By Hilary White and John-Henry Westen
ROME, November 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The annual Vatican Christmas concert will not feature condom-supporter, Brazilian rock singer Daniela Mercury. The concert, partially sponsored by the Vatican, is to raise funds for the Jesuit missions, including their work with AIDS sufferers. The agency promoting the concert said that they had received a letter from the Jesuits saying the singer’s support of condoms in the battle against AIDS was “against the moral doctrine of the church,”
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Eligio Ermeti of the Prime Time Promotions agency. “We received a letter from the Jesuits asking us to remove her from the cast.”
The concert, scheduled for December 3 is taped and broadcast on Christmas Eve throughout Italy.
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Mercury was dropped after appearing in a government sponsored AIDS campaign during this year’s Carnival celebrations in Brazil. The singer appeared in TV ads promoting the distribution of millions of free condoms and encouraging people to use them.
The move comes as a stamp of approval to a recent document by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) ‘Catholics in Political Life’, which taught that Catholic institutions should not honor those in defiance of fundamental moral principles.“The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions,” said the document. (see coverage:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jun/04062102.html )
The task of enforcing the suggestions is vast. Last year, the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization established to hold Catholic universities true to the faith they profess, issued a report summarizing such scandals at U.S. Catholic colleges and universities. The 56-page report, “The Culture of Death on Catholic Campuses: A Five-Year Review,” documented nearly 200 instances of campus speakers and honorees who have been public advocates of abortion or otherwise contributors to the “Culture of Death”.