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One point to make for you, though, is paragraph 67 (the controversial one). The Latin (authoritative) version is not online yet. But there is a huge difference between both the Italian and German versions and the English version. The Italian version says: 67. Di fronte all'inarrestabile crescita dell'interdipendenza mondiale, è fortemente sentita, anche in presenza di una recessione altrettanto mondiale, l'urgenza della riforma sia dell'Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite che dell'architettura economica e finanziaria internazionale, affinché si possa dare reale concretezza al concetto di famiglia di Nazioni. Translation: Faced with the unstoppable growth of global interdependence, it is strongly felt, even...

In Caritas in veritate there is a reference to Humanae vitae. Remember that the Pope is addressing himself ad intra and ad extra, to the Church herself and to the world at large. 15. Two further documents by Paul VI without any direct link to social doctrine — the Encyclical Humanae Vitae (25 July 1968) and the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (8 December 1975) — are highly important for delineating the fully human meaning of the development that the Church proposes. It is therefore helpful to consider these texts too in relation to Populorum Progressio. The Encyclical Humanae Vitae emphasizes...

- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has told a non-profit coalition of pro-life groups in Iowa to promise that it would not organize protests at Planned Parenthood abortion facilities before it is granted tax exempt status. Pro-life lawyers say the organization has steadily kept within the guidelines for non-profit religious, educational and charitable groups. However, several months after the group applied for tax-exempt status, an IRS agent contacted Coalition for Life Iowa president Sue Martinek to inquire as to whether the group engages in any "picketing" or protesting at Planned Parenthood, and questioned the group's prayer activity outside Planned Parenthood...

In regard to the Memorial service today in LA for Michael Jackson, as I watched the service I was overwhelmed with grief over the hopelessness, the false comfort, all the lies and deceit, the illusions and delusions, and all of the wishful thinking and erroneous expectations in the light of the awesome realities of Time and Eternity. Great achievements and worldly success bring absolutely no merit or redemptive qualities in light of our fallen humanity (Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:8-9). The absolute bankruptcy of humanity dictates its greatest need for the righteous perfection demanded by our Divine Creator - Almighty God....

'Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. To the more thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to the fewer thou shalt give the less inheritance.' (From this week's Torah portion, Pinchas; Number 26: 53-54). Property rights are a basic value in the Torah. Our Forefathers were all wealthy men. Jacob even endangers himself and re-crosses the Yabok stream to retrieve some small belongings. Our Sages teach us that righteous people hold their money as dear as their bodies. An entire Talmudic tractate deals with the minute details of a "strange"...

“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His Love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

Newspapers, blogs, talk-shows on radio and television are full of discussion over Pope Benedict XVI's supposed call for a "new world order" or a "one-world government." These ideas are, however, neither based in reality nor a clear reading of the Pope's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the release of which yesterday spawned the heated discussion. The Pope actually speaks directly against a one-world government, and, as would be expected from those who have read his previous writings, calls for massive reform of the United Nations. Confusion seems to have come from paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which has some choice...

ENCYCLICAL LETTERCARITAS IN VERITATE OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS PRIESTS AND DEACONS MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS THE LAY FAITHFUL AND ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL ON INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CHARITY AND TRUTHINTRODUCTION1. Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity. Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is...

DUBLIN, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An organizer of a massive pro-life rally in Dublin says she and the other key figures were "jubilant" at the turn-out of seven thousand people on Saturday. Bernadette Smyth, Director of Belfast's Precious Life, also told LifeSiteNews.com that pro-life leaders in Ireland are especially encouraged by a growing cooperation between North and South in the pro-life movement in Ireland. A major breakthrough of the pro-life campaigns in all of Ireland, she said, has been the growing awareness that if legalized abortion is forced into Northern Ireland, it will be effectively made available in the...

L’Osservatore Romano of 8 July has a few articles pertaining to the new encyclical. Here is one of them. Some folks helped to ferret out the corresponding English. These bullet points were offered to help a reading of the encyclical. Call them… call them…. "encycli-bites".

Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. (Psalm 40:5)

Today the much-anticipated social encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Truth in Love) was released, after being delayed for a year due to the global economic crisis. The encyclical includes several passages of great interest to those involved in the pro-life movement. The most pertinent and striking passages dealing with the life issues are reproduced below. To read the complete encyclical click here.

"My assignment tonight is to address the very broad subject of the role of the Holy Ghost in missionary work, with special emphasis on 'teaching by the Spirit,' " said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve, speaking to nearly 600 missionaries in the Provo Missionary Training Center, and another 100 mission presidents and their wives attending the 2009 New Mission Presidents Seminar, June 26. Nearly 600 missionaries at the Provo MTC assemble to hear Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who welcomed them to the "work of angels." "I have entitled these remarks 'The Divine Companionship,' " he...

IsraelNN.com) The Chief Rabbinate has been given a list of more than 60 recent converts to Judaism who continue to believe in Jesus – and are active missionaries. Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifshitz, chairman and founder of the anti-missionary and anti-assimilation Yad L’Achim organization, met in recent days with Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and provided him with the list. Rabbi Amar was reportedly “shocked” at seeing that the Chief Rabbinate had authorized the conversions. Yad L’Achim had prepared the list of names, ID numbers and addresses of more than 60 people who were active in missionary groups before, during and after...

Caritatis in Veritate: papal encyclical calls for new moral approach to global economy Jul. 7, 2009 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has released the text of Caritatis in Veritate, the long-awaited social encyclical in which Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) calls for "a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise" and a global economic system that values the common good above private profits. Explaining the title of the encyclical, Pope Benedict writes that the social teachings of the Catholic Church offer a means of appraising the secular world, judging social and economic systems against a clear moral standard. The guiding...

Miracle baby, one-week-old Ava Isabella Stinson weighs only 2 pounds 4 ounces, but the tiny tike is already changing the lives of the people around her. Like her parents, Natalie Paquette and Richard Stinson. It all started when Natalie went into labor three months before her due date and found there was "no room at the Inn" for hospital care for the premature Ava in her hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, where a shortage of neonatal beds is an ongoing problem.

Search engine giant Google is apparently disallowing advertisements for abortion businesses in several nations, some of which prohibit abortions and some of which don't. The rational behind the Google decision remained unclear, which abortion advocates are blasting, LifeNews reports. Pro-abortion activist Lori Adelman corresponded with a staff member at Google who confirmed the denial of abortion advertising.

HARTFORD -- Advocates for children who say they were sexually abused by priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport reacted with cautious optimism Monday to the state Supreme Court's refusal to reconsider its earlier ruling ordering the diocese to release hundreds of documents detailing decades of alleged abuse by priests. The Supreme Court issued the brief decision without comment. "We are inching closer to Connecticut citizens and Catholics fully learning the truth," said David Clohessy, director of the Chicago-based SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclical -- Caritas in Veritate -- arrived today containing 30,468 words: an introduction, six chapters, conclusion, and 159 footnotes. It's not thrilling reading, even by encyclical standards, but as the latest papal statement on the Church's social teaching, "Love in Truth" will be a work of lasting significance.   Those who dig through the document to see whether it leans left or right will be disappointed: There is something here for everybody. For the Left, anxious to set the scene for President Barack Obama's meeting with Benedict in a few days, there are plenty of...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Christian call to love one another and to work for justice requires the active participation in the political process, Pope Benedict XVI said in his new encyclical. "To desire the common good and strive toward it is a requirement of justice and charity," the pope said in his encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"). The encyclical, published July 7, said God's love for all his creatures must be mirrored in the way they love and care for one another, engaging in acts of charity and solidarity with respect for the truth that every human...

The Pope has called for the world economy to be restructured in line with the principles of "love, truth and charity" in a new encyclical issued today. He urges the reformation of the United Nations and economic institutions to address the global economic crisis, which he links to relativism, globalisation and the abuse of modern technologies. The encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, interpreted variously throughout the document as charity or love in truth, is Pope Benedict XVI's third but his first on social issues. It is timed to coincide with the G8 in Italy and is intended to bring objective moral...

Excerpt...17. A vocation is a call that requires a free and responsible answer. Integral human development presupposes the responsible freedom of the individual and of peoples: no structure can guarantee this development over and above human responsibility. The “types of messianism which give promises but create illusions”[38] always build their case on a denial of the transcendent dimension of development, in the conviction that it lies entirely at their disposal. This false security becomes a weakness, because it involves reducing man to subservience, to a mere means for development, while the humility of those who accept a vocation is transformed...

The percentage of Hispanic Catholics in America has dropped, while the proportion of born-again Hispanics has increased, a new survey by the Barna Group found. Over the past 15 years, the proportion of Hispanics in America that is aligned with the Catholic Church has fallen by 25 percent. By comparison, the proportion of born-again Christians for this ethnic group has increased by 17 percent. “You cannot help but notice the changing relationship between Hispanics and the Catholic Church,” commented George Barna, whose company conducted the research. “While many Hispanic immigrants come to the United States with ties to Catholicism, the...

PHOENIX, Arizona, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Offering brochures on pro-life alternatives to abortion may appear a safe enough act, but for one Arizona sidewalk counselor, the message of "no thanks" instead came through a drawn handgun allegedly held by a man determined that his girlfriend would get an abortion. Local Phoenix station 3TV reported that a pro-life woman was offering literature on abortion alternatives to a man who had taken his girlfriend to the Planned Parenthood facility near Seventh and Campbell avenues, when suddenly the man pulled out a pistol, pointed the weapon at the woman for a few...

In public school classrooms across the country, religious liberty is under assault. Last month in Florida, two Christian student leaders at Pace High School were barred from speaking at their graduation ceremony due to fears they might mention their faith in violation of a court order stemming from an anti-religious lawsuit filed by the ACLU. Across the country in California, UCLA administrators grudgingly allowed senior Christina Popa to thank Jesus in her graduation testimony after a widespread public backlash against their initial decision to sanitize any mention of Jesus from her statements (in Colorado, former high school valedictorian Erica...

The Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has also wished them well with today's launch in London of a new alliance of evangelical and Anglo-Catholic parishes in Britain and Ireland. She told the heads of the traditionalist group, formed in response to the liberal direction of some parts of the Anglican Communion, that she “understood their concerns” about the future of the 80 million-strong global church. The Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has also wished them well with today’s launch in London of a new alliance of evangelical and...

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) set aside this year to remember the 500th anniversary of John Calvin. On July 10th five hundred years ago, John Calvin was born in Noyon, France. Many English-speaking churches today have selected a special logo this year to honor Calvin. The logo includes two hands holding one heart and a prayer penned by Calvin himself: “My heart I offer Thee, Lord, promptly and sincerely.” Calvin’s legacy is a church system led by elders and deacons. He became one of the founding fathers of Presbyterianism, Christian Reformation, and a hero remembered by many. Calvin used...

Psalm 98:1 O Sing Unto the LORD a New Song; For He hath Done Marvelous Things: His Right Hand, and His Holy Arm, Hath Gotten Him the Victory.

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week the House subcommittee that is considering the Financial Services appropriations bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the nation's capital. Cardinal Rigali said that the subcommittee's action "effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment," which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the...

RECIFE, Brazil, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the metropolitan archbishop of Olinda and Recife. The pope appointed Bishop Fernando Antonio Saburido as his successor. Pro-life activists around the world are very familiar with Archbishop Cardoso for his heroic defense of the unborn despite criticism he received even from Archbishop Salvatore (Rino) Fisichella, the President of Pontifical Academy for Life. The acceptance of his resignation at this time has raised many questions; however, there is no evidence to indicate that it was undertaken as...

Ever since Sarah Palin entered the national political arena last summer as the Republican VP nominee, she has caused sheer panic in the hearts and minds of the Leftist Liberals in America. Accordingly, the Leftist media is hell-bent on doing all they can to discredit Palin’s accomplishments and destroy her character at any cost. Even now, much effort and energy is being expended to deceive the American people regarding her considerable achievements. Her popularity among conservatives is astounding, and many believe that she will get the 2012 endorsement for the presidency. The Left and its State-Run Media Minions are now...

Parenthood abortion center pulled out a gun on a pro-life advocate after she handed him a brochure with information on alternatives. Police say the incident occurred on Wednesday morning. Phoenix police Lt. Larry T. Jacobs told 3TV that the man had just dropped off his girlfriend for an abortion at the Planned Parenthood near Seventh and Campbell avenues. When the pro-life advocate handed the man the brochure, that's when he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the woman for a few seconds before getting in his vehicle and driving off. The pro-life person had the wherewithal to write...

Special: the Higher Purpose of Freedom, 7/4/95; Jer 80; PPG 3,8 6/19/84; Eph 287, 325 7/8/86 A. Principle of Human Freedom. 1. Freedom is the status of human volition as the uncaused cause of human function. Live and let live is the principle of freedom. Freedom is legitimate self-determination. It is exemption from necessity apart from human consent. Freedom is self-fulfillment. Freedom is exemption from arbitrary control and exploitation. Freedom is related to privacy, property, and authority. Therefore, it emphasizes the need for the laws of divine establishment which define legitimate authority, designed for the protection of freedom. 2. The...

In a rocky job market, there is one field that has thousands of openings waiting to be filled. Wycliffe Bible Translators, the world’s largest organization of its kind, is looking for workers with a range of skills to assist in the translation of the scriptures into the last remaining languages. “Of course, a large number will go into translation,” said Chuck Michaels of Wycliffe to Mission Network News. “But for every translator team we send out we need three support personnel: people who are pilots, IT personnel, teachers that will teach missionary children, managers that will help us in our...

Offering a new perspective on the reality of aging denominations, The United Methodist Church studied the death rates of Methodists and the general American population and found that the church is dying faster. The death rates for members of the nearly 8 million-member denomination are about a third higher than the national average, according to the "Pockets of 'Youthfulness' in an Aging Denomination" report. In 2005, the United Methodist death rate was 134 percent of the U.S. death rate among those 15 years and older. Among UMC's 62 annual conferences, or regional bodies, in the United States, 34 of them...

Psalm 119:47-51 How I Love Your Laws! How I Enjoy Your Commands! "Come, Come to me," I Call to them, For I Love them and will Let them Fill my Life. Never Forget Your Promises to me Your Servant, For they are my Only Hope. They Give me Strength in All my Troubles; How they Refresh and Revive me! Proud men Hold me in Contempt for Obedience to God, But I Stand Unmoved.

THE QUESTION that CHANGED MY LIFE -by David Ryser A number of years ago, I had the privilege of teaching at a school of ministry. My students were hungry for God, and I was constantly searching for ways to challenge them to fall more in love with Jesus and to become voices for revival in the Church. I came across a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this:

The talk on Death and Resurrection: Gifts from a Loving Heavenly Father can be heard or watched

Darlene Love is a genuine American musical icon. With her powerful singing leads, she began her career in 1959 during the glory days of rock & roll girl groups. She caught the attention of Phil Specter and almost immediately began recording the most popular records of that 1962-1963, era including enormous hits like “He’s A Rebel”, written by Gene Pitney,” Wait Til My Bobby Gets Home”, “ Today I Met The Boy I’m Going To Marry”,” The Da Doo Ron Ron”, “ He’s Sure The Boy I Love”, “Why do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts?”, “Not To Young To Get...

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI has not escaped the economic downturn, with donations hit by the global financial storm, official figures showed Saturday. The Vatican City ended 2008 with a deficit of 15 million euros (21 million dollars) and had been affected "like other states, by the economic and financial crisis", a statement said. Gifts from churches to the head of the Roman Catholic Church had gone down, particularly at the festivals of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and came to around 54 million euros (76 million dollars), the Vatican said This represented "a small drop due to...

Sola Scriptura for Charismatics vs. the Madness of Mysticism by K. Jentoft The ministry of the Holy Spirit is central to living Christianity. Charismatics have emphasized the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives and see His power as what separates them from "dead religion." It is true that he Holy Spirit must be present and active in the life of a believer; this is the very claim that the Reformers made, especially Luther. The reformers and Charismatics agree on this. They disagree, however, on something just as crucial – their understanding of how the Holy Spirit comes and...

Richard Foster—Celebration of Deception In February 2008, Christianity Today ran a glowing cover story about Evangelicalism's recent embrace of medieval Roman Catholic mysticism entitled The Future lies in the Past.1 The article traced the beginning of the movement as follows: "The movement seems to have exploded in a 24-month period in 1977-1978, which saw the publication of Richard Foster's bestselling Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth and Robert Webber's Common Roots: A Call to Evangelical Maturity."2 The article views Foster as one who continues to guide the movement: "From Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and living practicing monks and...

The 500th birthday of John Calvin has gotten me thinking about the influence the 16th-century Reformer has had on my own life and thought. I grew up in a subculture immersed in Calvinism. My family attended a Christian Reformed church in New Jersey, and I went from kindergarten through 12th grade in schools that were founded on Calvinist thought. I'm also a graduate of the college in Grand Rapids that bears Calvin's name, and I've known of that name since my earliest days: My oldest brother began attending Calvin College when I was only 3 years old. But as with...

John Carroll, SJ (1735–1815) John Carroll was born in Maryland, the fourth son of seven children. First instructed in the Catholic faith by his mother, in 1748 Carroll was sent to the Jesuit school of St. Omer in French Flanders. In 1753 John entered the Jesuit novitiate and was ordained in 1761. Carroll taught in Europe after 1761 and took final vows in 1771. His happy Jesuit life ended, however, when Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuit community in 1773. John Carroll returned to Maryland, where he resided with his mother. Since Catholics were forbidden public worship, a chapel was...

If Mormons’ “HBO moment” was not bad enough, it seems that Hollywood, Broadway and the publishing world aren't likely to give up on portrayals of Latter-day Saints on screen, on stage and in books any time soon. Such Mormon portrayals, often stereotypical, have been showing up since the 1800s. For example, When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced detective Sherlock Holmes in the story, “A Study in Scarlet.” It was set against the backdrop of anti-Mormon inaccuracies about Latter-day Saints and their beliefs popular in England at the time. On a later visit to Utah he apologized for the inaccuracies. Here...

Is There No Help For The Widow's Son? By Dr. Reed C. Durham, Jr.There are two concepts I need at this point to reiterate. Firstly, I said that Joseph Smith had no qualms about using Masonry. This letter, I think, is evidence of that. One historian has described this use of Masonry as the "grabbing on" principle employed by Joseph Smith. This was explained to me that whatever was in his surroundings, being preached, professed, or practiced, he sometimes borrowed it and incorporated it into his ideological theology and system.The second concept I wish to reiterate is that the...

Is There No Help For The Widow's Son? By Dr. Reed C. Durham, Jr.Someone has said that a historical convention like this - all of these papers that we have heard - are like a pair of steer horns, with a point here and a point there and a lot of bull in between; and in my case, a lot of "Bull Durham."One thing we won't have to put up with though is the wind blowing - just hot air. And I know the disadvantage that we are placed in, with the dimness of the room, the delightful meal...

Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. (Psalm 62:5-7)

Have you ever wondered why Americans drink coffee and British tea? In 1773 the Boston Tea Party went down in history as a revolt against the unfair taxes, fines and fees of King George. Secret meetings were held throughout churches in the New World seeking the wisdom of God and discussing strategies to throw off the unrestrained thievery of liberty from Britain and its cronies. The colonist believed that something had to be done and there came a time when our Founding Fathers said enough. It is said that history often repeats itself. Are we getting close to that time...

There is a paradox at the heart of liberty, a tension between our desiring what is good and our willingness to sacrifice true happiness for fleeting satisfaction. “Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom,� abolitionist Wendell Phillips said. Lord Acton echoed the idea, calling liberty, “the delicate fruit of a mature civilization.�The delicacy of freedom cannot be explained without recourse to the realities of good and evil. Freedom is both universally sought and everywhere in jeopardy because of the imperfection of human nature. We are beings who seek what is good, but are tempted by what is evil. Freedom–the capacity...