Political Outrage, 'Moral Shock,' & Images

Last Weekend The New York Times ran this story in their 'Week in Review' section about anger and political movements in the U.S.; I found the following part especially interesting.

"Protest groups that turn from loud to aggressive tend to draw on at least two other elements, researchers say. The first is what sociologists call a “moral shock” — a specific, blatant moral betrayal that, when most potent, evokes personal insults suffered by individual members, said Francesca Polletta, a sociologist at the University of California, Irvine . . .

This shock may derive from an image: the horrific posters of tortured animals published by animal rights groups, or of aborted fetuses by anti-abortions organizations, which speak for themselves. It can also reside in a “narrative fragment,” like the Rodney King beating, which triggered a riot all on its own.

Perhaps the best available candidate for such an outrage today is the Wall Street bailout, Dr. Polletta said. “The message there is rich people being rewarded for bad behavior,” she said. “That’s going to hit home, especially if you’ve lost a job, or know someone who has.”

The second element is a specific target clearly associated with the outrage. A law to change. A politician to remove. A company to shut down. “If the target is too big, too vague — say, the health care bill, which means many things — well, then the anger can be hard to sustain,” Dr. Polletta said. “It gets exhausting.”"

Pointing to "the second element" - that political protest thrives with a focal target - is a platitude. However, the claim regarding "the first element" - about the impact of images - is less so and, I think, potentially important. Here are some obvious questions, though: Can images actually convey 'moral shock'? And, do images of any sort "speak for themselves"? I am dubious about both claims. The latter seems to me to be simply false. The former is at least questionable. But the theme is worth pursuing.

Best Shots (107) ~ Lauren Greenfield

(134) Lauren Greenfield - "The most popular girls at school ...
Edina, Minnesota, 1998" (31 March 2010).

Be not Afraid of Growing Slowly.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

-Chinese Proverb

James: This quote really resonated in my heart today because I often feel like my practice isn't where it should be, but how could it be anywhere except where it is? I must keep reminding myself (gently, of course) that there is no moment but this moment and that you can't get "there" without being here first. I use, "there" in quotations because in this case, "there" refers to realizing enlightenment and liberation from suffering--not an actual destination someplace in the ethereal future as we know that the future is but a hologram.

It can be easy to be discouraged and think, "I'm not meditating enough" or long-enough but even Buddha got discouraged. He studied with several mystics before his enlightenment but was eventually discouraged by their teachings, which he felt unsatisfied with. In addition, he pursued extreme aestheticism only to be discouraged by it. During his meditation under the Bodhi tree, before his enlightenment, he was tempted by desires to abandon his practice. He could have easily given up after all of these events but he pressed on not knowing what would come next until he shattered the hold of the ego and realized enlightenment.

Something else to consider is that our sense of progress is too often seen through the eyes of the mind, which demands immediate, Earth-shattering and over-whelming results. So it can be hard sometimes to see our progress; especially since progress seems to unfold in increments. Yet even the lotus seed has to burst up through seemingly unending layers of mud and inches of murky, shifting water to eventually reach the top of the water to bloom in the sun. Our journey is similar. It seems like an impossible journey yet it has to be such for if the lotus grew instantly to the surface the stem wouldn't be strong enough to hold the enlightened flower.

So, we too must build a strong base or foundation for our practice. Thus, we don't need to worry so much about how "fast" we're growing in our practice. We can only grow as fast as our karma will allow. There is a lesson in everything and just because someone might seem "advanced" on the path doesn't mean they aren't having difficulties on their way to the sun too!! The goal isn't to keep up with some Zen master or those around you whom you consider stronger meditators but rather that we keep growing--period. I realized that wanting to be further along in my practice is giving into the desire for being better than others. It's hard to accept it but that's at the root because why would we be unhappy with our practice if we weren't trying to, not only keep up with others, but outdo them? As if it's a race to see who realizes enlightenment first. No, it's better for me to stay happy with where I am because like it or not, that is the only true reality. The rest is destructive delusion.

~Peace to all beings~

Why does Tony Blair have his own Election 2010 campaign website?

Well it was clear the former Prime Minister Tony Blair would have some role to play in the Labour campaign for the upcoming election after making a speech in his home constituency of Sedgefield on Tuesday, but why does he now have his own election campaign website?

Unless I, as well as all the mainstream local, national and international media have missed something, Mr Blair is not seeking re-election this year... so his website - tonyblair4labour.org - which was actually produced by Blue State Digital, the same developers that made the hugely-successful website for a certain Barack Obama - seems a little odd.

As you would expect the site contains news, videos and social media interactivity tools... but still, why does it exist? Any ideas...?

Death Penalty report

Amnesty has published information regarding last year's use of the death penalty. Good news in Europe as it was the first year that there were no recorded executions but not good news elsewhere. The worst suspected offender was China where Amnesty were unable to have access to the figures but reports have indicated it was in the thousands. The USA executed 52 people last year, unsurprisingly the majority of whom were in Texas. Here is the report.

Recommended Reading ~ Economics Without Illusion

Well, I am in San Francisco hanging with my youngest son August. We just went to see How to Train Your Dragon, which is a reminder that capitalism is not all bad. We'll leave the movie review for another time. What I wanted to call your attention to is this book by a former student of mine, Joe Heath. I just saw the advert today and so have not read it. But on the way home from the theatre I stopped to pick up a copy. It looks good and I am sure that it will be infuriating since Joe seems to give equal time to deflating various "fallacies" of the right and the left - which is a good thing, I suppose. In any case, Joe is smart and witty and sensible in many ways. And, as a philosopher writing about economics, he is taking back some of the intellectual terrain that the professional economists have arrogated to themselves. That is a good thing too!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

The problem? They look like "us!" This is the face of Christian fundamentalist terrorism in the U.S.; of course you won't hear the 't-word' used by, say, The New York Times. For the putatively liberal media, the "Hutaree" remain "apocalyptic Christian militants" not a terrorist outfit aiming to kill law enforcement officers and, thereby, hopefully, to foment revolution! The folks at The Times tie themselves into knots denying that this is political extremism: although the terrorists "were plotting to kill law enforcement officers in hopes of inciting an antigovernment uprising" they were "motivated by apocalyptic religious scenarios more than any secular political fears." Right. If Islamist fundamentalists were indicted for exactly the same activities the press would be having a field-day. But these salt-of-the-earth white Americans surely couldn't be terrorists could they?

Vatican Still Silent on Role in Rwandan Genocide

This article--both powerful and poignant--comes from The Guardian.

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For Rwandans, the pope's apology must be unbearable

If sexual abuse in Ireland warrants his contrition, what contempt is shown by the Vatican in its silence over its role in genocide

Martin Kimani

If you are an Irish Catholic, and have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, you were recently read a letter from Pope Benedict that tells you: "You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated."

For any practising Catholic in Rwanda, this letter must be unbearable. For it tells you how little you mean to the Vatican. Fifteen years ago, tens of thousands of Catholics were hacked to death inside churches. Sometimes priests and nuns led the slaughter. Sometimes they did nothing while it progressed. The incidents were not isolated. Nyamata, Ntarama, Nyarubuye, Cyahinda, Nyange, and Saint Famille were just a few of the churches that were sites of massacres.

To you, Catholic survivor of genocide in Rwanda, the Vatican says that those priests, those bishops, those nuns, those archbishops who planned and killed were not acting under the instruction of the church. But moral responsibility changes dramatically if you are a European or US Catholic. To the priests of the Irish church who abused children, the pope has this to say: "You must answer for it before almighty God and before properly constituted tribunals. You have forfeited the esteem of the people of Ireland and brought shame and dishonour upon your confreres."

The losses of Rwanda had received no such consideration. Some of the nuns and priests who have been convicted by Belgian courts and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, respectively, enjoyed refuge in Catholic churches in Europe while on the run from prosecutors. One such is Father Athanase Seromba, who led the Nyange parish massacre and was sentenced to 15 years in jail by the tribunal. In April 1994, Seromba helped lure over 2,000 desperate men, women and children to his church, where they expected safety. But their shepherd turned out to be their hunter.

One evening Seromba entered the church and carried away the chalices of communion and other clerical vestments. When a refugee begged that they be left the Eucharist to enable them to at least hold a (final) mass, the priest refused and told them that the building was no longer a church. A witness at the ICTR trial remembered an exchange in which the priest's mindset was revealed.

One of the refugees asked: "Father, can't you pray for us?" Seromba replied: "Is the God of the Tutsis still alive?" Later, he would order a bulldozer to push down the church walls on those inside and then urge militias to invade the building and finish off the survivors.

At his trial, Seromba said: "A priest I am and a priest I will remain." This, apparently, is the truth, since the Vatican has never taken back its statements defending him before his conviction.

In the last century, Catholic bishops have been deeply mired in Rwandan politics with the full knowledge of the Vatican. Take Archbishop Vincent Nsengiyumva. Until 1990, he had served as the chairman of the ruling party's central committee for almost 15 years, championing the authoritarian government of Juvenal Habyarimana, which orchestrated the murder of almost a million people. Or Archbishop André Perraudin, the most senior representative of Rome in 1950s Rwanda. It was with his collusion and mentorship that the hateful, racist ideology known as Hutu Power was launched – often by priests and seminarians in good standing with the church. One such was Rwanda's first president, Grégoire Kayibanda, a private secretary and protege of Perraudin, whose political power was unrivalled.

The support for Hutu Power was therefore not unknowing or naive. It was a strategy to maintain the church's powerful political position in a decolonising Rwanda. The violence of the 1960s led inexorably to the 1994 attempt to exterminate Tutsis. These were violent expressions of a political sphere dominated by contentions that Hutu and Tutsi were separate and opposed racial categories. This, too, is one of the legacies of the Catholic missionary, whose schools and pulpits for decades kept up a drumbeat of false race theories.

This turning away from the Rwandan victims of genocide comes at a time when the Catholic church is increasingly peopled by black and brown believers. It is difficult not to conclude the church's upper reaches are desperately holding on to a fast-vanishing racial patrimony.

Perhaps it is time Catholics forced the leaders of their church to deal with a history of institutional racism that endures, if the church is truly to live up to its fine words. Apologies are not sufficient, no matter how abject. What is demanded is an acknowledgment of the church's political power and moral culpability, with all the material and legal implications that come with it.

The silence of the Vatican is contempt. Its failure to fully examine its central place in Rwandan genocide can only mean that it is fully aware that it will not be threatened if it buries its head in the sand. While it knows if it ignores the sexual abuse of European parishioners it will not survive the next few years, it can let those African bodies remain buried, dehumanised and unexamined.

This is a good political strategy. And a moral position whose duplicity and evil has been witnessed and documented. For, it turns out, many people, scholars, governments and institutions inside and outside Rwanda are excavating their own roles in the genocide. The Vatican stands as an exception, its moral place now even lower than that of the government of France for its enduring friendship with genocidaires.

Passings ~ Jim Marshall (1936-2010)

Jim Marshall, famous for his photographs of musicians including this one of Johnny Cash, has died. You can read obituaries here and here and here.

Politics, Human Rights and 'the Music Thing' ~ Gloria Estefan

I came across this story at The Washington Post on singer Gloria Estefan (among others) and the protests she (and they) has coordinated in response to official repression of opposition politics in Cuba. Specifically, Estefan was responding to the Cuban regime's repressive response over a number of years to protests by the "Damas de Blanco" (Ladies in White) a group of women whose sons and husbands have been imprisoned since 2003. You can read some of the background on this situation here in this report from Amnesty International.

A few questions strike me as important here. First, it goes without saying that the Cuban regime is acting badly in all this and that that is part of an ongoing pattern. Will 'progressives' in the U.S. speak out on this? In short, do they see human rights as 'universal' or only as a stick with which to beat the right wing regimes?

The second thing is that it is pretty amazing how the Cuban American community is able to reply to this sort of rights violation; I wonder whether they mobilize around similar instances of political repression elsewhere? (For instance, consider the anti-slavery campaign that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is now waging right there in Florida; have Cuban Americans expressed their solidarity in an organized way with political-economic oppression the occurs closer than 90 miles away from Miami?) In short, do they see human rights as 'universal' or only as a stick with which to beat the Cuban regime? Just wondering.

Finally, for those who seek to gerrymander art and politics in some strict way, does this count as a border violation? Or is it simply efforts to connect art and politics from the left that draw your ire?

Vatican Ramps Up Defenses on Abuse Scandal

The Vatican is in damage-control mode now. With so many abuse accusations flooding in from so many quarters, Rome's only possible strategy is to play the victimization card and accuse the entire world of harboring a specifically anti-Catholic agenda.

This article comes from the Catholic News Service. -----------------------------------------------------------
Vatican intensifies defense of pope on sex abuse decisions

By John Thavis

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican and other church officials have amplified their defense of Pope Benedict XVI and his decisions regarding priestly sex abuse, and rejected accusations of a continued cover-up of such crimes.

After a series of reports in the New York Times and other media criticizing the pope for alleged "inaction" on sex abuse cases, Vatican authorities emphasized that it was the pope who, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pushed for harsher measures against abusers and made it easier for the church to defrock them.

On March 27, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran the full texts of two landmark documents that in 2001 placed the sexual abuse of minors by priests among the most grave sins, and established that allegations be handled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger.

The same day, the newspaper ran a front-page commentary by British Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster that had appeared in the Times of London, expressing shame over priestly sex abuse but strongly defending the pope's efforts to curb it.

"What of the role of Pope Benedict? When he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he led important changes made in church law: the inclusion in canon law of Internet offenses against children, the extension of child abuse offenses to include the sexual abuse of all under 18, the case by case waiving of the statute of limitations and the establishment of a fast-track dismissal from the clerical state for offenders," Archbishop Nichols wrote.

"He is not an idle observer. His actions speak as well as his words," he said.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the recent media focus on the sex abuse cases and the way they were dealt with by the hierarchy comes as no surprise.

"The nature of the question is such as to attract the attention of the media, and the way in which the church deals with it is crucial for her moral credibility," he said in a commentary on Vatican Radio.

But Father Lombardi pointed to the "many positive signals" that indicate the church has understood the problem and addressed it. For example, he said, a recent report showed that the number of reported sex abuse cases declined between 33 and 36 percent in U.S. dioceses and religious institutes between 2008 and 2009.

"It must be recognized that the decisive measures currently being implemented are proving effective: the church in the United States is on the right road to renewal," he said.

"This, we feel, is an important piece of news in the context of recent media attacks, which have undoubtedly proved harmful," the spokesman said.

Father Lombardi said impartial observers would recognize that the pope and the doctrinal congregation are continuing to guide bishops and help them "combat and root out the blight of abuse wherever it appears." The pope's strongly worded letter to Irish Catholics earlier this month demonstrated his commitment to "healing, renewal and reparation" in the church, he said.

German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's top ecumenical official, said the pope's letter to Irish Catholics was "courageous." It indicated that the church was on an "irreversible" path toward greater transparency and severity in dealing with sex abuse by priests, the cardinal told the newspaper Corriere della Sera March 27.

Pope Benedict has never tried to protect abusers, and the criticism aimed at him is really an attack on the church itself, Cardinal Kasper said.

"He was the first who, even as a cardinal, felt the need for new and stricter rules, which didn't exist before. That some newspapers are now using terrible cases to attack the pope head-on is something that goes beyond every limit of justice and fairness," he said.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, mentioned the sex abuse scandal in his weekly Lenten meditation. In his talk to the pope and Roman Curia officials March 26, Father Cantalamessa said the church and its members are called to purify themselves and, if there is humility, then "the church will end up more resplendent than ever from this war."

"The media's tenacity -- and we have seen it in other cases -- in the long run will bring about the opposite effect that they had hoped for," he added.

Addressing the pope specifically, Father Cantalamessa reminded him that God told Jeremiah that before his detractors he would make him "a solid wall of brass. Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail. For I am with you to deliver and rescue you."

French bishops, assembled at their annual spring meeting, sent a "message of support" to Pope Benedict, saying they were with him "in the difficult period our church is going through."

Italian Archbishop Giuseppe Betori of Florence told Vatican Radio March 26 that the media was manipulating information in order to falsely accuse the pope of inaction on sex abuse. He said he had dealt directly with the doctrinal congregation under Cardinal Ratzinger on abuse allegations, and found that the congregation demonstrated "the maximum attention and the maximum severity."

Has the French Elysée copied the US White House with its new website?

At midnight on Sunday, the new website of the French Presidency - www.elysee.fr - went live, but does it not look remarkably similar to the website of the Obama administration on the official White House website at www.whitehouse.gov?

The world-recognised logos are at the top of the page in the centre sitting upon identical horizontal blue menu bars and interactive image and text sections that scroll through a cycle of the latest uploaded pages.

But the similarities do not stop there; both sites are arranged identically across three columns, are set upon a white background with a faint image of a building, have full shareability via the social networks and have comprehensive site-maps at the foot of each homepage.

According to Le Figaro, the French site's webmaster admitted the site costed €100,000 to make - which to me seems a lot for a copy-paste job. But perhaps this is just another bold statement that France, and President Nicolas Sarkozy in particular, wants to be more like Barack Obama and have as much success...

Chancellors' Debate

Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable will be going head to head on a live debate on Channel 4 tonight at 8pm. You can check out more information on their site here and see further comment here. Let us know how you think they performed, and please vote on our new poll!

Magna Carta and Other Treasures

The British Library has been busy digitising its material and putting on the web. These include the Magna Carta, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's plays and the Gutenberg Bible. They include instant translations and guides by the curators. There is also an impressive timeline showing other important works in their collection. If you spot any other interesting documents like these, please let us know.

Immigration "Reform" Looms on US Horizon

Immigration is the next big battle on the agenda of the US Catholic Bishops. How this battle is waged and who ultimately wins cannot help but determine the future of the United States of America.

This article comes from the Catholic News Service, by way of American Catholic.

For more information on this topic, see my posts under the "Immigration" tag on the sidebar.
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Documentary Frames Tough Road for Immigration Bill

By Patricia Zapor

WASHINGTON (CNS)—A new documentary film, a poll of how churchgoers feel about immigration, a massive rally in Washington and a series of White House and congressional meetings in the last few weeks are setting the stage for the next big effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

With health care now off the congressional agenda, advocates for comprehensive reform are hoping to get legislation through before this year's elections. However, there are already mixed signals coming from White House and congressional leaders about whether that will be possible.

They may be taking to heart the lessons of a new HBO documentary, "The Senators' Bargain," a "this is how the sausage is made" look at the legislative maneuvering that went into the last attempt to pass a broad-based immigration bill.

Comprehensive reform bills generally include a process for the estimated 12 million people already in the U.S. without permission to pay fines and back taxes and legalize their status; changes to make it easier for low-skilled workers to come for U.S. jobs and easier for immigrants to reunite their families without the current decades-long waits for visas; and enforcement programs that focus on smugglers and employers who exploit immigrant workers.

A March 22 showing of the film by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini about the late Sen. Edward Kennedy's decades-long quest for immigration reform may be illustrative of the challenges.

The screening brought together many of Washington's leaders of efforts over the years to get a bill through Congress. In the theater were Victoria Kennedy, the widow of the Democratic senator from Massachusetts; Esther Olavarria, his former immigration counsel; and dozens of others who have been star players in this recurring legislative drama, as well as those with perennial bit parts. Before the film, the mood in the room was cheery, as former colleagues renewed acquaintances since the last big legislative effort in 2008, the principal subject of "The Senators' Bargain."

A day earlier, many of them had been at a rally on the National Mall that drew an estimated 200,000 people. There, immigrants and native-born citizens who were bused in from around the country enthusiastically and optimistically chanted "Yes, we can" and its Spanish version, "Si, se puede." Immigrants told their stories and political, civic and religious leaders promised to work together for new laws.

President Barack Obama sent a videotaped message, invoking Kennedy's push for reform and pledging he would "do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on this important issue." After a White House meeting with the president 10 days earlier, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the bishops' migration committee, said he and other advocates came away encouraged by Obama's personal commitment to seeing a bill through to signing.

A national poll released March 23 encouraged religious leaders who back comprehensive reform.

The Public Religion Research Institute survey of 1,201 voters found strong support across all religious groups for comprehensive reform, as opposed to piecemeal changes to immigration law. Those who attend church regularly were more likely to support a broad approach to changing immigration law, the study found. And they're supportive of their clergy and religious leaders talking about immigration from the pulpit and in public, it said.

But members of Congress with elections on the horizon remain wary of taking up an issue that, as "The Senators' Bargain" documented, is red meat to a vocal minority that attacks those who suggest anything other than border enforcement as a strategy for immigration problems.

The day after the upbeat rally on the Mall, not 24 hours after the conclusion of the grueling effort to get a health care bill through Congress, some religious activists who met with congressional leaders on immigration reform came away with the impression that expectations were being lowered. Key members of Congress told the supporters of reform that they would back legislation, but warned that with elections in November, a major immigration bill might not get to a vote in the Senate this year.

Still, going into the film's showing that evening, spirits were high at the E Street Cinema.

As ending credits rolled on the documentary, there was solid applause in the theater, then near-silence. Perhaps guests were waiting patiently for the Q-and-A session with the filmmakers.

But the atmosphere felt changed, perhaps muted by the film's graphic reminders of just how hard the people in the room had worked only two years ago. Then, they brought a bipartisan comprehensive reform bill— that had the active backing of the George W. Bush White House—to the brink of passage, only to have carefully negotiated agreements fall apart amid well-organized and blistering opposition. The bill failed.

The cautionary HBO documentary about how Washington works was a stark contrast to the optimism on the Mall the previous day. But Washington is never static.
With Kennedy's death last August, Obama seems willing to pick up the fight where his good friend and Senate mentor left it.

"Teddy's commitment to the cause never wavered, and neither has mine," Obama told the rally. "I have always pledged to be your partner as we work to fix our broken immigration system -- and that's a commitment that I reaffirm today."

A footnote to "The Senators' Bargain" may lend credence to Obama's pledge.

Since filming for the documentary concluded, two of its key subjects from the 2008 battle have taken jobs in the Obama administration.

Kennedy's immigration counsel, Olavarria, is now deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, where Secretary Janet Napolitano has been tapped by Obama to lead administration efforts on immigration reform. And Cecilia Munoz, formerly vice president at the National Council of La Raza, now is White House director of intergovernmental affairs, where her portfolio includes immigration policy.

Pax Christi and WCC "Bear Witness" Against Israel

If anyone has read this blog for even a short time, he or she already knows that the Vatican and its institutions want nothing more than to calumniate and punish the State of Israel for its "sins." Not only that, but it also wants to coerce the rest of the world to join in on the condemnation. In speeches, letters, sermons, and reports, the Vatican does its best to convince the international community that Israel deserves to be restrained, disciplined, and forced to answer for its "abusive" and "inhumane" treatment of the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, the Vatican's real goal is to remove Jerusalem from Israeli control and make it an international city-state governed by an international body.

Pax Christi International, the Catholic church's massive coalition of peace organizations, has decided to join the World Council of Churches for an ecumenical "week of advocacy and action" from May 29 to June 4, 2010. The theme of this endeavor is "It's time for Palestine"--a simple slogan for a simple-minded affair. Both Pax Christi and the WCC will not only pray to end the "occupation" of Palestine during this week, but they will also push for individuals to lobby their governments to exert pressure on Israelis. The two organizations have assembled a heavily-prejudiced "fact sheet" that encourages all churches to "send a clear signal to policy makers."

A clear signal of Catholic/Ecumenical anti-Israelism, that is.

The following description comes from the Pax Christi website.
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World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

The World Council of Churches is inviting member churches and related organizations (Pax Christi International and its member organisations active worldwide) to join a week of advocacy and action for a just peace in Palestine and Israel. Those who share the hope of justice are invited to take peaceful actions, together, to create a common international public witness. During the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, from 29 May to 4 June 2010, churches in different countries send a clear signal to policy-makers, interested publics and their own parishes about the urgent need for a peace settlement that secures the legitimate rights and future of both peoples. Participants are requested to plan their activities around these points: Pray with churches living under occupation, using a special prayer from Jerusalem. Educate about actions that make for peace and about facts on the ground that do not, especially, settlements in occupied territory. Advocate with political leaders using ecumenical policies that promote peace with justice. The week calls participants to seek justice for Palestinians so that both Israelis and Palestinians can finally live in peace. It is now more than 60 years since the partition of Palestine hardened into a permanent nightmare for Palestinians. It's more than 40 years since the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza overwhelmed the peaceful vision of one land, two peoples. Yet the dream of one nation cannot be fulfilled at the expense of another. The action week's message is that now: • It's time for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace. • It's time for freedom from occupation. • It's time for equal rights. • It's time for the healing of wounded souls. Representatives of Churches, specialised ministries, communities and parishes are invited to join a week of advocacy, education and prayer for a just peace in Palestine an Israel together with the Pax Christi International network. The invitation and “fact sheet” is available in English in 2010-0036-en-me-AC A list of resources is available in English in 2010-0037-en-me-AC More resources at http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/wwppi.html Materials will be provided in other languages as well. Fr. Paul Lansu of the International Secretariat and Toine Van Teeffelen of the Arab Education Institute (MO in Bethlehem), are members of the Working Group preparing the Week of Action. Please inform the International Secretariat about any initiative taken or resources produced by the different member organisations.

Australian Government Considers New Abuse Laws

This article comes from the Australian Daily Telegraph.

I think we will see more and more countries considering laws that will hold the Catholic church legally accountable for sexual abuse. As it currently stands, the church and its priests are often shielded behind religious freedom and laws specifically designed to protect ecclesiastical assets.
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Justice for Sex Abuse Victims

By Janet Fife-Yeomans

RADICAL laws that would deliver justice to thousands of victims of sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and teachers are being considered by the Keneally Government.

The Catholic Church would no longer be able to hide behind a 2007 court ruling that they cannot be sued because they only own the church property and do not employ the clergy or teachers.

Attorney-General John Hatzistergos is also considering a temporary moratorium for child sex abuse victims from the state's brutal statute of limitations, which blocks claims more than three years old.

Victims currently face long and expensive legal fights which often fail to have that statute waived.

The influential Australian Lawyers Alliance has called on the Government to repeal the Roman Catholic Trust Property Act of 1936 which the courts have ruled protects the church in most cases from claims of negligence involving paedophile priests.

A spokesperson for Mr Hatzistergos said the Attorney-General was looking at that request.

In 2007, the Court of Appeal found in a test case brought by former altar boy John Ellis, now a solicitor, that he had no one to sue over sexual assaults by the late Father Duggan at Bass Hill.

The court ruled that under the 1936 Act, the trustees of the church, who control the billions of dollars of church real estate including retirement homes and charities, are only liable for property matters and cannot be held liable for negligence of their priests in churches or teachers in Roman Catholic parochial schools.

The High Court refused Mr Ellis leave to appeal.

Australian Lawyers Alliance NSW spokesman Dr Andrew Morrison SC said it was outrageous a ch

New Book Probes Benedict's Political Philosophy

This article comes from Zenit.
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The Political Side of Benedict XVI

Book Analyzes Foundations of Pontiff's Social Thought

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, MARCH 28, 2010 (Zenit.org).- We are accustomed to looking at the Popes for spiritual and theological guidance, but a recent book highlights the importance and influence of the social and political thought of Benedict XVI.

In "The Social and Political Thought of Benedict XVI," Thomas R. Rourke analyzes the Pope's record on these issues both before and after his election to the Chair of Peter. Rourke is a professor in the department of political science at Clarion University of Pennsylvania.

While more known as a theologian, Benedict XVI is a very profound political thinker, and his social thought merits more attention that it has so far received, Rourke argued.

He starts off by looking at the anthropological foundation of the Pope's thought. In his book "On the Way to Jesus Christ" the then Cardinal Ratzinger looked at the development of the concept of a person.

The contribution of the Bible and Christian thought enabled the original Greek consideration on this to be considerably enriched, particularly in the aspect of seeing a person as a relational being. This leads to a spirituality of communion, which Rourke says is at the root of Benedict XVI's understanding of social doctrine.

Thus, in the community of the divine persons of the Trinity we discover the spiritual roots of the human community. So, in the Pope's anthropology it is not as though we are individuals who in a second moment enter into relations with other people. Rather, relationship is at the core of a person's nature.

This brotherhood among persons is grounded in the fatherhood of God and so differs fundamentally from a secular view of brotherhood, such as that espoused in the French Revolution.

Added to this is the dimension of creation. Created in the image of God human life is given an inviolable dignity, leading the pope to condemn a utilitarian interpretation of our humanity.

Politics

While this anthropology might seem very abstract it is a necessary foundation for political philosophy, explained Rourke. Our view of what the shared life of people should be is necessarily grounded on an understanding of what a person is and what a community is.

According to Rourke, Benedict XVI considers politics to be an exercise of reason, but a reason that is also informed by faith. As a result Christianity does not define learning as the mere acquisition of knowledge, but requires it to be guided by fundamental values, such as truth, beauty, and goodness.

When reason is separated from a clear understanding of the ends of human life, established by Creation and affirmed in the Ten Commandments, then it has no fixed reference points for making moral judgments. If this happens then the way is open to consequentialism, which denies that anything is good or bad in itself.

One interesting line of thought in the writings of Cardinal Ratzinger is the division between Church and state, Rourke comments. The separation by Jesus, in Mark 12:17, of the two -- "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," meant that Christianity destroyed the idea of a divine state.

Prior to Christianity the union of Church and state was the normal practice and even in the Old Testament the two were fused. In fact, this was the cause of the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire, as they refused to accept the state religion.

The separation of the two by Jesus was beneficial for the state, as it did not have to live up to expectations of divine perfection, Cardinal Ratzinger affirmed. This new Christian perspective opened the door for a politics based on reason.

Mythological

Furthermore, he contended that when we revert to a pre-Christian understanding of politics we end up eliminating moral limitations, as happened in Nazi Germany and in communist states.

In today's world, the future Pontiff warned that mythological understandings of progress, science and freedom represent a danger. The element in common that they have is the tendency to the development of an irrational politics that places the search for power above the truth.

As Pope, he took up this theme again in his second encyclical on hope. He warned that what we hope for as Christians should not be confused with what we can achieve through political action.

Returning to what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in his book, "Church, Ecumenism, and Politics," Rourke added that the separation of church and state has become confused in modern times in being interpreted as ceding the entire public square to the state.

If this is accepted then democracy is reduced to a set of procedures, limited by no fundamental values. Instead, the future Pope affirmed the need for a system of values that goes back to the first principles, such as the prohibition of taking innocent human life, or the foundation of the family on the permanent union of man and woman.

Conscience

Among the many other topics that Rourke examines is that of conscience. This might seem to have little in connection to social or political issues at first glance. Instead, it turns out to play a critical role.

It is in the inner forum of our conscience that we preserve the fundamental norms upon which the social order is based. It is also a limit on the power of the state, as the state does not have the legitimate authority to transgress these norms. So it is that conscience is at the roots of limited government.

The destruction of conscience is the prerequisite for totalitarian rule, the then Archbishop Ratzinger, explained in a lecture given in 1972. "Where conscience prevails, there is a limit to the dominion of human command and human choice, something sacred that must remain inviolate and that in its ultimate sovereignty eludes all control, whether someone else's or one's own," he said.

Rourke clarified that in saying this, the future pope was not diminishing what are the constitutional or institutional limits on power. The point being made is more fundamental. Namely, that no institution or structure can preserve people from injustice when those in authority abuse their power. In this situation it is the power of conscience, wielded by the people, that can protect society.

This, in turn, connects with faith, which is the ultimate teacher of conscience. Faith becomes a political force in the same way Jesus did, by becoming a witness to the truth in conscience. "The power of conscience is then to be found in suffering; it is the power of the Cross," explained Rourke in his summary of what the 1972 lecture expressed.

"Christianity begins," Archbishop Ratzinger said, "not with a revolutionary, but with a martyr."

Continuity

Rourke's study includes an appendix that examines Benedict XVI's latest encyclical on social matters, "Charity in Truth." While he had almost finished the book when the encyclical was published Rourke noted that what the Pope wrote was consistent with the themes in his previous writings.

The introduction clearly shows this, Rourke noted, by its linking of truth with love and the idea that there is objective truth, contrary to the tendency towards relativism.

The encyclical concludes, Rourke commented, with the Pontiff's longstanding affirmation that what is truly human flows from Christ and that Christ leads us to discover the fullness of our humanity. This Christian humanism is what Benedict XVI holds out as our greatest contribution to development. A compelling and inspiring goal to strive for.

Pope Operates in Alternate Reality

You can put this into the 'ya couldn't make this stuff up' category. . . . According to this report in The Guardian, the Pope has announced - in response to criticism of his despicable failure, over the course of decades, to protect children from molesters among the clergy - that his oh so pure faith affords "the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion." That is precisely the sort of thing Jesus would not say. To call the well established fact of priests - including those directly under his command - exploiting children "petty gossip" suggests to me that the Pope is massively out of touch with reality. He ought to be removed from office. Oh yeah, the church is not exactly a democracy.

Perverts and Heretics in the Catholic Church

"As archbishop, Benedict expended more energy pursuing theological dissidents than sexual predators. Already in the early 1980s, one could catch a glimpse of a future pope preoccupied with combating any movement away from church tradition. Vatican experts say there is little evidence that Benedict spent much time investigating more than 200 cases of “problem priests” in the diocese, with issues including alcohol abuse, adultery and, now under the microscope, pedophilia."

This paragraph from this story in The New York Times hardly comes as a surprise. Most of the church hierarchy was indifferent, at best, to the sufferings the clergy (including nuns) imposed on children. I spent most of my childhood in repressive Catholic Schools. And I witnessed a progressive priest being hounded out of our Parish too while the besotted Monsignor . . . My parents thought it was good for me and, while not in the intended way, it was. The only difference between the now Pope and the rest of the hierarchy is that he succeeded in the church politics and is now at the top of the apparatus, still bent on hunting down heresy instead of protecting the innocent. I will say that anyone who doesn't find the excuse that he simply 'overlooked' plain evidence of child molesters under his command is beyond help. His actions then were despicable and the rationalizations for his failings now being offered make me ill. Believers are fond of asking "What Would Jesus Do?" Despite his purported intellectual prowess and proclivities, the Pope shows no signs of knowing the right answer to that question.

Abuse Secrets Locked Away in Vatican

This article comes from Al-Jazeera.

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'Scandal hidden in secret vaults'

By Kathleen McCaul

Jeff Anderson is one of two lawyers representing five men in the US who have brought lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for failing to take action over cases of alleged child abuse in the church.

The case involves a number of documents including internal correspondence between bishops and the Vatican that claim to show Pope Benedict XVI, then a cardinal, failed to respond to letters warning him about a priest who may have molested 200 deaf boys.

According to media reports, an eventual church trial of the priest, Lawrence Murphy, was stopped due to his poor health.

The Vatican has said it did not defrock the priest because of his poor health and because there was no evidence of more recent allegations against him.

Anderson, in an interview with Al Jazeera, explains in detail how the case unfolded and what the implications could be for the Roman Catholic pope.

Al Jazeera: How did you get your hands on these documents?

Jeff Anderson: I had been representing [abuse] survivors suing Catholic bishops in the US for 25 years.

I demanded the documents [from the archdiocese in Milwaukee] and got court orders that required the church to produce them.

In 25 years of compelling the church to turn over documents, this is the first time I have actually received a trail which we knew existed and the documents demonstrate in themselves direct involvement and imposition of secrecy by the Vatican in an abuse case.

This is a direct trail of evidence that goes from the offender [Reverend Murphy] abusing 200 kids, to the Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee, his direct superior.

Archbishop Weakland sought the guidance from the Vatican and contacted Cardinal Ratzinger to ask what to do.

The documents show cardinal Ratzinger's office told him to use secret protocol.

There is a document called Crimen Sollicitationis [Crime of Solicitation], which originally drew guidelines for how the church dealt with priests that used the confessional booth to solicit sex from parishioners, even the young.

All clerics were required to keep abuse secret and to impose secrecy on any laity which discovered the abuse.

Archbishop Weakland started secret protocol proceedings and when they learnt they could not keep that protocol secret they decided to do nothing and give the priest a free pass.

A decision was made in the papal office by Cardinal Ratzinger to give a free pass because they wanted to protect the reputation of the church at the peril of the children.

These documents and the body of evidence I have built up show this is a protocol and practice that has been in place and remains in place and has yet to been fully exposed.

Did you immediately realise the significance of this internal correspondence?

Yes. As soon as I got the documents. As breathtaking as they are, I wasn't surprised.

I realised significance immediately and thought it was best to get them out as soon as possible and in the best way possible which is why I have released them to The New York Times and put them before a court in Oregon.

Have you interacted much with the church during this case? What has their reaction been to the release of these letterss?

The issue has all been in and out of court. I do not know what reaction has been to these letters - they have not commented.

Who are you actually prosecuting in this case?

The case is involving the priest who abused over 200 children – Reverend Murphy. I do have a case against the Pope in Portland, Oregan and I have attached these documents in that case.

Could Pope Benedict be prosecuted for his alleged role in the Milwaukee Archdiocese?

Our hope is that children are protected and until the archbishops and the cardinal and the pope involved in these abuse cases hear a jail door clang behind them, they will continue to be complicit in these crimes.

Our hope is that they clean up but they are not going to get the message until they hear a jail door clang behind them.

They are as responsible as the offenders themselves. The offenders could not control themselves; their superiors could have controlled them.

Where does the Vatican's own system of justice stand within international law?

They have their own canon law which requires secrecy and requires any scandal to be hidden in secret vaults. They also have laws which say crimes against minors and crimes committed within confessional must be secret.

It is in gross violation of international law in any country because their own laws don't give regard to the harm to children.

All their protocols are designed to protect themselves and their reputations.

BBC's Democracy Live has won a web prize - but did you know it existed?

The new Democracy Live site from the BBC scooped a prestigious prize last night at the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards, but how many actually know it exists and what it is?

The site, which contains recorded videos playable on the website, covers political debates from around the UK and the European Parliament, won in the Use of Web Platforms category after receiving praise for presenting material "consistently and attractively" and for being a "powerful and innovative" tool.


But did you know it existed?

You could be forgiven if you answered ‘no’ because it made its quiet arrival at the beginning of last November and has hardly been publicised around the BBC News homepage. But apparently this was part of the strategy as the BBC announced the news via social media sites such as Twitter because “such is the power of social media that people were quick to find us and start tweeting about the site.”

Anyway, for those who didn’t know about the site previously – it is the work of utter genius and brings together live and on-demand video coverage of proceedings as well as content in the form of biographies and guides to each institution and to who makes the decisions in the UK's systems of government.

But the real magic lies in the site's search function which allows you to search for certain words amongst political speeches!

By its very nature, politics is lengthy. Could you imagine having to watch an entire debate – which can go on for as long as five or six hours – just to find a specific reference to a project or policy? You probably could but you'd need to be a battle-hardened political observer or someone with a very keen interest in the subject to do so...

But the search feature makes it possible to search for a specific word or words spoken in the proceedings and it will produce immediate links to the points in the video in which it/they were spoken. Clever.

What I like even more is the "follow your representative" feature, which allows you (once you have located your local MP or MEP or any other come to that) to “follow” their activity in proceedings via a generated list with again direct links to their involvement in a particular debate.

The sum of these innovations is an excellent tool, and not just for political bloggers such as myself! If you haven’t already locate your local MP and MEP yourself at bbc.co.uk/democracylive.

Democracy Live has made politics truly 'live' and easy to follow – so it should come as no surprise it is already winning awards. (Shame the same cannot be said about the European Parliament’s TV station EuroParl TV…)

After three months the Iraq Inquiry has cost British taxpayers... £2million

How much should a public inquiry into a war that has already cost the British taxpayers millions of pounds?

Now while there is no textbook answer to that question, the figures have been released today of the Iraq Inquiry, which are estimated to cost more than £2 million.

What makes that estimate figure incredible is that it has only been running for three months in which through its public hearings the panel has taken evidence from senior military commanders, top civil servants and Government ministers past and present.

According to the figures published on the Inquiry website, the spending on expenses for staff, the allowances for the panel of experts and the costs of running the hearings in public will total an estimated £2,237,700 at the end of March. This works out at roughly £26,600 per day (including the weekends).

The largest cost was accumulated by paying the inquiry's secretariat (£795,000), followed by the costs of hiring and running the public hearings at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre right on the doorstep of Westminster Abbey in London SW1 (£588,700) and then the wage remuneration for the five-strong inquiry panel and their advisers (£333,400).

A whopping £197,400 was spent on IT and communications, including the inquiry's (pitiful) website – although this cost did include the webstreaming capabilities and the on sight transcription (which believe me is useful when you’re in the room attending the hearing!).

Set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last June, the inquiry is tasked at looking into the eight-year period between the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq until the withdrawal of British combat troops in 2009, and has already heard evidence from Mr Brown himself as well as former PM Tony Blair.

Now while they did not pay for Mr Blair to appear, this does give me the opportunity to show the wonderful cartoon created at the time and published in the Times and allude also to the revelation last week that the Metropolitan Police ran up a bill of £273,000 to provide security for Mr Blair’s appearance on 29 January past.

So again the question arises, how much should this inquiry cost?

Gates Moves On "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

With the assumption that Congress will eventually repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", Defense Secretary Robert Gates will severely restrict or stop investigating case of homosexuals in the military:

the military will no longer investigate the sexual orientation of service members based on anonymous complaints, will restrict testimony from third parties and will require high-ranking officers to review all cases, sources familiar with the changes said.

An interesting move by Secretary Gates, but it is obviously an overt sign of support, regardless of the Congress, for a policy that the President supports.

Vatican at UN: World Economy Needs Reform

Yesterday, the Holy See's representative at the United Nations spoke before the General Assembly on the topic of economic development in impoverished countries. As usual, the Vatican harped on its favorite themes of transnational financial control and global redistribution of wealth.

This, my friends, is the Vatican's agenda at the highest level of world politics: to penalize the wealthy for their industriousness, to destroy national boundaries, and to create a worldwide economic and political authority that will remove the United States from its leadership position once and for all.

The speech comes from the Holy See's UN website.
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Mr. President,

The devastating impact of the recent financial crisis on the world’s most vulnerable populations has been highlighted in almost all the interventions made so far in this General Assembly because it really is a concern shared by governments and citizens all over the world. Indeed, the dark shadow of this crisis is likely to frustrate efforts made so far to help reduce poverty and only add to the skyrocketing numbers living in extreme poverty.

At the same time, the current economic crisis has also given rise to unprecedented international political cooperation, evident in the three successive high-level G-20 meetings in Washington, London, and Pittsburgh during 2009. These meetings were able to reach agreement on emergency measures to reignite the world economy, including fiscal and monetary stimulus packages that have prevented a global catastrophe. Overall, the G-20 deliberations have received the moral support of most UN members, even recognizing the low ratio of member participation in them.

Nevertheless, the stabilization of some economies, or the recovery of others, does not mean that the crisis is over. Moreover, there is a general perception about the lack of sound political and economic foundations needed to ensure longer-term stability and sustainability of the global economy. Indeed, the whole world economy, where countries are highly interdependent, will never be able to function smoothly if the conditions that generated the crisis persist, especially when fundamental inequalities in income and wealth among individuals and between nations continue.

Against this background, my delegation underscores the view that we cannot wait for a definitive and permanent recovery of the global economy to take action. A significant reason is that the re-activation of the economies of the world’s poorest people will surely help guarantee a universal and sustainable recovery. But the most important reason is the moral imperative: not to leave a whole generation, nearly a fifth of the world’s population, in extreme poverty.

There is now an urgent need to reform, strengthen and modernize the whole funding system for developing countries as well as UN programs, including the specialized agencies and regional organizations, making them more efficient, transparent, and well coordinated, both internationally and locally. In the same vein, the crisis has highlighted the urgent need to proceed with the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, whose structures and procedures must reflect the realities of today’s world and no longer those of the post World War II period.

As pointed out in the Doha Declaration, of December 2008, a reformed IMF should be able to accomplish fully its original mandate of stabilizing currency fluctuations and ought to be provided with mechanisms for preventing financial crises. The functions of the Financial Stability Forum (FSF) would acquire greater legitimacy if they were developed in close collaboration with the Fund and other relevant UN bodies, such as UNCTAD. The international community, through its appropriate bodies, such as the IMF, the FSF and others, should be able to make proposals to improve banking regulations. It should be able to identify and define the capital requirements for banks, liquidity requirements, transparency measures, and accountability standards for the issuance and trading of securities. Equally important are the regulatory norms for the para-banking activities and control of rating companies. We would do well not to wait for consensus on all these issues but move ahead in areas where there is already broad consensus, such as uniform international accounting standards.

On the other hand, the international community, through the World Bank and relevant multilateral agencies, should continue to give priority to the fight against poverty, particularly in LDCs. In this context, as part of the emergency measures of developed countries to address the crisis, contributions to the World Bank destined to fight extreme poverty should have highest priority. Although the financial crisis made it necessary to increase aid to middle income countries through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the World Bank must continue to give priority to loans under the International Development Association (IDA), which assists low income countries and provides resources for food security.

To this end, we must continue to review the distribution of voting rights in both these financial institutions so that emerging economies and developing countries, including LDCs, are duly represented. Similarly, it may be desirable to introduce, at least for key decisions, ‘double majority’ approval, so that decisions are made not only according to quotas but also on the basis of a numerical majority of countries.

Mr. President,

At the end of World War II, the international community was able to adopt a comprehensive system that would ensure not only peace but also avoid a repetition of global economic disruption. The institutions that emerged from the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944 had to ensure the launching of a process of equitable economic development for all. The current global crisis offers a similar opportunity requiring a comprehensive approach, based on resources, knowledge transfer and on institutions. To achieve this, all nations, without exception, need to commit themselves to a renewed multilateralism.

At the same time, the effectiveness of measures taken to overcome the current crisis should always be assessed by their ability to solve the primary problem. We should not forget that the same world that could find, within a few weeks, trillions of dollars to rescue banks and financial investment institutions, has not yet managed to find 1% of that amount for the needs of the hungry - starting with the $3 billion needed to provide meals to school children who are hungry or the $5 billion needed to support the emergency food fund of the World Food Program.

Thank you, Mr. President.

US Bishops Revamp Communications Strategy

This article comes from the USCCB's website. I think it is highly significant that this move comes only days after the bishops lost their battle with Obama over health care.

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USCCB Communications Department Undergoing Reorganization

WASHINGTON—The Department of Communications of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will undergo reorganization, effective May 1.

"These changes will allow us to tap the benefits of the rapidly changing media environment around us," said Helen Osman, secretary of the Communications Department.

Under the new design, the department will include two new offices, the Office of Creative Services and Office of Customer and Client Relations, and a unit for Project Management in the Office of the Secretary for Communications.

The Office for Media Relations and Catholic News Service (CNS), the largest English-language religion news-gathering service in the world, will continue as part of the Communications Department.

Under the reorganization, services now within USCCB Publishing and Digital Media will be provided through the three new entities. The business and marketing efforts of Publishing and CNS will be merged into one Customer and Client Relations Office.

In another change, the work of the Office of Film and Broadcasting (OFB) will be assumed into CNS, currently the major distributor of OFB reviews. With the work of the Publishing, Digital Media and OFB absorbed into other structures, Publishing and Digital Media, located in Washington, and OFB, in New York, will no longer exist as stand-alone offices.

Under the reorganization the Office of Media Relation will increase in size and expand its outreach through social media, also known as Web 2.0.

Another significant change in the Communications Department will be the addition of staff to oversee Spanish-language translations.

Helen Osman announced the changes March 16. She noted that the reorganization followed a review of the media landscape of the Catholic Church in the United States, with its growing Hispanic population and exploding use of social media.

“We are in a paradigm shift in how people receive information, as profound as when the printing press was invented,” she said. “It is important that the Church not only provide its wisdom regarding the primary dignity of the human person in this information evolution, but also take advantage of the opportunities this new media ecology provides.”

“The new creative services office,” she said, “will produce material to be available in print and digital forms – video, audio, text, Web, mobile devices and other emerging technology.” Staff of the office will include members of the former Publishing office’s Development staff and USCCB Digital Media staff.

Promoting, marketing, selling and distributing that material will be done by a Customer and Client Relations Office team, that includes staff from the former Publishing’s Marketing and Customer Service team and CNS’s Client Services.

The Project Management team will oversee development of multi-media projects. This builds on a process already successfully used at the USCCB. With continued efforts to implement the activities of the bishops’ priorities and other collaborative projects, members of this team will be able to provide effective and cohesive communication support for all USCCB projects.

The U.S. bishops have set five priority initiatives for the USCCB. They include: promotion of marriage; faith formation with an emphasis on sacramental practice; promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life; life and dignity of the human person; and cultural diversity, with a particular emphasis on Hispanics.

The Buddha on PBS April 7th.

The Public Broadcasting Service here in America was kind enough to send me an advanced copy of the documentary, "The Buddha" by David Grubin, which is set to air on April 7th (check your local listings). It tells the story of the life of Buddha and the teaches he shared that would bloom into one of the largest religions of the world. As I watched it noticed I noticed that it was very similar to Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh's book, "Old Path, White Clouds." It is a book that is very thick and somewhat tedious to read in parts but it is probably the best book I've read on the details of Buddha's life as we know them. If you don't have the time to read such a large book then I highly suggest watching this documentary if you can.

The imagery used in this documentary is as beautiful as it is inspiring. The fields and villages shown look as though they probably did back in Buddha's time, which helps the viewers realize the timelessness to Buddha and his teachings. I found this documentary to be very intimate in that it portrays Buddha in such a humble light. Some documentaries laud him to the point of godhood, which I think the awakened one would caution against. The music blended nicely with the storyline and carried us from scene to scene as if it were Buddha's hand itself guiding us along. In a sense, this documentary not only tells his story but our own as well. After all, the point of his story is to open the door to the path he followed, for ourselves. It is not just a bedtime story but rather a map that explains life itself.

~Peace to all beings~

Lombardi Defends Pope Against NYT Allegations

Pope Benedict has found himself in a terrible mess. Federico Lombardi's weak defense of the pontiff only makes him look more guilty.

This article comes from the Catholic News Agency. The original New York Times article can be found here.

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Fr. Lombardi explains Vatican response to sexual abuse by Wisconsin priest

Vatican City, Mar 25, 2010 / 10:10 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The New York Times printed an article on Wednesday in which they alleged that in the 1990s the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), then Cardinal Ratzinger, did not respond to letters of a Wisconsin bishop on the matter of a sexually abusive priest. In an official response to the Times for the article, Fr. Federico Lombardi addressed the specific case and the CDF response.

According to the Times' article, Fr. Lawrence C. Murphy started working at the St John’s School for the Deaf in 1950. During his time there, civil and Church authorities were allegedly aware that he molested boys in the school.

He was moved from the Diocese of Milwaukee to the northern Wisconsin Diocese of Superior in 1974, where he continued working with children in parishes and even a juvenile detention hall.

After nearly two decades had passed and repeated complaints were received from victims about Fr. Murphy’s actions, Archbishop of Milwaukee Rembert G. Weakland began to investigate the cases in 1993. As part of the investigations, he hired a social worker to interview Fr. Murphy, during which he admitted to molesting around 200 boys.

The Times reported that, in 1996, after information had come to light that the priest had made solicitations in the confessional, thus violating the Sacrament of Penance, the archbishop referred the case to the Vatican.

Archbishop Weakland sent two letters about the violations to Cardinal Ratzinger, who was prefect of the CDF at the time. After eight months, he received orders from Cardinal Ratzinger's second-in-command, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, instructing the U.S. bishops conference to carry out a canonical trial behind closed doors.

The investigations ended abruptly, they report, when Fr. Murphy sent a letter to the Vatican protesting the trial claiming that he had repented, his health was poor and the statute of limitations had passed.

Archbishop Weakland continued to call for the defrocking of the priest until a final meeting in the Vatican in May, 2008.

The New York Times stated that, “even as the pope himself in a recent letter to Irish Catholics has emphasized the need to cooperate with civil justice in abuse cases, the correspondence seems to indicate that the Vatican’s insistence on secrecy has often impeded such cooperation.”

"At the same time," the report continues, "the officials’ reluctance to defrock a sex abuser shows that on a doctrinal level, the Vatican has tended to view the matter in terms of sin and repentance more than crime and punishment.”

Fr. Federico Lombardi released his full response to the New York Times about the “Murphy Case” to members of the press in the Holy See’s Press Office on Thursday. The Vatican spokesman's response was only cited in part in the article from the New York Times.

He underscored that “Father Murphy violated the law and, more importantly, the sacred trust that his victims had placed in him.”

Fr. Lombardi related that victims reported abuses to the civil authorities in the mid-1970’s, but “according to news reports, that investigation was dropped.”

The CDF was made aware of the matter nearly two decades later, he pointed out, adding that the examination of how to address the question canonically was initiated, since the case involved a violation of the Sacrament of Penance.

Fr. Lombardi emphasized in his reply, “It is important to note that the canonical question presented to the Congregation was unrelated to any potential civil or criminal proceedings against Father Murphy.”

“In such cases, the Code of Canon law does not envision automatic penalties, but recommends that a judgment be made, not excluding even the greatest ecclesiastical penalty of dismissal from the clerical state," he explained.

Responding to the question of punishment, Fr. Lombardi referred to the fact that the abusive priest was "elderly and in very poor health, and that he was living in seclusion and no allegations of abuse had been reported in over 20 years." This led to the CDF suggestion to Milwaukee's archbishop of "restricting Father Murphy's public ministry and requiring that Father Murphy accept full responsibility for the gravity of his acts."

Fr. Lombardi notes that the priest died about four months afterward, "without further incident." He was 72 years old.

Concerning the suggestion of a link between the "non-reporting" of child abuse to civil authorities and the application of the Vatican document Crimen sollicitationis, which establishes Church policy against priests who violate the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance by making advances in the confessional, Fr. Lombardi stated that "there is no such relationship."

"Indeed, contrary to some statements that have circulated in the press, neither Crimen nor the Code of Canon Law ever prohibited the reporting of child abuse to law enforcement authorities," he insisted.