Notes: Tuesday-Wednesday, November 9-10, 2010

1. Word for the day: Heterophobic

A STRAIGHT heterosexual couple are so in love they plan to tie the knot, but insist they don't want to get married.

Londonders Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle are instead seeking to have a civil partnership, a form of legal union available in Britain only to same-sex couples.

Gay rights activists are backing the couple's bid in an attempt to legalise gay marriage.

Activist Peter Tatchell said "denying heterosexual couples the right to have a civil partnership is heterophobic".
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/straight-uk-couple-seek-gay-union/story-fn3dxity-1225950432056]

2. On State funding of the Church in Spain

I was interested to learn that

the Spanish government spends E6 billion ($8.2bn) each year on financial support for the Catholic Church and recently shelved a law that would have given equal rights to other religions. ...
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/pope-benedict-agitates-memories-of-spains-bloody-purge/story-e6frg6so-1225949637985]

That funding is a little suprising to me, given that, if I'm not mistaken, Catholicism is no longer Spain's State religion, from which I would infer that neither is the Church 'established by law' in Spain.

3. Some discussion board posts on, among other things, salvation by 'implicit Faith'

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1289304555.html
http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/msg/1289306226.html
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=386575#386575

4. "Pope summons all cardinals for discussion" on, among other things, religious liberty (its present situation in the world rather than the doctrine on it)

Full text of an item in today's edition of the Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin:

COLLEGE OF CARDINALS MEETS FOR A DAY OF REFLECTION

VATICAN CITY, 9 NOV 2010 (VIS) - Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, has sent a letter to the members of the college, and to the cardinals-elect, announcing that the Pope has invited them all to participate in a day of "reflection and prayer" due to be held in the Vatican's New Synod Hall on Friday 19 November.

The day of prayer, which falls on the eve of the ordinary public consistory of 20 November, will focus on two themes. The first of these is the situation of religious freedom in the world and new challenges, with an introductory talk by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.

The second theme for reflection will be the liturgy in the life of the Church today, with a preliminary contribution from Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Three other contributions are scheduled for the afternoon session: "Ten years on from 'Dominus Iesus" by Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; and "the Church's response to cases of sexual abuse" and "the Constitution 'Anglicanorum coetibus', both to be delivered by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
OP/ VIS 20101109 (220)

See also
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34618
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24114
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/11/what-the-cardinals-will-discusslisten-to-at-the-consistory/

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Andrew Avellino, Confessor, and of Sts. Tryphon and Respicius, Martyrs, and St. Nympha, Virgin, Martyr, A.D. 2010

Salvation by grace without faith?

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2008/09/09/on-burning-babies-alive

I was catching up with some of Mr. Muehlenberg’s latest posts when I read something surprising in his comments section. A non-Christian commenter asked Mr. Muehlenberg about the fate of unbaptised infants. This was Mr. Muehlenberg’s answer:

Thanks Chris

It is a good question. The general reply from Christians would be yes, they do go to heaven. Similar questions are raised about the death of infants, etc. The normal line is they are certainly covered by the grace and mercy of God, and they not have yet reached an age of accountability, wherein they would then have to get right with God.

So while their eternal destiny is secured, there is still the major ethical issue of killing innocent human beings, and depriving them of life in this world. We treat animals better. Or at least we seem to make more of a stink about whales or baby seals, than we do our own unborn.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

Other commenters backed Mr. Muehlenberg up on this. I found this surprising because I thought Mr. Muehlenberg was a Baptist, and that Baptists thought (like Catholics) that the cleansing away of original sin was necessary for salvation. Now it could be that, just as some conservative Catholics might say (wrongly) that, in general, the unregenerate still go to Heaven, so might some conservative Baptists. But given that it was the Baptists who gave rise to the term ‘Fundamentalist’, one might have hoped for something better! Furthermore, Mr. Muehlenberg is himself a theology lecturer.

It was ironic, then, that it took a Catholic, Mr. Michael Webb, to set them straight. Ironic, since Protestants would tend to disagree with the the Catholic belief in salvation by faith joined with good works, yet these Protestants seem not even to belief in the necessity of faith with or without good works!

Reginaldvs Cantvar