Notes: Monday, March 28-Friday, July 1, 2016 (part 2 of 2)

7. Some recent utterances by H.H. The Pope

7.1 H.H. The Pope on State religion

7.1.1 "States must be secular. Confessional states end badly. That goes against the grain of history. I believe that a version of laicity accompanied by a solid law guaranteeing religious freedom offers a framework for going forward. We are all equal as sons (and daughters) of God and with our personal dignity."

The quotation in that headline is (a translation of) the beginning of an answer by H.H. The Pope to an interview question; the interview was conducted by Guillaume Goubert and Sébastien Maillard "at the Vatican, at the Santa Marta residence, on Monday, May 9", 2016 for La Croix, and the translation (headlined "Pope Francis Weighs in on Pedophilia, Same-Sex Marriage and the Refugee Crisis", dated, and last updated, May 18, 2016) is available in full at THEWORLDPOST's website:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sebastien-maillard/pope-francis-la-croix-interview_b_10008372.html

The translation (credited to Stefan Gigacz and headlined "INTERVIEW Pope Francis", dated May 17, 2016) is also available at La Croix's website, but you might encounter a paywall:

http://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Pape/INTERVIEW-Pope-Francis-2016-05-17-1200760633

(The only difference between the two translations of the interview part in question is that the one at La Croix's website has an upper-case H in the word "History".) The complete untranslated transcript is apparently available (headlined "Entretien exclusif avec le pape François : l’intégralité" and dated May 17, 2016) behind a paywall at the same website here:

http://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Pape/Entretien-exclusif-avec-le-pape-Francois-Le-devoir-du-christianisme-pour-l-Europe-c-est-le-service-2016-05-17-1200760627

and a sample of that text is available (headlined "Le pape François à «La Croix» : « Un État doit être laïque »", dated May 16, 2016) here:

http://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Pape/Le-pape-Francois-a-La-Croix-Un-Etat-doit-etre-laique-2016-05-16-1200760526

That extract contains the text of the question and answer of most interest to me. The original French of the quotation in my headline seems to have been

Un État doit être laïque. Les États confessionnels finissent mal. Cela va contre l’Histoire. Je crois qu’une laïcité accompagnée d’une solide loi garantissant la liberté religieuse offre un cadre pour aller de l’avant. Nous sommes tous égaux, comme fils de Dieu ou avec notre dignité de personne.

RT.com has an article ("‘State must be secular, single-religion states end badly’ – Pope Francis to French Catholic paper", May 17, 2016) which contains translations of much of the text of His Holiness's answers in that excerpt:

https://www.rt.com/news/343258-pope-french-catholic-paper/

See also the Catholic News Service article "In French interview, pope talks about religious freedom, abuse crisis", by Cindy Wooden, dated May 17, 2016:

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/in-french-interview-pope-talks-about-religious-freedom-abuse-crisis.cfm

and item 3 of this issue of "Notes".

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, Francis Bergoglio, liberalism, morals, religious liberty, secularism, Social Reign of Christ

7.1.2 "I bow before the mercy of the Lord, who willed that Armenia should become, in the year 301, the first nation to accept Christianity as its religion, at a time when persecutions still raged throughout the Roman Empire."

The quotation in that headline comes from (a translation, presumably from Italian, of) H.H. The Pope's Address during His Holiness's visit and prayer at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, on Friday, June 24, 2016:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/june/documents/papa-francesco_20160624_armenia-cattedrale-etchmiadzin.html

The Pope's apparent approval for State religion in that Address doesn't necessarily contradict His Holiness' disapproval cited in the previous item, given that The Pope's reason for that disapproval is that State religion "goes against the grain of history". But it's harder to reconcile that disapproval with the approval seemingly expressed in the following quotation:

The history of your country runs parallel to its Christian identity preserved over the centuries. That Christian identity, far from impeding a healthy secularity of the state, instead requires and nourishes it, favouring the full participation of all in the life of society, freedom of religion and respect for minorities.
[translation, from Italian, of the Address of His Holiness during the meeting with the Civil Authorities and Diplomatic Corps at the Presidential Palace in Armenia on Friday, June 24, 2016:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/june/documents/papa-francesco_20160624_armenia-autorita-cd.html
or see this Vatican Radio article:
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/06/24/pope_francis_addresses_armenian_civil_authorities/1239768
The original Italian of that quotation was presumably
La storia del vostro Paese va di pari passo con la sua identità cristiana, custodita nel corso dei secoli. Tale identità cristiana, lungi dall’ostacolare la sana laicità dello Stato, piuttosto la richiede e la alimenta, favorendo la partecipe cittadinanza di tutti i membri della società, la libertà religiosa e il rispetto delle minoranze.
(http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/speeches/2016/june/documents/papa-francesco_20160624_armenia-autorita-cd.html)]

Harder, but perhaps not impossible; perhaps when The Pope spoke critically of Confessional States, His Holiness understood 'Confessional' in the sense of, as we in Australia would usually say, 'denominational', and thus the criticism would not necessarily apply to a State which confesses Christianity 'generically'. (Just to be clear: I'm only trying to understand The Pope, not defend His Holiness, and the more likely explanation for The Pope's discordant statements seems to me to be that in the La Croix interview, His Holiness spoke his mind, whereas in those two Armenian addresses, The Pope read texts prepared, at least partly, by someone else.)

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, Francis Bergoglio, liberalism, morals, religious liberty, secularism, Social Reign of Christ

7.2 More from H.H. The Pope on the death penalty

See the (prepared, or transcribed, or something else?) text of H.H. The Pope's June 21, 2016 English-language video message to the Sixth World Congress Against the Death Penalty (Oslo, June 21-23, 2016), available at the Vatican's website here:

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2016/documents/papa-francesco_20160621_videomessaggio-vi-congresso-contro-pena-di-morte.html

or see respectively the following Vatican Radio, Holy See Press Office bulletin, or NEWS.VA webpages:

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/06/21/pope_francis_video_message_to_death_penalty_conference/1238843

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/06/22/160622c.html

http://www.news.va/en/news/francis-video-message-at-a-congress-against-the-de

Labels: death penalty, Francis Bergoglio, morals

8. "Over five years the Coalition will invest $5.4 million to support a Pacific Women Mentoring Programme, connecting female leaders in Australia with emerging leaders in our region across both the public and private sectors."

The quotation in that headline comes from the media release "The Coalition's Policy for a Safe and Prosperous Australia", contributed by The Hon. Julie Bishop M.P. (Minister for Foreign Affairs), dated June 23, 2016, available at the official Liberal Party website here:

https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2016/06/23/coalitions-policy-safe-and-prosperous-australia

(and also at Ms Bishop's website here:

http://www.juliebishop.com.au/coalitions-policy-safe-prosperous-australia/)

See also the webpage with the same headline at the same website, but with a little more detail, here:

https://www.liberal.org.au/coalitions-policy-safe-and-prosperous-australia

Labels: feminism, foreign affairs

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of The Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, A.D. 2016