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Day: January 29, 2007

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Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political

Blair and Catholics

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will not grant an exemption from compliance with ‘gay’ rights laws for faith based organizations who provide about 30% of the adoption services in Britain, often dealing with the most difficult to place children. From Ekklesia UK: Blair confirms that Catholic adoption agencies will not be able to discriminate.

The UK government has announced there will be no exemption from anti-discrimination laws for Catholic adoption agencies, but that they will get 21 months to prepare for change, which will make it illegal to discriminate against lesbian and gay people.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, himself a practicing Anglican married to a Catholic, called the outcome “a sensible compromise”. The Catholic Church in England and Wales said it was “deeply disappointed” that no exemption had been offered.

The 2006 Equality Act will face a vote in Parliament in February before coming into effect on 6 April 2007.

A spokesperson for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement told Ekklesia this evening that the decision looked like a —reasonable outcome overall—. Secular groups and the Liberal Democrats have said that the change period is too long.

It remains to be seen whether Catholic adoption agencies will eventually hand their service over to others in the voluntary sector. A similar thing has happened in the USA, after pressure from the Vatican.

Mr Blair commented: “There is no place in our society for discrimination. That’s why I support the right of gay couples to apply to adopt like any other couple. [This is why] there can be no exemptions for faith-based adoption agencies offering public funded services from regulations that prevent discrimination.”

No place for discrimination, except against people of faith, and faith based organizations, who abide by their Church’s teachings. See particularly Now, all our English liberties are becoming orphans by William Rees-Mogg in The Times:

The issue of the Roman Catholic adoption agencies, and their refusal to arrange adoptions for same-sex partnerships, I find altogether fascinating. It involves fundamental questions of liberty, of freedom of religion, of European law and of political philosophy. In our collapsing political society it may prove to be only one week’s wonder, but it is important to think it through.

Current Events, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia

From the Polish Catholic Church

Mr. Robert Strybel’s syndicated column, which appears in Polish American World, notes the following regarding the Polish Catholic Church (a daughter of the PNCC):

Poland’s first Roman-Polish Catholic nuptial in a Polish-Catholic parish has occurred in the southeastern town of Łęki Dukielskie, the PC fraternal organ “Rodzina” reported recently. Elżbieta Nycz was able to marry Polish-Catholic Norbert Gruszczyński after receiving dispensation from her bishop – something the RC Church had earlier been reluctant to grant…

The local Polish Catholic parish is the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Current Events, Perspective, PNCC

Motu photo (Lingua latina fugat)

Someone should have taken a picture of the eager faces of R.C.’s who are awaiting the return of the Traditional Rite of the Holy Mass in Latin (something the PNCC has always had – and in the vernacular) as word creeps out that the Pope’s Motu proprio on its restoration will be a no-go. This word is in opposition to the word from other sources here, here, here, and here.

As The Young Fogey points out – it’s not about Latin, but rather Godwardness, holiness, and respect for what one is doing in the Sacrifice of the Mass.

He picked up on the story in No Motu proprio. He also picked up on another story I read last night: Pope’s Latinist pronounces death of a language in which the Rev. Reginald Foster says of the Motu porprio:

He said reports that Pope Benedict will reintroduce the Tridentine Mass, which dates from 1570 and is largely conducted in Latin, were wrong —“ not least because of the Pope’s desire to avoid more controversies. A speech last year offended Muslims and more recently he gave initial support to a Polish archbishop who was eventually forced to resign, after admitting that he had collaborated with the communist-era secret police.

“He is not going to do it,” Fr Foster said. “He had trouble with Regensberg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose.” In any case, he added: “It is a useless mass and the whole mentality is stupid. The idea of it is that things were better in the old days. It makes the Vatican look medieval.”

The whole exercise tells me that R.C.’s have less respect for the Pope than the Orthodox, Orientals, and PNCC combined. Sure he’s a great figurehead (sort of like the Queen of England), but if he tries to play the part the ultramontane want, he gets shut down. Can anyone say committees (Curia, local bishop’s conferences) run amok.

As to the Rev. Foster’s points, that medievalist attitude has paid his room and board for a long time, dead languages and all. He’s gotten his fill at the table of academic exercise. I’d like to see him in a poor rural parish now that his skills are no longer necessary, medieval, and simply old. There’s no going back Rev. Foster, there’s no going back.

Current Events, Political

Could be, maybe, we sorta think

The United States is criticizing Israel’s use of cluster bombs during its invasion of Lebanon last year, albeit grudgingly and couched in all sorts of ambiguous ‘well it kinda looks like’ language.

From the AP via The Guardian: Report cites possible misuse of U-S-made cluster bombs:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Israel probably misused American-made cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon during the war against Hezbollah last summer, the State Department said Monday.

Department officials sent a preliminary report on the issue to Congress on Monday. By law, lawmakers must determine whether further investigation by the State Department is warranted.

The report represents an embarrassment to the United States and Israel, one of its closest allies. During last summer’s war, the U.S. was seen as letting Israel continue attacks inside Lebanon long after many other countries had demanded a halt to military action.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would not provide details of the report, which was classified.

But he told reporters the department had made a preliminary finding “that there may – likely could have been some violations” of the agreement by which Israel purchased the weapons from the U.S. He would not specify what those agreements were.

When Israel purchases cluster bombs and other lethal equipment from the United States, it must agree in writing to restrictions on their use.

The report, McCormack said, “is not a final judgment.” He declined to speculate on what action may be taken against Israel if a violation is confirmed.

The United Nations said last summer that unexploded cluster bombs – anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area – litter homes, gardens and highways in south Lebanon.

…

Danny Ayalon, the recently retired Israeli ambassador to Washington, said Israel had no choice but to use the munitions against villages. “This was a clear-cut case of self-defense, in order to stop incoming Katyusha rockets aimed at our own population centers, and it was done to areas that were likely to be abandoned by Lebanese civilians,” Ayalon said.

Yeah, about that. You see we have jets, laser guided bombs, sophisticated American weapons, tanks, a whole arsenal of vastly superior firepower (plus nuclear weapons). How dare you fire vintage unguided munitions at us. Oh, and sorry about grandma, grandpa, and your children and cousins who were on-site. Couldn’t have foreseen that.

But the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the report’s findings “should lead to an immediate cutoff of all U.S. cluster munitions sales to Israel.”

The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center has said it is not illegal to use the cluster bombs against soldiers or enemy fighters, but the Geneva Conventions bar their use in civilian areas.

Frankly, I can’t believe the U.S. government is actually (well kind of) saying these things. I guess there was just too much civilian blood on the roads of southern Lebanon to ignore it.

Nothing against Israel’s right to exist, but I’ll up Human Rights Watch one better. The U.S. should extract itself from the Middle East, Iraq, Israel, the whole mess.

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