Notes: Wednesday, April 11-Tuesday, April 24, 2012

1. "the texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are essential tools which serve as an authentic guide to what the Church believes on the basis of God’s word"

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20120405_messa-crismale_en.html

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, C.E.C., Vatican II

2. "CONSTANTINE THE GREAT: RELIGION AND THE STATE AT THE DAWN OF EUROPE"

That is the title of this Vatican Information Service report; here is an excerpt from that report:

Vatican City, 17 April 2012 (VIS) - "Constantine the Great. The Roots of Europe" is the title of an international academic congress to be held in the Vatican from 18 to 21 April. The event has been organised by the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences to mark the 1700th anniversary of the battle of the Milvian Bridge and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine.
[… ]This congress is the first of two, the second of which will be held in Milan in 2013 for the 1700th anniversary of the promulgation of the Edict of Milan, which established freedom of religion in the Roman empire and put an end to the persecution of certain religious groups, particularly Christians. While the 2013 congress will concern itself with what is known as the "Constantinian revolution", tomorrow's event will focus on the environment in which Constantine lived and on relations between Christians and the Roman empire prior to the year 313. …

To me, the second congress sounds like the more interesting of the two.

At the (Italian-language) website of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences' website, some more information on the first congress is available; some papers, presumably presented at the congress, are available in Italian here, and a one-page English-language flyer (?) is available here.

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, Constantine the Great, history, religious liberty, Roman Empire

3. That Atheist straw man again:

… a debate between a believer for whom evidence is superfluous and a scientist who insists upon it would always provide an impossible conversation, and it was not a pleasant lift in which to be trapped. …
[my emphasis,
I transcribed that from "From fight and flights to sinking feeling"/"THE WEEK", by Matt Buchanan, on page three of the "News Review" supplement in the April 14-15, 2012 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald, available on-line here.]

Labels: atheism

4. "Researchers originally attributed the cohabitation effect [whereby "[c]ouples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not" ]to selection, or the idea that cohabitors were less conventional about marriage and thus more open to divorce. As cohabitation has become a norm, however, studies have shown that the effect is not entirely explained by individual characteristics like religion, education or politics. Research suggests that at least some of the risks may lie in cohabitation itself."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/opinion/sunday/the-downside-of-cohabiting-before-marriage.html

(That came to my attention via the posting of this LifeSiteNews.com article in this AQ thread.

Labels: divorce, marriage, vice

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, Martyr, A.D. 2012

Notes: Wednesday, April 4-Tuesday, April 10, 2012

1. "Up to 3 per cent of births in many developed nations involve ART"

… Up to 3 per cent of births in many developed nations involve ART, according to a complementary article by an Australian expert.
Circulation
2012;doi:10.1161/5
circulationaha.111.071183
(Scherrer U et al)
2012;doi:10.1161/
circulationaha.112.100479
(Celermajer D et al)
[I transcribed that from Adam Taor's weekly "Pulse" column, this time on page seven of the "Health" section of the "Weekend Professional" supplement in The Weekend Australian of March 31-April 1, 2012 (Second Edition, No. 14772; ISSN 1038-8761); it is also available at The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/good-week-for/story-e6frg8y6-1226313817562
That complementary article's (or rather, editorial's) abstract is available at Circulation's website:
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2012/03/13/CIRCULATIONAHA.112.100479.abstract?sid=aa73822d-3f2b-4bff-ae70-2411ddda243b]

Labels: A.R.T.

2. "CHILDREN'S behaviour has grown considerably worse since the abolition of corporal punishment in Britain 25 years ago, teachers say"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/no-cane-no-gain-in-the-behaviour-of-students-20120405-1wflt.html?skin=text-only

Labels: corporal punishment, education, U.K., youngsters

3. According to new Australian research, "[o]verall, the more kids a [sixty years or older ]woman [had ]had, the less likely she was to die during [the sixteen-year period which the researchers studied]"

Good week for ...

WOMEN with lots of children, after NSW research showing they live longer than childless women. …
Age Ageing
2012;doi:10.1093/ageing/afs016
(Simons L et al)
[Bold type and the first ellipsis in the original,
I transcribed that quotation from Adam Taor's weekly "Pulse" column, this time on page five of the "Health" section of the "Weekend Professional" supplement in The Weekend Australian of April 7-8, 2012 (First Edition, No. 14777; ISSN 1038-8761); that column is also available, in slightly different form, at The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/good-news-for-mothers/story-e6frg8y6-1226318915633
That article's abstract is available at Age and Ageing's website:
http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/14/ageing.afs016.short?rss=1]

Labels: families, health

4. It's less than two weeks till St. George's Day 2012

and I note that there are two vacancies in The Order of the Garter; H.M. The Queen's website lists twenty-three (non-Royal/-Extra) Companions, but that does not take account of the death of Lord Ridley on the 22nd ult. The last St. George's Day on which there were no vacancies was that of 2009; in 2010, Lords Richardson and Bingham died, and in 2011, His late Grace The (11th) Duke of Grafton died; since Garter Day 2008, Her Majesty has admitted only two new Companions to the Order, so now there are still two vacancies.

Labels: Order of the Garter

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Easter Tuesday, A.D. 2012

Notes: Wednesday, March 28-Tuesday, April 3, 2012

1. The Vatican website's English translation of the text of H.H. The Pope's March 24, 2012 Video Message on the occasion of the national meeting at Lourdes on March 24-25, 2012 of the Church of France for the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20120324_chiesa-francia_en.html

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Vatican II

2. "HOLY FATHER ASKS CUBAN PRESIDENT TO RE-ESTABLISH GOOD FRIDAY AS A HOLIDAY":

http://www.news.va/en/news/holy-father-asks-cuban-president-to-re-establish-g

And: "CUBA: GOOD FRIDAY WILL BE A HOLIDAY":

http://www.news.va/en/news/cuba-good-friday-will-be-a-holiday

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Cuba

3. Cardinal Pell on religious liberty:

… people of good will, religious or irreligious, should support the rights of everyone, including minorities, to practise a religion or no religion.

Freedom of religion is a fundamental right of each person, not a government grant, and has to be acknowledged even where we find an official national religion.
[http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=9753&class=Features&subclass=Cardinal's Comment]

Labels: Confessional State, George Pell, religious liberty

4. Some points of interest from the March 2012 issue of the Australian Bureau of Statistics's Australian Social Trends:

(http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/701575637CC4BBE3CA2579CE000BB833/$File/41020_astmar2012.pdf)

• … Of the registered marriages in 2010, 31% were religious ceremonies, down from 58% in 1990. In contrast, in 2010, 69% of marriage ceremonies were conducted by civil celebrants, up from 42% in 1990.
  p. 12

• In 2009–10, 11% (1.9 million) of Australians aged 18 years and over were living in a de facto relationship, while 53% were in a registered marriage.
  p. 12

• De facto relationships include those living in a same-sex relationship and in 2009–10 there were around 46,300 people living in a same sex couple. The majority of these couples had no children.
  p. 13

• Cohabitation prior to registered marriage has increased over the last twenty years. In the early 1990s, just over half of all registered marriages were preceded by a period of cohabitation (56% in 1992).[ Endnote 1, p. 16: "Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1994, Focus on Families: Demographics and Family Formation, cat. no. 4420.0, Canberra, [left-pointing circumflex]www.abs.gov.au[right-pointing circumflex]."] By 2010 it was almost eight in ten (79%).
  p. 13

• Australia’s total fertility rate [was] 1.89 babies per woman in 2010
  p. 14

• … The proportion of babies born outside registered marriage also rose [between 1990 and 2010], from just over one fifth (22%) to just over one third (34%) of all births.
  p. 14

• … In 2009–10, of the 5 million children aged 0–17 years, just over 1 million, or one in five (21%), had a natural parent living elsewhere. For four fifths (81%) of these children, the parent living elsewhere was their father.
  
  Of all children who had a natural parent living elsewhere, nearly half (48%) saw this parent at least once per fortnight, while one quarter (24%) saw them less than once per year or never.
  
  Nearly three quarters (73%) of children with a parent living elsewhere were in one parent families, 14% lived in step families, and 11% lived in blended families.
  p. 15

Labels: Australian fertility rate, demography, marriage, social trends, vice

5. Her Excellency The Governor of New South Wales received, while Administrator of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, a call at Government House, Sydney, from H.R.H. The Duke of Gloucester on Friday, March 30, 2012

http://www.gg.gov.au/program.php/view/id/2854/title/royal-australian-air-force-91st-anniversary-royal-botanical-gardens-friends-of-the-sydney-international-piano-competition-australia-ceremonial-welcome-samoa-parliament-of-samoa-state-lunch-samoa-senese-school-for-children-with-disabilities-australian-pacific-technical-college-reception-for-senior-samoan-women-reception-for-australian-volunteers-in-samoa

http://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/news/diary-of-engagements/friday-30-march-2012/

The call must have been an unofficial one, since it does not appear in the Court Circular, which reports engagements of His Royal Highness on March 28, 29, and, vicariously, 31, but none for the thirtieth.

His Royal Highness's late father was, of course, once Australia's Governor-General.

Labels: Richard Gloucester

6. The Dominican Sisters of Wanganui, New Zealand, have a blog:

http://dominicansisterswanganui.blogspot.com.au

(That came to my attention via the March (29, )2012 S.S.P.X. Australia District Newsletter.)

Labels: blogs

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday in Holy Week, A.D. 2012