Notes: Saturday-Tuesday, June 26-29, 2010

"Federal grant to protect gays against stigma in aged care"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/federal-grant-to-protect-gays-against-stigma-in-aged-care-20100627-zc2c.html?skin=text-only

Excerpt:

Gay rights activists hope a federal government grant of almost $400,000 for aged-care training will help to decrease the stigma, discrimination and exclusion to which gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people can be subject.

[...] Training for aged-care staff was important to ensure older gay people were treated with dignity and respect, said a spokesman for the Australian Coalition for Equality, Corey Irlam. For too many years older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex people and their specific needs had been largely ignored by the government and parts of the aged-care sector, he said.

Mr Irlam and a gerontologist, Jo Harrison, recently met Ms Elliot's staff, other MPs and departmental staff to discuss issues affecting older gays, including creating safe and inclusive environments.

Despite a change to the Aged Care Act 1997 giving same-sex couples the same entitlements and obligations to health and ageing programs, Ms Plibersek said the training would raise awareness of gay ageing issues among service providers and the broader community.

"While we can change the law, the greatest challenge will be in generating changes in attitude," she said.

The executive director of the National LGBT Health Alliance, Gabi Rosenstreich, said: "Older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex Australians experience significant health and wellbeing issues due to decades of stigma, discrimination and social exclusion."

So the big question is: Just what are these "specific needs"/"gay ageing issues"? "[C]reating safe and inclusive environments" is a rather vague goal on which to spend hundreds of thousands of taypayer dollars. And could it be that whatever 'gay-specific ageing issues' there might be arise not so much from "decades of stigma, discrimination and social exclusion" as from decades of living a debauched lifestyle?

A good letter to The Australian on a recent finding regarding abortion

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/compassionate-killing/story-fn558imw-1225884943226

Compassionate killing?

The Australian June 28, 2010 12:00AM

THE question of whether or not a 24-week-old fetus can feel pain ("No pain for fetus prior to 24 weeks", 26-27/6) may be interesting to those who have a genuine concern for the welfare of an unborn child.

It is, however, quite irrelevant to the issue of abortion, the sole purpose of which is to kill a living human being who, at that stage of development is fully recognisable as such, with fingers and toes, eyes, nose and mouth and a heart which started beating at around three weeks after conception.

I find the notion of compassionate killing totally incongruous. It should hardly need pointing out that a human being at any age or stage of development can be killed painlessly by a variety of means -- bullet, gas, electrocution -- but that in no way lessens the crime of a deliberate act of killing. Why should abortion be different?

Peter Davidson, Ashgrove, Qld

Mr. Wilson with a quotation from The Catholic Encyclopedia in rebuttal of errors about St. Gregory the Great's understanding of the powers of the Pope

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=366523#366523

H.H. The Pope on religious liberty

The fourth paragraph of the following Vatican Information Service (V.I.S.) daily e-mail bulletin item contains what would have to be the most sweeping Papal endorsement of the error of 'religious liberty' ever:

STABLE PEACE AND SECURE COEXISTENCE IN THE HOLY LAND

VATICAN CITY, 25 JUN 2010 (VIS) - At midday today, the Holy Father received participants in the annual Meeting of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches (ROACO), whose work this year focused chiefly on preparations for the forthcoming Synod for the Middle East.

Beginning his remarks to them, the Pope noted that "all of us desire the gift of stable peace and secure coexistence in the Holy Land, in Iraq and in the Middle East. This will arise through respecting human rights, families, communities and peoples, and through overcoming religious, cultural and social discrimination".

He went on: "I encourage our brothers and sisters in the East ... who continue to keep the faith and, despite numerous sacrifices, stay in the land where they were born. At the same time I encourage emigrants from the East not to forget their origins, especially their religious origins. Their human and Christian faithfulness and coherence depend on this".

The Holy Father made special mention of "Christians who suffer violence because of the Gospel", entrusting them to the Lord. "I continue to hope that the leaders of nations will truly guarantee, without distinction and in all places, public and community profession of religious belief".

Benedict XVI expressed his appreciation for the enthusiasm with which the Eastern Catholic Churches participated in the recently-concluded Year for Priests, recalling how in antiquity the East was a cradle for great schools of priestly spirituality. In this context he particularly referredto the Church of Antioch, which produced extraordinary saints, and he called on the priests of the Eastern Churches to continue to reflect this spiritual heritage.

Referring then to the Special Assembly for the Middle East, due to be held from 10 to 24 October, the Pope said: " I am pleased at the broad co-operation provided thus far by the Eastern Churches and for the work which, from the beginning, ROACO has done, and continues to do for this historical event. This joint effort will have fruitful results because of the presence of some of your representatives at this episcopal gathering and your ongoing relationship with the Congregation for the Eastern Churches".

The Holy Father asked the participants in the annual meeting "to contribute with your activities to keeping the 'hope that does not disappoint' alive among the Christians of the East. ... We would like to be with them always! Trusting in the intercession of the Blessed Mother of God and of the Apostles Peter and Paul, I commend to the Lord the benefactors, friends and collaborators (living and dead) who in one way or another are linked to ROACO, with a special mention for the recently-deceased Bishop Luigi Padovese".

AC/ VIS 20100625 (460)

"MSGR. MAMBERTI RECEIVES CREDENTIALS OF RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR"

From another recent V.I.S. daily e-mail bulletin:

MSGR. MAMBERTI RECEIVES CREDENTIALS OF RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR

VATICAN CITY, 26 JUN 2010 (VIS) - The Secretariat of State today announced that Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States, received the Letters accrediting Nikolay Sadchikov as ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Holy See. In the near future, Archbishop Antonio Mennini will present Sergei Lavrov, minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, with the Letters of Credence accrediting him as apostolic nuncio to that State.

SS/ VIS 20100628 (80)

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, Apostles, A.D. 2010