Pope Benedict on Ending Financial Woes....

This was an excellent address given by the Holy Father.

Pope Suggests Education as End to Financial Woes
ZE09011206 - 2009-01-12


Says the Church Is There to Help

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says that confronting the current global crisis requires formation in values, especially among youth.

The Pope said this today during a traditional beginning-of-the-year address to representatives from the Latium Region and the Province and City of Rome.

The Holy Father contended to the political leaders that the current economic crisis is linked to another "structural, cultural [crisis] of values."

This values crisis is particularly notable among youth, he said, in whom "the human and Christian values that give meaning to daily life and that form a vision of life open to hope are weakened."

"Instead, ephemeral desires and fleeting hopes rise up, which in the end cause boredom and failure," the Pontiff stated.

The Bishop of Rome lamented news of violence among youth and deaths caused by accidents, and affirmed again that there is an "educational emergency," which needs to be met, also from within the Church.

Modern nihilism has as a consequence, he said, "making one's own life banal so as to take refuge in transgression, in drugs, in alcohol, which for some becomes the habitual ritual of the weekend."

"Even love," the Pope continued, "tends to be reduced to a simple thing that can be bought and sold, and even man himself becomes merchandise."

Better future

Benedict XVI encouraged the political leaders to "seriously dedicate themselves to youth, not leaving them at the mercy of themselves and exposed to the school of 'evil masters,' but rather to commit them to serious initiatives, which permit them to understand the value of life in a stable family, founded on marriage."

The Pope noted that the Church, "with an intuition that I would like to call prophetic, has concentrated her efforts for some years now on the theme of education."

He went on to say that the Church "is called to make her contribution, stimulating reflection and forming the consciences of the faithful and of all citizens of good will."

The Holy Father affirmed that an "irrevocable priority" is "formation in respect of norms, in the taking on of one's responsibilities, an attitude of life that reduces individualism and the defense of particular interests so as to together tend to the good of everyone, putting particular attention on the expectations of the weakest members of the population, not considering them a burden but a resource to be valued."

"Perhaps now more than ever civil society understand that only with styles of life inspired in sobriety, in solidarity and in responsibility is it possible to construct a more just society and a better future for everyone," the Pontiff suggested.

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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

ACTION ALERT! — Urge Michigan Senate to defeat so-called “hate crime” law

From the American Family Association (emphasis mine in bold)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Thurs., Nov. 13, 2008

CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978

Family values group criticizes Michigan House passage of “hate crime” bill

“Divisive and discriminatory” bill violatesequal justice under law, group says

LANSING, Mich. — A statewide family values group late Thursday criticized the Michigan House of Representatives for approving legislation that would provide more severe prison sentences for crimes against certain individuals based on their membership in special “protected class” categories.

Gary Glenn, Midland, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, labeled the legislation “divisive and discriminatory.”

“All citizens should receive equal protection under the law,” Glenn said, “a principle this legislation clearly violates when it provides that a criminal who attacks a small child or a pregnant mom or a senior citizen should be punished less severely than someone who assaults a grown man, solely because that grown man engages in homosexual activity.”

“Because it segregates victims of crime into specially protected categories based on behavioral characteristics such as homosexual behavior or cross-dressing, then doles out more severe sentences for attacking someone in one of those special categories, it sends the discriminatory message that some individuals are worthy of greater protection by society than others,” Glenn said. “Someone who attacks your 75-year old grandmother might get six months in jail, but under this bill, would get a harsher and longer prison sentence for attacking a 25-year old man just because he engages in homosexual behavior.”

Glenn said his group will urge the state Senate to reject the bill.

“We will ask Michigan families to join us in urging the state Senate to stop this divisive and discriminatory legislation that also threatens religious free speech rights, that has already been used in other states to prosecute citizens merely for publicly expressing their religious conviction that homosexual behavior is wrong,” he said.

Glenn cited the arrest in 2005 of a multi-racial group of Christians — including a 75-year old African-American grandmother — who were arrested in Philadelphia and prosecuted under that state’s “hate crime” law merely for reading Bible verses on a public street during a “gay pride” festival. http://www.stophatecrimesnow.com/

“Consistent with their attempts to silence critics of the homosexual agenda through fear and intimidation tactics such as disrupting church services in Lansing,” he said, “homosexual activists would similarly use this new law if enacted to try to suppress the religious free speech rights of their critics here in Michigan.”

Glenn pointed to a news release earlier this year in which the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force suggested that he and Cardinal Adam Maida — because they publicly supported a Marriage Protection Amendment to the state constitution — should be held responsible as accessories to the falsely alleged beating death of a homosexual man in Detroit. “It is appalling hypocrisy for these forces to pretend that their venomous words and organizing have no connection to the plague of hate violence against gay people, including the murder of Mr. Anthos,” NGLTF said.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,65356.shtml

Detroit police and the Wayne County Coroner’s office later announced there was no evidence of any assault and that the man died of a head injury resulting from a fall caused by arthritic paralysis of his neck.

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Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!