tabaré Vázquez’ promise to veto legislation to decriminalize abortion. The religious groups include the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches, and Baptist, Mennonite, and Pentecostal groups. The signers denounced “false opposition between the good of the mother and the good of the unborn child” and observed that “the two goods do not exclude each other, but rather are essential for one another.” Uruguay already has a liberal penal code in relation to […]

By Michael Baggot ATHENS, Greece, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Three citizens of the Greek Island of Lesbos are pursuing a lawsuit against the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (GGLU) for its use of the term “lesbian”. Lesbos local Dimitris Lambrou argues that his fellow citizens have suffered “psychological and moral rape” due to the homosexual advocacy group’s linguistic theft of their island’s name. “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos,” said Lambrou. “My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian.” Lambrou has been protesting the misuse of the term “lesbian” […]

"We recognize our dependence on the Almighty," says President Bush

By Michael Baggot CANBERRA, Australia, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Australian government announced today that it will change around 100 federal laws in order to grant homosexual couples extensive legal and financial benefits, but will not change legislation forbidding same-sex “marriage”. The new laws will afford same-sex couples benefits previously reserved to married couples.  For instance, children raised by same-sex couples will be deemed dependents for tax and unemployment benefits purposes.  Also, same-sex couples will qualify as “family units” with regard to pension considerations. While the legislative overhaul, expected to be complete by mid-2009, affects social security, health, aged […]

By John-Henry Westen   TORONTO, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The editor of Canada’s national Catholic magazine of news, opinion and analysis, Father Alphonse de Valk, has renewed his call for the federal government to rein in the far-reaching powers of human rights commissions in Canada.  The move comes in light of the recent ruling by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) in the case of Christian Horizons, a service organization for the disabled. De Valk called the decision, “a brazen attack on the rights of religious associations and individuals to conduct their activities without having to check their religious principles […]

By John-Henry Westen   VATICAN CITY, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Speaking to thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly general audience, Pope Benedict XVI remarked at length about his visit to the United States from April 15-21.  “I had the opportunity to pay homage to that great country, which from its beginnings was built on the foundation of a harmonious union between religious, ethical and political principles,” he said.   In the context of “moral and social questions of the day,” particularly around marriage of a “man and a woman”, the Holy Father noted that “contradictions” in […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman LUANDA, April 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Angola’s Penal Code reform, which is currently taking place in the country’s National Assembly, will propose to go beyond mere criminalization of abortion to punish the dissemination of the “means” to commit abortions as well as the dissemination of pro-abortion propaganda, reports the Angolan newspaper Jornal de Angola. According to Luzia Sebastiao, a legal expert and member of a subcommittee charged with overhauling the penal code, abortion will continue to be a crime in Angola because there is no desire in the society to even debate the issue. “For that […]