News Briefs
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Dolan: Natural law, not religious preference, dictates all life sacred
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Natural law is a concept of objective truth, not religious preference, and reliance on natural law and human rights will move the culture and its laws in the direction of authentic respect for human life, Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York said in an address Jan. 24. Cardinal-designate Dolan, speaking on "Law & the Gospel of Life," gave the inaugural talk in a lecture series sponsored by the Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyers' Work at Jesuit-run Fordham University School of Law. "Our society has caricatured natural law as some medieval tool the church is using to justify its own unique and antiquated system of teaching. Of course, the opposite is true," he said. "Natural law theory is not uniquely Catholic, it's human. Some of the greatest exponents of the natural law, like Aristotle and Cicero, never heard of the Catholic Church. These things we teach are not true because they happen to be taught by the church. We teach them because they happen to be true. Their truth antedates the church." According to Cardinal-designate Dolan, the most effective way to engage in conversations about human life with people who disagree with the Church's position is to "untether" discussions of natural law "from what might be thought of as unique Catholic confessionalism" and reference the writings of non-Catholic authors. "It's not a Catholic thing. It's a natural thing. It's a human thing." Cardinal-designate Dolan said Blessed John Paul II's encyclical "Evangelium Vitae," described the culture of death as one that denies the basic solidarity inherent in the human person, is obsessed with efficiency and convenience, and wages a war of the powerful against the weak.
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New foreign policy on gay rights seen as threat to religious liberty
QUINCY, Mass. (CNS) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement in December that respect for gay rights is now a factor in the Obama administration's foreign policy decisions is on a collision course with religious freedom, said an official with the Becket Fund. "This administration clearly wants to elevate certain rights over others. And unfortunately it seems that religious freedom is never prioritized in their foreign policy as it should be," Tina Ramirez told The Anchor, newspaper of the Fall River Diocese. Ramirez is director of government and international relations for the Becket Fund, which seeks to protect the free expression all faiths. On Dec. 6, Clinton announced to U.N. diplomats in Geneva that U.S. agencies engaged abroad have been instructed to "combat the criminalization" of the "status or conduct" of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. President Barack Obama, in a memo released later the same day, called ending discrimination against this group of people central to the U.S. commitment to promoting human rights. This follows an announcement by the administration last summer that it supports legislation to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. In her speech, Clinton said that all people deserve to be treated with dignity "no matter whom they love" and said that those who defend human rights are "on the right side of history. Gay rights are human rights," she said. She also announced the formation of the $3 million Global Equality Fund that will help groups "record facts so that they can target their advocacy, learn how to use the law as a tool, manage their budgets, train their staffs and forge partnerships with women's organizations and other human rights groups."
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WORLD
Vatican downplays charges of financial 'corruption'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Insisting on the Holy See's continuing commitment to transparency and rectitude in economic affairs, the Vatican's spokesman downplayed references to "corruption" in a letter apparently sent to Pope Benedict XVI by a Vatican official who is now apostolic nuncio to the United States. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, criticized as "partisan," "partial and banal," an Italian television news program, which, on Jan. 25, broadcast portions of letters addressed to Pope Benedict and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State. The letters were apparently signed by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano and written when he was the secretary general of the commission governing Vatican City. One of the letters, dated April 4, 2011, said that when Archbishop Vigano took office almost two years earlier, he discovered a "disastrous situation" of "chaotic management" and overspending on contracts. The letter also complained of a "media campaign" launched by opponents of the archbishop's efforts at reform, and implored the pope not to remove him from his job, "even for promotion to a more important post." The pope named Archbishop Vigano as nuncio to the U.S. in October 2011. The commission manages the 108-acres of Vatican City State, including the Vatican Gardens and Museums.
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Vatican signs treaties against drug trade, organized crime, terrorism
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has signed three international treaties supporting the fight against the illegal drug trade, financing terrorism and organized crime. By signing onto these international legal instruments Jan. 25, the Vatican "confirms its intention as well as its effective and practical commitment to collaborate with the international community in a manner consistent with its nature and mission, with a view to guaranteeing international peace and justice," wrote Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican secretary for relations with states. The Vatican released copies of its declarations supporting the three treaties Jan. 26. The Vatican ratified the U.N. Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances to help "contribute and to give its moral support to the global prevention, repression and prosecution of drug abuse and the related problem of illicit trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances," wrote the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who certified the declarations. The Vatican is adhering to the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, the cardinal wrote, in an effort "to contribute and to give its moral support to the global prevention, repression and prosecution of terrorism and to the protection of victims of such crimes. Instruments of criminal and judicial cooperation constitute effective safeguards in the face of criminal activities that jeopardize human dignity and peace," he wrote. The Vatican is also adhering to the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime as "the Holy See upholds the values of brotherhood, justice and peace between persons and peoples, whose protection and strengthening require the primacy of the rule of law and respect for human rights," wrote Cardinal Bertone.
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Months after independence, South Sudan grapples with contentious issues
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- The church in South Sudan and its partners in the U.S. are frustrated that their efforts to build peace in the infant country are threatened, but they have not given up, Catholic officials said. A serious political deadlock between South Sudan and its northern neighbor, Sudan, over the split of oil revenues "could lead to a declaration of war," said Auxiliary Bishop Santo Loku Pio Doggale of Juba, capital of South Sudan. Bishop Doggale said that he and other church leaders met with South Sudan President Salva Kiir and other senior government officials in Juba after the government announced Jan. 20 that it was shutting down oil production immediately. "We are very concerned that no agreement has been reached with Sudan" on contentious issues, the bishop said in a Jan. 25 telephone interview from Pretoria, where he was meeting with the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference. A year after the referendum in which 99 percent of South Sudanese voted to secede from the North, leaders of the Khartoum government and South Sudan have yet to agree on issues such as the border, citizenship for residents in disputed regions, and the split of revenues from oil reserves, which are largely located in South Sudan. South Sudan, which gained independence last July, produces 350,000 barrels of oil per day, but the only pipeline to market runs through Sudan. Oil revenue accounts for almost all of South Sudan's budget.
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PEOPLE
Catholic school leaders honored in White House ceremony
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of Catholic school leaders, including a student, a few principals, diocesan education officials and other school representatives, were honored Jan. 25 at the White House for their innovation and dedication. The group was recognized as part of the Obama administration's "Champions of Change" program, which highlights different groups each week for contributions they make to their communities. Past recipients have included inventors, artists, volunteers, chefs, farmers and health activists. The attention to Catholic school leaders was timed to coincide with Catholic Schools Week Jan. 29-Feb. 5. At the gathering, Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, praised Catholic schools for not only serving their own students but also local communities. "You step up to the plate for everyone," he said, citing the example of how Catholic schools in New Orleans were the first schools to open after Hurricane Katrina. Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to President Barack Obama for education, thanked the Catholic school leaders for the work they do "day in and day out" with limited resources and budgets. Although a handful of government officials took the microphone to praise the accomplishments of Catholic schools, the hour-and-a-half-long ceremony primarily gave educators the chance to speak about current challenges and successes.
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops