Notes: Tuesday, February 11-Monday, March 17, 2014 (part 1 of 2)

1. Fr. Unger on St. Irenaeus of Lyons's Adversus haereses, III, 3, 2 ("the locus on the importance of the Roman Church as a criterion of apostolic tradition")

See the article "St. Irenaeus and the Roman Primacy", by The Rev. Fr. Dominic J. Unger O.F.M. Cap., in Theological Studies, 13.3 (1952), pp. 359-418:

http://www.ts.mu.edu/readers/content/pdf/13/13.3/13.3.3.pdf

(That article came to my attention via the reference to it on p. 154 of The Church and Infallibility. A Reply to the Abridged "Salmon"., by The Rt. Rev. The (7th) Lord Abbot of Downside (B. C. Butler) O.S.B., published by The Catholic Book Club, undated (but sometime between September 1952 and 10.3.56, judging by, respectively, that article and the handwritten inscription in my second-hand copy of The Church and Infallibility.)

Labels: dogma, Papacy, St. Irenaeus of Lyons

2. Mr. Saletan on the opinions of nominal Catholics on matters of Faith and morals

See the article "The pope's Catholic problem", by Mr. William Saletan, dated February 12, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-popes-catholic-problem-20140212-32gv5.html?skin=text-only

Labels: demography

3. For the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child's concluding observations on the most recent periodic reports of, respectively, the Holy See and the Russian Federation, see here:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/VAT/CRC_C_VAT_CO_2_16302_E.pdf

and here:

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/RUS/CRC_C_RUS_CO_4-5_16305_E.pdf

Labels: U.N.O.

4. A couple of recent Gubernatorial (New South Wales) activities

4.1 On Friday, the 7th ult., Her Excellency The Governor of New South Wales "attended the Rainbow Flag Raising Ceremony celebrating the launch of the 2014 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival followed by a reception hosted by The Lord Mayor, at Sydney Town Hall."

The quotation in that headline comes from the webpage "Friday, 7 February 2014" at the official Governor of New South Wales website:

http://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/news/diary-of-engagements/friday-7-february-2014/

(That event came to my attention via the Vice-Regal notices on p. 31 in the classifieds section of the "Weekend Business" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, February 8-9, 2014, No. 55017, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., N.S.W.

4.2 In the early evening of Friday, the 28th ult., Her Excellency The Governor of New South Wales "opened the “We Are Family”, photographic, video and installation works exhibition, as part of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, at the Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington."

The quotation, including the italics, in that headline comes from the webpage "Friday, 28 February 2014" at the official Governor of New South Wales website:

http://www.governor.nsw.gov.au/news/diary-of-engagements/friday-28-february-2014/

(That event came to my attention via the Vice-Regal notices on p. 34 in the Classifieds section of the "BusinessDay[ sic]" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, March 1-2, 2014, Issue No. 55035, ISSN presumably 0312-6315.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., N.S.W.

5. Prof. Flannery's curriculum vitæ

See the article "Tim Flannery: a man for all climates", by Mr. Mark Dapin, dated February 8, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

Warning: The following article contains references which might scandalise some readers:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/tim-flannery-a-man-for-all-climates-20140207-3271c.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version printed as an installment in the Herald's "LUNCH WITH" series under the headline "Beefing up for a climate fight" ("LUNCH WITH TIM FLANNERY"), by the same author, on p. 6 of the "News Review" supplement of The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, February 8-9, 2014, No. 55017, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Labels: Tim Flannery

6. Mr. Ban (the United Nations Secretary-General) on what he regards as proper and improper treatment of Gays & al. around the world

See the article "Ahead of Sochi Olympic Games, Ban praises power of sport to unite all people", no byline, dated February 6, 2014, downloaded from the United Nations website::

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47094#.UxWXLmex5es

(One of Mr. Ban's remarks came to my attention via the article "Putin hypocrisy exposed", no byline (but the stated sources were The Times, A.F.P., and The Wall Street Journal), on p. 9 in the "WORLD" section of The Weekend Australian, February 8-9, 2014, First Edition, No. 15337, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited, and available online under the same headline, with the same stated sources, dated February 8, 2014, at The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/putin-hypocrisy-exposed/story-fnay3ubk-1226820990769)

Labels: G.L.B.T., U.N.O.

7. Uganda's President has assented to a Bill which strengthens Uganda's anti-sodomy law.

See the article "Ugandan president signs law to jail gays for life", by Grace Matsiko, dated February 25, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/ugandan-president-signs-law-to-jail-gays-for-life-20140225-hvdn7.html?skin=text-only

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

8. Dr. Zimmermann on no-fault divorce

See the article "The innocent victims of 'no-fault' divorce", by Dr. Augusto Zimmermann, dated March 1, 2014, downloaded from News Weekly's website:

http://newsweekly.com.au/article.php?id=56495

Labels: divorce, law, marriage

9. "It's thought that about 50 per cent of new [H.I.V. ]infections come from people who don't know they are infected"

The quotation, excluding my parenthesis, was attributed to Prof. Sharon Lewin ("a world-leading HIV researcher") in the article "HIV study lifts prevention hopes", by Julia Medew, dated March 7, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/hiv-study-lifts-prevention-hopes-20140306-34a9m.html?skin=text-only

Labels: H.I.V./A.I.D.S.

10. Some research on the hours of paid and unpaid work done by Australian men and women, respectively

See the paper "COOKING, CARING AND VOLUNTEERING: UNPAID WORK AROUND THE WORLD" (O.E.C.D. Social, Employment, and Migration Working Paper No. 116), by Dr. Veerle Miranda, dated September 20, 2011, downloaded from the O.E.C.D.'s website:

http://search.oecd.org/officialdocuments/displaydocumentpdf/?cote=DELSA/ELSA/WD/SEM(2011)1&doclanguage=en

(That research came to my attention via an article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph of Friday, March 7, 2014.) But see the opinion piece "Women struggle to escape drudgery", by Peter Martin, dated March 9, 2014, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/women-struggle-to-escape-drudgery-20140308-34dvj.html?skin=text-only

Labels: economics, families, work

11. "Many people who oppose marriage equality do so, not out of homophobia, but out of sincerely held religious beliefs or views about the nature of marriage"

The quotation in that headline was attributed to "Australian Marriage Equality national director Rodney Croome" in the article "Mundine comes out fighting against Abbott race, gay slurs", by Mr. Rick Morton, dated March 8, 2014, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/mundine-comes-out-fighting-against-abbott-race-gay-slurs/story-fn59niix-1226848483178

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline and with the same author on p. 8 in "THE NATION" section of The Weekend Australian, March 8-9, 2014, First Edition, No. 15361, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: marriage, morals

12. A few recent Masonic activities by H.R.H. The Duke of Kent (Grand Master, United Grand Lodge of England)

12.1 In the evening of Wednesday, the 26th ult., H.R.H. The Duke of Kent "attended the Board of Grand Stewards Dinner at the Goring Hotel, … London", England

See the Court Circular—the source for the quotation (excluding the ellipsis symbol) in that headline—of that day.

Labels: Edward Kent, Freemasons

12.2 In the afternoon of Thursday, the 6th instant, H.R.H. The Duke of Kent visited Stroud Masonic Hall. Later in the same day, His Royal Highness "attended a Service in Gloucester Cathedral to mark the work of the local Freemasons".

See the Court Circular—the source for the quotation in that headline—of that day.

Labels: Anglicans, Edward Kent, Freemasons

Reginaldvs Cantvar
St. Patrick's Day, A.D. 2014

Notes: Wednesday, June 26-Monday, August 5, 2013 (part 2 of 2)

9. "Divorce can add 10 years to the working lives of Australians, as they battle to re-establish the wealth they had in married life, according to new research by Suncorp Superannuation."

The quotation in that headline is the first paragraph of the media release "The hidden super cost of divorce", no author credited, undated, downloaded from the Suncorp Group's website:

http://www.suncorpgroup.com.au/sites/default/files/pdf/news/Media%20Release_The%20Hidden%20Super%20Cost%20of%20Divorce_FINAL.pdf

(That media release came to my attention via the article "Divorce can cost 10 years of retirement", by Andrew Carswell, p. 24 in the "BUSINESS" pages of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Vol. 1, No. 2894, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd., available in a slightly shorter and differently-edited version under the headline "Nothing super about having to work to a ripe old age", by the same author, with the same date, downloaded from the Townsville Bulletin's website:

http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2013/07/09/385156_news.html)

Labels: divorce, economics, marriage, work

10. "Across the same 10 years[ (beginning in 2002)] however, the percentage of women in professional roles increased while the proportion of women in ''home duties'' dropped from 17 per cent in 2002 to 11.7 per cent in 2012."

The quotation, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Unearned advantage allows men to dominate", by Mr. Ross Honeywill, dated July 16, 2013, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/unearned-advantage-allows-men-to-dominate-20130715-2q021.html?skin=text-only

Labels: economics, families, marriage

11. "There is no glossing over the ugly facts: single parent families have hard and unstable lives. In the mid-80s, a child's chances of being caught in such disadvantageous circumstances was one in 10; today it is one in five."

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "The sins of our fathers may be less than our own on Struggle Street", by Mr. Nick Cater, dated July 16, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/the-sins-of-our-fathers-may-be-less-than-our-own-on-struggle-street/story-fnhulhjj-1226679821579

Labels: families, marriage

12. Some figures regarding H.I.V. in Australia

See Australia's official Country Progress Report submitted, in April 2012, to the UNAIDS Secretariat for the monitoring of progress towards the targets set in the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, downloaded from the official UNAIDS (the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) website:

http://www.unaids.org/en/dataanalysis/knowyourresponse/countryprogressreports/2012countries/ce_AU_Narrative_Report%5B1%5D.pdf

(That report came to my attention via the second comment at this blog post by Mr. Gaynor.)

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

13. "international recidivism rates with treatment[ programmes for sex offenders] were 13.5 per cent - 27.2 per cent without", but "research has indicated predators convicted of assaulting one victim usually had between six and nine other victims nobody knew about"

The quotations, excluding my square-bracketed interpolation, in that headline come from the feature article "Granting the freedom to rape or kill again", by Mr. Rick Morton, dated July 20, 2013, downloaded from (behind the paywall at) The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/granting-the-freedom-to-rape-or-kill-again/story-e6frg6z6-1226682218109

(That article came to my attention via the version printed under the same headline, by the same author, on p. 20 in the "INQUIRER" section of The Weekend Australian, July 20-21, 2013, Second Edition, No. 15171, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: crime

14. Fr. Donovan, among others, on the Novus Ordo Missæ

In the combox at this post at her Australia Incognita blog, the blogmistress, Miss Kate Edwards, and I were having a discussion about the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missæ, in the course of which I said that the New Order Mass replaces the Traditional Latin Mass's "structure of a true propitiatory sacrifice with that of Jewish table blessings". Some readers might have been surprised, even shocked, to read that, and though the S.S.P.X.'s The Problem of the Liturgical Reform—to which I linked in the same comment—deals with this, those readers might be unwilling to take a Traditionalist document as a reliable source. But by a fortunate coincidence (though one which, unfortunately, I didn't notice until I had bowed out of the discussion), The Rev. Fr. Daniel Donovan writes, in an article at Catholica, that, in the context of the N.O.M. (and in particular its Third Eucharistic Prayer),

The Liturgy of the Eucharist is part of the whole ecclesial action in which Jesus' actions, take, bless, break and give include the table actions of the father and mother in the Jewish meal. At Eucharist, Jesus combines the actions of the father and mother providing a unified structure for the liturgy from the Offertory to Communion.
[bold, italic, and red type in the original,
"Eucharistic Prayer III: Anaphora of God's People", Part 2, by The Rev. Fr. Daniel Donovan, undated (but submitted to Catholica on November 20, 2012, and I read it on, if I recall correctly, Wednesday, July 17, 2013 ), published by Mr. Brian Coyne at his Catholica website:
http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/dd2/068_dd_170713.php]

Catholica is, of course, a Vatican II Progressive source, but if readers would prefer a Vatican II Conservative source then they can see the Zenit article "The Priest in the Offertory of the Mass", a translation, dated February 19, 2010, of a reflection by The Rev. Prof. Juan José Silvestre Valór, an Opus Dei priest, professor of liturgy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and consultor to the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff. And to bookend those two Vatican II sources between Traditionalist sources, see the Maurice Pinay blog post "Opus Judei Glosses on the Talmudic Novus Ordo "Offertory"", dated Sunday, February 21, 2010 (which (blog post) brought that Zenit article to my attention; the Catholica article came to my attention on my weekly visit to the Catholica website).

Labels: N.O.M.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of The Dedication of Our Lady of the Snows', A.D. 2013

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

Notes: Tuesday, July 17-Tuesday, July 31, 2012

1. A couple of points of interest from "Partnership of dioceses leads to witness in schools", by Tracey Edstein, on p. 6 of the June 2012 issue (No. 114) of Aurora, the magazine of The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

(It's available from that Diocese's website, and came to my attention via the version published under the headline "Catholic, Anglican bishops renew tri-diocesan pact" on p. 21 in the "Regional Round-up" section of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4624, June 3, 2012.)

1.1 An amusing definition of ecumenism

by The Lord Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle (though His Lordship disagrees with it):

Our ecumenical people meet with your ecumenical people and we have a lovely time together!

Labels: ecumenism

1.2 Msgr. Wright's "message of Christian care and service rather than a message of belief or conversion"

This is the last paragraph of that article:

A feature of the Service of Worship was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, giving expression to the Covenant through a pastoral care partnership. This partnership sponsors and supports Chaplains/Pastoral Care Workers in the schools of the regions served by the three dioceses. Bishop Bill said, "It is our prayer that through this ministry, students, their families and school staffs will come to experience the loving compassion of Jesus Christ: a message of Christian care and service rather than a message of belief or conversion."

Labels: Bill Wright

2. Some links to reports which contain recent Papal mentions of the Second Vatican Council or its Catechism or both

http://www.news.va/en/news/presentation-of-the-year-of-faith

http://www.news.va/en/news/papal-message-closes-fiftieth-international-euchar

http://www.news.va/en/news/blessed-are-the-peacemakers

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-church-must-preach-truth-and-justice

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-recalls-time-as-conciliar-expert-in-nemi

Labels: C.E.C., Vatican II

3. "Obama admin video tells Pentagon ‘Being gay isn’t about sex; it’s about life’"

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obama-admin-video-tells-pentagon-being-gay-isnt-about-sex-its-about-life

(That article came to my attention via this AQ post of it.)

I log that quotation in relation to the observation by the Australian Gay activist Prof. Dennis Altman that

The greatest single victory of the gay movement over the past decade has been to shift the debate from behavior to identity, thus forcing opponents into a position where they can be seen as attacking the civil rights of homosexual citizens rather than attacking specific and (as they see it) antisocial behavior.
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/05/01/on-relationship-recognition/]

Labels: Dennis Altman, G.L.B.T.

4. On some recent developments regarding 'family planning'

4.1 "the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, said Australia would double its overseas aid for family planning programs to more than $50 million a year by 2016"; "[a]t least $70 million over the next four years will go to the United Nations Population Fund to promote equitable access to family planning", and "[a]n extra $10 million will be given to the International Planned Parenthood Federation program to ensure people caught in disasters can gain access to reproductive health services." Furthermore, a "London conference, organised by the British government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is set to refocus on the issue and garner $2 billion in pledges by 2020."

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/focus-on-family-planning-as-carr-doubles-foreign-aid-20120711-21wdw.html?skin=text-only

See also "Abortion aid 'won't help save lives of mothers in childbirth'", by Damir Govorcin, p. 7, the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4631, July 22, 2012, apparently available on-line, but behind a paywall, here; the following is my transcription:

Mr[ Paul] Hanrahan[, executive director of Family Life International, "Australia's largest Catholic pro-life org-anisation"] said the Rio +20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Brazil recently failed to deliver what the population controllers wanted - a univer-sal 'right' to abortion.
"Obviously, the 'major fam-ily planning summit' in Lon-don which Mr Carr will at-tend, is a pathetic attempt to carry out the Rio + 20 agenda by a circuitous route, via friendly diplomats and gov-ernments, mainly in the West-ern world," he said.

Labels: contraception

4.2 "The British government is pledging to double its efforts on family planning, raising its spending from £90 million ($137 million) a year to £180 million."

http://www.smh.com.au/world/faith-in-contraception-puts-gates-on-collision-course-with-the-vatican-20120712-21yx7.html?skin=text-only

Labels: contraception

5. "The 2011 annual surveillance report into HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia, compiled by The Kirby Institute at the University of NSW" says that while "HIV transmission primarily occurred through sexual contact between men, about 25 per cent occurred through heterosexual contact."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/hiv-no-longer-means-certain-death-20120714-222rn.html?skin=text-only

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

6. The text of an interview with Msgr. Di Noia

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/society-of-st-pius-x-di-noia-16482/

(That came to my attention via this AQ post of it.)

Labels: Augustine Di Noia

7. Mr. Copland—"the political editor of ACT queer magazine FUSE" and "the convenor of the ACT Greens"—on "an ongoing problem with the queer movement where people[ such as polyamorists] who don’t fit into the mainstream queer mould are being excluded from the debate, with claims that they are ruining our chances to reach equality"

http://www.starobserver.com.au/opinion/soapbox-opinion/2012/06/14/we-need-to-return-to-our-liberation-roots/79005

(That came to my attention via this Australian article.)

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

8. The Statement, given at Ecône, on July 14, 2012, of the General Chapter of The Society of St. Pius X. to Rome

http://www.dici.org/en/news/society-of-st-pius-x-general-chapter-statement/

The Statement has also been posted on the "Announcements" page of the S.S.P.X.'s District of Australia website.

Labels: S.S.P.X.

9. Dr. Feser on, among other things, how he "came to see that existing naturalistic accounts of language and meaning were no good"

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/road-from-atheism.html

See also this interview with Dr. Feser, which came to my attention via the version published as "New Atheism 'is devoid of moral, intellectual merit'", "A conversation with Dr Edward Feser, university professor, author, philosopher and former atheist", by Damir Govorcin, on pp. 11 f. in the "Connections" section of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4631, July 22, 2012.

Labels: languages

10. "Men work twice as long as women in paid employment; women work twice as long as men in unpaid employment at home."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/statistics-confirm-its-still-a-mans-world-20120727-22zki.html?skin=text-only

(That article came to my attention via the version published as "Statistics confirm it's still a man's world", by Tim Colebatch "with Andrew Stevenson", p. 10, "News" section, The Sydney Morning Herald, Weekend Edition, July 28-29, 2012, No. 54542, ISSN 0312-6315.)

Presuambly the source for the quotation in that headline is ultimately the "Engagement in work (employment related and unpaid)" page at the website of The Australian Bureau of Statistics (A.B.S.), where it says that

While in 2006 males spent nearly twice as long as females on employment related activities, females on average spent nearly double the time spent by males on primary activities associated with unpaid work.

and proximately the A.B.S.'s media release "Men fare worse than women in education, health and crime", July 27, 2012, which has a link to the "Gender Indicators" page, which in turn has a link to a "Time use" page (in the context of "Work and Family Balance"), where there is a link to the ultimate source.

Labels: work

11. Mr. Creighton on the intentions of the Federal Government's childcare policies:

JUDGED by its intentions, the Australian government's childcare policies are superb.

"Gone are the days when this sector was considered a babysitting service," trumpeted Childcare Minister Kate Ellis this week, as she foreshadowed $22.3 billion of spending on early childhood services over the next four years.

[… ]According to the federal government, that money aims to ensure "nurturing, culturally appropriate, safe and socially inclusive" care for children in "approved childcare services", whose parents in turn enjoy "workforce participation choices".
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/broken-puzzle-of-childcare/story-fn59niix-1226431226541]

(That article came to my attention via its publication under the same headline ("Broken puzzle of childcare"), by the same author (Adam Creighton), on p. 15 in the "Inquirer" section of The Weekend Australian, Second Edition, No. 14866, ISSN 1038-8761, July 21-22, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: childcare

12. Mr. Unwin on historical Masonic influence in Manitoba, Canada:

I spend my final evening creeping through the corridors of the Manitoba Legislative Building. Built between 1913 and 1920 by British architect Frank Worthington Simon, this grand edifice is the ultimate monument to Winnipeg's good times. My guide is local author Frank Albo, whose bestselling Hermetic Code unlocks a world of occult mystery smuggled into the architecture.

"Everything is hidden in plain view," he tells our wide-eyed tour group as he reveals Masonic codes, hieroglyphic inscriptions and an intriguing hotchpotch of Christian and pagan symbolism.

Manitoba's legislators (all Freemasons, it turns out) believed they were reconstructing nothing less than Solomon's Temple amid the prairies. It's gripping stuff. But what really catches my eye are the two magnificent stone bison either side of the great marble steps to the upper chamber - a Manitoban take on the totemic wild boars of classical temples.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/holiday-at-the-heart/story-e6frg8rf-1226430230929]

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the same headline ("Holiday at the heart"), by the same author (Mike Unwin), on p. 8 of the "Travel & Indulgence" supplement of The Weekend Australian, Second Edition, No. 14866, ISSN 1038-8761, July 21-22, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited.)

Labels: Freemasons

13. "A study published in medical journal Psychosomatic Medicine found mums and dads were 52 per cent less likely to catch a cold compared to those couples without children", "[a]nd the bigger the family, the better mum and dad's odds of staying healthy, research by Carnegie Mellon University found."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/parents-less-likely-to-catch-their-childs-cold/story-e6freuy9-1226422949125

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the same headline ("Parents less likely to catch their child's cold"), by the same authors (Lisa Power and Samantha Malagre), on p. 07 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Vol. 1, No. 2589, ISSN 1038-8745, Wednesday, July 11, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: families, health

14. "Secret minutes of a meeting on June 30 also revealed that the leadership of the Australian Young Greens party wanted to push for a public debate on polyamorous marriage, which allows people to have several wives or husbands."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/greens-caught-recruiting-youth-on-refugee-issue/story-fnejm6bt-1226423536728

(That article came to my attention via the version published under the headline "Greens use refugees as lure", by the same author (Simon Benson), on p. 11 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Vol. 1, No. 2589, ISSN 1038-8745, Wednesday, July 11, 2012, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: Greens, polyamory

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Confessor, A.D. 2012

Notes: Wednesday, November 30-Tuesday, December 6, 2011 (part 1 of 2)

1. Several recent articles on or relating to so-called Gay marriage

1.1 Dr. Walter on conscience votes and religion in politics

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/conscience-votes-corrupt-our-political-system-20111129-1o4tr.html?skin=text-only

I would like to write a rebuttal of that article but I don't have time, so I just want to consider one point here: Dr. Walter concludes by writing that "to judge legislation according to the requirements of religious belief is to avoid the discipline of public life, and we should loudly and clearly call this abuse of office". Now, how does Dr. Walter propose to remedy that "abuse" if the politician is, say, a Catholic who takes seriously the teaching of St. Pius X. in §24 of Pascendi?

Labels: Church and State, morality, secularism

1.2 Prof. Gaita on so-called Gay marriage

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/to-reject-gay-marriage-is-to-be-blind-to-our-common-humanity-20111130-1o6v7.html?skin=text-only

I log that as an example of the befuddlement which afflicts even the more learned advocates of so-called Gay marriage.

Labels: G.L.B.T., marriage, morality

1.3 "the Queensland parliament last [week] passed a bill that legalised civil unions for same-sex couples"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/alp-conference-set-to-endorse-same-sex-marriage/story-fnba0rxe-1226210968062

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/queensland-has-passed-a-bill-allowing-civil-unions-but-some-labor-mps-are-calling-for-gay-marriage/story-e6frgczx-1226210962614

Labels: civil partnerships, G.L.B.T., Queensland

1.4 Msgr. Nichols on "civil partnerships"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/11/the-archbisop-of-westminster-on-civil-unions/

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39895

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=29311

Labels: civil partnerships, G.L.B.T., marriage, morality, Vincent Nichols

1.5 "Labor voted overwhelmingly [last Saturday] to adopt marriage equality as its official policy - but granted a conscience vote to its MPs to avoid a damaging split"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/i-do-labor-to-gay-marriage-20111203-1ocpc.html?skin=text-only

Labels: Australian Labor, G.L.B.T., marriage

1.6 Mr. Wallace on the Gay lifestyle:

In demanding more money be spent on health for their community, Canadian gay activists have claimed that the system was homophobic in not taking into account: "lower life expectancy than the average Canadian, suicide, higher rates of substance abuse, depression, inadequate access to care and HIV-AIDS ... all kinds of health issues that are endemic to our community". No amount of sharp video promotion by GetUp! can make this lifestyle normal in light of its own facts.

The activists, of course, attributed all the negatives of the lifestyle to bullying or homophobia, including that a homosexual man has a life expectancy some 20 years less than the average male.

However the fact that he has 25-26 times the chance of contracting HIV compared with a heterosexual man must surely have more to do with it, as would the acknowledged higher incidence of drug abuse.

If our schools are concerned about discouraging smoking for its 7-10 year shortening of life, how can we in all honesty encourage a lifestyle for men that shortens it on average by double that? But promotion of the lifestyle this has become.
[ellipsis in the original,
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/its-wrong-to-promote-a-dangerous-lifestyle/story-e6frgd0x-1226212590213]

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

1.7 "Same sex adoption is not a game"

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/same_sex_adoption_is_not_a_game

(That came to my attention via this Cath Pews post.)

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

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Nicholas, Bishop, Confessor, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, February 15-Friday, February 18, 2011

1. Ms Keneally and Mr. O'Farrell speak at Australian-Christian-Lobby-organised forum

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/state-election-2011/leaders-reject-abortion-change-20110215-1avab.html?skin=text-only
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/nswno-devil-dealing-with-the-greensofarrell/story-fn3dxity-1226006653977

Given that The Greens are, as far as I know, the only group with Parliamentary representation which (group) advocates discriminalising abortion (outside Parliament we have, of course, "Pro Choice NSW", a lobby group formed precisely in order to remove abortion from the Crimes Act), it came as no suprise to me that neither Labor nor the Coalition intend to do so, so the point of greater interest to me from those two articles is that nor, apparently, do they intend to collect and publish data on abortions like South Australia does.

Labels: abortion, N.S.W., South Australia

2. Information on who will be involved in H.R.H. Prince William of Wales's wedding ceremony

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/harry-to-be-wills-best-man/story-e6frg6so-1226006024147

Labels: William Wales

3. An interesting blog which I've discovered (via Cath Pews):

http://maguidhir.blogspot.com/

Labels: blogs

4. Anglican slap in the face for their Catholic 'dialogue' partners: Pretender Archbishop of Canterbury appoints ladybishop to be one of the ten Anglican representatives to the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/news-update-items/article/toronto-bishop-appointed-to-international-commission-9549.html
(discovered at
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/02/anglican-communions-greatest-contribution-to-ecumenism-ev-er/)

Labels: Anglicans, ecumenism, womenpriests

5. "Huge drop in Zimbabwe HIV rate fuelled by rise in abstinence, fidelity"

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1297828973.html

Labels: contraception, H.I.V./A.I.D.S., vice

6. "Archbp. Marchetto’s book about “School of Bologna” and interpretations of Vatican II now in English"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/02/archbp-marchettos-book-about-school-of-bologna-and-interpretations-of-vatican-ii-now-in-english/

Labels: Agostino Marchetto, Vatican II

7. Interesting article on recent High Court judgements (and "the closest that Australia comes to having a constitutional Bill of Rights")

http://www.smh.com.au/national/fingerprints-of-chief-justice-seen-in-high-court-unanimity-20110217-1ayap.html?skin=text-only

Labels: High Court of Australia, law

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Simeon, Bishop, Martyr, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday-Wednesday, January 18-19, 2011

1. "British gay couple turned away from B&B win discrimination case"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/british-gay-couple-turned-away-from-bb-win-discrimination-case/story-fn3dxity-1225990668968

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

2. Ms Tankard Reist on surrogacy

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/gestational-carrier-is-an-ugly-term/story-e6frg6zo-1225990595552

Labels: parenthood, surrogacy

3. "Abortion Has Caused 300K Breast Cancer Deaths Since Roe"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35595

Labels: abortion, cancer, health

4. Dr. Peters and others on the obligation on clerics to be celibate and/or continent

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/01/continence-and-married-deaconspriests/

Dr. Peters has posted at his website a full, searchable P.D.F. version of his Studia Canonica article "Canonical considerations on diaconal continence” (previously only the abstract, which I have brought to your attention already in item 2 of this post, was available there):

http://www.canonlaw.info/a_deacons.htm

Unfortunately I do not have time to read it yet, though.

Labels: celibacy, Deacons, Divine positive law, Ecclesiastical law, Edward Peters, Priesthood

5. "Row over HIV health cash"

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/row-over-hiv-health-cash-20110115-19rvu.html?skin=text-only

Excerpts:

A BITTER row has erupted in Sydney's gay community after a group of prominent activists accused the state's leading homosexual health service of squandering millions of dollars in taxpayers' money.

Gay rights campaigner Gary Burns, HIV lobbyist Shayne Chester and journalist Peter Hackney have demanded the state government "demolish" ACON, formerly known as the AIDS Council of NSW.

The trio alleged the service, which specialises in HIV prevention, care and support, received $12.6 million in government funding last year but spent only $800,000 on programs and services. In a scathing attack, the group dubbed the organisation a "gravy train" and called on Premier Kristina Keneally to hand back ACON's work to NSW Health.

[...] Mr Chester said NSW had had high rates of HIV infection for more than a decade, and this was compounded by an increase in unprotected casual sex among gay men.

"Why is this happening?" he asked. "Because ACON, which is chartered with HIV education and prevention, is failing us."

[...] In NSW cases involving HIV infection peaked in the mid-1980s, with 1636 diagnoses reported in 1987. Since then rates have dropped dramatically, with 327 new cases recorded in 2009, although that is a slight increase from 323 in 2008.

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

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Sts. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Martyrs, and of St. Canute, King, Martyr, A.D. 2011

Notes: Thursday, December 16, 2010

1. "Russian Army's [new, Tsarist-era-style] chic designer uniforms make soldiers ill"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/russian-armys-chic-designer-uniforms-make-soldiers-ill/story-fn3dxity-1225971770318

2. "About Catholic Liturgy by an Anglican"

Interesting to me mainly for the reference in it to Msgr. Lefebvre:

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1292409979.html

3. Mr. Muehlenberg on moves in Switzerland to decriminalise incest

Also interesting for the reference, late in the post, to the Sodomites' League's call, almost forty years ago, for the legalisation of polygamy:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/12/15/in-praise-of-incest/

4. "Young gay risks"

Full text of a very short article from page seven of last Monday's edition of the Sydney Daily Telegraph (my transcription):

Young gay risks

A STUDY of HIV has revealed younger gay men are more willing to take sexual risks, were more likely to have never been tested for HIV and more likely to report not knowing the HIV status of regular partners, the study for the Centre for Population Health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne found.

More on those findings is available here:

http://www.smh.com.au/national/study-reveals-worrying-trend-among-young-gay-men-20101212-18tsd.html?skin=text-only

5. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on trends in fertility and household composition

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/7BF46196D121A899CA2576DB00136331?Opendocument
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4102.0

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Eusebius, Bishop, Martyr, A.D. 2010

Facts and figures: "One in five [practising] gay men in US has HIV"

From last Saturday's edition of The Sydney Morning Herald:

WASHINGTON: One in five sexually active homosexual men in the US has HIV, and almost half of those who carry the virus do not know they are infected, a study has found.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention tested more than 8000 men in 21 cities in 2008, and found that even as infection rates were climbing among men who have sex with men, young, sexually active gay men and those in minority groups were least likely to know their health status, while the rates of other at-risk groups - heterosexuals and intravenous drug users - were falling.

The findings were published this week to precede US National Gay Men's HIV Awareness Day on Monday.

[...] Cities in the study include Baltimore, where the prevalence of HIV among men who have sex with men was highest at 38 per cent, and Atlanta, where it was lowest at 6 per cent.

In the District of Columbia, where the general HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is one of the highest in the nation, at about 4 per cent, or more than 16,000 adults, the study found a 14 per cent prevalence rate among men who have sex with men.

In the Atlantic region, New York had a rate of 29 per cent, Philadelphia had a rate of 11 per cent and Newark had a rate of 19 per cent.

The more impoverished the men were, the more likely they were to be infected, the study found.

A spokeswoman for the centres said the recent study's findings were similar to those of a study conducted between June 2004 and April 2005, when one in four gay men tested positive for the virus.

However, the percentage of minorities who tested positive had changed dramatically in the three years since the previous study, although black gay men outpaced white and Hispanic men in both studies.

In the earlier study, 46 per cent of gay black men tested positive, compared with 40 per cent in the more recent study.

In the earlier study, Hispanics represented 18 per cent of the infected compared with 23 per cent in the more recent study.

White men comprised 21 per cent of the infected in 2004-05 and 20 per cent in 2008.
[http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/one-in-five-gay-men-in-us-has-hiv-20100924-15qms.html?skin=text-only]

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Wenceslaus, Duke, Martyr, A.D. 2010

Cardinal Pell in The Sydney Morning Herald, writing about condoms and H.I.V.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/choice-not-condoms-make-the-difference-with-aids-20090417-aa4u.html?page=-1

Graciously, The Sydney Morning Herald has given His Eminence The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney the opportunity to reply, in that paper’s op-ed pages, to Mr. David Marr’s criticism of the support that Cardinal Pell offered H.H. The Pope in an interview for Sky News the other week. Cardinal Pell cites several reputable sources—including Science, The British Medical Journal and even U.N.A.I.D.S.—to substantiate the Holy Father’s much-disputed remark. Of particular interest was Cardinal Pell’s quotation from The British Medical Journal:

Earlier this year, the British Medical Journal reported: "In numerous large studies, concerted efforts to promote use of condoms has consistently failed to control rates of sexually transmitted infection", even in Canada, Sweden and Switzerland.

Cardinal Pell also makes the following observation:

To blame Catholics and Pope Benedict for the spread of HIV/AIDS requires proof that while people are ignoring the first, essential Christian requirement to be chaste before and within marriage, they are slavishly obedient to a second requirement not to use condoms. I doubt anyone thinks that is realistically the case.

But Cardinal Pell’s citations did little to placate correspondents to the Herald’s letters pages. One Peter Foster began thus:

It appears George Pell ("Choice, not condoms, makes the difference with AIDS", April 18-19) has forgotten about duty of care and responsibility for harm minimisation being part of the traditional Christian ethic.

‘Forgotten about duty of care’? What nonsense. And as for ‘harm minimisation’, I’ll say it again: the principle of lesser evil (or, in words that Mr. Foster might prefer, minimal harm) is that one may permit the lesser of two evils—that’s permit, never do, because in natural law it is axiomatic that one may never do evil, even when it’s in order to procure a greater good or avert a greater evil.

In the next paragraph of Mr. Foster’s letter he says

Condom use helps prevent/reduce infection transmission among people who are active sexually. Therefore it is responsible to encourage condom use to help minimise harm.

Non sequitur; unconditional encouragement of condom use necessarily implies encouragement of sex with, presumably, someone who either has H.I.V./A.I.D.S. or whose sexual history is so suspect that one ought to presume that he or she has H.I.V./A.I.D.S., and this is hardly responsible advice.

Then Mr. Foster says that

While total abstinence may be zero risk, it is not effective if people do not feel able to take it up as an alternative.

But, for the umpteenth time, abuse does not detract from use. By the same logic one shouldn’t bother to promote condom use because, for whatever reason, paramours might not end up bothering to use them.

Another letter, from one Peter Robinson, began just as badly as Mr. Foster’s, but is worth reproducing here for the bizarre analogy that it contains:

Cardinal Pell cannot rest the papal condom case on scholarship or evidence. His claim that sexual abstinence or fidelity reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS does not imply that condoms increase it. If the Pope is right about condoms' effectiveness, surgeons will have to abandon latex gloves to reduce the likelihood of transmitting bugs. If latex won't work on a lone phallus, what chance does it have against 10 digits with nails on the tips?

Peter Robinson Ainslie (ACT)

So Mr. Robinson simply asserts that “Cardinal Pell cannot rest the papal condom case on scholarship or evidence”, despite the fact that His Eminence cited several pieces of scholarship or evidence!, and Mr. Robinson fails to provide any counter-citations. And his strange analogy, presumably some kind of attempt at wit, is invalid because the risks involved in surgery are (one expects) proportionate to the expected benefits, which cannot be said of sex, whether condomised or uncondomised, with H.I.V.-positive people.

A contribution to the next day’s Herald’s letters page proved no more damaging to Cardinal Pell’s case than the two letters already cited here, despite the fact that it came from Prof. Andrew Grulich, of the H.I.V. Epidemiology and Prevention Program at U.N.S.W. It begins amusingly enough:

The Catholic Church has long held a doctrinal position forbidding condom use. However, Cardinal George Pell now attempts a scientific justification ("Choice, not condoms, makes the difference with AIDS", April 18-19). His review of the science of the efficacy of condoms in preventing HIV was one-sided, partial and biased.
(my emphasis)

And how does Prof. Grulich rectify this imbalance? With a little one-sidedness, partiality and bias of his own. He asserts that “Condoms are the most effective real-life response in HIV prevention.” So abstinence and fidelity aren’t ‘real-life’ responses? What condoms are is an effective white-flag response: run up the white flag and encourage people—not just permit, but actively encourage people—to put themselves at risk of contracting a fatal disease.

Prof. Grulich goes on to cite a curious body of research in support of his views:

There are dozens of studies that follow initially HIV negative people for years. The best of these have been of young couples, often married, in which one is HIV positive and one is HIV negative. In these studies, HIV negative people who use condoms consistently and correctly rarely become HIV infected. In other couples, a large proportion become HIV infected.

But if one is H.I.V.-positive then the last thing that a decent human being would do is put one’s own spouse at risk of becoming H.I.V.-positive too. And the very fact that the H.I.V.-positive status was known means that there can be no excuse. Prof. Grulich finds it necessary to point out that “[i]n other couples, a large proportion become HIV infected”. Well, yes, you have sex with H.I.V.-positive people, you’re going to become H.I.V-positive yourself; no surprises there. But neither Cardinal Pell nor H.H. The Pope have advised anyone to have sex with H.I.V.-positive people at all, so that is an irrelevant basis for comparison.

Prof. Grulich concludes by citing the pro-condom views of the World Health Organisation. Nowhere in his letter, though, does he challenge the findings of Harvard senior research scientist Prof. Edward C. Green that support the contention of Cardinal Pell and the Holy Father.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. George, Martyr, A.D. 2009

On the reaction to Cardinal Pell’s entry into the latest condom controversy

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/04/10/1239223045156.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25319105-2702,00.html

Firstly: Happy Easter, everyone! Now on to the reaction in the media to the Sky News interview in which His Eminence The Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney backed up (along with Harvard School of Public Health senior research scientist Prof. Edward C. Green) H.H. The Pope’s recent observation to the effect that “condom distribution isn't helping, and may be worsening, the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa” (source). Let’s begin with the nonsense spouted by homosexual activist and naked-kiddies-as-art supporter Mr. David Marr in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herod. As I recall reading in an article by Mr. Piers Akerman some time ago, Mr. Marr left his wife in order to lead the so-called gay lifestyle, so it came as no surprise to see him downplaying the importance of fidelity in impeding the advance of the H.I.V. epidemic. Mr. Marr began by portraying Cardinal Pell as nothing but a mouthpiece for the Holy Father:

In a contest between showing slavish support for the Pope and putting people in the way of disease and death, Cardinal George Pell chose loyalty.

Now firstly, one has to ask: how does advising people not to have sex with H.I.V.-positive people put the former “in the way of disease and death”? Surely it is those whose focus is entirely on so-called harm minimisation—i.e. whose focus is on condom use—who are putting people at risk of catching H.I.V., the fact that the risk is lower relative to completely unprotected sex notwithstanding?

Mr. Marr goes on to quote His Eminence as saying

"They encourage promiscuity," the cardinal told Sky Television. "The idea that you can solve a great spiritual and health crisis like AIDS with a few mechanical contraptions like condoms is ridiculous."

Note that Mr. Marr fails to provide any evidence to refute Cardinal Pell’s main contention: that promoting condoms encourages promiscuity, with the corollary that, since the overall “sex supply” (as the likes of Ms Bettina Arndt might put) increases, the net effect could be an increase in the infection rate. That is the consequence at the level of society of the individual-level problem of ‘risk compensation’, whereby, as Prof. Green explains, individuals cancel out the net effect of any potential for harm minimisation by increasing the frequency of the harm-generating activity.

Mr. Marr invokes the purported success story of Australia’s response to the emergence of the A.I.D.S. catastrophe:

It's hardly news but in the face of this ridicule it has to be said again: Australia waged the world's most effective war on AIDS by ignoring the Catholic Church.

‘Most effective’ relative to what, though? One wonders how much more effectively Australia might have combated the spread of this disease if, instead of relaxing its anti-buggery and anti-prostitution laws (and let’s not forget, in Western countries the problem was chiefly among sodomites, drug addicts and prostitutes unlike in Africa, where it is also a major problem even among those who otherwise obey the natural law) at the very time—the 1980s—as A.I.D.S. was hitting the so-called ‘gay scene’ it had instead redoubled its effort to stamp out these vices.

Mr. Marr cites some figures indicating that many nominal Catholics in Western countries happily defy the natural law as taught by the Magisterium and juxtaposes these figures with those for third-world countries, whose citizens apparently have a good deal more humility than the ‘affluent’, ‘highly-educated’ aCatholic-type Catholics of the West and hence are more reluctant to flout Divinely-protected teachings.

Mr. Marr also provides some figures on comparative infection rates: he says that

It was as the Pope was flying into Cameroon - infection rate 5.5 per cent, compared with 0.1 per cent in Australia - that he reaffirmed the doctrinal hard line against condoms a few weeks ago.

Interesting comparison, that. Given that in Africa A.I.D.S. is as much, or possibly more so, a problem among heterosexuals as in the so-called gay community, the 5.5% figure shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. But while at first glance Australia’s infection rate seems miniscule, one wonders how much of that percentage belongs to the similarly-miniscule 1.6% of the population that identifies as homosexual.

Mr. Marr goes on to delve, rather superficially, into the basis for the Church’s teachings against contraception. He says, of the Holy Father’s remark that “each and every marital act must of necessity retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life”, that

Christ didn't lay down that rule. You won't find it anywhere in the Bible. It crept into church teaching in the second century via Clement of Alexandria who came up with a formula - based as much as anything on Greek philosophy - that the only sanctified sex was sex within marriage for the purpose of procreation.

But as a correspondent (though himself not sympathetic to Catholic teaching) in yesterday’s Herald’s letter page noted,

Jesus didn't say many things. He didn't say, for example, "Thou shalt not manufacture weapons of mass destruction" but we know that doing so is wrong and so does the church.

Mind you, even if Our Lord had said this quite explicitly, presumably Mr. Marr would just denounce this as more “slavish loyalty”, so as always, one can never win with these secularists. And while it might not be explicit, in the form of words cited, in the Bible, one finds nonetheless in the Old Testament the condemnation, without exception, of the interruption method and sterilisation, the only two methods of contraception mentioned (source). Mr. Marr attributes the origin of the Church’s opposition to contraception to Clement of Alexandria; curiously, I could find no mention of this at the on-line Catholic Encyclopedia, while at Wikipedia the closest that we come to Mr. Marr’s contention is where it says that Clement “pronounces definitely against the sophists and against the hedonism of the school of Epicurus”. At the already-cited E.W.T.N. web page Clement of Alexandria is indeed listed as the first of the Fathers to teach what Mr. Marr contended, but one must note also that that web page provides a veritable who’s who of Church Fathers who taught against contraception. And as Mr. Marr notes, “With that, the church and Western civilisation set off down a very odd track for a couple of millennia.” So in other words, we have an abundance of Patristic teaching, and a strong continuity, over hundreds of years, of Magisterial teaching, both of which are in themselves good indicators of the veracity of the Church’s teaching in these matters—good indicators if we are to take seriously Christ’s promise to be with us always, protecting the Church’s teachings from error.

Nowhere in Mr. Marr’s article does he make any attempt to understand the natural-law basis for the Church’s condemnations of contraception and voluptuousness. Which is unsurprising, given that Mr. Marr seems to find nothing wrong with sodomy or whatever unspeakable things he does, and does, most sickeningly of all, in the name of love. Note also that contraception is actually a bit of a side issue here, a useful diversion for Mr. Marr to throw up, perhaps, but the key issue here is whether it is ever ethical, with or without a condom, to have sex with an H.I.V.-positive person. And even in proportionalist ethics, sex with a risk of catching H.I.V. cannot be recommended, since the expected evil (catching a lethal disease) will always be out of proportion to, will always outweigh, the expected goods of the unitive and procreative ends of conjugal relations.

Mr. Marr continues this digression with a cursory glance at the state of the question in the twentieth century, in the course of which he notes that

By the time the Second Vatican Council met in the 1960s, the pill had been discovered. A commission of theologians and medical experts concluded after five years of study that there was no good reason for the church to ban it. But Pope Paul VI did exactly that in the infamous 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae.

But crucial to Paul VI’s rejection of the majority opinion was what Mr. Marr himself noted: the strong continuity of Catholic teaching in the matter. As the Papal Commission’s minority noted:

One can find no period of history, no document of the church, no theological school, scarcely one Catholic theologian, who ever denied that contraception was always seriously evil. The teaching of the Church in this matter is absolutely constant. Until the present century this teaching was peacefully possessed by all other Christians, whether Orthodox or Anglican or Protestant. The Orthodox retain this as common teaching today.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_contraception)

So Mr. Marr can refute neither the natural-law basis for the teaching, nor its coherence and continuity over almost two thousand years. But for him, the natural law and the Church’s Divinely-constituted Magisterium are virtually irrevelant anyway: it’s all about power, you see:

Demonising contraception remains, as much as anything, an issue of papal authority. It's about power.

No elaboration on this contention is offered, though he’s by no means alone in asserting it, as we see with the usual suspects at The Australian’s letters blog:

BK:
How that man [Cardinal Pell] can say what he does on this and other issues is beyond comprehension - unless it is all a part of the power play that organised religion is.
Mulga Mumblebrain:
The Roman Catholic Church is always and invariably interested in one thing alone. Total control of its adherents.
Stephen Morgan:
He’s interested in getting his own way, and he and his Church will lie, dissemble and obfuscate in any way possible to do so, even at the cost of millions of lives.
Lewis Winders:
it isn’t about HIV, or humanity. It’s about power.
(http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/theaustralian/comments/early_condom_use_would_have_stemmed_aids_crisis)

Someone needs to explain this for me. So Churchmen, it is alleged, give up marriage, family and the pleasures of worldly life in order to wield ‘power’ arbitrarily over people for their own sick amusement—only to have vast numbers of those people ignore them or defy them, or even join with the secularists in reviling them? This is really just gutter-level character assassination, but what is most sickening about it is, as I suggested, that nominal Catholics like those at the inaptly-named Catholica website go along with it, and even surpass the fervour of the secularists.

As Mr. Marr continues, he gives further indication of his inability to grasp the natural law:

There were glimmers of hope a few years ago when a great prince of the church, the former Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, began to argue that wearing a condom was less evil than infecting your partner.

But Mr. Marr seems not to understand the doctrine of lesser evil: the doctrine is that if one must permit one of two or more evils then one ought to permit the lesser evil. That’s permit, not do: one may never do evil in order to procure a greater good or avert a greater evil, even if the lesser evil seems trifling and the expected greater evil seems catastrophic. (And that, Mr. Marr, is clear from the Bible, and the New Testament in particular: see Romans 3:8.) But furthermore, condom use will never be the lesser evil, because there is always a third alternative: just don’t have sex.

But of course abstinence is anathema to the likes of Mr. Marr:

It's true that condoms don't prevent all transmissions of HIV/AIDS. Aspirin doesn't cure every headache either. And we know in our hearts - and every reputable study confirms - that the church's call for abstinence is useless.

He might ‘know’ this in his own buggery-addled heart, but “every reputable study” does not confirm it. Name them all then, Mr. Marr. And let’s have a closer look at his aspirin analogy. It’s a pretty pathetic one, but let’s adjust it so that it can offer some meaningful comparison. Now a headache is an evil, and taking aspirin is not intrinsically evil. Let’s suppose, though, that the patient has some medical condition that means that it will be potentially fatal—let’s say, hmmm, that there’s a 15% risk of a fatality. Now would anyone ever dream of recommending that he take aspirin for a headache? Even if we take a ‘harm minimisation’ approach and require, say, that he have someone with him when he takes the aspirin so that this other person can call for help? I certainly wouldn’t advise any such thing, given that the evil of death pretty clearly outweighs the evil of a headache.

Mr. Marr finishes on the following note:

But how many good Catholics will die in Africa and the Philippines before they learn that in the 21st century disobeying the Vatican line is a matter of life and death?

So again he brings up the Philippines. But what do the empirical data tell us?

AIDS victims in 1987: Philippines 135 / Thailand 112
In 1991 the WHO predicted the Philippines would have 80,000 to 90,000 cases and Thailand 60,000 to 80,000 AIDS victims.
Thailand promoted the use of condoms in massive campaigns where Catholic Philippines promoted ‘Abstinence’ and ‘Be faithful’.
The prognosis of the WHO was wrong for both countries:
1999: Philippines 1,005 / Thailand 755,000 AIDS victims

Source: British Medical Journal, volume 328, April 10th 2004
(http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/03/i-told-you-so/#comments)

Maybe abstinence isn’t ‘useless’ after all, Mr. Marr? And let’s not forget that most opposition to abstinence as the cornerstone of public health policy on H.I.V./A.I.D.S. is based on a logical fallacy anyway: opponents say that we shouldn’t emphasise abstinence and fidelity because people might fail to live up to these ideals, but this clearly defies the principle that ‘abuse does not detract from use’. By the same logic we ought to abandon the ideal—which is what it is, after, all, just an alternative (and absurd) ideal—of universal condom use, especially since in the throes of passion it’s all too likely that paramours will throw caution to the wind and not bother with so-called protection, not to mention that once trust, whether justified or not, has been built up the paramours aren’t likely to stick to a ‘safer sex’ (note how even the pro-condom crowd backs away from the notion of ‘safe sex’ these days) régime for long.

So that’s the secularist line; what do our ‘separated brethren’ in the Protestant communities have to say? Although Mr. Muehlenburg had a sympathetic post at his blog back when the original controversy broke, the reaction from a spokesman for the Sydney Anglicans to the latest flare-up wasn’t terribly heartening:

The Anglican Dean of Sydney, Phillip Jensen, lent his support to Cardinal Pell's criticism of society's increasing promiscuity, but not to the banning of condoms.

"We don't oppose the use of condoms," he said. "The Catholic Church has opposed condoms. We haven't.

"We have no problem with birth control that includes condoms."

Dr. Jensen goes on to say that

there was more to modern promiscuity than just the ready availability of condoms.

"In terms of adultery, in terms of divorce, yes, we are in big trouble as a society because of the sexual revolution," he said.

"It's a century-long movement that has happened. In my view, it's a disaster. It has ruined lives. It is ruining our society."

Now to start with, I don’t think that the sexual revolution has been underway for fully one century yet. More like eighty years, I’d say. I’m alluding, of course, to the 1930 Lambeth Conference, which endorsed (albeit in a limited way) the separation of the unitive and procreative ends of conjugal relations, opening the floodgates to the widespread Protestant rejection of God’s plan for (as reflected in the natural law’s implications for) the propagation of the human race, so that today the Anglicans can say unequivocally that they do “not regard contraception as a sin or a contravention of God's purpose” (source) (who ever said slippery-slope arguments were logically fallacious?). Yet are Dr. Jensen and the Anglicans, along with the other Protestants, so blind as not to see that the very things that they deplore—as Dr. Jensen mentions, adultery, divorce, the sexual revolution and the very ruin of society—are linked inextricably with (or can even be the very consequence of) the separation of the unitive and procreative dimensions of human sexuality? (And that’s not to mention the Protestant denial that marriage is a true and proper Sacrament.)

No meaningful support seemed forthcoming from the Uniting Church either:

A spokesman for the Uniting Church said the use of condoms had led to improvements in people's quality of life. "They have obviously stopped people from catching life-threatening diseases," he said. "The Uniting Church is not opposed to the use of condoms."

Meanwhile, the President of the A.I.D.S. Council of New South Wales (visit its website, http://www.acon.org.au/—it’s just a front for the Sodomites’ League), Mr. Mark Orr, had this to say:

"Abstinence is one method of preventing the transmission of HIV, but we need to live in the reality of people's lives and their decision making. And often people choose not to abstain."

So, as I explained earlier, presumably we shouldn’t bother with condom promotion then either, since we can say that ‘often people choose not to use condoms’. Abuse does not detract from use, Mr. Orr.

It’s fascinating also to see just how badly people fail to understand what the Catholic teaching on these matters actually is. Listen to the following rhetorical question from one Kevin Poschelk in a letter published in yesterday’s The Australian:

How does the modern Church interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ to mean that the practice of unsafe sex is the Christian thing to do?
(http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/theaustralian/comments/early_condom_use_would_have_stemmed_aids_crisis)

Where have Cardinal Pell, the Holy Father, or any Catholic theologian or pastor ever advised anyone to have sex, ‘protected’ or unprotected, with H.I.V.-positive people (or people whom one would presume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be H.I.V.-positive)? The Church advises the only reasonable course of action: don’t have sex with H.I.V.-positive/presumably H.I.V.-positive people AT ALL. No-one in his right mind would advise people to have unsafe sex, and as for ‘safe sex’, even if one assumes for the sake of argument that condom use is not intrinsically evil, it is still clearly evil in these circumstances because the risk of death outweighs the expected benefits. (I explained this briefly earlier, and here’s a little analogy to illustrate it: suppose a house were on fire and there were somebody trapped inside. If there were a reasonable prospect of success then one could risk one’s life trying to safe the trapped person because the potential evil of one’s own death is in proportion to the potential evil of the other person’s death. But one couldn’t very well risk one’s life in order to save, say, some furniture, regardless of what ‘harm minimisation’ measures might be available. And so it is in the case of sex with H.I.V.-positive people.) So the Church advises neither ‘safe sex’ nor unsafe sex; she advises no sex, and to do otherwise would be manifestly and gravely irresponsible.

And perhaps surprisingly, it seems to me that, in fact, Catholics and secularists agree as to how these alternatives are to be ranked from most evil/least good to least evil/most good: in ascending order of ‘evilness’, they would be:

1. No sex with H.I.V.-positive people
2. Condomised sex with H.I.V-positive people
3. Uncondomised sex with H.I.V.-positive people

(Explanation: the natural law tells us that any given person’s priorities must be firstly to perpetuate himself as an individual and secondly, to perpetuate himself as a species. So the intention to catch H.I.V.—which is what unprotected sex with an H.I.V.-positive person implies—is more grave than the intention to inhibit conception, which is what condom use implies. But don’t get me wrong—2. and 3. are both evil, and one may never do evil, ever; it’s just a question of their ranking.)

Note also that this ranking holds both for singles and for married couples, since one may refuse to render the marriage debt if there is a reasonable suspicion that one’s spouse has a serious illness. So given this ranking, why the secularist obsession with 2.? Could it be that, for all there raving about abstinence advocates being ‘dogmatic’ (whatever that means—the secularists have turned into a dirty word what they probably never understood to begin with), they have an ideology, a ‘dogmatism’, of their own, which exaggerates man’s passions and denies that he can live a fulfilled life when bound by chastity? And while the Catholic Church can—and should—only ever advise 1., given that 3. is worse than 2., a government could permit the supply of condoms if it adjudges it impossible or imprudent to crack down on sodomy, I.V. drug use, prostitution and fornication. So in fact Mulga Mumblebrain was right in his or her previously-cited comment when he or she said that

The humane position would undoubtedly be to preach abstinence, but allow those who cannot follow this admonition … the use of condoms.

so long as we stress that it can only ever be a question of allowing, never advising or exhorting, condom use; as difficult as the consequentialism-addled secularists might find it to understand, one can never do (or exhort people to do) evil, even if one expects thereby to avert a greater evil. But if the finding of an Ivy League scholar like Prof. Green is to be believed (which it should—it’s supported by articles published in Science, The Lancet, British Medical Journal, and Studies in Family Planning), then in fact all that the evil of condom promotion does is to unleash even greater evils.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Tuesday of Easter Week, A.D. 2009