Notes: Wednesday, January 18-Monday, February 6, 2012 (part 1 of 2)

1. "Obesity link to lack of mother bonding":

INFANTS who don't bond closely with their mothers show an increased likelihood of growing up to be obese.

[…] Pediatrics, 2011;doi:10.1542/peds.2011-0972, (Anderson S, et al)
[Bold type in the original,
"Obesity link to lack of mother bonding", by Adam Taor, dated January 14, 2012, downloaded from The Australian's website:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/obesity-link-to-lack-of-mother-bonding/story-e6frg8y6-1226242984452
Also published, in slightly different form, as the "Pulse" column by Adam Taor on page nine of the "Health" section of the "Weekend Professional" supplement in the print edition of The Weekend Australian, January 14-15, 2012]

Labels: families, health

2. According to the Holy Father, "the ecumenical task is a responsibility of the entire Church and of all the baptized, who must develop the partial communion that already exists among Christians and make it grow into full communion in truth and in charity"

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20120118_en.html

"INVOKING THE GIFT OF UNITY AMONG CHRISTIANS"
VIS 20120118 (720)
http://www.news.va/en/news/invoking-the-gift-of-unity-among-christians

See also
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40551

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, ecumenism

3. H.H. The Pope on "legitimate separation of Church and State" and religious freedom

"DIFFICULTIES AND HOPES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA"
VIS 20120119 (760)
http://www.news.va/en/news/difficulties-and-hopes-of-the-catholic-church-in-a

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2012/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20120119_bishops-usa_en.html

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40451

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40441

Labels: Benedict XVI. Ratzinger, Church and State, religious liberty, U.S.A.

4. Several web-pages on recent news regarding the Neo-Catechumenal Way

"HOLY FATHER MEETS WITH MEMBERS OF NEO-CATECHUMENAL WAY"
VIS 20120120 (780)
http://www.news.va/en/news/holy-father-meets-with-members-of-neo-catechumenal

"APPROVAL FOR CELEBRATIONS OF NEO-CATECHUMENAL WAY"
VIS 20120120 (220)
http://www.news.va/en/news/approval-for-celebrations-of-neo-catechumenal-way

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/01/the-holy-see-did-not-approve-neocat-liturgical-variants-for-mass/

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/01/benedict-xvi-the-neocats-and-their-liturgy/

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2012/01/another-confirmation-that-neocats-must-follow-official-liturgical-books-for-mass/

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40450

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40468

Labels: N.C.W.

5. "Is Homosexuality Biologically Determined?"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40452

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

6. "Muslim men first to be found guilty of [Gay] hate crime [in the U.K.]"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9028205/Muslim-men-first-to-be-found-guilty-of-sex-hate-crime.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/20/three-muslims-convicted-gay-hate-leaflets

Labels: death penalty, G.L.B.T., hate speech, Islam

7. "A study published in the Lancet last Friday found that globally, more restrictive abortion laws do not lead to lower abortion rates – sometimes, rates are higher where abortion is illegal"

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/beware-the-pro-lifers-doing-hard-labor-on-abortion/

Labels: abortion, law

8. Prof. George has a blog

More precisely, he contributes to this group blog:

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/

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

Labels: blogs

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Titus, Bishop, Confessor, and of St. Dorothy, Virgin, Martyr, A.D. 2012

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: Thursday, October 14, 2010

A good question from Ms Farrelly

In the Herald today:

Fine's insistence that boys and girls are born with identical brains does not explain how an un-gendered mind, fully steeped in boy-type context, can reach adulthood with the life-or-death conviction that it is actually, profoundly, female. How could that happen? [http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/gender-and-feminism-a-guilt-trip-20101013-16jyv.html?skin=text-only]

Interesting opinion piece by Mr. Sheridan

in today's Australian. An excerpt:

Like World Youth Day, the canonisation of Mary is one of those fairly rare occasions when popular Catholicism breaks through the gatekeepers of official culture in Australia and commands some mainstream attention.

Christianity generally is massively under-regarded in Australia. More people go to church every Sunday than go to football, but the media coverage is hardly commensurate.

I cannot recall seeing Pell on ABC1's Q&A, yet there is a Muslim representative on about every fourth episode of that show. There's certainly nothing wrong with having Muslims on the show, but it's almost as if there is a policy that any mainstream Catholic Church leader is ipso facto boring, not to be listened to or simply not a suitable person to participate in the mainstream media.

This is a sign both of a kind of immature provincialism in our culture and a serious ongoing prejudice against orthodox Christianity of any kind.

There is, of course, specific anti-Catholic prejudice, of the kind seen in the ridiculous treatment of Tony Abbott on ABC1's Four Corners when he became leader of the Liberal Party.

This kind of prejudice used to be called the anti-Semitism of the intellectual and its tired persistence in Australian culture is sad, not only because of the unfairness of the prejudice but because of the consequence it has of the media missing so big a part of modern life.

[...] Of course, all the great secular dictators have taken the church seriously and understood it is one of their most formidable opponents. This is partly because the universality of the Catholic Church transcends all national borders.

Adolf Hitler planned to abolish the papacy and set up a separate pope in every country he ruled. ...
[http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/attack-on-christianity-will-undermine-society/story-e6frg6zo-1225938377118]

That last sentence came as a surprise to me, though; I hadn't heard about that before. Also, while Protestantism might have been 'foundational' for "secularism", Catholicism certainly wasn't, and only hopped on that bandwagon in recent decades i.e. with Vatican II.

Msgr. Hart contra Mr. Pead (and vice versa)

This comment in a thread at AQ brought to my attention an interesting pair of letters to Christian Order regarding the late-2003/early-2004 scandal over Knights of the Southern Cross/Freemason co-operation and fraternisation:

http://www.christianorder.com/features/features_2004/features_apr04_bonus.html

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Callistus I., Pope, Martyr, A.D. 2010

Notes: Thursday, July 29, 2010

More information on the Greens-Labor preference deal

From today's edition of The Sydney Morning Herald:

LABOR has released the preference agreement it signed with the Greens in a bid to shoot down Coalition claims it involved side deals on policies such as mining and carbon taxes.

The preference deal, signed by the ALP national secretary, Karl Bitar, and the Greens national convenor, Derek Schild, makes no mention of any policy deals, only how preferences will be distributed.

It says Labor will direct its Senate preferences in every state and territory to Greens Senate candidates ''ahead of all other candidates''.

In the House of Representatives, all Greens how-to-vote cards in 54 marginal seats ''shall recommend a preference to the ALP ahead of the Coalition''.

Of the 54 marginals, 12 are in NSW. They are Greenway, Page, Eden-Monaro, Macarthur, Macquarie, Hughes, Robertson, Wentworth,Paterson, Calare, Dobell and Bennelong.

The crucial NSW seats not included are Lindsay and Gilmore. Also part of the deal are 15 Queensland seats, nine in Victoria, eight in WA, six in South Australia, three in Tasmania and one, Solomon, in the Northern Territory.
[http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/its-no-big-deal-labor-hoses-down-accusations-about-greens-20100728-10w36.html?skin=text-only]

On the death penalty in Japan

According to a report in today's Herald, "[a Japanese] cabinet survey carried out in February found more than 85 per cent of the public support the death penalty." Yet

Japan's Justice Minister, a foe of capital punishment, has announced a review of the death penalty after witnessing the first executions since her centre-left government took power in 2009.

"Russian Ministry Denies Lobby Permit to Same-Sex Marriage Group"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32807

H.H. The Pope to discuss the interpretation of Vatican II at his annual reunion with former students

From D.I.C.I. (brought to my attention by a post at AQ):

In keeping with a tradition that he instituted when he was a theology professor in Regensburg (Germany), and as he has done each year since the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI will meet from August 27 to 29, 2010, with a group of former students—the “Ratzinger Schülerkreis”—in his summer residence Castel Gandolfo. By way of exception, this meeting will include the participation of Bishop Kurt Koch, former ordinary of Basel (Switzerland) and newly-appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Among the former students of Professor Ratzinger will be the Archbishop of Vienna (Austria), Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and the Auxiliary Bishop of Hamburg (Germany), Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke.

This year the circle of Joseph Ratzinger’s former students will work on the hermeneutic of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). The theological discussion with Benedict XVI will take place all day on August 28. On the previous day the former students will have debated among themselves. The meeting will conclude with a Mass on the morning of August 29.
[http://www.dici.org/en/news/the-interpretation-of-vatican-ii-on-the-agenda-for-the-%E2%80%9Cratzinger-schulerkreis%E2%80%9D/]

See also the first comment at that AQ post for a good editorial by Fr. Lorans on the matter.

"Neuroscience suggests heterosexual monogamy is best"

Excerpt from the CathNews article:

Mr [Kamal] Weerakoon told the national conference that neuroscientists working in sexology - which studies gender and sexuality - showed that sexual activity had three stages: lust, love and bonding.

"Biologically, we are wired to desire sex, to fall in love with the person we desire sex with, and for that love to develop into deep attachment. Our bodies are wired to operate best with one sexual partner for life," he said.
[http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=22579]

"Athanasius" on Feeneyism again

http://athanasiuscm.blogspot.com/2010/07/lunacy-of-feenyism-part-2.html

(I haven't read the full thing yet but I expect to do so soon.)

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, A.D. 2010

Notes: Thursday, July 15, 2010

"Women have better memories than men, say scientists"

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/women-have-better-memories-than-men-say-scientists/story-fn3dxity-1225891858217

Excerpts:

WOMEN'S brains function better at remembering information than men's, researchers have confirmed.

A Cambridge University study of 4407 men and women from East Anglia, southeastern England, discovered gender plays a clear difference in memory function.

In tests on participants aged between 48 to 90 years, women made an average of 5.9 fewer errors than men, regardless of age.

[...] “Although the links between sex and education and cognitive function have been explored before, this very large dataset provides striking evidence that these factors play a major role in determining how good our memory function is as we age," Dr Andrew Blackwell, Chief Scientific Officer at Cambridge University's Department of Psychiatry, said.

“Using these data, we can determine whether or not an individual’s memory function is normal or not for people of their age, sex and education level.

“A body of scientific literature has demonstrated that women typically outperform men on test of verbal function, whereas men tend to outperform women on tasks of spatial function.

"However, in this study, we used a measure of memory that is spatial and women consistently outperformed men.

“There are many possible explanations for this, including both neurobiological and environmental differences.”

"U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Vatican's Immunity Not What It Seems, Says Legal Expert"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32513

Most important part:

But Addison points out that the Supreme Court issued no ruling, but merely decided not to decide on the issue at this stage of the case. Further, he insists that the Ninth Circuit ruling has been grossly mischaracterized.

The Ninth Circuit decision, he writes, was merely meant to establish a theoretical point of law, where the court was asked to rule under the presumption that all of the plaintiff’s allegations are true. “There has been no trial regarding Doe’s allegations or assertions and all the legal proceedings so
far have been entirely questions of law,” emphasized Addison.

“For the purposes of deciding whether the Holy See COULD be liable the 9th Circuit had to accept the bare assertion by Doe that Father Ronan was an employee of the Holy See,” he writes. “On that basis they decided that if (and it is a very big IF) Ronan was an employee of the Holy See then the Holy See would be vicariously liable for his actions.”

Further, he pointed out that the appeals court accepted the Holy See’s status as a sovereign state, as well as the fact that that status guarantees it the same immunities as every other state.

Addison says the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case is “not unusual” given that there has not yet been a trial or any findings of fact. Given these circumstances, he concludes, the decision “does not mean that the Supreme Court necessarily agrees or disagrees with the 9th Circuit.” Rather, it indicates “merely that the case has not yet reached a stage which is appropriate for adjudication by the Supreme Court.”

"U. of IL to 'Review' Firing of Catholic Prof. [namely Kenneth Howell]"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32511

Mr. Donnelly on adoption by same-sex couples

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-law-shouldnt-be-changed-in-nsw-to-allow-gay-adoption/

Dr. Brown on the respective pontificates of Paul VI. and John Paul II.

Pope Paul VI took a very soft stance on dissident priests, bishops, and theologians because he wanted to avoid a schism, and Pope John Paul II largely followed his lead (although he did push the church in the right direction in a lot of more subtle ways).
Comment by ies0716

It had nothing to do with wanting to avoid a schism. If PVI wanted to avoid a schism, he would not have been so hard on the SSPX. PVI wanted to move the Church to the left for political reasons, so the Church could deal with secular govts. JPII was also interested in international politics. Both were what the Italians call papa politico.

IMHO, Voris is right referring to the problems but not so right in attributing them to the present hierarchy, most of whom inherited the mess.

Comment by robtbrown — 13 July 2010 @ 8:59 pm
[http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/07/new-michael-voris-video-and-wdtprs-poll/#comment-213954]

Reginaldvs Cantvar

Feast of St. Henry II., Emperor, Confessor, A.D. 2010