Notes: Saturday-Monday, October 2-4, 2010

(I have not finished reading the weekend papers yet, so there might be more items to come from Saturday. There were many book reviews of interest to me and perhaps to you in the weekend papers, so I'll cover them in a separate post.)

Two recent Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin items mentioning religious liberty

First one:

ARCHBISHOP MAMBERTI ADDRESSES U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY

VATICAN CITY, 1 OCT 2010 (VIS) - On 29 September Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, Holy See secretary for Relations with States, addressed the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. [...]

[...] On the subject of the Millennium Development Goals, the archbishop remarked on the importance of "bearing the great moral imperatives in mind: ... fulfilment of the promises of aid for development given by rich nations to weaker nations, and a guarantee of a more favourable financial and commercial climate". At a global level, the secretary for Relations with States identified the need "for more decisive and effective concern for refugees, displaced persons and the great migratory flows". In order for there to be integral human development there must also be a guarantee "of the exercise of religious freedom, ... the cornerstone of the entire edifice of human rights", he said [...]
DELSS/ VIS 20101001 (660)
[my square-bracketed ellipses, other ellipses in the original]

I'll have to find out what that ellipsis after "of the exercise of religious freedom" replaced.

Second one:

MISSION, AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE MISSION OF THE BAPTISED

VATICAN CITY, 4 OCT 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (North region 1 and Northeast region), who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.

[...] "Sometimes we hear the objection that imposing the truth - though it be the truth of the Gospel and of salvation - can be a violation of religious freedom", said the Holy Father, in which context he quoted words of Paul VI: "It would, of course, be a mistake to impose anything on the conscience of our brothers and sisters, but propounding knowledge of the truth of the Gospel and the salvation of Jesus Christ, with absolute clarity and full respect for the free choice of conscience (hence without coercion or dishonest persuasion), ... far from being an attack on religious freedom, is a homage to that freedom, which can choose a route that even non-believers consider noble and edifying. ... To present Christ and His kingdom in a respectful way, more than a right, is a duty of evangelisation".
[...]
AL/ VIS 20101004 (530)
[my square-bracketed ellipses, other ellipses in the original]

A startling figure on sexual activity by U.S. minors

From The Australian:

The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behaviour found sexually active 14 to 17-year-olds - 80 per cent of boys and 69 per cent of girls ...
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-teens-use-more-condoms-than-adults-survey/story-fn3dxity-1225934015781]

Transalpine Non-Redemptorists still waiting for canonical regularisation

From a U.K. Catholic Herald article brought to my attention by Terra:

They have not been ecstatically welcomed, either. It is more than two years since they first approached Rome, yet they are still waiting for their bishop, Bishop Peter Moran of Aberdeen, to grant them legal status within the Church.

[...] On the advice of Fr [Josef] Bisig [F.S.S.P.], they arranged a meeting with Fr José Monteiro Guimarães, a Redemptorist official in the Congregation for Clergy (he is now Bishop of Garanhuns in Brazil). They travelled to Rome, staying in a hotel. It was, he says, very daunting. “We had the feeling that we should go back, that we had made a big mistake. We were completely out of our camp.”

In the months that followed they met officials at Ecclesia Dei, the body set up to negotiate with the SSPX. They met its prefect, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos. Their priestly suspensions were lifted. Later they wrote a constitution, lifting parts of old Redemptorist constitutions from 1921 and 1936. That has been approved. All that is needed now is for Bishop Moran, their local bishop, to issue a “decree of erection” that will put them in canonical good order. (Last Friday Bishop Moran issued a statement which said he was waiting for guidance from the Congregation for Religious, to whom the matter has now been passed.)

[...] “Nobody expected it to take this long,” says Fr Michael Mary.

“Nobody expected it to take this long”. Seriously?

Sydney Archdiocese Life, Marriage and Family Centre publication "Euthanasia: Myths and Reality"

http://www.lifemarriagefamily.org.au/RLS2010.pdf

As well as refuting the standard pro-euthanasia talking points, it contains some useful facts and figures, such as that

Government-sanctioned studies in the Netherlands have found that: 50% of cases of assisted suicide and euthanasia are not reported, more than 50% of Dutch physicians feel free to suggest euthanasia to their patients, and 25% of these physicians admit to ending patients’ lives without their consent (more than 1000 people each year).

Caius on the death of Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome

From a Catholic Encyclopedia article brought to my attention by last Sunday's Sydney Catholic Weekly:

We owe to Caius a very valuable evidence of the death of Sts. Peter and Paul at Rome, and the public veneration of their remains at Rome about the year 200. It is taken from the above-mentioned disputation with Proclus, and reads as follows (Eusebius, Church History II.25): "But I can show the trophies of the Apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way you will find the trophies of those who laid the foundations of this church". By "trophies" is of course understood the memorial chapel that preserved in each case the body of the Apostle (cf. Barnes, St. Peter in Rome, London, 1900, p 145).
[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03144a.htm]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Placid and Companions, Martyrs, A.D. 2010