Notes: Tuesday, February 5-Monday, July 22, 2019 (part 3 of 3)

7. The latest bioethical offences from Australia's political duopoly

7.1 A Labor Federal Government would work to increase access to contraception and abortion, most notably by ensuring that "Commonwealth-State hospital funding agreements will expect that termination services will be provided consistently in public hospitals."

See the Media Release "LABOR’S PLAN TO SUPPORT WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS", Wednesday, March 6, 2019, issued jointly by The Hon. Tanya Plibersek M.P. (at the time, Deputy Leader of H.M.A. Opposition and its Shadow Minister for Education and Training and for Women) and The Hon. Catherine King M.P. (at the time, Federal Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) and available at their respective websites:

http://www.tanyaplibersek.com/media_release_labor_s_plan_to_support_women_s_reproductive_rights_wednesday_6_march_2019

https://www.catherineking.com.au/2019/03/05/labors-plan-to-support-womens-reproductive-rights/

Labels: A.L., abortion, contraception

7.2 "Women will have greater choice around IVF services with the NSW Liberals & Nationals Government providing up to a $500 rebate for pre-IVF fertility testing and greater access to lower cost treatments", whereby "the NSW Government will provide lower cost IVF treatments for around 6000 women through services at Royal Prince Alfred, The Royal Hospital for Women and Westmead hospitals"; and there will be "a partnership with UNSW for the first statewide fertility preservation service for young cancer patients at The Royal Hospital for Women."

Those quotations come from the press release "MAKING IVF MORE ACCESSIBLE FOR WOMEN", Saturday, March 9, 2019, downloaded from the website of The Liberal Party of Australia's New South Wales Division:

https://nsw.liberal.org.au/candidates/gladys-berejiklian/news/articles/MAKING-IVF-MORE-ACCESSIBLE-FOR-WOMEN

Labels: I.V.F., L.P.A., Nationals

8. St. Thomas Aquinas against the doctrines of original liberty and original equality

See note 92 at the end of the article "The Corporate Idea and the Body Politic in the Middle Ages", by Anton-Hermann Chroust, in The Review of Politics, Vol. 9, Issue No. 4, October 1947, pp. 423-452:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/corporate-idea-and-the-body-politic-in-the-middle-ages/0B226F3CF3CB5272E74E7655C48EE5D2

This is the relevant section of that note:

Compare St. Aquinas, Thomas, Summa Theologica I, quaest. 96, art. 3 Google Scholar: “We must of necessity admit that in the primitive state there would have been some inequality.…” See ibid, quaest. 96, art. 4: “… a man is the master of a free subject, by directing him either towards his proper welfare, or the common good. Such a type of mastership would have existed in the state of innocence between man and man, for two reasons: first, because man is by nature a social being, and thus in the state of innocence he would have led a social life. Now a social life cannot exist among a number of people unless under the direction of one to look after the common welfare; for many, as such, seek many things, whereas one attends only to one.…” See also Summa contra Ceniiles[ sic] III, 81
[italics, bold type, and hyperlinks in the original, my square-bracketed interpolation]

Labels: Democratism, liberalism, morals, politics, St. Thomas Aquinas

9. Dr. Gosbell on ancient Christian (and pagan) attitudes to abortion and infanticide

See the A.B.C. Religion and Ethics article ""As long as it's healthy": What can we learn from early Christianity's resistance to infanticide and exposure?", by Dr. Louise Gosbell, Wednesday, March 13, 2019:

Warning: That article is headed by a picture which could scandalise some readers:

https://www.abc.net.au/religion/early-christianitys-resistance-to-infanticide-and-exposure/10898016

Labels: abortion, Fathers, infanticide, morals

10. 24% of mothers in couple families in Australia were unwaged in 2016, down from 32% in 1991.

My immediate source for the information in that headline is Figure 2 of the Australian Institute of Family Studies research summary "Fathers and work: A statistical overview", by Dr. Jennifer Baxter, May 2019:

https://aifs.gov.au/aifs-conference/fathers-and-work

(The ultimate source is the Australian Population Census customised reports, 1991–2016, according to Figure 2's caption.)

Labels: demography, family, social trends, work

11. On the morning of the 26. ult., The Duke of Cambridge "officially opened the Albert Kennedy Trust new Services Centre" in London.

See the Court Circular of that date. According to akt's "our history" webpage, akt is the "world’s first ever service for homeless LGBT youth":

https://www.akt.org.uk/our-history

and according to its "duke of cambridge visits akt" webpage, that official opening involved "the first visit to a lgbtq+ youth charity by a member of the royal family":

https://www.akt.org.uk/news/duke-of-cambridge-visits-akt

Labels: G.L.B.T., William Cambridge

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, Penitent, A.D. 2019

Notes: Wednesday, April 25-Monday, May 21, 2012

1. The transcript for the Monday, April 9, 2012 episode of Q&A, in which Cardinal Pell appeared, is available here:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3469101.htm

Labels: George Pell

2. How Hansard can change:

Early last month, on a tediously slow Wednes-day afternoon, [Senator The Hon. Bob ]Carr slips into the chamber 15 min-utes ahead of schedule to deliver his first speech to the Senate. …

[… ]Carr's memory microchip spits out an error as he recalls passing Henry Kissinger at the end of the Olym-pics in "September 2001"; too much terror, not enough five-ringed circus (later, for posterity, Hansard will record Carr said "October 2000", even though he didn't). …
[bold type and dashes (from where a word spanned two lines) in the original, my square-bracketed interpolations]

I transcribed that from p. 14 of "Second coming", by Tom Dusevic, The Weekend Australian Magazine, April 21-22, 2012, inserted in The Weekend Australian, April 21-22, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14789, ISSN 1038-8761, available on-line, but behind a paywall, here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-second-coming-of-bob-carr/story-e6frg8h6-1226331179611

The text of Senator Carr's maiden speech is available here:

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F34dcc858-84ef-4fe3-9144-f6f97af26110%2F0180%22

(I write this item well aware that Hansard is not just a transcript, but an edited transcript.

Furthermore, I neither write nor publish this item in connection with today's speech in Parliament by Mr. Craig Thomson M.P.)

Labels: Hansard

3. Ms Legge on "genetic sexual attraction"

"Intimate relations", by Kate Legge, pp. 18-22, The Weekend Australian Magazine, April 21-22, 2012, inserted in The Weekend Australian, April 21-22, 2012, Second Edition, No. 14789, ISSN 1038-8761, available on-line, but behind a paywall, here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/intimate-relations/story-e6frg8h6-1226331192545

Labels: G.S.A.

4. "if you are a young woman who needs to have an abortion, you will need to go to a private provider and pay upfront for at least half of the $600 cost"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/high-cost-of-abortion-hurts-young-women-20120508-1yalr.html?skin=text-only

Ms Price also writes that "occasionally charity groups such as the Salvation Army have been able to offer assistance", apparently in the form of "funds for women who had nowhere else to go". According to The Salvation Army Australian Territories' Positional Statement on abortion, "The Salvation Army … accepts that termination of a pregnancy may be justified on certain limited grounds" (and as you'll see if you read that Statement, the foetus reaching the point of viability is not one of those grounds).

Labels: abortion, Salvation Army

5. Mr. Brent on Mr. Slipper's Parliamentary record:

In 1994 [The Hon. Peter ]Slipper [M.P.] was one of twelve Coalition MPs who abstained from voting on the so-called “gay sex bill"— the Keating government’s Human Rights (Sexual Conduct) Bill 1994 that was largely aimed at over-riding Tasmania’s anti-sodomy laws.

(The federal Coalition under Alexander Downer had decided to support the bill; Slipper was with the conservative “rebels”.)
[http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mumble/index.php/theaustralian/comments/quick_history_of_slipper_and_fisher/]

Labels: Peter Slipper

6. "Pastors, both bishops and priests, should make every effort to consolidate the lay faithful in their knowledge of the teachings of Vatican Council II"

That headline is a quotation from the text of the communiqué which was released in English and Chinese at the end of the fifth meeting in the Vatican, from April 23-25, 2012, of the Commission for the Catholic Church in China contained in this Vatican Information Service news item:

"MAY THE FACE OF CHURCH SHINE FORTH WITH CLARITY IN THE MIDST OF THE NOBLE CHINESE PEOPLE"
http://www.news.va/en/news/may-the-face-of-church-shine-forth-with-clarity-in

Here is another quotation from the text of that communiqué:

In the first place, ["the Catholic lay faithful in China"] must enter ever more deeply into the life of the Church, nourished by doctrine, conscious of their being part of the Catholic Church, and consistent with the requirements of life in Christ, which necessitates hearing the word of God with faith. From this perspective, a profound knowledge of the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be a particularly important aid for them.

Labels: C.E.C., Roman Curia, Vatican II

7. "[The late Mr. David Scott] was made an officer of the Order of Australia ''for outstanding achievement and service'' twice. After receiving the award in 1975, he resigned a year later together with ''Nugget'' Coombs, Patrick White and Jean Blackburn, in protest against the creation of knights and dames in the Australian order."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/welfare-advocate-lobbied-for-timor-20120507-1y8rk.html?skin=text-only

According to the Order of Australia page at the It's an Honour website,

From 1976 to 1986 there was provision for the appointment of Knights and Dames in the Order of Australia. Removal of this provision does not affect pre-existing appointments.

Labels: Order of Australia

8. Mrs. Shanahan on the 2012 Federal Budget

"'Heartland' pitch swamped by sleaze", p. 14, "Inquirer" section, The Weekend Australian, May 12-13, 2012, First Edition, No. 14807, ISSN 1038-8761, available on-line, but behind a paywall, here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/heartland-pitch-swamped-by-sleaze/story-e6frgd0x-1226353353947

Labels: economics, families, taxation

9. On Australians' approval or disapproval for "various aspects of IVF treatment"

"The Australian community overwhelmingly approves IVF to treat subfertility, with increasing support over three decades", by Gabor T. Kovacs, Gary Morgan, Michele Levine, and Julian McCrann, in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1479-828X.2012.01444.x; that article's abstract is available here:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1479-828X.2012.01444.x/abstract

That article came to my attention via the first item in Adam Taor's "Pulse" column on p. 9 of the "Health" section of the "Weekend Professional" supplement of The Weekend Australian, May 12-13, 2012, First Edition, No. 14807, ISSN 1038-8761, available on-line, but in a different form, and behind a paywall, here:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/most-people-approve-of-ivf/story-e6frg8y6-1226352215703

Labels: I.V.F.

10. Msgr. Williamson on, among other things, the "Note on the conclusions of the canonical visit to the Institute of the Good Shepherd" in France

The following is the text of Eleison Comments, Number CCLII (252), May 12, 2012:

FAITH KILLERS
But if Rome offers the Society of St Pius X all that it wants, why should the SSPX still refuse ? Apparently there are Catholics still believing that if a practical agreement fulfilled all the SSPX’s practical demands, it should be accepted. So why not ? Because the SSPX was brought into existence by Archbishop Lefebvre not for its own sake, but for the sake of the true Catholic Faith, endangered by Vatican II as it has never been endangered before. But let us see here why the Newchurch authorities will seek any practical agreement as much as the SSPX must refuse it.

The reason is because the Newchurch is subjectivist, and any merely practical agreement implies that subjectivism is true. According to the new Conciliar religion, dogmas of Faith are not objective truths but symbols that serve subjective needs (Pascendi, 11-13, 21). For instance if my psychological insecurity is calmed by the conviction that God became man, then for me the Incarnation is true, in the only sense of the word “true”. So if Traditionalists have their need of the old religion, then that is what is true for them, and one can even admire how they cling to their truth. But in justice they must agree to let us Romans have our Conciliar truth, and if they cannot make that concession, then they are insufferably arrogant and intolerant, and we cannot allow such divisiveness within our Church of luv.

Thus Neo-modernist Rome would be happy with any practical agreement by which the SSPX would even only implicitly renounce its radical claim to the universality and obligation of “its” truths. On the contrary the SSPX cannot be happy with any agreement that in an action speaking louder than words would deny the objectivity of “its” religion of 20 centuries. It is not “its” religion at all. To come to an agreement with subjectivists, I have to stop insisting on objectivity. To insist on objectivity, I cannot accept any terms at all proposed by subjectivists, unless they renounce their subjectivism.

These Romans are doing no such thing. Yet another proof of their crusading insistence upon their new religion came in the form of their recent “Note on the conclusions of the canonical visit to the Institute of the Good Shepherd” in France. Readers will remember that this Institute was one of several founded after the Council to enable Traditional Catholicism to be practised under Roman authority. Rome can wait for a few years before closing in, to make sure that the poor fish is well on the hook, but then -

The “Note” requires that Vatican II and the 1992 Catechism of the Newchurch must be included in Institute studies. The Institute must insist on the “hermeneutic of renewal in continuity”, and it must stop treating the Tridentine rite of Mass as its “exclusive” rite of Mass. The Institute must enter into official diocesan life with a “spirit of communion”. In other words, the Traditional Institute must stop being so Traditional if it wants to belong to the Newchurch. What else did the Institute expect ? To keep to Tradition, it would have to get back out from under the Newchurch’s authority. What chance is there of that ? They wanted to be swallowed by the Conciliar monster. Now it is digesting them.

So why, in Heaven’s name, would it be any different with the SSPX ? Rome’s temptation may be rejected this time round by the SSPX, but let us be under no illusions: the subjectivists will be back and back and back to get rid of that objective truth and objective Faith which constitute a standing
rebuke to their criminal nonsense.

Kyrie eleison.

© 2012 Richard N. Williamson. All Rights Reserved.

A non-exclusive license to print out, forward by email, and/or post this article to the Internet is granted to users who wish to do so provided that no changes are made to the content so reproduced or distributed, to include the retention of this notice with any and all reproductions of content as authorized hereby. Aside from this limited, non-exclusive license, no portion of this article may be reproduced in any other form or by any other electronic or mechanical means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review, or except in cases where rights to content reproduced herein are retained by its original author(s) or other rights holder(s), and further reproduction is subject to permission otherwise granted thereby.

Permissions inquiries should be directed to editorial@dinoscopus.org.

www.dinoscopus.org

I quote the full text of the article in order to fulfill the conditions for posting it licitly to the Internet, but, as the headline of this item suggests, it is the fourth and fifth paragraphs in which I'm interested here (though the whole article is worth reading).

Labels: I.B.P.

11. Some figures regarding the number of repeat abortions and the cost of abortion in the U.K.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143936/NHS-spends-1m-week-repeat-abortions-Single-women-using-terminations-form-contraceptive.html

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

Labels: abortion, U.K.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
21.V.2012

Notes: Wednesday, December 7-Tuesday, December 20, 2011

1. "If present trends continue, Europe and Japan will lose half their population by the end of the century"

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=7&articleID=9327&class=Features&subclass=Cardinal's Comment

Labels: demography

2. Several web-pages on or relating to a recent development in U.S. foreign policy

2.1 "US ready to push for gay rights abroad"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/obama-warns-world-against-gay-and-lesbian-discrimination/story-e6frg6so-1226215897814

http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-ready-to-push-for-gay-rights-abroad-20111207-1ojak.html?skin=text-only

http://www.smh.com.au/world/rights-of-gays-to-figure-in-us-foreign-aid-20111207-1oj4l.html?skin=text-only

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40020

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/12/09/obama-the-real-ugly-american/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/06/presidential-memorandum-international-initiatives-advance-human-rights-l

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40069

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2011/12/14/yet-another-ugly-american/

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

2.2 "Nigeria’s bishops praise ban on public expression of homosexuality"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40081

Labels: G.L.B.T., Hierarchy, Nigeria

2.3 "[U.S.] Senate blocks El Salvador ambassador over homosexual-rights advocacy"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40099

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

3. On two recent court cases involving polyamory:

Two court cases, one in Canada last month and one in Australia earlier in the year, show that while British-based law remains resolute against multiple partner marriage, it accepts that a common law threesome is not illegal or even necessarily family-unfriendly.

In the Canadian case, British Columbia Chief Justice Robert Bauman upheld Canada's anti-polygamy law, but left polyamorous families free from sanction if they do not commit an overt act of multiple marriage.

The Australian case involved a man whose wife had left him for another man and a woman, and taken the children. When the trio set up house together, mingled their respective offspring, and shared the same bedroom, the jilted husband applied to the court seeking an urgent order that the children be removed from the "immoral" household.

But magistrate Philip Burchardt rejected the application, saying the threesome seemed to be "thoroughly decent and honest people" and "I do not regard the relationship . . . as being damaging to the children."
[ellipsis in the original,
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/three-in-marriage-bed-more-of-a-good-thing/story-e6frg6z6-1226218569577]

(See here for Mr. Muehlenberg's reaction to that Weekend Australian article.)

Labels: families, marriage, polyamory

4. "Under a new policy approved by Pope Benedict XVI, the heads of other Roman dicasteries who wish to apply to the Pontiff for "special faculties" to handle problems outside the normal processes of canon law must apply through the Secretary of State, rather than appealing directly to the Pope"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40051

You can read the relevant Rescript, in its original Italian, on pp. 127-128 (pp. 41-42 of your browser) of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, here.

Labels: Roman Curia

5. "[Catholic] School forced to take same-sex couple's daughter"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/school-forced-to-take-samesex-daughter-20111214-1ou92.html?skin=text-only

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/senior-bishop-orders-school-to-reverse-ban/story-e6frg6so-1226221684482

Related coverage:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/school-rejects-daughter-of-same-sex-couple/story-e6frg6nf-1226221339567

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40072

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=29441

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=29456

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=29483

http://coo-eesfromthecloister.blogspot.com/2011/12/bishop-lesbians-and-poor-little-child.html

http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2011/12/holy-father-please-terminate-mandate-of.html

http://australiaincognita.blogspot.com/2011/12/campaign-to-abolish-religious.html

Labels: Catholic schools, G.L.B.T.

6. Dr. Arndt on the inadequacies of research findings which purport to show that children in the custody of same-sex couples do at least as well as those of opposite-sex ones:

It has never made sense that gay parents complain of prejudice and exclusion and in the same breath propose their children are suffering no adverse consequences. In fact, in recent years the research allegedly supporting these rosy claims has come under scrutiny and found to be sorely lacking.

"The methods are so flawed that these studies prove nothing," say Robert Lerner and Althea Nagai, experts in qualitative analysis.

"Not a single one of these studies was conducted according to generally accepted standards of scientific research," concludes sociology professor Steven Nock.

Most of the scholarship on gay parenting is conducted by researchers sympathetic to gay concerns and fails to include proper controls, relies on very small samples and uses unreliable or invalid measures.

The reality is that while resilient children may do well despite the prejudice many encounter, others have a hard time.
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/prejudice-can-make-life-miserable-for-children-with-same-sex-parents/story-e6frgd0x-1226223351222]

I include the first and last sentences of that quotation in order not to seem to suggest that Dr. Arndt questions the findings because she thinks that same-sex 'parenting' is innately inferior to opposite-sex parenting; apparently, Dr. Arndt would attribute disadvantage experienced by children in the custody of same-sex couples relative to those of opposite-sex ones to 'discrimination', 'prejudice', 'homophobia', 'exclusion', the usual buzzwords.

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

7. "JAY Weatherill[, the South Australian Premier,] has backed a push by a gay MP on his frontbench to allow same-sex couples to access IVF in South Australia"

And a "new law will at last give de facto lesbian couples in South Australia the same rights as others to be formally recognised as co-parents and ensure their child has two legal parents":

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/weatherill-backs-ivf-for-gays/story-e6frgczx-1226223400827

Labels: birth certificates, G.L.B.T., I.V.F., S.A.

8. "The Irish Government is now issuing the certificates to applicants who can prove their Irish ancestry"

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=3&articleID=9314&class=News&subclass=CW World

This is the website of that initiative:

http://www.heritagecertificate.ie/

Labels: Ireland

9. The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference's (A.C.B.C.'s) Media Blog has, apparently, been officially launched

Here is its U.R.L.:

http://www.catholic.org.au/mediablog/

I say "apparently", judging by a recent article in the Sydney Catholic Weekly which provided a round-up of the acts of the recent A.C.B.C. plenary but which does not seem to be available on-line; the Media Blog has been on-line for some time now, so I presume that what occured at the plenary was its official launch.

Labels: A.C.B.C., blogs

10. Mr. DeLano has a blog:

http://magisterialfundies.blogspot.com/

(That came to my attention via this comment at Fr. Zuhlsdorf's blog.)

Labels: blogs

Reginaldvs Cantvar
20.XII.2011

Notes: Wednesday, November 9-Monday, November 14, 2011

1. "Franco resisted bid by Paul VI to end role in naming bishops"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39637

According to the web-page to which that AQ thread-starter links,

In his letter, Paul VI recalled the Council’s appeal to governments to renounce their privilege in nominating bishops.
[http://www.osservatoreromano.va/portal/dt?JSPTabContainer.setSelected=JSPTabContainer%2FDetail&last=false=&path=/news/cultura/2011/258q11-A-Dio-quello-che---di-Dio.html&title=To%20God%20that%20which%20is%20God]

Would anyone care to let me know the Act of Vatican II in which the Council made that appeal? (I don't recall it being in Dignitatis humanæ, and I checked Lumen gentium, Gaudium et spes, and the Address of Paul VI., on behalf of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, to "all those who hold temporal power" but couldn't find it in any of them.)

Labels: Church and State, Francisco Franco, Hierarchy, John Charles I. Borbón, Paul VI. Montini, Spain

2. "The proportion of IVF cycles resulting in a live baby remained at 17 per cent in 2009, the same as in 2005, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare"

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/big-breakthrough-for-saving-tiny-lives-but-its-an-overseas-exclusive-20111110-1n9kj.html?skin=text-only

Labels: I.V.F.

3. Fr. Zuhlsdorf and Messrs. Magister and Keener on H.H. The Pope's apparent call, in Caritas in veritate, for a World State

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/11/more-on-the-one-world-government-white-paper-from-pont-council-for-justice-and-peace/#comment-305633

I do not find Mr. Magister's defence of the Holy Father's vision for the governance of globalisation convincing. The word "moderamen" is used once in Caritas in veritate, in §57:

Ne periculosa quaedam constituatur universalis potestas monocratici generis, globalizationis moderamen formam induere debet subsidiarietatis, diversis in gradibus ordinibusque dispositum, qui mutuo cooperentur.
[italics in the original,
AAS 101 [2009: 8], p. 693 (53 in Adobe),
http://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/2009/agosto%202009.pdf]

The Vatican website's English section has the following translation:

In order not to produce a dangerous universal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of globalization must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together.
[italics in the original,
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html]

But the same logic would apply to ordinary, non-worldwide States; so for instance, in the case of several small States uniting into a Federation, one might say that 'in order not to produce a dangerous Federal power of a tyrannical nature, the governance of interaction between member States must be marked by subsidiarity, articulated into several layers and involving different levels that can work together'; subsidiarity is, after all, a requirement of any society which is made up of other, smaller societies.

Furthermore, keep in mind the rest of §67; the proposed "true world political authority" ("vera Auctoritas politica mundialis"—italics in the original) would "need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights" ("Auctoritas sane haec ab omnibus est agnoscenda, quae reali potestate pollere debet, ut unicuique securitas, iustitiae observantia, iurium item tuitio praestentur") and would "have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated measures adopted in various international forums" ("facultate ipsa pollere debet suarum deliberationum observantiam sodalibus itemque simul disposita in internationalibus tribunalibus praecepta imperandi"). How is that anything other than a World State in all but name?

(Caritas in veritate in Latin is also available here.)

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Caritas in veritate, political science

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

Notes: Tuesday, June 7-Tuesday, June 14, 2011

1. "Private prestige university on the way"--"reportedly being funded by millions of pounds from private investors secured by the eminent British philosopher A. C. Grayling"; "[f]ourteen leading academics are backing the project and will teach at the university, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/private-prestige-university-on-the-way-20110605-1fnb2.html?skin=text-only

Labels: education, N.C.H.

2. Jewish-to-Catholic convert and State-of-Israel citizen named as a Prelate Auditor of the Roman Rota ("the Holy See’s highest appellate court")

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37641

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2011/06/pope-appoints-fanatical-zionist-to.html

http://www.ucanews.com/2011/06/03/jewish-convert-named-to-top-vatican-role/

(The last of those three web-pages came to my attention via this CathNews page.)

Labels: David Jaeger, Roman Curia, State of Israel

3. Fr. Zuhlsdorf on, among other things, the myth of the origin of 'vernacular' Catholic liturgy

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/06/critics-of-the-new-corrected-translation-would-have-back-in-the-day-resisted-also-the-king-james-bible/

Labels: Latin, liturgy, vernacular

4. "Remarks [from a "Deputy Assistant Secretary" of the U.S. Department of State] for LGBT Pride"

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2011/165264.htm

(That web-page came to my attention via this comment at AQ.)

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

5. "[In The State of Israel,] there are more than 20 individual laws that discriminate between the Jewish and non-Jewish population"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/mandela-factor/story-fn558imw-1226073258456

Labels: discrimination, Jews, State of Israel

6. An article on evolution which (article) contains some interesting points from a Creationist perspective

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/a-grey-matter-of-size-brains-arent-what-they-used-to-be/story-e6frg8y6-1226073980121

Labels: evolution, neuroscience

7. Four viewpoints on whether "people [should] be able to use the sperm or eggs of their dead partner"

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/should-people-be-able-to-use-the-sperm-or-eggs-of-their-dead-partner-20110603-1fkir.html?skin=text-only

Labels: I.V.F., medicine, morality

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Pentecost Tuesday, A.D. 2011

Notes: Friday, October 8, 2010

Interesting Herald article on marriage annulment law in Australia (and, historically, in Britain)

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/till-debt-us-do-part-case-dismissed-20101007-169px.html?skin=text-only

Mr. Macintosh on voting

A letter in today's Herald:

Arguments aplenty to feed intellectually hungry

Date: October 08 2010

[...] In her excellent article Elizabeth Farrelly suggests that voting should be not just a duty but ''a privilege, earnable by demonstrating some semblance of knowledge''.

This reminded me of Neville Shute's novel In The Wet, in which he imagined that Australia at some time in the future had adopted a multiple voting system, with everyone able to have up to seven votes, based on educational attainment and achievement.

This led to a flowering of achievement here, whereas Britain had stagnated under the single-vote-for-all system.

It would offend against our so-called egalitarianism, but perhaps it is an idea whose time has come.

Andrew Macintosh Queenscliff
[http://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/arguments-aplenty-to-feed-intellectually-hungry-20101007-169oy.html?skin=text-only]

I seem to recall that John Stuart Mill (a Liberal, of course) suggested giving university graduates an additional vote.

"Moscow [Russian Orthodox] patriarchate criticizes Nobel Prize award for in-vitro pioneer"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34066

Fr. Zuhlsdorf on the origin of the Novus Ordo Missæ's 'Preparation of the Gifts' formula

Frankly, this sort of thing [celebrants changing the 'Preparation of the Gifts' formula] comes from the – in my opinion – ill-considered change to the offertory prayers for the Novus Ordo. This would be impossible to do in the older, traditional form of Mass, since the two offertory prayers are quite different and actually Catholic in their origin. The two new offertory prayers – which are Jewish berakha in origin – are so similar as to nearly invite this sort of editing when the less than careful priest has one of these flashes of brilliant insight as to how he can make improvements.
[My interpolation, italics in the original,
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/10/quaeritur-priest-changes-the-words-of-the-offertory/]

Now a true ritual sacrifice has three 'stages' (I'm not sure that that's the best word but it'll do): Oblation, consecration, and consummation. So Father is acknowledging in his post that the New Mass basically 1. gets rid of one of the parts of a true ritual sacrifice and 2. replaces it with Jewish (i.e. Talmudic, i.e. not just non-Catholic, but anti-Catholic) table blessings, and yet he continues not just to approve of, but even celebrate, this evil (since evil is a deprivation of the due good, and 1. and 2. clearly involve such a lack) rite? Incredible.

Mr. Christopherson on marriage

A commenter at Mr. Muehlenberg's blog wrote the following:

... The holy scriptures give three valid reasons for the end of a marriage. Death of one of the partners, adultery which was punishable by death under the Old Covenant effectively declaring the erring partner dead to the marriage, and permanent abandonment. ...
[http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/10/07/christians-living-like-pagans/]

Where does it say that in Scripture? If he's referring to the provisions of the Old Law, then clearly that is not a valid basis for his argument, since the Old Law has been abolished. And under the New Law, only the Pope can dissolve the natural contract of marriage (and no-one can dissolve the Sacrament of Marriage).

H.H. The Pope on Church-State relations and public morality

An item in today's Vatican Information Service daily e-mail bulletin:

REAPPRAISING THE SPIRITUAL AND HUMAN HERITAGE OF CHILE

VATICAN CITY, 7 OCT 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI today received the Letters of Credence of Fernando Zegers Santa Cruz, the new ambassador of Chile to the Holy See. He began his address to the diplomat by expressing his closeness to the Chilean people following February's earthquake, and he recalled "the immense efforts being made by the Chilean Catholic Church, many of whose communities were also badly affected by the quake, to help people most in need. ... Nor can I forget", he continued, "the miners of the Atacama region and their loved ones, for whom I continue to pray fervently".

Going on then to observe that the new ambassador is beginning his mission in the year in which Chile celebrates the bicentenary of its independence, the Pope said: "Many are the fruits the Gospel has produced in that blessed land: abundant fruits of sanctity, charity, human promotion, and of constant striving for peace and coexistence". In this context he also recalled last year's celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Argentina which, "with pontifical mediation, put an end to that dispute in the southern hemisphere", he said.

"That historical agreement", the Holy Father proceeded, "will remain for future generations as a shining example of the immense benefits that peace brings, and of the importance of preserving and encouraging the moral and religious values that constitute the most intimate fabric of a people's soul. We cannot hope to explain the triumph of this longing for peace, harmony and understanding without bearing in mind how deep the seed of the Gospel has taken root in the hearts of Chileans".

"It is very important, and even more so in present circumstances in which so many challenges threaten cultural identity, to encourage, especially among the young, a healthy pride and a renewed appreciation and reappraisal for their faith, history, culture, traditions and artistic heritage, and for everything that constitutes the best and richest spiritual and human patrimony of Chile".

At this point Benedict XVI also noted how, "although Church and State are independent and autonomous, each in its own field, they are both called to loyal and respectful collaboration in order to serve the personal and social vocation of the same people. In carrying out her specific mission to announce the good news of Jesus Christ, the Church seeks to respond to man's expectations and doubts, while at the same time drawing on those ethical and anthropological values and principles which are inscribed in the nature of human beings".

"When the Church raises her voice on the great challenges and problems of the present time - such as wars, hunger, widespread extreme poverty, the defence of human life from conception until natural end, or the promotion of the family founded on marriage between a man and woman, primary educator of children - she is not acting out of special interest or of principles perceptible only to people who profess a particular religious faith. Respecting the rules of democratic coexistence, the Church does this for the good of all society, and in the name of values that everyone can share", the Holy Father concluded.
CD/ VIS 20101007 (540)

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Bridget of Sweden, Widow, A.D. 2010

Notes: Saturday, July 31 to Tuesday, August 3, 2010

"Probe into 54 baby deaths rejected by Victorian Parliament"

http://members7.boardhost.com/CathPews/thread/1280475251.html

Mr. Warner on the problems with Anglicanorum coetibus

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32847

Counterpoint to "Neuroscience suggests heterosexual monogamy is best"

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/were-just-swingers-after-all-20100730-10zsn.html?skin=text-only

I link to the article in question because it's wise to be aware of the arguments which opponents of the natural law and its dictates in these matters will raise, though the article is rather weak and unbalanced--the author cites double the number of pro-polyamory/polyamory-sympathetic sources relative to anti-polyamory sources, and he fails to ask the obvious question of how even in the (false) Darwinian account of man's origins it can be the case that nature would select for behaviour which, by fuelling 'sexually-transmissible infections' (as I understand the correct term now is), is at least in that way destructive of the species. One doesn't have to be an expert for that problem to occur to him, and the journalist's apparent failure to think of it is all the more inexcusable given this extract from his article:

Rather than jealousy (which in severe cases, can be treated, Ford says, "like a phobia"), polyamorous people are said to experience something they call "compersion", which means, in simple terms, to take pleasure in your partner's pleasure. Such an arrangement is reasonably common among gay male couples, who, as Ryan writes, recognise that "additional relationships need not be taken as indictments of anyone".

Well you know what else is 'reasonably common among gay male couples'? Genital warts. Syphilis. H.I.V./A.I.D.S. (see ACON's website for more). For a more critical response (though one with which I still don't fully agree, because of its Darwinist perpective) see the letter entitled "Multiple partners may be natural, but so is arsenic" in the letters section of today's Herald.

"There's no harm done being a working mum"

"MUMS can return to work within a year of giving birth without harming their babies' development, a landmark report shows."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/theres-no-harm-done-being-a-working-mum/story-e6frf7l6-1225899728657

I want to keep that article for future reference, though as you might expect I dispute the findings (well, except for things like "[w]orking mums have higher income, ... than their stay-at-home counterparts"--they needed a thousand-child study to tell them that mothers earning money earn more money than mothers not earning money?!).

Findings of a study on I.V.F.-conceived children's health risk factors

From the Pulse column in the Health section of last Saturday's edition of The Weekend Australian's Weekend Professional supplement:

Bad week for . . . [sic]

CHILDREN conceived by IVF: Swedish research indicates they have an increased risk of cancer. The study followed 26,692 children born after IVF during 1982-2005. These children had 1.42 times the risk of developing cancer than children not conceived after IVF. That risk equated to 53 cases, compared with an expected figure of 38. High birth weight and premature delivery were among other risk factors found by the study, online in the journal Pediatrics.

Pediatrics

2010;doi:10.1542/peds.2009-3225

(Kallen B, et al)
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/good-week-for-mothers-pregnancy/story-e6frg8y6-1225898707091]

Reginaldvs Cantvar
3.VIII.2010

Facts and figures: on I.V.F. success rates and the number of embryos in cryostorage

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/dont-leave-motherhood-too-late-doctors-warn-20090619-cr81.html

Here are some interesting data on I.V.F. success rates, from Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald:

The president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Ted Weaver, said there was a misconception that assisted reproductive technology was a fail-safe back-up plan because success rates drop significantly with age.

Figures show that the live birth rate for women under 35 undergoing IVF is 31 per cent. This falls below 5 per cent for women over 42.
[my emphasis]

Quite aside from the moral objections to I.V.F. then, why are taxpayers required to fund elective procedures for which there is barely a statistically significant chance of success?

And in the Herald’s Good Weekend magazine from two Saturdays ago I read the following information:

[…] Accurate figures about frozen embryos are scarce but a 2006 survey by the National Perinatal Statistics Unit, based on information supplied by 57 IVF clinics around the country, found there were 118,709 embryos in cryostorage. Most, just over 90 per cent, were in “transit”, the clinics claimed, earmarked for future patient use in another cycle; 5.6 per cent were earmarked for donation to research; 2.7 per cent for disposal; and only 1 per cent for donation to another couple.
[Maybe Baby, Fenella Souter, The Sydney Morning
Herald’s Good Weekend magazine, June 13, 2009, p. 19]

And it was interesting to read about the experiences of the poster-couple, so to speak, for that article:

Despite the Christian community’s notions about human life beginning at fertilization, and in spite of the Archibalds’ personal view against abortion, in the end they chose to discard the embryos. For us, there wasn’t an issue with destroying embryos because there wasn’t a heart,” she says. “They were only four cells. A heart, I think, is your soul; that’s how we viewed it.” She [Jan Archibald, wife of Lindsay] didn’t see it as taking away life. “They wouldn’t have existed outside a body anyway.” … After the viewing, the Archibalds poured the contents of the Petri dishes into a potted azalea that they’d brought with them. They took the bush home, waited for spring and planted it in the backyard. They got on with their lives, happy to have closed the book on IVF.
[ibid., p. 19]

“A heart, I think, is your soul”; that’s a new one. That’s just their intuition, is it? What is their basis for that notion? And the article’s author offered the following observation:

Yet it [an embryo] is not a body, or anything like it, with a body’s years of lived experience and conscious-ness, with a name and, once, a personality. But is it something more than just a bunch of cells?
[ibid., p. 21]

But if an embryo is not a human body then what is?! What is it other than a human body at an early stage of development? And if we’re going to be strict materialists, then are any of us ‘more than just bunches of cells’?

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Vigil of St. John the Baptist, A.D. 2009

Another step in the process of the commodification of human life and the abolition of parenthood

http://cumecclesia.blogspot.com/2008/11/catholic-politician-swayed-by-emotional.html

Mr. David Schütz at Sentire cum Ecclesia has a post in connection with the passage of a law in Victoria to give single and homosexual women greater access to fertility treatment and to change surrogacy arrangements. Here is a comment that I made at the blog:

***

I wonder whether there will be a Parliamentary Inquiry into Senator Conroy’s emotional blackmail? After all, Cardinal Pell was accused of “emotional blackmail” and hauled before an inquiry for his intervention into the debate over stem cell research in N.S.W. last year. Imagine the outcry if, say, Msgr. Hart had used the tactics of Sen. Conroy. Funny how there’s one standard for the supporters of the commodification of human life and another for its opponents.

I wonder, also, whether Mr. Smith thought to ask Sen. Conroy how many of the latter’s child’s embryonic brothers and sisters were tipped down the drain, discarded as ‘excess embryos’?
(Friday, November 14, 2008 5:06:00 PM)

***

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Josephat, Bishop, Martyr, 2008 A.D.