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ELCA Churchwide Assembly to Consider 144 Memorials from Synods 09-149-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Comprehensive immigration reform, Israel and Palestine, Lutheran Disaster Response, and fuller participation in church leadership are topics of memorials recommended for specific discussion at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The recommendations were made by a 15-member memorials committee appointed by the ELCA Church Council, which met here last month. Memorials are requests from the church's 65 synods that ask for churchwide assembly action on significant policy issues. The committee considered 144 memorials for the 2009 assembly, recommending action on each...

...I am bringing charges against my people. I am building a case...I delivered you from a bad life in Egypt; I paid a good price to get you out of slavery...I ...made it plain how to live, what to do... what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously... "Do you expect me to overlook obscene wealth you've piled up by cheating and fraud? Do you think I'll tolerate shady deals and...

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....

A senior New Brunswick Roman Catholic priest is demanding the Prime Minister's Office explain what happened to the sacramental communion wafer Stephen Harper was given at Roméo LeBlanc's funeral mass.During communion at the solemn and dignified service held last Friday in Memramcook for the former governor general, the prime minister slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call "the host" into his jacket pocket.In Catholic understanding, the host - once consecrated by a priest for the Eucharist - becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is crucial that the small wafer be consumed when it is received.Monsignor Brian Henneberry,...

On the 3rd Encyclical "A Better Future for Everyone Is Possible" VATICAN CITY, JULY 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in Paul VI Hall. He reflected on his third encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate," which was released Tuesday. * * * Dear brothers and sisters: My new encyclical "Caritas in Veritate," which was officially presented yesterday, was fundamentally inspired in a passage from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, in which the apostle speaks of acting according to truth in charity: "Rather," we have just heard, "living...

The average number of Filipino women who die yearly due to childbirth and pregnancy complications has doubled in the last four years, but this doesn’t seem to alarm lawmakers who continue to oppose the reproductive health bill, according to health and women’s groups. A study by the international reproductive health research group Guttmacher Institute presented Tuesday showed that 3,500 pregnancy-related deaths were recorded in the Philippines in 2008.... Dr. Junice Melgar, executive director of women’s health organization Likhaan, said pregnancy-related deaths could be prevented if pregnant women, especially those who are from the poorest families and living in the rural...

MANILA - Local governments should come up with their own reproductive health policies to address the growing number of mothers dying from pregnancy-related complications, because the national government is obviously not keen on doing something about it. Aurora Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, a former congresswoman, on Wednesday called on local officials that it’s their constituents who are suffering while Congress sits on the reproductive health (RH) bill. She said it is now time for the local government units (LGUs) to enact ordinances that would take the place of a national RH law. Among the LGUs that have passed ordinances on reproductive...

The Reproductive Health Bill currently being considered by Filipino lawmakers has stirred up significant debate over its potential to promote economic development and improve access to healthcare, particularly reproductive healthcare. But one crucial point has been neglected: the Reproductive Health Bill is essential to remedy egregious violations on Filipino women’s international and national legal rights occurring under restrictive, ideologically driven policies, such as Manila City’s de facto ban on birth control. The Manila City ban on contraception, also known as Executive Order 003, was passed nine years ago by former Mayor Jose “Lito” Atienza to effectively prohibit Manila City women...

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...

Every once in a while a story comes along that not only reinforces the justness of our cause but makes abundantly clear the depravity of the other side. This is the case with a story out today. When the world describes destroying children as a fertility breakthrough, we are in big trouble. [Telegraph] Researchers at the pioneering Northeast England Stem Cell Institute say they have made the breakthrough using stem cells from an embryo. Within 10 years, the scientists say the technique could also be used to allow infertile couples to have children that are genetically their own. It could...

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...

With the election of abortion-friendly President Obama, abortion advocates have been praising the return of “science” to issues of reproductive health. Conversely, I am an advocate for the health of the unborn and question what “science” has to do with abortion on demand. Attempts to rationalize the morality of the abortion issue with abortion advocates is a losing proposition when they believe in subjective morality, i.e. morality is defined by the majority or, in this case, by the loudest contingent of the population. Therefore, let’s evaluate the issue on a more scientific basis...

This is one of the most moving pictures I've ever seen. I just wanted to share it with you.

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...

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 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...

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...

Prayer request from a Catholic missionary in Honduras Received this morning via e-mail: Dear Friends, I realize that the current political instability in Honduras may not seem like a big deal, and maybe to the rest of the world, it isn't a big deal - but what happens over this weekend will determine the fate of this small country, and more specifically, the fate of the Church in this country, and the fate of our mission here in Comayagua. Over the past ten months, I've put down roots here, which is why when I was faced this week with the...

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...

In response to a question about statements made by those affiliated with the president’s administration, President Obama offered his position on homosexual rights with regard to the Church. “For the gay and lesbian community in this country, I think it’s clear that they feel victimized in fairly powerful ways and they’re often hurt by not just certain teachings of the Catholic Church, but the Christian faith generally,� said the president. “And as a Christian, I’m constantly wrestling with my faith and my solicitude and regard and concern for gays and lesbians.� “To the extent that I weighed into these debates,...

We reported earlier on the president’s meeting with the Catholic press and his promise regarding conscience-clause protection. For his exact words on the subject, read on. “I think that the only reason that my position may appear unclear is because it came in the wake of a last-minute, 11th-hour change in conscience clause provisions that were pushed forward by the previous administration that we chose to reverse,� said President Obama. “But my underlying position has always been consistent, which is I’m a believer in conscience clauses. I was a supporter of a robust conscience clause in Illinois for Catholic hospitals...

The buzz on the Internet seems to be interested in what questions were asked of the president at his meeting with members of the Catholic press, and who asked them. Given the press’ recent grilling of White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, it should be known that the questions were not pre-packaged. Here’s a rundown on who asked what… Joe Feuerherd, of the National Catholic Reporter, who was sitting on the president’s right, asked the first question. He asked, “Outside of your partisan political opponents – the Republicans – there’s one group that has also been critical of you in perhaps...

What did the Christians cherish from the pagan traditions, and what did they change? How Christians elevated culture What did the Christians cherish from the pagan traditions, and what did they change? They raised the status of women. It's dogma in our public schools today that women in ancient times were oppressed, because women had no voting rights, women had not the same opportunities as men, and so forth. You will be mocked if you deny that this spells oppression. If you're a college professor and you deny it, get ready for the stake. But the charges are anachronistic and...

NEW YORK, JULY 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A foundation announced plans to nominate Pope Pius XII for the "Righteous Among the Nations" honor, traditionally given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. Gary Krupp, president of the New York-based Pave the Way Foundation, an organization that promotes interreligious dialogue, affirmed this Wednesday in a statement to ZENIT. He reported that the foundation has the nomination guidelines from the Righteous Among the Nations Department of the Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and will open the case soon. Krupp stated that the foundation has "devoted years to...

I begin by asking all of our readers to pray for Fr. Geoffrey Farrow. He was the pastor of the St. Paul Newman Center at California State University at Fresno until he was suspended by his Bishop and removed from his position. This strong action was required and intended to be remedial, as are all canonical sanctions. Fr. Farrow openly defies the teaching of the Catholic Church concerning marriage and human sexuality. He also openly condemns the Catholic Church in public for her defense of marriage. Let me be clear, Fr. Farrow needs our prayer. We ask the Lord to...

Washington D.C., Jul 2, 2009 / 01:25 am (CNA).- Catholic commentator George Weigel has written an “open letter” to Dr. Miguel Diaz, President Obama’s nominated ambassador to the Holy See, advising him to focus on common agreement between the Vatican and the United States in his “difficult task.”Writing in his weekly column, Weigel suggested Diaz, a theology professor at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, cultivate intellectual contacts during his diplomatic work. According to Weigel—who is biographer of the late Pope John Paul II—previous Ambassadors Jim Nicholson and Mary Ann Glendon were “particularly successful”...

Bishop Ricardo Blázquez, Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi, Archbishop Ricardo Ezzatti, Archbishop Charles Chaput and Bishop Ricardo Watti (top to bottom, left to right) Rome, Italy, Jul 1, 2009 / 02:45 pm (CNA).- After the announcement on March 31 that Pope Benedict XVI had ordered an Apostolic Visitation of the Legionaries of Christ, many wondered when it would begin. Vatican watcher Sandro Magister has answered the question by  reporting it will begin on July 15 and that five bishops have been charged with the task. Magister states that the visitors will be Bishop Ricardo Watti Urquidi of Tepic, Mexico; Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver,...

Geoff Farrow objects to the K of C's support for California's Proposition 8 and for Catholic Moral Teaching Folks, this according to CNA: Fresno, Calif., Jul 2, 2009 / 06:43 am (CNA).- Citing the organization’s support for traditional marriage, a suspended Catholic priest who has turned to homosexual activism has called for Catholic pastors to block Knights of Columbus groups from their parishes and to borrow against the order’s insurance policies to fund homosexual groups. He said he advocated such action in part because the fraternal charitable organization helped support California’s Proposition 8, which restored legal marriage’s definition to being...

Attorneys for the FLDS say a settlement proposal filed by fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan requires sect members to violate their religious beliefs by accepting property they consider consecrated to God. The sect asks 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg to craft a settlement based on proposals made by the sect and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, which includes a "moment of choice" in which trust participants can decide to either accept title to homes or leave their properties under religious management. Those proposals are based on a "fundamental premise that there are sincere and actual religious beliefs and practices that will...

Sam Miller is a prominent Cleavland businessman. He is also Jewish. His essay was sent to me by a friend who didn't give any information about where he found it. —————————————————————————————— Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church? Do you know—the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to your Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. Your graduates go on to graduate studies at...

Dear colleagues in ministry, As we approach the churchwide assembly, I am thankful for the thoughtful and respectful discussion at synod assemblies of the proposed social statement on human sexuality and the ministry policy recommendations. I am mindful, however, that we remain a church body that is not of one mind about these decisions, and that these continuing differences have raised concerns among some about whether we are headed toward a church-dividing decision. I am writing to express my shared, heartfelt commitment to the church’s unity, and, even more, my deep confidence that this unity will not be lost. For...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities could have started a rift with the nation's Catholic bishops but appears to have avoided it. In it's last newsletter, the association called for the bishops to withdraw their guidelines saying Catholic colleges should not allow pro-abortion speakers. Now, ACCU officials have deleted that language from its Summer 2009 newsletter. The language originally had the group saying, "ACCU's directors informally concluded that it would be desirable for the USCCB to withdraw 'Catholics in Political Life.'" "A successor document, if any, should distinguish between 'honors' and 'platforms' and should acknowledge...

A black evangelical Christian pastor and former NFL linebacker says there was "absolutely no truth in anything" President Obama said in his speech to homosexuals in the East Room of the White House Monday. Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Washington state, says it is "a shame" that the president is "supporting what destroys the family." "There's absolutely no truth in anything he said, from beginning to the end," says Pastor Hutcherson. "There is no such thing as [a] biblical stance for homosexuality, if you use the Bible. If you want to use any other denomination, feel...

  I have a suggestion for those in academia who are concerned that women be treated as intellectual equals: Try sexual modesty. Before the lynching party arrives, I hope I will have time to explain.   I have taught at several colleges, one of which has a dress code. To many, a dress code seems old-fashioned at best, a puri-tyrannical breach of our right to freedom of speech at worst. (It should worry us that clothing is considered speech.) But allow me to present two examples -- male and female -- that illustrate how sexual modesty is related to the...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For the last 40 years, dropping into a bar in Utah has been a complicated affair: Patrons have to fill out an application, pay a fee and become a member before they can go in for a drink. It is one of several restrictive rules governing alcohol consumption in Utah that made the heavily Mormon state one of the toughest places in the nation to get a drink. But some of that will change on Wednesday when a new state law kicks in eliminating the need for people to become members of bars to go...

Editor’s note: Jack Smith, who sent out this blog from the Kansas City Key, that diocese’s newspaper, gives an example of how the bishops can fight a good fight.) Thursday, June 25, 2009 America Mag's Calumny in Service of a Human Master A number of recent editorials by Catholic Obama partisans have sought to discredit the U.S. Bishops and the pro-life movement as a whole by grossly misappropriating the words of Kansas City – St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn. Sometimes with attribution, sometimes without, but never in context, they have ripped four words, “We are at war,” from a...

Michael Jackson in 1999. (CNS/Reuters) The Catholic News Service blog spotted this article Michael Jackson wrote for Beliefnet about his upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness and his spiritual beliefs as an adult. In the article, entitled “My Childhood, My Sabbath, My Freedom,” Jackson wrote: When people see the television appearances I made when I was a little boy—8 or 9 years old and just starting off my lifelong music career—they see a little boy with a big smile. They assume that this little boy is smiling because he is joyous, that he is singing his heart out because he is...

This new technology deserves a great deal of attention. I think there is a tremendous opportunity here, as I will explain. Most of us have seen the amazing 4D photos of unborn children (I've inserted one to the left). Now a student at the Royal College in Britain has taken the next step of using these photographs to create an individualized, life-size model of the pictured unborn child. LifeNews: Stunning new technology is allowing parents to go beyond a 3D or 4D ultrasound to bond with their unborn child in ways never imaginable. A student at the Royal College...

Seven members of the board of Catholic Charities announced their resignations. They were protesting the effort by Massachusetts bishops to prohibit gays from adopting children from their Catholic social service agencies. The seven who quit said prohibition ''threatens the very essence of our Christian mission." Church doctrine states that allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples ''would actually mean doing violence to these children...gravely immoral." If you agree with those principles, according to the Vatican, a Catholic in good standing. If you don't, you're not. Liberals raised as Catholics refuse to accept this reality. We think we can be...

What will Benedict say to Barack? "When we preach, we say you're supposed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. We believe in what you call the via media, the middle way. We would always condemn unbridled cutthroat capitalism as well as socialism. So we think, as Aristotle said, in the middle you find virtue. "So, with President Obama, I think Pope Benedict will say, 'Thank you for trying to see that health care will be expanded. Thank you for the overtures you are making for peace and justice, particularly the bridges you are building with the Islamic world.'...

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett: Liturgy, Icons, Prayer, and Catechesis June 29th, 2009 by Dr. Carol Younger Two persons styled by the media as “cultural icons” passed into eternity last week: first Farrah Fawcett, followed some few hours later by Michael Jackson. Farrah succumbed to cancer after what her friends called a valiant fight. Michael’s cause of death is not yet known, the coroner not yet willing to say it was a heart attack. Farrah’s funeral will be celebrated tomorrow at the Los Angeles Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (pretty fitting for a “Charlie’s Angel”). As of this...

New atheist summer camp launched An atheist summer camp for children set up in Somerset is to offer a "godless alternative" to religious camps. The 24 places on Camp Quest UK, which will be held next month near Bath, have already been booked up. Organisers said the purpose of the camp was to encourage critical thinking and provide children with a summer camp "free of religious dogma". The camp, supported by scientist Richard Dawkins, plans to expand after receiving hundreds of inquiries. The event has been set up by Samantha Stein, a postgraduate psychology student from London. She said: "It...

Talk about a lack of piety. Long Island cops say they've caught a woman robbing congregants during church. Patricia Adams saw an opportunity during services at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church – and it wasn't for worship. While a devout parishioner knelt down in prayer, the 46-year-old leaned over a church pew and stole cash from her purse, police said. An usher saw her do it and called the cops. Cops arrested Adams as she left the church yesterday morning. They recovered the stolen goods and returned them to the unsuspecting victim. This wasn't the first time Adams lifted...

This year, just like last year, Gay Pride weekend coincided with the feast of Corpus Christi.   Washington, D.C.'s Pride parade was fairly restrained: It featured a cornucopia of Episcopalians, and all the marchers went out of their way to sweetly drape beads over the little elementary-school girls standing in front of me. There were Affirming Baptists; as the parade passed by me, a knot of gay men to my right joked -- in that gay way that is never really joking all the way down -- that maybe they could be Baptists again now. There were strollers, lots...

Ayn Rand was an atheist. According to her one-time associate Barbara Branden, Rand became an atheist at age thirteen. Branden records Rand writing in her diary at that age: "Today I decided to be an atheist." Branden then reports her as later explaining, "I had decided that the concept of God is degrading to men. Since they say that God is perfect, man can never be that perfect, then man is low and imperfect and there is something above him – which is wrong." [Branden, PAR, p. 35.] Branden continues that Rand's "second reason" is that "no proof of the...

WASHINGTON, June 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from American Life League president Judie Brown regarding Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley's announcement that archdiocese-affiliated Caritas Christi Healthcare has withdrawn ownership of CeltiCare Health Plan. The announcement comes only two days after A.L.L. announced it would launch an investigation into the scandal. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081105/DC44231LOGO ) "Praise God! After months of tireless effort from American Life League and pro-life heroes in Boston and around the country to expose a potential scandal only days away from becoming a tragic betrayal of Catholicism's unwavering commitment to the dignity of the human person, Cardinal...

This footage of a red shoulder hawk’s flight, compels and urges repentance, commitment to Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Son! Thanks for viewing! Revski

I know this is going to sound crazy, but IÂ’ve been trying to get in touch with Jon and Kate Gosselin from the Jon and Kate plus Eight program on TLC. I have never written so much as a fan letter to anyone although I have interviewed a few celebrities in my magazine writing days. This has absolutely nothing to do with fan mail or interviewing them. I have a strong desire to contact them and say: WAKE UP!BackgroundI rarely watch television. My 13-year-old daughter liked this program because she loves babies and young children. The children are adorable and...

In the Aristotelian tradition, virtue stands in the middle, between two extremes, a too much and a too little. Aristotle thought that a non-arbitrary middle could be found. Prudence arrived at it, but did not constitute it. Aristotle's good man lived virtuously, not just any way. Our actions were judged midst the actual circumstances in which we lived our lives. But suppose I have an argument about what is half of thirty. One man says it is twenty, the other twenty-five. Thus, their mean is twenty-two and a half. But all three views are wrong, though twenty is closer...

OTTAWA - A young Jehovah's Witness who says a forced blood transfusion violated her Charter rights learns Friday whether the courts can veto the wishes of "mature minors" when their health is at risk. The Supreme Court of Canada will rule in the case of A.C., now 18, in a judgment that could clarify how such dilemmas should be handled across Canada. Several similar refusals of medical treatment by Jehovah's Witnesses have made headlines in recent years. But it's the first time the top court has weighed in. A.C. can't be identified because of the prior involvement of child welfare...