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