Notes: Tuesday, May 21-Thursday, June 20, 2013

1. "But the State can preserve a religious identity provided it acts with neutrality and justice toward all religious groups in its territory."

The quotation in that headline comes from the Statement of His Grace The Titular Archbishop of Acelum C.S. in His Grace's capacity as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organisations in Geneva at the Twenty-Second Session of the Human Rights Council, Item 3, "Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief", dated March 6, 2013, downloaded from the official website of the Holy See Mission to the United Nations in Geneva:

http://www.holyseemissiongeneva.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14396:22nd-session-of-the-human-rights-council-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-freedom-of-religion

Msgr. Tomasi's Statement came to my attention via this AQ post, one of the sources for which was this CatholicCulture.org article.

See also the Vatican Radio articles "Religious freedom: cornerstone of dialogue and collaboration" (also available here) and "Archbishop Silvano Tomasi speaks on the abuse of Religious minorities in the world".

Labels: Confessional State, religious liberty, Silvano Tomasi

2. "Wealthy Russians dominate the purchase of country houses[ in England] and make up a quarter of buyers in the above-£5m bracket."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "Mind your manors", by Ben Power, dated May 25, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/prestige-property/mind-your-manors/story-fn6njxlr-1226649405628

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline (though with all the letters capitalised), by the same author, on pp. 12 f. in the "WEEKEND PROPERTY" section of the "WEEKEND A PLUS" supplement of The Weekend Australian, May 25-26, 2013, First Edition, No. 15125, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: Russia, U.K.

3. A couple of recent items on income distribution in Australia

3.1 Prof. Ergas on income distribution in Australia

See the opinion piece "Taxes put bite on middle-class families", by Prof. Henry Ergas, dated May 27, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/taxes-put-bite-on-middle-class-families/story-fn7078da-1226650920952

Labels: economics, families

3.2 Prof. Whiteford on income distribution in Australia

See the article "Who gets what? Who pays for it? The welfare state debate revisited", by Prof. Peter Whiteford, dated June 4, 2013, downloaded from the Inside Story website:

http://inside.org.au/who-gets-what-who-pays-for-it-the-welfare-state-debate-revisited/

(That article came to my attention proximately via this webpage and ultimately via this blog post by Miss Edwards.)

Labels: economics, families

4. Mr. Russell on euthanasia

See the article "EUTHANASIA: NSW parliament rejects euthanasia bill", by Mr. Paul Russell, dated June 8, 2013, downloaded from News Weekly's website:

http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=5603

Labels: euthanasia

5. "While it is estimated that 70-80 per cent of Australians with HIV were infected through homosexual contact, about 15 per cent were infected through heterosexual contact, and 3 per cent through unsafe injecting practices."

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "At-risk groups focus of concern for HIV", by Sean Parnell, dated June 3, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/foi/at-risk-groups-focus-of-concern-for-hiv/story-fn8r0e18-1226655484603

Labels: G.L.B.T., H.I.V./A.I.D.S.

6. A couple of points of interest from the article "Children of same-sex couples thriving: study", by Vince Chadwick, dated June 6, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

Most same-sex couples are now having children through assisted reproductive technology. Dr Crouch said that 10 years ago most children came from previous heterosexual relationships.

According to the 2011 Census, there were 6120 children under 25 in same-sex-couple families. However, Dr Crouch said due to under-reporting, the true figure could be more than double this.
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/children-of-samesex-couples-thriving-study-20130605-2nqjy.html?skin=text-only]

(For more on the Australian Study of Child Health in Same-Sex Families, see the National Review Online article "Assessing the Australian Study", by Associate Professor Mark Regnerus, dated June 6, 2013 (which came to my attention via this Australian Christian Lobby post), and this post at MercatorNet's "Conjugality" blog.)

Labels: families, G.L.B.T.

7. "For the first time [in Australia ]more than one million children (1,030,970) attended approved child care during the [September ]quarter, an increase of 3.9 per cent since the September quarter 2011."

The quotation in that headline, excluding my square-bracketed interpolations, comes from p. 1 of Child Care Update, September quarter 2012, ISBN: 978-1-74361-057-2, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2013, produced by the Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations (D.E.E.W.R.) on behalf of the Australian Government, and published by the D.E.E.W.R., downloaded from the "Reports" page of the Australian Government's mychild.gov.au website:

http://mychild.gov.au/pages/ResourcesReports.aspx

(Child Care Update, September quarter 2012 came to my attention via an article at The Australian's website which (article) is apparently no longer available there.)

Labels: childcare, families, social trends

8. Mr. Baker on religious liberty in America

See the article "AMERICA’S PROBLEMS WITH RELIGIOUS LIBERTY", by Mr. Michael Baker, dated May 19, 2013, downloaded from his Super flumina Babylonis website:

http://www.superflumina.org/America_problem_rel_freedom.html

Labels: religious liberty

9. "the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new LGBT Global Development Partnership" which (Partnership) "will strengthen the capacity of LGBT civil society organizations, train LGBT individuals to participate more fully in democratic processes, and undertake research on the economic impact of discrimination against LGBT individuals"

The quotations in that headline come from the press release "USAID Announces New Partnership to Promote LGBT Human Rights Abroad", from the USAID Press Office, dated Monday, April 8, 2013, downloaded from the official USAID website:

http://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/usaid-announces-new-partnership-promote-lgbt-human-rights-abroad

(That press release came to my attention ultimately via this blog post by Mr. Muehlenberg and proximately via the LifeSiteNews.com articles "Obama administration begins training homosexual activists around the world" and "Despite sequestration, Obama funds homosexual groups in other countries".)

Labels: G.L.B.T., U.S.A.

10. The Australian's position on abortion: "Our view on this matter reflects the view of the vast majority of Australians: all women should legally have access to a safe abortion if they need it, but we hope they never do."

The quotation in that headline comes from the editorial "Leave abortion out of politics", dated June 14, 2013, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/leave-abortion-out-of-politics/story-e6frg71x-1226663471678

Labels: abortion, Australian

11. Past Theological Studies articles are available here:

http://www.ts.mu.edu/readers/content/get-past-articles.html

(That came to my attention via the second comment at this Mirror of Justice post.)

Labels: theology, morality

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Silverius, Pope, Martyr, A.D. 2013