Notes: Tuesday, April 24, 2018-Monday, February 4, 2019 (part 1 of 2)

1. Some changes to this blog's sidebar

Immediately before posting this part of this issue of "Notes", I changed the name of the "Reference links" section of this blog's sidebar to "Reference or research links" and added to it links to

• Merriam-Webster

• The British Library's main-catalogue page

• The Oxford Text Archive

• Search Oxford Libraries Online

• The French Revolution Digital Archive

Then I deleted from that sidebar links to

• Bernard Gaynor (because it is, at least for now, not being updated)

• Sentire Cum Ecclesia (because it hasn't been updated for almost two years)

• Australia Incognita (because it is now "open to invited readers only")

• Angelqueen.org (because the forum's gone; there's now just an invitation to join its Facebook group and a link whereby to do so)

• The Code of Canon Law, the website of the Shop, Distributive, and Allied Employees' Association (N.S.W. Branch), Papal pronouncements, and The Sacred C.D.F.'s website (because I neither use them frequently enough nor can see any other need to keep them)

I also mention here that in item 1 of part 1 of my previous issue of "Notes" I last gave notice of changes to this blog's layout. (I mention that here because I forgot to include a "blogs" subject label in the subject labels for that part of that issue of "Notes".)

Labels: blogs

2. On May 11, 2018, The Pope approved a revision of the so-called Catechism of The Catholic Church; according to the new version of that document, "the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”"

See The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Nuova redazione del n. 2267 del Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica sulla pena di morte – Rescriptum “ex Audentia SS.mi”, 02.08.2018":

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/02/0556/01209.html

(An English translation of that item is also available on its own here, with the title "New revision of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty – Rescriptum “ex Audentia SS.mi”, 02.08.2018":

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/02/180802a.html)

The Rev. Fr. John T. Zuhlsdorf gives, in his August 3, 2018 blog post "“HEY! Wait for me!” Latin of change to CCC 2267 about capital punishment now available.", an English translation of that Daily Bulletin item's Latin translation of the revision, side-by-side with three official versions (namely, the Italian, English, and Latin versions) of that revision:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2018/08/hey-wait-for-me-latin-of-change-to-ccc-2267-about-capital-punishment-now-available/

And The Rev. Fr. George Welzbacher offers, in his January 3, 2019 article "The Revised Catechism Section 2267 . . . What The Latin Text Actually Says" (ellipsis symbol in the original) at The Wanderer's website, an alternative English translation of the official Latin version and maintains that that Latin version is consistent with the Church's Traditional teaching:

http://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/frontpage/the-revised-catechism-section-2267-what-the-latin-text-actually-says/

The problem is that such consistency can only be obtained at the expense of consistency with H.H. The Pope's intended meaning of the relevant portion of the Address which the Catechism now quotes. (See the third of the following bullet points for more on that Address.) In other words, were Fr. Welzbacher correct, the official Latin of the Papal quotation in the Catechism revision would be a mistranslation.

See also

• The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Lettera ai Vescovi circa la nuova redazione del n. 2267 del Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica sulla pena di morte a cura della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, 02.08.2018":
  
  http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/02/0556/01210.html
  
  (also available in a stand-alone English translation titled "Letter to the Bishops regarding the new revision of number 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 02.08.2018" here:
  
  http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/08/02/180802b.html)

• the article "The death penalty is inadmissible", attributed to "Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization" (italics in the original), dated August 2, 2018, available at L’Osservatore Romano's website; it seems to be an English version of the article "La pena di morte è inammissibile", by the same author, on p. 7 of the weekly Italian version of L’Osservatore Romano, No. 32-33, August 9, 2018:
  
  Warning: The respective destinations of the following two links display some unsavoury-looking images:
  
  http://www.osservatoreromano.va/en/news/death-penalty-inadmissible
  
  http://www.osservatoreromano.va/vaticanresources/pdf/ITA_2018_033_0908.pdf

• item 4.3.2 of this part of an issue of my "Notes":
  
  http://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2018/04/notes-tuesday-april-18-2017-monday_23.html

• The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Audience with the Delegation of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, 17.12.2018":
  
  http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/12/17/181217c.html
  
  (The original Spanish of the text of the undelivered Papal Address contained in that item is available in The Holy See Press Office Daily Bulletin item "Udienza alla Delegazione della Commissione Internazionale contro la Pena di Morte, 17.12.2018":
  
  http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2018/12/17/0945/02056.html
  
  and presumably here:
  
  http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/es/speeches/2018/december/documents/papa-francesco_20181217_commissione-contropena-dimorte.html
  
  An English translation—presumably the same as that in the first of the links in this bullet point—is available here:
  
  http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2018/december/documents/papa-francesco_20181217_commissione-contropena-dimorte.html)

Labels: death penalty, Francis Bergoglio, morals, politics

3. Some recent articles, and one older one, concerning integralism:

• John Paul II.'s Address to the European Parliament at Strasbourg on October 11, 1988, Acta Apostolicæ Sedis Vol. LXXXI, 1989, pp. 694-701, downloaded from The Vatican's website:
  
  http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/index_en.htm
  
  (or go straight hither:
  
  http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-81-1989-ocr.pdf)
  
  That Address is also available in HTML format here:
  
  http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/speeches/1988/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19881011_european-parliament.html
  
  and in complete English translation—it was apparently given in French except, oddly, for what seem to be prefatory remarks in English—here:
  
  http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1988/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19881011_european-parliament.html

• "The Catholic Church, the State, and Liberalism", by Associate Prof. Joseph G. Trabbic, dated May 2, 2018, downloaded from Public Discourse:
  
  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/05/21405/

• "Is Integralism Catholic Sharia? A Question and Answer Catechism", by Dr. John Zmirak, dated June 4, 2018, downloaded from The Stream:
  
  https://stream.org/is-integralism-catholic-sharia-a-question-and-answer-catechism/

• "Can States “Confess” Religious Belief? Should They?", by Prof. Christopher O. Tollefsen, dated June 5, 2018, downloaded from Public Discourse:
  
  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/06/21542/

• "Integralism and Catholic Doctrine", by Prof. Robert T. Miller, dated July 15, 2018, downloaded from Public Discourse:
  
  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/07/22105/

• "The state should embody Catholic truth. Two popes explain why", by Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, dated July 20, 2018, downloaded from LifeSiteNews.com:
  
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/the-state-should-embody-catholic-truth.-two-popes-explain-why

• "Political Implications of Religion as a Moral Virtue", by Associate Prof. Joseph G. Trabbic, dated July 27, 2018, downloaded from Crisis's website:
  
  https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/political-implications-religion-virtue

• "In Defence of Catholic Integralism", by Prof. Thomas Pink, dated August 12, 2018, downloaded from Public Discourse:
  
  http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/08/22317/

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, liberalism, morals, politics, religious liberty, Social Reign of Christ

4. Political philosophy's designation and delegation theories among non-Catholics

(For a summary of the basic differences between the designation theory of the acquisition of political authority and its rival, the delegation theory, see item 2 of this issue of my "Notes":

http://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2016/03/notes-friday-january-1-monday-march-28.html)

4.1 Among Anglicans: "That sublime Power therefore which resides in earthly Potentates, is not a Derivation, or Collection of humane power scattered among many, and gathered into one head; but a participation of God's own Omnipotency, which he never did communicate to any multitudes of men in the world, but, only, and immediately, to his own Vicegerents. And, that is his meaning when he saith, By me Kings reign; Kings they are, by my immediate constitution; and by me also, do they Rule, and exercise their so high and large Authority."

The quotation, with its original italics but with centrescript letters referring to sidenotes omitted, words spanning two lines reunited, and spelling and punctuation modernised by me, in that headline comes from p. 11 (p. 13 in the document reader) of Religion and Alegiance (sic) by Roger Maynwaring (though there are numerous possible variant spellings of his surname: Maynvvaring, Maynuuaring, Manwaring, Mainwaring, &c.), printed by I. H. for Richard Badger, London, 1627, downloaded from The British Library's website:

http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=BLL01017849307&vid=BLVU1&lang=en_US&institution=BL

or go straight hither:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100031380413.0x000001

Also available at Google Books:

https://books.google.com.au/books?vid=BL:A0021222935&redir_esc=y

and The Oxford Text Archive:

http://ota.ox.ac.uk/tcp/headers/A07/A07368.html

or go straight hither:

http://downloads.it.ox.ac.uk/ota-public/tcp/Texts-HTML/free/A07/A07368.html

As is well known, there were many contemporaneous Anglicans belonging to Manwaring's school of thought; Algernon Sidney (himself, of course, not among them) listed the main ones (minus Hobbes, plus the Stuart kings): "Laud, Manwaring, Sibthorp, Hobbs, Filmer, and Heylin"(http://downloads.it.ox.ac.uk/ota-public/tcp/Texts-HTML/free/A60/A60214.html)

I might blog about their respective writings in the near future.

Labels: Anglicans, morals, politics, regalism

4.2 The delegation theory in the Russian Orthodox sect? "On behalf of the Episcopal Council of the Russian Orthodox Church I would like to wish you, much-esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich, long years of life, good health and God’s aid in the lofty mission the Lord has entrusted to you through the will of the people. This is how we understand that which is happening in the history of people: the free will of people is combined with Divine Providence. …"

The quotation in that headline, excluding my ellipsis, comes from what I presume is a translation of the "Speech by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the Meeting of the President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin with the Participants of the Episcopal Council of the Russian Orthodox Church" on December 1, 2017, downloaded from the website of that sect's Department for External Church Relations:

https://mospat.ru/en/2017/12/01/news153711/

Labels: Democratism, morals, politics, R.O.C.

5. Mr. Tudge's latest lists of Australian values: "freedom of speech, freedom of association, equality between men and women, freedom of religion", "liberal democracy, the rule of law, equality of men and women, respect for each other", "a commitment to Australia's liberal democracy, equality between men and women, being governed by the rule of law", "freedom of speech and worship, equality between sexes, democracy and the rule of law, a fair go for all, the taking of individual responsibility"

(Unfortunately, the links in this item are now dead, but you can get some indication of the veracity of my attribution of those quotations by Googling them.) The quotations in that headline come respectively from the transcripts "Interview with Oliver Peterson, 6PR Drive", dated Wednesday, July 25, 2018:

http://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/alantudge/Pages/interview-with-oliver-peterson-6pr-drive.aspx

"Interview with Patricia Karvelas, ABC Radio National", dated Monday, July 23, 2018:

http://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/alantudge/Pages/interview-with-patricia-karvelas-abc-radio-national.aspx

"Interview with Laura Jayes, Sky News", dated Monday, July 23, 2018:

http://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/alantudge/Pages/interview-with-laura-jayes-sky-news.aspx

and the prepared text of "Maintaining social cohesion in a time of large, diverse immigration" (a "Speech at the Australia-UK Leadership Forum, London"), dated Thursday, July 19, 2018:

http://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/alantudge/Pages/maintaining-social-cohesion-in-a-time-of-large-diverse-immigration.aspx

with all those quotations attributed to The Hon. Alan Tudge M.P. (at their time, Federal Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs).

Labels: Democratism, feminism, liberalism, morals, politics, religious liberty

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Andrew Corsini, Bishop, Confessor, A.D. 2019

Notes: Wednesday, August 15-Wednesday, August 29, 2012

1. Miss Edwards on Msgr. O'Kelly's "attack[ on] the Vatican action on the US Leadership Conference of Women Religious"

See "Bishop O'Kelly attacks Vatican intervention on US nuns", Tuesday, August 21, 2012, a post by Miss Kate Edwards at her Australia Incognita blog, available here:

http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2012/08/bishop-okelly-attacks-vatican.html

Labels: Greg O'Kelly

2. Msgr. Fisher on an under-discussed injustice involved in legalising so-called Gay marriage:

… What is also unjust is retrospectively to redefine marriage: for that tells those already married that they got married on a false premise; that they were wrong to think they were entering a lifelong and exclusive partnership of a man and woman open to raising children; that we have changed the meaning of their vows to being merely about loving each other, for as long as it lasts. That would be unjust to the many people already married and those who might like to be in the future.
[That quotation comes from the sermon of The Lord Bishop of Parramatta at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta, on Sunday, August 12, 2012, the text of which is available on-line here:
http://www.parra.catholic.org.au/bishop-of-parramatta/most-rev-anthony-fisher-op/the-bishop-s-homilies.aspx/the-homilies-of-bishop-anthony-fisher/homily----marriage-sunday---19th-sunday-of-ordinary-time-year-b--st-patrick-s-cathedral--parramatta-.aspx
(That text came to my attention via its printing under the headline "Kindness, self-sacrifice — not grudges, bullying" on p. 14 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, Vol. 71, No. 4635, August 19, 2012.)]

Labels: law, marriage

3. More on the Federal Government's policy of giving some of the benefits involved with de ivre marriage to de facto polygamists

See the "Guide to Social Security Law", Version 1.189 (released August 10, 2012), Part 2, Chapter 2.2, Section 2.2.5, 2.2.5.15 Multiple Relationships, from the Australian Federal Government's Department of Families, Housing, Community Services, and Indigenous Affairs, © Commonwealth of Australia 2012, available here:

http://guidesacts.fahcsia.gov.au/guides_acts/ssg/ssguide-2/ssguide-2.2/ssguide-2.2.5/pc_13794.html

(That came to my attention via this blog post by Terra.)

I love the bluntness of that guide:

For example, the relationships could comprise a claimant/recipient with any combination of male or female partners.

See also item 2.1 of this Notes post.

Labels: law, marriage, polyamory

4. "A 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology pointed out that an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape in the United States each year"; "[t]he journal said the average national rape-related pregnancy rate stood at five percent among victims aged between 12 to 45."

The quotations in that headline come from the article "Fury over Republican candidate's 'legitimate rape' comment", August 20, 2012, downloaded from The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/us-election/republican-senate-candidate-todd-akin-says-rape-victims-becoming-pregnant-rare/story-fn95xh4y-1226453854274

Labels: pregnancy

5. In Australia, "polling on the topic[ of "same-sex marriage"] began in 2009"

The quotation in that headline comes from the article "MPs to debate same-sex marriage bill", by Jessica Wright, dated August 20, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/mps-to-debate-samesex-marriage-bill-20120820-24hcy.html?skin=text-only

Labels: G.L.B.T., marriage, opinion polls

6. "A spokesman for Julie Bishop, the opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, said there was no Coalition policy to change existing arrangements" regarding "Australia's overseas aid assistance for family planning in low-income countries" doubling "to more than $50 million a year by 2016, up from $26 million in 2010 and $2 million under the Howard government"

The quotations in that headline come from the article "Family planning aid vote stirs opposition", by Richard Willingham (though the second quotation comes ultimately from Senator Lee Rhiannon), dated August 17, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/family-planning-aid-vote-stirs-opposition-20120816-24bgh.html?skin=text-only

There is a difference, of course, between not having a policy to change certain arrangements, and having a policy not to change those arrangements; is it only the former for the Coalition, or is it the latter (and hence the former too, of course, unless the Coalition's policy platform contains an internal contradiction)? (I don't ask that rhetorically.)

Labels: abortion, contraception, Liberal Party, Nationals

7. "as a legislator I[, Kristina Keneally,] always took the view that it[, viz. abortion,] should be safe and legally available"

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "Democracy has a nice habit of giving lunatic fringe a haircut", by The Hon. Kristina Keneally, dated August 22, 2012, downloaded from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/democracy-has-a-nice-habit-of-giving-lunatic-fringe-a-haircut/story-e6frezz0-1226455247529

(That opinion piece came to my attention via its printing under the same headline and by the same author on p. 13 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, August 22, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2623, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

It's interesting that Ms Keneally omits from that statement, and indeed from her whole opinion piece, the third part of the usual 'safe, legal, and rare' triad of the moderate abortionite.

Labels: abortion, Kristina Keneally

8. "It is now very difficult to point to any state, territory or federal law where getting legally married makes a difference compared with a same-sex or opposite-sex couple who have lived together in a de facto relationship for two years or more, or who have registered their relationship. As a consequence, the right to marry carries little significance in law other than imposing a need to get a formal divorce before marrying someone else."

The quotation in that headline comes from the opinion piece "About time we all cared more about marriage", by Prof. Patrick Parkinson, dated August 24, 2012, downloaded from The Sydney Morning Herald's website:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/about-time-we-all-cared-more-about-marriage-20120823-24p2g.html?skin=text-only

Labels: law, marriage

9. Some figures on childcare in Australia

See Child Care Update, September quarter 2011. Dated August 2012 (presumably released on the twenty-fifth). Produced by the Australian Federal Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations on behalf of the Australian Government and published by the same Department. © Commonwealth of Australia, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-642-78431-5

http://www.deewr.gov.au/Earlychildhood/Resources/Documents/ChildCareUpdateAug.pdf

(That publication came to my attention via the article "Million kids in care 'shows system works'", by Patricia Karvelas, on p. 6 in "THE NATION" section of The Weekend Australian, August 25-26, 2012, First Edition, No. 14895, ISSN 1038-8761, published by Nationwide News Pty. Limited; available on-line, but behind a paywall, under the same headline, by the same author, and dated August 25, 2012, at The Australian's website:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/million-kids-in-care-shows-system-works/story-fn59niix-1226457727663)

Labels: childcare

10. "The head of the Russian Orthodox Church and the president of the Polish Catholic bishops' conference signed a joint message Aug. 17 urging Poles and Russians to set aside centuries of anger and prejudice and work together to maintain their countries' Christian identities."

The quotation in that headline comes from the Catholic News Service article "Russian Orthodox, Polish Catholic leader sign appeal for reconciliation":

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1203472.htm

(That joint message came to my attention via the article "Russian-Polish reconciliation bid", no by-line, on p. 7 of the Sydney Catholic Weekly, August 26, 2012, Vol. 71, No. 4636.)

Zenit has a Vatican Radio translation of the joint message here. The Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Church Relations (D.E.C.R.) Communication Service says, on this page at the official D.E.C.R. website that the message "cannot be ranked among theological or inter-church documents and does not deal with doctrinal matters".

Labels: R.O.C.

11. Gay activists in new initiative for promoting "healthy, respectful relationships" "in sport and the workplace" between non-Gays and themselves (presumably while remaining in unhealthy, disrespectful relationships with their respective Gay passivists)

See "AFL declares war on homophobia to stamp out ugly slurs", by Aaron Langmaid, dated August 28, 2012, downloaded from the Sydney Daily Telegraph's website:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/afl/afl-to-stamp-out-gay-slurs/story-e6frexx0-1226459402572

(That article came to my attention via the shorter version of it which was published under the headline "Footballers tackle homophobia and save lives", by the same author, on p. 05 of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, August 28, 2012, Vol. 1, No. 2628, ISSN 1038-8745, published by Nationwide News Pty. Ltd.)

Labels: G.L.B.T., No to Homophobia

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist, and the feast of St. Sabina, Widow, Martyr, A.D. 2012

Notes: Some previously-unpublished items from 2011 (part 1 of 2)

In no particular order:

1. "HUMANITAS MAGAZINE TO HAVE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION"

"HUMANITAS MAGAZINE TO HAVE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE EDITION"
VIS 20111129 (280)
http://www.news.va/en/news/humanitas-magazine-to-have-english-language-editio

This is the linked U.R.L. for Humanitas Review's website:

http://www.humanitas.cl/

Of particular interest in the first issue of Humanitas Review is the posthumous contribution on pp. 27-41 by His late Eminence Avery Robert, Cardinal Dulles S.J. on Bl. John Paul II. and Dignitatis humanæ (though you might be familiar with the content of that contribution already, since that contribution is based, according to footnote 21, on a lecture given at Oxford University under the sponsorship of the Becket Fund on October 26, 2000).

Labels: Church and State, Confessional State, Dignitatis Humanæ, John Paul II. Wojtyla, religious liberty

2. Some points of interest from a recent AD2000 article on Russia:

[…] In early July this year, the Russian Orthodox Church declared it was against becoming the state religion: "The Moscow Patriarchate's position on what relations between the state and the Church should be is invariable. We do not want the Church to become part of the state apparatus, state machinery, to assume secular functions," Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, said.

He was commenting on a poll conducted by the Sreda Agency along with the Public Opinion foundation, of 1,500 people across 44 Russian regions, 100 towns and villages. According to the poll, 30% of Russians want Orthodoxy to become the state religion, 48% are against it and 23% did not have an opinion.

[…] According to Russia's census, the country's population plummeted by more than 12 million between 1992 and 2008, and stands at around 143 million today. Legalised abortion has accounted for a significant part of that drop, with some 1.5 million abortions reported in the country in 2007 - nearly the same as the number of children born in that year. Unofficial estimates indicate that there are nearly four million abortions per year in Russia yet only 1.7 million live births. The UN has predicted that by 2050 the Russian population will have dipped to 116 million. Russia's population will not be able to support its elderly citizens and the nation faces an acute worker shortage.

[…] WCF [World Congress of Families] Managing Director, Larry Jacobs, noted the Summit was coming at a crucial time. "It's not Russia alone that's experiencing demographic winter," Jacobs observed. "Worldwide, birthrates have declined by more than 50% since the late 1960s. By the year 2050, there will be 248 million fewer children under five years of age in the world than there are today. This birth dearth will be one of the greatest challenges confronting humanity in the 21st century," he said.

[…] A member of the Duma (Russia's parliament) Viktor Zvagelsky, said ads for abortion had made "young girls believe they won't have any problems interrupting a pregnancy." Another Duma member, Valery Draganov, said the "number of abortions in our country reaches six to eight million a year. Every minute, two abortions are carried out in Russia. Due to botched abortions, 20 percent of families lose the ability to become parents. One in every five pregnant women who dies, dies as a result of abortion. These are catastrophic statistics."

[…] Russian lawmakers have now passed a bill requiring all abortion advertisements to carry health warnings. Under this law, passed by the the Duma in early July, ten percent of the space used in abortion ads must carry a list of possible negative consequences for women, including infertility. The bill also stipulates that mothers who don't want to keep their babies will be able to leave their newborn children anonymously in special adoption centres.

Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, followed the Duma in approving the measure and President Dmitry Medvedev signed the legislation into law in mid-July.

[…] One of Russia's most visible pro-life leaders, is Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev. At a "Sanctity of Motherhood" forum last year Mrs Medvedeva spoke about the "rights of a child to life," and about the "general lack of support" that usually drove women to "artificial termination of pregnancy."

[…] In a recent speech, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged to raise the nation's birthrate by up to 30% in just three years. Putin's plan calls for spending the equivalent of $53 billion to encourage Russian families to have more children. But Larry Jacobs says that more than cash incentives and government benefits will be needed to raise Russia's well below replacement birth rate. Family & Demography Foundation, which represents the World Congress of Families in Russia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has announced the launch of its latest project: The Life-Family Medical Centers Network. These will be opened in all of the major cities in Russia and the CIS.
[My square-bracketed interpolations, everything else as in the original,
"Glimpses of a new dawn in Russia", by Babette Francis, from the September 2011 issue of AD2000, downloaded from the AD2000 website:
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2011/sep2011p8_3606.html]

Labels: abortion, Church and State, Confessional State, demography, R.O.C., Russia, Vladimir Putin

3. Fr. Harrison on God's creation of Eve

"Old or young earth?", a letter by The Rev. Fr. Brian Harrison O.S., from the October 2011 issue of AD2000, available on-line here:
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2011/oct2011p14_3634.html

"First Parents", a letter by The Rev. Fr. Brian Harrison O.S., from the November 2011 issue of AD2000, available on-line here:
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/2011/nov2011p13_3657.html

"DID WOMAN EVOLVE FROM THE BEASTS?[:] A DEFENCE OF TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC DOCTRINE - PART I", by The Rev. Fr. Brian Harrison O.S., in Living Tradtion, No. 97, January 2002
http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt97.html

"DID WOMAN EVOLVE FROM THE BEASTS?[:] A DEFENCE OF TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC DOCTRINE - PART II", by The Rev. Fr. Brian Harrison O.S., in Living Tradtion, No. 98, March 2002
http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt98.html

I was glad to see that there was someone else who agreed with me that "we must necessarily admit the special creation of … Eve" (source). For convenience, here are Fr. Harrison's sources, taken from those two letters to AD2000, for his contention:

• the Profession of Faith of Pope Pelagius I., DS 443, Dz. 228a, available here:
  http://www.catecheticsonline.com/SourcesofDogma3.php

• the Profession of Faith of The Ecumenical Council of Vienne, DS 901, Dz. 480, available here:
  http://www.catecheticsonline.com/SourcesofDogma5.php

• the Encyclical Letter Arcanum, Leo XIII., A.D. 1880, available in English here:
  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_10021880_arcanum_en.html
  and in the original Latin, from the Acta Sanctae Sedis, 12, 1879-1880, p. 386, available here:
  http://www.vatican.va/archive/ass/documents/ASS%2012%20[1879]%20-%20ocr.pdf

• the Response of the Biblical Commission, June 30, 1909, to Question III, Dz. 2123, available here:
  http://www.catecheticsonline.com/SourcesofDogma22.php

• I Cor. 11:8, 12

Labels: Adam (Patriarch), Creation, theology

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Anthony, Abbot, A.D. 2012

Notes: Tuesday, October 11-Tuesday, October 18, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

8. "Patriarch Kirill lauds Putin for ‘enhancing Russia’s international authority’"

http://www.angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39294

(See also the first comment after the thread-starter for information about recent developments in the Russian Orthodox Church.)

Labels: Cyril of Moscow, R.O.C., Russia, Vladimir Putin

9. "Princess wants stunning before slaughter"

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/princess-wants-stunning-before-slaughter-20111017-1lt1g.html?skin=text-only

I was surprised to learn, from Australia's Agriculture Department's acting deputy secretary for the live animal export taskforce, quoted in that article, that in Australia,

For cattle we do allow for ritual slaughter purposes, for stunning to occur after the cut has been done, so it's a post-cut stunning.

Labels: Islam, Jews

10. "Last Wednesday [two Lesbians] organised a forum for gay and lesbian parents with school-age children to address what they see as a stereotypical and heterosexual representation of family at their schools"

[...] The forum included representatives from the Board of Education and the Board of Studies, as well as 70 gay, lesbian and heterosexual parents.

[...] A group calling themselves Rainbow Schoolies have set up a work party to produce a program for principals and teachers on how they should include a child from a gay family in the school environment.

Although the program will initially be aimed at [one] primary school, the group hopes to extend the program to other schools in in Australia, and is planning a national conference next year.

[...] [One panellist at that forum, who is "an associate professor in the school of education at the University of Western Sydney" and "specialises in issues of gender and sexuality within education"] said the changes to the curriculum next year would be a chance to address issues of diversity and inclusion within the school environment, with a platform for members of the public to voice their concerns.
[http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/happy-fathers-day-mum--gender-restriction-a-challenge-for-gay-families-20111016-1lrfi.html?skin=text-only]

See also item 3 of this edition of Notes.

Labels: education, families, G.L.B.T., N.S.W., Rainbow Schoolies

11. "Growth [in the world's population] has been so rapid that the US Population Reference Bureau estimates that about 5 per cent of all the people who have ever lived are living now"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/coming-soon-7-billion-reasons-to-rethink-how-we-use-the-planet-20111016-1lrdu.html?skin=text-only

Labels: demography

12. "Toowoomba GP and pro-family activist David van Gend found himself in conciliation before the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland over a complaint that an article he wrote for Brisbane's The Courier-Mail, as part of a debate about same-sex marriage, vilified the homosexual community"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/discrimination-police-indulging-in-gay-abandon/story-e6frg6zo-1226167016741

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/10/17/truth-the-telling-is-now-hate-speech/

Labels: David van Gend, discrimination, families, G.L.B.T., marriage

13. A blast from Australia's 'sectarian' past

I was intrigued when I read a very short biography of one "Sister Liguori", of whom I didn't recall previously hearing, on the Sydney Daily Telegraph's history page yesterday, and planned to see if I could find out, on the Internet, more about her and the episode of Australian 'sectarian' history in which she featured so prominently. I've found that the Australian Dictionary of Biography's article "Partridge, Bridget (1890–1966)" is available here.

Labels: Bridget Partridge

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist, Martyr, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, August 24-Monday, September 5, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

8. Dr. Soutphommasane on Federal funding of State school chaplains

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/religion-is-not-a-state-obligation/story-e6frg6zo-1226117970883

I'm logging that opinion piece because of this excerpt:

What is really at issue is the state's neutrality. As American legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin wrote, liberalism says "political decisions must be, so far as possible, independent of any particular conception of the good life".

This isn't an argument about whether religion is good or bad; it is about the proper limits of government power. The liberal state should generally aim to be neutral on matters of the good life.

The problem is that Dr. Soutphommasane describes himself as "one who believes in a value of national solidarity based on the common good" (source), and the importance to him of the common good has been evident in his previous "Ask the Philosopher" columns, such as when he wrote that a "politics of a common good, conducted by enlightened representatives and citizens, is unimpeachable in theory" (source). The common good is indeed the end, or purpose, of the State, but how can a State form the right understanding of the common good of its populace when the common good of a society is to that society none other than what the proper good of an individual--his corporal and spiritual well-being--is to that individual, yet we are, so liberals would have us believe, supposed to refrain from taking "any particular conception of the good life" as normative?

Labels: liberalism, morality, political science

9. Earliest Papal reference to 'healthy secularity'?

As you know, I'm no fan of talk of 'healthy secularity/secularism'; leave secularity and secularism to the secularists, I say. So it dismays me whenever I see that diction coming from the Holy Father, whose fullest treatment of the notion/s of secularity and secularism can be found, to the best of my knowledge, in his "Address to the participants in the 56th National Study Congress organized by the Union of Italian Catholic Jurists (December 9, 2006)", available in English here and in what I presume is its original Italian (since it was given to an Italian audience, though I can't find it in the A.A.S.; if any of you can find it there please let me know) here. (That Address came to my attention via this AQ post.) Now I had thought that Papal use of the term 'healthy secularity' only began with the present Pope, or perhaps with one of His Holiness's Conciliar/post-Conciliar predecessors, but reading Msgr. Lefebvre's They Have Uncrowned Him the other week I was surprised to learn that Pius XII. had spoken of 'the legitimate and healthy secularity of the State' in His late Holiness's Allocution to the inhabitants of the Marches, March 23, 1958. The text of that Allocution is available in AAS 50 [1958], p. 216, here and also here, and in both those sources we see, in the fourth-last paragraph, the words "la legittima sana laicità dello Stato"; perhaps it was with that very expression of Pius XII. in mind that the present Pope put the words "sana laicità" in quotation marks in that December 9, 2006 Address. But while the teaching of Benedict XVI. on the distinction between Church and State seems to be the same as that of Pius XII., distinction does not mean, and should not imply, separation, and whereas Pius XII. spoke approvingly, on at least two occasions before that Allocution, of the kind of union which existed between the Church and history's Catholic Confessional States, Benedict XVI. has, to the best of my knowledge, never done so, and indeed seems to favour the kind of 'union' in which Church and State co-operate but without any priviliging of the Catholic Church over non-Catholic sects; see item 6.2 here, for instance.

Anyhow, is the Allocution to the inhabitants of the Marches the earliest Papal use of the term 'healthy secularity' (or any equivalent expression), or are there earlier ones? If the latter, then what and when were they, and which is the earliest?

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Church and State, morality, Pius XII. Pacelli, political science, secularism

10. Leo XIII. on, among other things, the formal cause, analogically speaking, of the State

This is a quotation from Libertas, praestantissimum as found in the on-line version of ASS 20 [1887], p. 604 (the text of that Encyclical begins on p. 593) (there is at least one, quite obvious, typographical error in the quotation, as in the proximate source from which I quoted it):

... Etenim dubitari non potest quin sit Dei voluntate inter homines coniuncta societas, sive partes, sive forma eius spectetur quae est auctoritas, sive caussa, sive earum, quas homini parit, magnarum utilitati! m copia. ...
[http://www.vatican.va/archive/ass/documents/ASS%2020%20[1887]%20-%20ocr.pdf]

The Vatican website's English version of that sentence is as follows:

21. ... For it cannot be doubted but that, by the will of God, men are united in civil society; whether its component parts be considered; or its form, which implies authority; or the object of its existence; or the abundance of the vast services which it renders to man. ...
[http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_20061888_libertas_en.html]

But in the translation in Msgr. Lefebvre's They Have Uncrowned Him, the section corresponding to "which implies authority" is give as "which is authority" (my emphasis in both quotations). I don't speak Latin, but judging by a critical use of Google Translate, the latter translation would seem to be the more accurate one. Would any Latinists reading this be so kind as to suggest their own translation?

Labels: Leo XIII. Pecci, morality, political science

11. Yet more evidence of the Sodomites' League's success in diverting public discourse on homosexuality away from a focus on behaviour and towards a focus on 'identity'

These are excerpts from a letter by Josie (no surname given) of Andrews Farm which was published under the heading "Live and love" on page thirty of the Sydney Daily Telegraph of Thursday, August 25, 2011:

To deny humans the right of identity and companionship is inhuman. ...
... We cannot stop biology/chemistry, we can only control behaviour and mutual consent.
[...] Marriage is for people who seek to share family identity in the formal bounds that marriage gives.
[I include the second paragraph excerpt there solely in order to avoid being accused of implying that the letter contained no reference at all to behaviour; clearly Josie does mention behaviour, but she fails to show any understanding of its significance to marriage.]

But marriage is not just about sharing 'identity'; it is about sharing a certain kind of behaviour; it is not merely some kind of Platonic relationship, but a conjugal relationship. Hence any discrimination on the basis of sex or sexual disorientation involved in upholding the natural law's design for marriage is only indirect, since the direct discrimination is only against those who cannot consummate their respective putative marriages, and this discrimination applies equally to opposite-sex couples in which one (or both) prospective spouse(s) is (are) absolutely or relatively impotent and to same-sex couples.

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

12. "Almost 20,000 of South Australia's 48,783 Catholic school students are not members of the church"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=27937

Labels: Catholic schools

13. Some recent AQ posts regarding the Russian Orthodox Church

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38781

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38811

Labels: R.O.C.

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

Notes: Tuesday, July 26-Monday, August 8, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

1. Dr. Feser on a review by Sir Anthony (Kenny) of the former's The Last Superstition

http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2011/07/kenny-on-tls-in-tls.html

Labels: atheism, philosophy, theology

2. Yet more evidence of the Sodomites' League's success in diverting public discourse on homosexuality away from a focus on behaviour to a focus on 'identity'

From a Herald letter from one David Harris of Manly:

Fred Nile ... entered the NSW Upper House in 1980 with a single issue - to stop members of the gay community from celebrating their own identity.
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/dilemma-solved--abolish-the-upper-houses-20110801-1i8df.html?skin=text-only]

That seems inaccurate in at least two points: Mr. Nile was never a one-issue politician, and in 1980 New South Wales law did not, as far as I know, prohibit anyone "celebrating their own identity" (though it did, of course, prohibit buggery until, if I'm not mistaken, 1984, but that prohibition applied irrespective of whether the sodomite was homosexual or heterosexual and irrespective of whether the catamite was male or female, so clearly it involved discrimination neither on the basis of sex nor of sexual disorientation).

Labels: Fred Nile, G.L.B.T.

3. Fortunately, it seems that the background of one of the main participants in Ireland's planning for an attack on the Sacrament of Penance has not gone completely unnoticed there

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=414425#414425

Labels: Alan Shatter

4. Point-counterpoint in the Herald letters page:

4.1 In discussion on N.S.W. State school "ethics" classes

One Philip Cooney of Wentworth Falls wrote that

Surely it can't threaten our children to ask why there was not open access to the curriculum material prior to its introduction ...
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/little-virtue-in-labors-games-with-education-20110802-1i9si.html?skin=text-only]

I too had the impression that there was a lack of open access to the 'ethics class' material before its introduction, but then the next day a letter was published which said that

[t]he ethics course syllabus was reviewed and approved by the NSW Education Department.
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/dont-play-russian-roulette-with-our-aquifers-20110803-1ibl2.html?skin=text-only]

Did the "ethics" folks give access only to the Department, then? (I don't ask that rhetorically; does anyone know the answer?)

The day after that, Mr. Nile had a column published on the matter, in which he wrote that there are some who

wrongly believe that when Sir Henry Parkes introduced free and ''secular'' state education, he meant ''non-Christian'' or ''non-religious''. That was never his intention. In the 1880s, ''secular'' was used to prohibit denominational teaching in NSW classrooms, not scripture classes, which Parkes decreed should fill one hour per day.

But I thought that 'secular' as in 'secularist' was precisely what the likes of Parkes intended. One Keith Parsons of Newcastle affirmed my point of view in a letter published, with others, under the heading "Reason v dogma: Fred's no Socrates" here:

The only reason Sir Henry Parkes, almost 130 years ago, supported religious instruction in public schools was to get the churches that dominated school education to support the concept of a universal, free, public, secular education system.

Are any readers here knowledgeable on the motives and intentions of Australia's late-nineteenth-century proponents of 'free, compulsory, and secular' schooling (I won't say education)?

Labels: education, Henry Parkes, secularism, St James Ethics Centre

4.2 In discussion on the birth certificates of donor-conceived children

Last week the Herald gave us a reminder of the insanity of some of New South Wales's laws:

Sperm donors have no legal parental status even if they are on a birth certificate and even if they have court-ordered access visits.

But retrospective laws introduced in 2008 gave lesbian partners of women who conceive through artificial insemination legal parenting status.
[http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/keep-me-named-as-father-donor-begs-court-20110802-1i9yf.html?skin=text-only
Or alternatively:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/sperm-donor-could-lose-his-status-20110802-1i9wq.html?skin=text-only]

The coverage elicited a terse little letter, published under the heading "Donor delisting" here, from one Samantha Chung of Newtown, but the next day one Eva Elbourne of Gordon provided quite a good rejoinder (though I'm not sure that I agree with it completely), published under the heading "Donor parents must remain on record" here.

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

5. "Russia is Most Religious Nation In Europe"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38415

Labels: R.O.C., Russia

6. Mr. Verrecchio on homosexuality, narcissism, and their influence on liturgy

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38404

Labels: G.L.B.T., liturgy, narcissism

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. John Mary Vianney, Confessor, and of Sts. Cyriacus, Largus, and Smaragdus, Martyrs, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, July 20-Monday, July 25, 2011

1. "[In N.S.W. State school 'ethics classes', children] are now critically thinking about ethical concepts and moral issues within a secular framework", writes one of the "volunteer ethics teacher[s]"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/even-a-child-could-work-this-one-out-mr-nile-20110719-1hncd.html?skin=text-only

Labels: education, morality, secularism, St James Ethics Centre

2. A couple of recent items regarding polyamory

2.1 Research findings on Muslim polygynous and otherwise irregular marriages

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/sharia-law-at-work-in-australia/story-fn59niix-1226097889992

Labels: Islam, marriage, polyamory

2.2 Fr. Zuhlsdorf's fisking of an article on "[t]he slippery slope: from decriminalization to social acceptance"

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/07/the-slippery-slope-from-decriminalization-to-social-acceptance/
(It's the article itself, rather than the fisking, for which I've logged that web-page.)

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

3. "The [Russian Orthodox] Moscow Patriarchate has undertaken a real campaign of expansion at home and abroad"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38209

Labels: R.O.C.

4. On planned or desired State attacks on the Sacrament of Penance

4.1 More on Ireland's planned attack on the Sacrament of Penance

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/07/ireland-priests-will-refuse-to-break-seal-of-confession-if-proposal-becomes-law/
(In that post's combox, good points are made by the commenters markomalley, PostCatholic, and albizzi here, here, and here, respectively.)

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38221

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=27315

Labels: Ireland, Sacraments, sexual abuse

4.2 On Sen. Xenophon's desire for Australian States to attack the Sacrament of Penance

http://www.smh.com.au/national/call-to-end-confessional-confidentiality-20110721-1hr0d.html?skin=text-only

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/unforgiveable-sin-confessing-to-child-abuse/

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=27331

Labels: Nick Xenophon, Sacraments, sexual abuse

5. Mr. Skinner on the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics's findings on the size of the homosexual and bisexual proportion of the population

The comment of 20.7.11 / 5pm in the combox here:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/07/17/pushing-agendas-ignoring-facts/

The interesting thing about those findings is that it seems that even if you count all non-answers and answers other than heterosexual/straight as 'queer' (or whatever catch-all you prefer) then that would still give a mere 5.2%.

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

6. "Obama's [latest] gay rights push"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/obamas-gay-rights-push-20110720-1houe.html?skin=text-only

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38225

Labels: Barack Obama, G.L.B.T., marriage, U.S.A.

Feast of St. James the Greater, Apostle, and of St. Christopher, Martyr, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, June 30-Wednesday, July 6, 2011

1. "[In the U.S., n]o state referendum or initiative to outlaw same-sex marriage has ever been defeated at the ballot box"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/new-york-decision-sparks-hope-for-gay-marriage-movement-20110627-1gnj0.html?skin=text-only

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

2. "... an approximation [of pi] appears in the Bible ..."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/maths-mutineers-say-numbers-up-for-pi/story-e6frg6so-1226083546779

Anyone know the chapter and verse for that approximation?

Labels: Scripture

3. Mr. Timbs on the origin of the Sacraments

Here is an excerpt from a comment by one of CathNews's frequent commenters, one David Timbs:

... in fact, Jesus never ordained anyone to anything nor instituted any sacraments of any kind. That sacramental system developed over time in the Church
[http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=26981]

Labels: David Timbs, Priesthood, Sacraments, theology

4. "Many Successful Gay Marriages Share an Open Secret"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29sfmetro.html

(Brought to my attention via a comment in the combox of this CathNews post.)

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

5. Talk soon. Talk often--scandalous new "sex education guide"

Available here:

http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/2/1276/2/parentcaregiver.pm

(Brought to my attention by a short article in one of the editions of the Sydney Daily Telegraph last week, an expanded edition of which article is available here.)

That guide's title reminds of that old joke about how to vote in some kinds of corrupt electoral systems--'vote early and vote often', which is fitting, given that that guide would do to the virtue of chastity in a youngster what electoral corruption does to civic virtue in a citizen.

Labels: education, Jenny Walsh, vice, youngsters

6. A couple of recent items regarding the Russian Orthodox Church

6.1 "The Myth of Orthodox Revival in Russia"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37998

Labels: R.O.C.

6.2 "Russo-Orthodox cleric in Vatican ceremony: closer ties?"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37988

Labels: Diocese of Rome, R.O.C.

7. Death of H.I.&R.H. Archduke Otto of Austria

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38012

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

Labels: Otto Habsburg-Lorraine

Reginaldvs Cantvar
6.VII.2011

Notes: Wednesday, June 22-Wednesday, June 29, 2011

1. A couple of items regarding women in the paid workforce

1.1 Mr. Thompson on several points regarding women in the paid workforce

Here is an excerpt from an article entitled "They have babies, pay them less" and which appeared on page three of the print edition of the Sydney Daily Telegraph on Friday, June 24, 2011:

Alasdair Thompson, chief execu-tive of the New Zealand Employers & Manufacturers' Association, also claimed women were less pro-ductive because they took career breaks to have babies.
"Why do they take the most sick leave? Women do in general. Why? Because once a month they have sick problems," Mr Thompson said during a live radio interview to argue against a law aimed at reducing the wage gap between men and women.
"The fact is women have babies, they take time out with their careers," he added, admitting his statements were "contentious".
[...] Mr Thompson later tried to hose down the controversy, apologising for his comments.
[dashes in the original, my square-bracketed ellipsis]

I wonder what the evidence is for whether women take more sick leave than men, whether, if they do indeed take more sick leave, it is because of women's problems, and whether maternity leave hampers women's productivity?

Related web-pages:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/gender-row-exec-has-a-point-expert/story-e6freuyi-1226081435028

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/kiwi-employers-head-castigated-over-claims-women-take-more-sick-days-than-men/story-e6frev00-1226080815733

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/new-zealand-employers-group-chief-says-women-dont-deserve-equal-pay/story-e6frg6so-1226080763729

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/kiwi-employers-head-castigated-over-claims-women-take-more-sick-days-than-men/story-e6frez7r-1226080755986

Labels: economics, gender differences, work

1.2 Some facts and figures regarding women in the paid workforce and children in childcare

http://www.smh.com.au/national/childcare-rebate-put-paid-to-staying-home-longer-20110624-1ghsr.html?skin=text-only

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/numbers-add-up-as-mothers-return-to-work-sooner-20110623-1ghjk.html?skin=text-only

Labels: economics, work, youngsters

2. Darwin on something which would invalidate his theory of evolution

This is an extract from a very small article entitled "Insights unveiled as Darwin's scribbles enter the digital era" and which appeared on page twenty-four of last weekend's (June 25-26, 2011) edition of The Sydney Morning Herald:

Darwin wrote alongside this: "If this ["that there were definite limits to the vari-ation of species"] were true adios theory."

Labels: evolution

3. "Russian Orthodox Church to tinker with its liturgy"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37841

Labels: R.O.C.

4. A couple of recent reported facts regarding the death penalty

4.1 "Since 1978, [Californian] voters have consistently opted to widen the capital punishment net so that the state now has the most sweeping laws in the country, with some 39 eligible crimes"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/executions-cost-300m-each-in-california-study-20110621-1gdfu.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty

4.2 "Australia ... annually co-sponsors a resolution of the UN Human Rights Commission that calls for all nations to abolish [capital] punishment"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/subtle-shifts-offer-hope-of-abolition-20110626-1glm2.html?skin=text-only

Labels: death penalty

5. "A Bibliography of the Current Crisis in the Catholic Church"

http://truerestoration.blogspot.com/2011/06/bibliography-of-current-crisis-in.html

That came to my attention via this AQ thread:

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37842

Labels: modernism, N.O.M., Vatican II

6. "Liechtenstein archbishop in Mass 'boycott'"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37862

Labels: Church and State

7. "Students get insight into Holocaust horrors"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=26928

This bit was particularly evocative:

This year three Santa Maria College students ... prepared a liturgical movement in response to ... Walter Rapoport, Chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews Victoria.

(In the Australian Conciliar church, "liturgical movement" means liturgical dance.) It brings to mind pagan dancing girls swirling around an idol of "The Holocaust".

Labels: Jews

8. "Kremlin eliminates Putin challengers"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/kremlin-eliminates-putin-challengers/story-e6frg6so-1226080860884

Labels: Russia, Vladimir Putin

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, A.D. 2011

Notes: Wednesday, May 3-Monday, May 9, 2011 (part 1 of 2)

1. Mr. Muehlenberg with some of Prof. Singer's statements

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/04/28/greens-the-party-of-death/

Labels: Peter Singer

2. The anti-sodomite measures of St. Pius V.

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/04/a-pope-as-tough-on-himself-as-he-was-on-others/#comment-269640

Labels: death penalty, G.L.B.T., law, morality, St. Pius V. Ghisleri

3. Two recent Russian developments

3.1 "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that measures must be taken in the Russian Federation to boost the birth rate"

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/04/29/when-churches-go-bad-2/

Labels: Russia, Vladimir Putin

3.2 "[A] plan by the Russian Orthodox Church to construct 200 churches in the Russian capital"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37193

Labels: R.O.C.

4. Mr. Muehlenberg and others on, among other things, how to react to the death of an evildoer

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/05/09/when-the-bible-goes-missing/

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37192

and the comment of 5.5.11 / 6am by Dr. Sarfati here:

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/05/02/osama%e2%80%99s-death-and-fuzzy-christian-thinking/#comments

Labels: death penalty, morality, Scripture, theology

5. Some of the actions of the late Mme. Nhu

... after winning a seat in the National Assembly in 1956, [she] pushed through measures that increased women's rights. She also orchestrated government moves to ban contraceptives and abortion, outlaw adultery, forbid divorce and close opium dens and brothels.
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/dragon-lady-not-afraid-to-speak-her-mind-20110508-1ee2i.html?skin=text-only]

Labels: Tran Le Xuan

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, April 5-Monday, April 11, 2011

1. A few items regarding Russia and/or the Russian Orthodox Church

1.1 Significant recent Russian space mission carried "an icon presented by the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/international-mission-marks-50-years-of-russian-space-flight/story-e6frg6so-1226033950957

Labels: R.O.C., Russia

1.2 "In Russia, the dissolution of the Soviet Union led initially to a more world-oriented curriculum in the 1990s, with an emphasis on ''common human values'', but more recently, in line with Russia's foreign policy, it has been moving back to a more national and patriotic story"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/new-curriculum-will-ultimately-mould-our-national-identity-20110405-1d2uw.html?skin=text-only

Labels: Russia

1.3 "Russian prelate says 'godless' West doomed to collapse"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36808

Labels: R.O.C., Russia, secularism

2. A few items regarding Ireland

2.1 "Irish Minister says religion in schools is a waste of class time"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36735

Not without disagreement, though:

"Former Irish prime minister defends religious instruction"
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36807

Labels: catechesis, education, Ireland

2.2 "Irish State to seize religious order’s property to pay victim’s comp"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36734

Labels: Ireland

2.3 "Irish report argues against hasty government takeover of Church-run schools"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36768

Labels: education, Ireland

3. "The Roman Catholic Church is the official state Church in Monaco"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36736

I did not know that that was the case.

Labels: Church and State, Monaco

4. Gay man reflects on the implications which legalising 'gay marriage' has for legalising polygamy

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/over-the-rainbow/4407748/Is-polygamy-such-a-bad-thing

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

5. Dr. Brown on the theology of the Blessed Sacrament

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/04/maynooth-seminary-in-ireland-fit-for-mission/#comment-264609

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/04/maynooth-seminary-in-ireland-fit-for-mission/#comment-264910

Labels: Sacraments, theology

6. "With the battle over legalised euthanasia touch and go in South Australia and Tasmania, the president of the Australian Nursing Federation, Coral Levett, has taken the extraordinary step of personally endorsing it"

This article is valuable for other nursing-and-euthanasia-related information in it, too:

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nurses-not-neutral-on-lethal-needle/

Labels: euthanasia, nursing

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Leo I., Pope, Confessor, Doctor of the Church, A.D. 2011

Notes: Tuesday, March 22-Wednesday, March 30, 2011 (part 2 of 2)

10. "Apostolic Nuncio to Britain on Russian Orthodoxy"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36583

See also:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/03/should-you-ever-advise-someone-not-to-become-a-catholic/

http://scecclesia.com/?p=5288

Labels: Antonio Mennini, ecumenism, R.O.C.

11. Figures on annulments in the U.S. in recent decades

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36580

Labels: annulments, marriage, U.S.A.

12. "Cardinal to Launch Groundbreaking Intellectual Journal"

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/thread/1301052217.html

Labels: Solidarity (journal)

13. "REFORM OF ECCLESIASTICAL STUDIES OF PHILOSOPHY"

VIS 20110322 (600)

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36556

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/03/latin-in-the-ordinary-form-seminary-wherein-fr-z-rants/#comment-261488

Labels: education, Fides et ratio, John Paul II. Wojtyla, seminaries

14. Interesting new academic/news website: "The Conversation"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/new-website-the-conversation-gives-access-to-australian-academics/story-fn3dxity-1226027509468

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/academia-nets-2m-to-go-on-the-web/story-e6frgakx-1226027704333

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/andrew-jaspans-new-site-offers-something-to-talk-about/story-e6frg99o-1226029038230

Labels: Conversation (website)

15. "Gender Bender Moonbattery" (in the U.N. and elsewhere)

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/03/29/gender-bender-moonbattery/

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

Reginaldvs Cantvar
30.III.2011

Notes: Wednesday, March 16-Monday, March 21, 2011 (part 1 of 2)

1. A couple of recent articles regarding the Russian Orthodox Church

1.1 Reasons not to be too optimistic about the prospects for Rome-Moscow relations

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36412

Labels: ecumenism, R.O.C.

1.2 "Russian Orthodox Church hierarch calls for strategic alliance with Catholics, Protestants"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36513

Labels: ecumenism, R.O.C.

2. An AQ thread on, among other things, the requirements imposed on F.S.S.P. priests regarding Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Missæ

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36360

Labels: F.S.S.P.

3. Mr. Assange on the Internet as "the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/internet-is-worlds-greatest-spying-machine-and-obstacle-to-free-speech-assange/story-e6frgakx-1226022439504

Labels: Internet

4. A couple of interesting items from this month's edition (the first for the new year) of the Sydney Archdiocese's Life, Marriage and Family Centre's monthly e-mail

4.1 Dr. van Gend on same-sex 'marriage', same-sex parenting, and Lord Russell's views on marriage

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/liberation_--_or_deprivation/

Labels: Bertrand Russell, G.L.B.T., marriage, morality, parenthood

4.2 The survival of the pro-life movement as a reason for hope in the face of the argument that opponents of 'gay marriage' are 'on the wrong side of history'

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/01/2439

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

5. Mr. Muehlenberg on the re-definition of marriage

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/03/16/marriage-equality-let%e2%80%99s-go-for-the-whole-hog/

Labels: Katrina Fox, marriage, morality

6. "Philosopher argues against abortion through reason alone"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=25470

Labels: abortion, Christopher Kaczor, morality

7. "New documents reveal inner workings of papal birth control commission"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36478

Labels: contraception, Magisterium, morality, Paul VI. Montini

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Benedict, Abbot, A.D. 2011

Notes: Saturday, February 19-Monday, February 21, 2011

1. "Study finds merit in distractions"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/study-finds-merit-in-distractions-20110217-1ay8e.html?skin=text-only

Labels: psychology

2. "BENEDICT XVI RECEIVES PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION"

Full text of a Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin item from the other day:

BENEDICT XVI RECEIVES PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

VATICAN CITY, 17 FEB 2011 (VIS) - The Holy See Press Office released the following communique at midday today:

"Today, 17 February 2011, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience Dimitry Medvedev, president of the Russian Federation. Subsequently the president, accompanied by Sergei Lavrov, minister for foreign affairs, went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

"In the course of the cordial discussions, the parties expressed their pleasure at the good state of bilateral relations and highlighted their desire to strengthen them, also in the wake of the establishment of full diplomatic relations. The broad-ranging collaboration between the Holy See and the Russian Federation was recognised, both in the promotion of specifically human and Christian values, and in the cultural and social field. Subsequently, emphasis was given to the positive contribution inter-religious dialogue can make to society. Finally, attention turned to the international situation, with particular reference to the Middle East".
OP/ VIS 20110217 (180)

Labels: Russia

3. Latest Australian developments regarding so-called gay marriage

3.1 "Labor ministers find backing for same-sex marriage"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/labor-ministers-find-backing-for-same-sex-marriage/story-e6frg6nf-1226009086049

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

3.2 "Tony Abbott won't change gay marriage stance"

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=25124
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tony-abbott-wont-change-gay-marriage-stance/story-fn59niix-1226008409033

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

3.3 Mr. Hunter on 'gay marriage'

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hey-julia-civil-unions-are-no-substitute-for-real-marriage/

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

4. Mr. Furedi on, among other things, past and present explanations for homosexuality

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/is-that-biological-determinism-in-your-genes-or-are-you-gaga-about-free-will/story-e6frg6zo-1226008077137

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

5. Information on Fr. Crothers's curriculum vitæ

Here is my transcription of the third item from the "parish pump" section of the Sydney Catholic Weekly of two Sundays ago on page three:

Parish cheerio this week to Fr John Crothers and Fr Van Vuong Nguyen, parish priest and assistant priest respectively of St Declan's, Penshurst, and Our Lady of Fatima, Peakhurst, and their flock. Fr John has just celebrated his 10th anniversary at the parish, having moved there in late 2000. He has also served as Diocesan Justice and Peace Promoter and parish priest of Enmore/Tempe.

Fr. Crothers is in the news again, as it happens.

Labels: John Crothers

6. Cardinal Pell on, among other things, the Neo-Catechumenal Way

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=7799&class=Features&subclass=Cardinal's Comment

Labels: George Pell, Neo-catechumenal Way

7. Interesting article on the religious situation in The Ukraine

http://www.therecord.com.au/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2341&Itemid=28

Labels: R.O.C., Russia, Ukraine

8. "Scottish Humanist weddings more popular than Catholic ones"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36126

Labels: humanism, marriage, Scotland

Reginaldvs Cantvar
21.II.2011