Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and representatives of other Orthodox and Anglican churches accompanied Pope Benedict in lighting a candle to launch the Year of St Paul.
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Volunteers refuse WYD powers
Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service volunteers will not seek "authorised person" status while assisting with WYD in order to avoid "negative interactions with people".
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Vietnam up, US down on WYD numbers
A record number of Vietnamese pilgrims will attend World Youth Day this year but US numbers are down - and 50 Angola pilgrims are stranded in Sydney instead of Adelaide because tour organisers thought the SA capital was only an hour way.
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Celebrate the living spirit: Bishops urge
Australia's bishops have urged Catholics to "celebrate the Living Spirit" to mark Aboriginal and Torres Islander Sunday this weekend.
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Korean priests in Mass protest against US beef
Two hundred South Korean priests have celebrated a street Mass in Seoul to protest an unpopular government decision to resume beef imports from the US.
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Bees for Benedict
Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio has presented Pope Benedict with two new specially made three wheeled vehicles.
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Feature - Walking away from what they do not know
"People who leave the Church are not leaving because they are rejecting the teachings of John Paul II or Pope Benedict. Most do so because they go to Catholic schools and they think that the kind of warm secular humanism with Christian gloss that they get in Catholic schools is in fact the Catholic faith and it hasn't captured their imagination, their love or their intellect so they are walking away from something that they do not know." - The Catholic Herald
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Featured Website - First Things
First Things is a monthly ecumenical journal concerned with the creation of a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society." It is published by The Institute on Religion and Public Life in the United States of America.
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Film Review - Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda is essentially a martial arts comedy and is a total action movie. It has striking effects and action sequences and a particularly impressive concluding fantasy sequence which brings DreamWorks to a new level of technological sophistication. There is a strong cultural feel about the movie and it heavily draws on Chinese culture to bring authenticity to its fantasy. - Peter Sheehan, Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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Opinion - God is without circumference
His challenge was to see the beauty in every face, even when the owner of that face had long given up on it. Surely, that is to love others as Jesus did—Jesus the One who never gives up on us. If we are to love as Jesus loved, we need to be forgiving people. Forgiving people are bridge-builders and reconcilers. - Fr Chris Gleeson, Madonna
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OPINION
Beyond knowledge to wisdomI believe this is one of the crisis points for contemporary Christianity. Put bluntly, its representatives do not seem wise. Yes, those representatives can give you any amount of information, some of them can even speak knowledgeably of Christian teachings. Wisdom is another thing altogether. - Fr Michael Whelan [More] - Aquinas Academy
FEATURE
Connected across bordersIt is time for leaders of nations to see their national interests as connected with the interests of people on the other side of the globe. We have reached the point where human existence is at stake and our destiny is inextricably linked. If we are to overcome this crisis of climate change we need to think beyond the confines of national states. - Just Comment [More] - Edmund Rice Centre
FEATURED CATHOLIC WEBSITE
Catholic Education Diocese of ParramattaReturning to our education theme, we shine the spotlight on arguably the most innovative Catholic education website in the country. In addition to all the standard features of any CEO site, Parramatta's includes some interactive opinion polls and a competition for students to attempt to ''Become the Executive Director for the day''. The site is also well regarded for its RE and curriculum resources.
- www.parra.catholic.edu.au
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Holy See seeks UN cloning ban
Vatican representative at the United Nations Archbishop Celestino Migliore has told the UN that embryos are human beings and the organisation has a mandate to uphold the rights of all human beings.
The Holy See's permanent observer gave his address last week on Item 172 of the agenda of the 58th General Assembly, International Convention Against the Cloning of Human Beings.
Archbishop Migliore (pictured) denied that cloning is a complex issue. He said that it is in fact "simple and straightforward" that "the creation of human embryos is the story of the beginning of human life". He insisted that "an embryo is a human being regardless of its geography".
He said this position is a matter of reason and not religious doctrine. Reason, he suggested, also dictates the banning of cloning for both reproductive and research purposes.
"If the United Nations were to ban reproductive cloning without banning cloning for research, this would, for the first time, involve this body in legitimising something extraordinary: the creation of human beings for the express purpose of destroying them."
Meanwhile Archbishop Migliore also called on the UN to address the issue of international debt in a way that would keep the same problems from arising in the future.
"The international debt is like an illness," he said. "Unless completely cured, it is bound to recur."
Speaking at UN headquarters in New York, he said that "no satisfactory solutions" have been found for the "chronic debt crisis" despite all the attention given to it, and the external debt of the developing countries has in fact increased.
In recent years, the Vatican has repeatedly urged the international community to alleviate the financial burden of debt that keeps poor countries from being able to use their scarce resources to meet the basic needs of their people.
Renewing this appeal, Archbishop Migliore said debt was a moral as well as a technical question because the financial burden it imposes affects the ability of poor countries to offer even "minimum levels of health care and education."
SOURCE
Holy See asks for ban on cloning in all its forms (Vatican Information Service)
U.N. nuncio says world debt is an illness that needs to be cured (Catholic News Service)
LINKS
Vatican to UN: Research Cloning is "Creation of Human Beings for the express purpose of destroying them" (LifeSite)
Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations
Vatican official calls cloning a "crime against humanity" (20/8/03)
Pope issues fresh cloning denunciation (14/1/03)
On road to human lab rats (Catholic Leader 23/3/03)
Cloning: The process and its complexities (Nathaniel Catholic Bioethics Centre NZ)
Jubilee Australia - Drop the Debt
JubileePlus.org
29 Oct 2003
