Statement by H.E. Archbishop Celestino Migliore
Apostolic Nuncio
Permanent Observer of the Holy See
Economic and Social Council
On Item 3 (a) (i):
Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women
and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled
“Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”: Implementation of strategic objectives in
critical areas of concern and further actions and initiatives:
the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men,
including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS
New York, 9 March 2009
Mr. Chairman,
My delegation applauds the choice of such an important and timely topic for this discussion: the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS.
To consider care as a fundamental aspect of human life has profound implications.
Caregiving involves programs, policies and budgetary decisions, as well as personal attitude and commitment for the wellbeing of others. The interrelatedness between activity and personal attitude is self-evident but not always to be presupposed.
Human beings are not only autonomous and equal but also interdependent creatures, who regardless of their social status and stage of life may need care.
Focusing on care and sharing responsibility between women and men in coping with pressing issues such as prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, child-rearing, housework and support for older family members, leads us to think of the relationship between man and woman in society as interdependent.
The overcoming of the dilemma between autonomy and dependence also favors a new vision of the work of care that can no longer be attributed only to certain groups, such as women and immigrants, but must also be shared between all women and men, in households as well as in the public sector.
In particular, it is more and more untenable that there continue to be attitudes and places - even in health care - where women are discriminated against and their contribution to society is undervalued simply because they are women. Recourse to social and cultural pressure in order to maintain the inequality of the sexes is unacceptable.
Mr. Chairman, since our debate mainly focuses on sharing responsibilities and caregiving between women and men in the context of HIV/AIDS, the very first thought goes to the primary and best meaning of care, namely taking care, protecting and promoting the wellbeing of others. In this context, HIV/AIDS calls into question the values by which we live our lives and how we treat, or fail to treat, one another.
Community-based care and worldwide support for those suffering from this disease remain essential. Home-based care is the preferred means of care in many social and cultural settings, and is often more sustainable and successful over the long term when based within communities. In fact, when many members of a community are involved in care and support, there is less likely to be stigma associated with the disease.
Unfortunately, community- and home-based care is largely unrecognized, and many caregivers face precarious financial situations. Very little of the funds spent every year on providing assistance to those who are suffering as well as on much needed research to combat the disease go to supporting them. Studies have shown that community and home-based caregivers actually experience more stress than medical personnel; so better support must be provided for these persons, particularly women and older persons who are caregivers.
My delegation would also like to focus on some aspects of the globalization of caregiving which are affecting in particular poor and immigrant women. In societies characterized by important demographic transformations, familial and occupational and inadequate welfare systems, immigrant women respond to the demand to care for children, the sick, severely disabled people and the elderly. In many parts of the world, a true market has emerged in the area of home-based caregiving, in which women above all are found in situations of vulnerability due to non-regularization, social isolation, difficult working conditions and at times exploitation of every kind.
Governments should properly recognize that the budget and organization of public institutions are somewhat relieved by family-based caregiving and should thus adopt migration laws aimed at creating social integration and full protection of immigrant caregivers and fostering social integration. Likewise, supporting an appropriate professional formation that offers to home-based caregivers basic knowledge of health and psychology would upgrade their invaluable activity and eventually shield them from easy and reprehensible types of exploitation.
Developing countries are suffering from brain drain, as many of their educated, talented and skilled human capital – especially in the health sector – leave their places for better economic opportunities in rich countries. Market-forces get the blame for this, but this is an area where countries of origin, transit and destination need to work together to help developing countries retain, or at least readmit, these skilled members of their workforce, providing suitable incentives to recognize and better remunerate them so that caregivers may more easily be able to stay at home.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, too many cultures hold that care is to be restricted to the private sphere and presupposes that it is provided in the domestic realm.
Care in itself must become a topic of public debate and take on an importance capable of shaping political life and giving men and women the ability to be more concerned for the needs of others, more empathetic and able to focus on others.
Care, in this sense, has the capacity to create a process of democratization of society and to foster a public awareness aimed at social and effective justice and solidarity for all women and men.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Cover the Uninsured Week...March 22-28, 2009
Catholic Social Teaching and Health Care
In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access to health care should not depend on where a person works, how much a family earns, or where a person lives. Instead, every person, created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality health care. This teaching is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick and to serve "the least of these," our concern for human life and dignity, and the principle of the common good. Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans do not have health insurance. According to the Catholic bishops of the United States, the current health care system is in need of fundamental reform.
To learn about Catholic teaching on health care in more detail, read the full statement by the United States Catholic Bishops, A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform.
Facts about the Uninsured
• In 2007, forty-six million Americans were living without health care coverage.1
• Since the Census Bureau collected 2007 data, the unemployment rate has grown from 4.4 percent to 7.6 percent, resulting in 3.5 million new people who are now uninsured. An estimated 14,000 persons a day are now losing coverage as a result of the recession.2
• Sixty-four percent of the uninsured are employed full-time, yearround.3
• Nearly 20 percent of uninsured Americans, or 8.7 million persons, are children.4
• Ethnic minorities make up a disproportionate percentage of the uninsured population.5
• The poor are more likely to be uninsured. Thirty-four percent of non-elderly persons below the poverty line are uninsured, compared to 21 percent of non-elderly persons earning two to three times the poverty line.6
(Sources: 1, 3, 4, 5 U.S. Census Bureau, 2008; 2 Center for American Progress, 2009; 6 Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2007 Supplement.)
How One Community Responded
In Polk County, FL, 120,000 people or 25 percent of the population are uninsured or underinsured. Recognizing that access to health care was a major issue in their community, congregations involved in Polk Ecumenical Action Council for Empowerment, or PEACE, an organization that receives funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), decided to take action. When it was announced that the already dwindling funds for healthcare for poor persons were slated to be cut entirely, PEACE joined with others to advocate for a referendum to institute a half cent sales tax which would be irected toward healthcare for poor persons. Although it was predicted to have little chance of passing, PEACE’s work led to support by 62 percent of voters, directing $26 million a year toward indigent healthcare.
But PEACE’s work was not finished. After monitoring the spending, PEACE realized that the money was reaching few people because it was being spent on high-cost specialty care instead of primary care. PEACE engaged in another advocacy campaign and won commitments from the county to open five new primary health clinics in areas of high need. Each clinic will serve up to 40,000 patients a year and will set fees on a sliding scale based on income. The first of the clinics opened in November 2007 and the second is scheduled to open in 2009.
How You Can Respond
• Make a commitment to learn more.
◊ Learn about the Church’s teachings by reading the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform.
◊ Read the recent backgrounder on health care from the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.
◊ Read Catholic Charities USA’s materials on health care and the role health care reform plays in CCUSA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America.
◊ Read Catholic Health Association’s Vision for U.S. Health Care and access information on hosting community meetings and reaching out to local media.
◊ Visit the Cover the Uninsured Week website for educational resources, local events, and ideas for action as an individual, parish, or community.
• Use the Prayer and Liturgy resources to engage your parish or community in this issue.
In our Catholic tradition, health care is a basic human right. Access to health care should not depend on where a person works, how much a family earns, or where a person lives. Instead, every person, created in the image and likeness of God, has a right to life and to those things necessary to sustain life, including affordable, quality health care. This teaching is rooted in the biblical call to heal the sick and to serve "the least of these," our concern for human life and dignity, and the principle of the common good. Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans do not have health insurance. According to the Catholic bishops of the United States, the current health care system is in need of fundamental reform.
To learn about Catholic teaching on health care in more detail, read the full statement by the United States Catholic Bishops, A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform.
Facts about the Uninsured
• In 2007, forty-six million Americans were living without health care coverage.1
• Since the Census Bureau collected 2007 data, the unemployment rate has grown from 4.4 percent to 7.6 percent, resulting in 3.5 million new people who are now uninsured. An estimated 14,000 persons a day are now losing coverage as a result of the recession.2
• Sixty-four percent of the uninsured are employed full-time, yearround.3
• Nearly 20 percent of uninsured Americans, or 8.7 million persons, are children.4
• Ethnic minorities make up a disproportionate percentage of the uninsured population.5
• The poor are more likely to be uninsured. Thirty-four percent of non-elderly persons below the poverty line are uninsured, compared to 21 percent of non-elderly persons earning two to three times the poverty line.6
(Sources: 1, 3, 4, 5 U.S. Census Bureau, 2008; 2 Center for American Progress, 2009; 6 Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2007 Supplement.)
How One Community Responded
In Polk County, FL, 120,000 people or 25 percent of the population are uninsured or underinsured. Recognizing that access to health care was a major issue in their community, congregations involved in Polk Ecumenical Action Council for Empowerment, or PEACE, an organization that receives funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), decided to take action. When it was announced that the already dwindling funds for healthcare for poor persons were slated to be cut entirely, PEACE joined with others to advocate for a referendum to institute a half cent sales tax which would be irected toward healthcare for poor persons. Although it was predicted to have little chance of passing, PEACE’s work led to support by 62 percent of voters, directing $26 million a year toward indigent healthcare.
But PEACE’s work was not finished. After monitoring the spending, PEACE realized that the money was reaching few people because it was being spent on high-cost specialty care instead of primary care. PEACE engaged in another advocacy campaign and won commitments from the county to open five new primary health clinics in areas of high need. Each clinic will serve up to 40,000 patients a year and will set fees on a sliding scale based on income. The first of the clinics opened in November 2007 and the second is scheduled to open in 2009.
How You Can Respond
• Make a commitment to learn more.
◊ Learn about the Church’s teachings by reading the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ A Framework for Comprehensive Health Care Reform.
◊ Read the recent backgrounder on health care from the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.
◊ Read Catholic Charities USA’s materials on health care and the role health care reform plays in CCUSA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America.
◊ Read Catholic Health Association’s Vision for U.S. Health Care and access information on hosting community meetings and reaching out to local media.
◊ Visit the Cover the Uninsured Week website for educational resources, local events, and ideas for action as an individual, parish, or community.
• Use the Prayer and Liturgy resources to engage your parish or community in this issue.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
MONDAY MORNING MISSION MEDITATION for week of March 8, 2009
Providing Help. Creating Hope.
VISION: Believing in the presence of God in our midst, we proclaim the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person by sharing in the mission of Jesus given to the Church. To this end, Catholic Charities works with individuals, families, and communities to help them meet their needs, address their issues, eliminate oppression, and build a just and compassionate society.
MISSION: To provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire Church and other people of good will to do the same.
GOALS: Catholic Charities is devoted to helping meet basic human needs, strengthening families, building communities and empowering low-income people. Committed to work to reduce poverty in half by 2020.
KEY VALUE: Hospitality
WHAT WE DO: Organizing Love. "As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Deus Caritas Est, par. 20)
On Sunday (2nd Sunday of Lent Cycle B ) we read in Mark's Gospel about Jesus' transfiguration. Some disciples are invited to witness this moment of glory and transformation, but they are warned by Jesus not to tell anyone until he had been raised from the dead. These disciples wonder how can such a moment of glory be connected to death, and his rising. We get an insight from the first reading: the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. The transfiguration of Jesus reminds us that his glory is connected to Jesus' willingness to offer himself for others, even to the point of death. The hope is of new life through resurrection: transformation; transfiguration.
In Catholic Charities we are called to be agents of change and transformation in our work. We offer to help persons and families with immediate material assistance, but we also are committed to taking their stories of struggle to help change social policies and unjust structures. Not everyone agrees with our policy positions or our efforts at advocacy. But as Catholic Charities we must remain committed to our mission to serve, to advocate and to convene. The Office of Social Action of Catholic Charities provides the leadership for our agencies and clients to remind legislators to pass just social policy that respect the dignity of each person, from conception to natural death. Our commitment to human dignity is our means of working to transform the world into a place of justice and peace.
Some important date(s) this week:
Daily Lenten Resources can be found at:
US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Catholic Relief Services
Catholic Charities USA
SUNDAY, MARCH 8. St. John of God. 1495-1550. Having given up active Christian belief while a soldier, John was 40 before the depth of his sinfulness began to dawn on him. He decided to give the rest of his life to God’s service, and headed at once for Africa, where he hoped to free captive Christians and, possibly, be martyred.He was soon advised that his desire for martyrdom was not spiritually well based, and returned to Spain and the relatively prosaic activity of a religious goods store. Yet he was still not settled. Moved initially by a sermon of Blessed John of Avila, he one day engaged in a public beating of himself, begging mercy and wildly repenting for his past life.
Committed to a mental hospital for these actions, John was visited by Blessed John, who advised him to be more actively involved in tending to the needs of others rather than in enduring personal hardships. John gained peace of heart, and shortly after left the hospital to begin work among the poor.
He established a house where he wisely tended to the needs of the sick poor, at first doing his own begging. But excited by the saint’s great work and inspired by his devotion, many people began to back him up with money and provisions. Among them were the archbishop and marquis of Tarifa.
Behind John’s outward acts of total concern and love for Christ’s sick poor was a deep interior prayer life which was reflected in his spirit of humility. These qualities attracted helpers who, 20 years after John’s death, formed the Brothers Hospitallers, now a worldwide religious order.
John became ill after 10 years of service but tried to disguise his ill health. He began to put the hospital’s administrative work into order and appointed a leader for his helpers.
MONDAY, March 9. St. Frances of Rome (1384-1440) Frances’s life combines aspects of secular and religious life. A devoted and loving wife, she longed for a lifestyle of prayer and service, so she organized a group of women to minister to the needs of Rome’s poor. Born of wealthy parents, Frances found herself attracted to the religious life during her youth. But her parents objected and a young nobleman was selected to be her husband.
As she became acquainted with her new relatives, Frances soon discovered that the wife of her husband’s brother also wished to live a life of service and prayer. So the two, Frances and Vannozza, set out together—with their husbands’ blessings—to help the poor.
Frances fell ill for a time, but this apparently only deepened her commitment to the suffering people she met. The years passed, and Frances gave birth to two sons and a daughter. With the new responsibilities of family life, the young mother turned her attention more to the needs of her own household. The family flourished under Frances’s care, but within a few years a great plague began to sweep across Italy. It struck Rome with devastating cruelty and left Frances’s second son dead. In an effort to help alleviate some of the suffering, Frances used all her money and sold her possessions to buy whatever the sick might possibly need. When all the resources had been exhausted, Frances and Vannozza went door to door begging. Later, Frances’s daughter died, and the saint opened a section of her house as a hospital.
Frances became more and more convinced that this way of life was so necessary for the world, and it was not long before she requested and was given permission to found a society of women bound by no vows. They simply offered themselves to God and to the service of the poor. Once the society was established, Frances chose not to live at the community residence, but rather at home with her husband. She did this for seven years, until her husband passed away, and then came to live the remainder of her life with the society—serving the poorest of the poor.
PAPAL INTENTIONS:
March 2009
General: That the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world.
Mission: That in the light of the letter addressed to them by Pope Benedict XVI, the Bishops, priests, consecrated persons, and lay faithful of the Catholic Church in the Popular Republic of China may commit themselves to being the sign and instrument of unity, communion and peace.
Corporal Works of Mercy: The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor
1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the homeless
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit those in prison
7. Bury the dead
See our website at www.catholiccharitiesyoungstown.org for links to the our ministries and services.
For more information on Catholic Social Doctrine and its connection to our ministries, visit my blog at: http://corbinchurchthinking.blogspot.com/
VISION: Believing in the presence of God in our midst, we proclaim the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person by sharing in the mission of Jesus given to the Church. To this end, Catholic Charities works with individuals, families, and communities to help them meet their needs, address their issues, eliminate oppression, and build a just and compassionate society.
MISSION: To provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire Church and other people of good will to do the same.
GOALS: Catholic Charities is devoted to helping meet basic human needs, strengthening families, building communities and empowering low-income people. Committed to work to reduce poverty in half by 2020.
KEY VALUE: Hospitality
WHAT WE DO: Organizing Love. "As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Deus Caritas Est, par. 20)
On Sunday (2nd Sunday of Lent Cycle B ) we read in Mark's Gospel about Jesus' transfiguration. Some disciples are invited to witness this moment of glory and transformation, but they are warned by Jesus not to tell anyone until he had been raised from the dead. These disciples wonder how can such a moment of glory be connected to death, and his rising. We get an insight from the first reading: the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. The transfiguration of Jesus reminds us that his glory is connected to Jesus' willingness to offer himself for others, even to the point of death. The hope is of new life through resurrection: transformation; transfiguration.
In Catholic Charities we are called to be agents of change and transformation in our work. We offer to help persons and families with immediate material assistance, but we also are committed to taking their stories of struggle to help change social policies and unjust structures. Not everyone agrees with our policy positions or our efforts at advocacy. But as Catholic Charities we must remain committed to our mission to serve, to advocate and to convene. The Office of Social Action of Catholic Charities provides the leadership for our agencies and clients to remind legislators to pass just social policy that respect the dignity of each person, from conception to natural death. Our commitment to human dignity is our means of working to transform the world into a place of justice and peace.
Some important date(s) this week:
Daily Lenten Resources can be found at:
US Conference of Catholic Bishops
Catholic Relief Services
Catholic Charities USA
SUNDAY, MARCH 8. St. John of God. 1495-1550. Having given up active Christian belief while a soldier, John was 40 before the depth of his sinfulness began to dawn on him. He decided to give the rest of his life to God’s service, and headed at once for Africa, where he hoped to free captive Christians and, possibly, be martyred.He was soon advised that his desire for martyrdom was not spiritually well based, and returned to Spain and the relatively prosaic activity of a religious goods store. Yet he was still not settled. Moved initially by a sermon of Blessed John of Avila, he one day engaged in a public beating of himself, begging mercy and wildly repenting for his past life.
Committed to a mental hospital for these actions, John was visited by Blessed John, who advised him to be more actively involved in tending to the needs of others rather than in enduring personal hardships. John gained peace of heart, and shortly after left the hospital to begin work among the poor.
He established a house where he wisely tended to the needs of the sick poor, at first doing his own begging. But excited by the saint’s great work and inspired by his devotion, many people began to back him up with money and provisions. Among them were the archbishop and marquis of Tarifa.
Behind John’s outward acts of total concern and love for Christ’s sick poor was a deep interior prayer life which was reflected in his spirit of humility. These qualities attracted helpers who, 20 years after John’s death, formed the Brothers Hospitallers, now a worldwide religious order.
John became ill after 10 years of service but tried to disguise his ill health. He began to put the hospital’s administrative work into order and appointed a leader for his helpers.
MONDAY, March 9. St. Frances of Rome (1384-1440) Frances’s life combines aspects of secular and religious life. A devoted and loving wife, she longed for a lifestyle of prayer and service, so she organized a group of women to minister to the needs of Rome’s poor. Born of wealthy parents, Frances found herself attracted to the religious life during her youth. But her parents objected and a young nobleman was selected to be her husband.
As she became acquainted with her new relatives, Frances soon discovered that the wife of her husband’s brother also wished to live a life of service and prayer. So the two, Frances and Vannozza, set out together—with their husbands’ blessings—to help the poor.
Frances fell ill for a time, but this apparently only deepened her commitment to the suffering people she met. The years passed, and Frances gave birth to two sons and a daughter. With the new responsibilities of family life, the young mother turned her attention more to the needs of her own household. The family flourished under Frances’s care, but within a few years a great plague began to sweep across Italy. It struck Rome with devastating cruelty and left Frances’s second son dead. In an effort to help alleviate some of the suffering, Frances used all her money and sold her possessions to buy whatever the sick might possibly need. When all the resources had been exhausted, Frances and Vannozza went door to door begging. Later, Frances’s daughter died, and the saint opened a section of her house as a hospital.
Frances became more and more convinced that this way of life was so necessary for the world, and it was not long before she requested and was given permission to found a society of women bound by no vows. They simply offered themselves to God and to the service of the poor. Once the society was established, Frances chose not to live at the community residence, but rather at home with her husband. She did this for seven years, until her husband passed away, and then came to live the remainder of her life with the society—serving the poorest of the poor.
PAPAL INTENTIONS:
March 2009
General: That the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world.
Mission: That in the light of the letter addressed to them by Pope Benedict XVI, the Bishops, priests, consecrated persons, and lay faithful of the Catholic Church in the Popular Republic of China may commit themselves to being the sign and instrument of unity, communion and peace.
Corporal Works of Mercy: The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor
1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the homeless
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit those in prison
7. Bury the dead
See our website at www.catholiccharitiesyoungstown.org for links to the our ministries and services.
For more information on Catholic Social Doctrine and its connection to our ministries, visit my blog at: http://corbinchurchthinking.blogspot.com/
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Holy See Calls for Refugee-Friendly Policies
Says Humanitarian Aid Isn't Enough
GENEVA, Switzerland, MARCH 5, 2009 ( Zenit.org ).- The Holy See is urging greater international solidarity faced to the dramatic situation endured by so many refugees.
This appeal was presented by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's permanent observer at the U.N. offices in Geneva, according to a report today from Vatican Radio. The archbishop was addressing the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
The Holy See representative denounced the death of 1,500 people last year as they attempted to enter Europe.
"In this context, the prelate insisted on the necessity for national and international policies, as well as legal ordinances, to have a solid base in human rights, where the right to life has first place," the Vatican Radio report informed.
Acknowledging that every nation has the right to define its own immigration policy, Archbishop Tomasi affirmed that "the norms of international protection for refugees must be respected."
The archbishop added that the worrying situation is not exclusive to Europe, pointing to "similar tendencies in various developed countries, or countries in development, around the world."
"The international community should not abandon its commitment to receive and protect persecuted people who flee because they have founded fears and their lives are threatened," he declared.
Archbishop Tomasi also mentioned the growing number of unaccompanied minors who seek asylum, saying this indicates the "desperate situation" of families.
Thus, the Holy See representative said that "it corresponds to everyone to tackle the deep causes of forced displacement," because "a generous humanitarian response has to be accompanied by equally committed politics."
GENEVA, Switzerland, MARCH 5, 2009 ( Zenit.org ).- The Holy See is urging greater international solidarity faced to the dramatic situation endured by so many refugees.
This appeal was presented by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's permanent observer at the U.N. offices in Geneva, according to a report today from Vatican Radio. The archbishop was addressing the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
The Holy See representative denounced the death of 1,500 people last year as they attempted to enter Europe.
"In this context, the prelate insisted on the necessity for national and international policies, as well as legal ordinances, to have a solid base in human rights, where the right to life has first place," the Vatican Radio report informed.
Acknowledging that every nation has the right to define its own immigration policy, Archbishop Tomasi affirmed that "the norms of international protection for refugees must be respected."
The archbishop added that the worrying situation is not exclusive to Europe, pointing to "similar tendencies in various developed countries, or countries in development, around the world."
"The international community should not abandon its commitment to receive and protect persecuted people who flee because they have founded fears and their lives are threatened," he declared.
Archbishop Tomasi also mentioned the growing number of unaccompanied minors who seek asylum, saying this indicates the "desperate situation" of families.
Thus, the Holy See representative said that "it corresponds to everyone to tackle the deep causes of forced displacement," because "a generous humanitarian response has to be accompanied by equally committed politics."
"Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories" Conference in Rome Starts
Faith/Evolution Conference in Rome is off to a roaring start.....
A century and a half since Charles Darwin's “The origin of species”, cornerstone of evolutionary biology, and after very important recent scientific developments, this issue of biological evolution deserves a careful and serious reconsideration from a scientific point of view as well as in a philosophical and theological perspective, avoiding the ideological positions that have often dominated the debate.
With this conviction and with the more general purpose of promoting a fair and fruitful dialectical relationship between Science, Philosophy and Theology, the Pontifical Gregorian University, in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), under the high patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture and in the framework of the STOQ Project (Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest), is organizing a series of workshops and an International Conference.
The whole initiative aims at giving its contribution to the idea that Science, on the one hand, and Theology, on the other, represent different fields of analysis and interpretation, though often they are incorrectly overlapped, causing confusion and ideological controversies.
A serious philosophical reflection can be a benefit for both Science and Theology, showing where points of convergence can be found and how these fields could be integrated.
In particular, within the complex and multifaceted issue of the Science-Faith relationship, this event focuses on the possibility to reconcile in the same philosophical position the “Creation” thinking and the “Evolution” thinking, without the first pretending to be a scientific theory nor the second being reduced to a dogma.
A century and a half since Charles Darwin's “The origin of species”, cornerstone of evolutionary biology, and after very important recent scientific developments, this issue of biological evolution deserves a careful and serious reconsideration from a scientific point of view as well as in a philosophical and theological perspective, avoiding the ideological positions that have often dominated the debate.
With this conviction and with the more general purpose of promoting a fair and fruitful dialectical relationship between Science, Philosophy and Theology, the Pontifical Gregorian University, in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), under the high patronage of the Pontifical Council for Culture and in the framework of the STOQ Project (Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest), is organizing a series of workshops and an International Conference.
The whole initiative aims at giving its contribution to the idea that Science, on the one hand, and Theology, on the other, represent different fields of analysis and interpretation, though often they are incorrectly overlapped, causing confusion and ideological controversies.
A serious philosophical reflection can be a benefit for both Science and Theology, showing where points of convergence can be found and how these fields could be integrated.
In particular, within the complex and multifaceted issue of the Science-Faith relationship, this event focuses on the possibility to reconcile in the same philosophical position the “Creation” thinking and the “Evolution” thinking, without the first pretending to be a scientific theory nor the second being reduced to a dogma.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Catholic-Jewish relations: Resilient in face of Williamson episode
By Cardinal Roger Mahony, Rabbi Gary Greenebaum and Seth Brysk
In January, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four bishops of a small ultra-traditionalist group that broke from the Catholic Church over the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The pope's action might have passed largely unnoticed had not one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, questioned the historicity of the Holocaust in a previously-taped television interview that was broadcast the very day his excommunication was lifted.
Williamson's outrageous comments set off alarm bells among Jews and Catholics alike. Jews wondered whether the lifting of Williamson's excommunication suggested that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial would be seen as acceptable positions for those within the Catholic Church. Both Jews and Catholics questioned why the Vatican apparently had not thoroughly investigated Williamson, an unrepentant Holocaust denier and open anti-Semite, prior to the lifting of his excommunication.
Subsequent statements by the Vatican and the pope reiterated the Catholic Church's deep respect and esteem for the Jewish people, while sharply rebuking Williamson and other Holocaust deniers. In a mid-February meeting with American Jewish leaders at the Vatican, Pope Benedict said that denying or minimizing the Holocaust "is intolerable and altogether unacceptable." He added, "This terrible chapter in our history must never be forgotten."
Also reassuring to Catholics and Jews was the Vatican's declaration that the Society of St. Pius X, the group to which Williamson belongs, must fully recognize the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of all the popes from Pope John XXIII to Benedict XVI before it can rejoin the Catholic Church. The Vatican also singled out Williamson, saying that before he can be reconciled with the Catholic Church he must distance himself in an "absolutely unequivocal and public way" from his positions regarding the Holocaust.
Williamson's recent "apologies" fall far short of satisfying the letter or the spirit of the Vatican's directives. Yet while Williamson seems unwilling or unable to reject his odious positions, many religious and civic leaders have used his situation to acknowledge the Holocaust and to affirm its unique and terrible place in history.
We are heartened by the many leaders around the world who have rejected Williamson's views. In particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Argentine Minister of the Interior Florencio Randazzo, whose country recently expelled Williamson, not to mention nearly 50 Catholic members of the U.S. Congress who wrote to the Vatican to express their concerns.
In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican's directives regarding the Holocaust. Later this year, I, Cardinal Mahony, will visit Israel and pay my respects to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem.
Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not --- and may never become --- a member. In rejecting the Second Vatican Council, the Society of St. Pius X and Williamson also reject Nostra Aetate ("In Our Time"), one of the most remarkable documents to come out of the Second Vatican Council. Published in 1965, the document changed forever the Catholic Church's fundamental understanding of other religions, including Jews and Judaism.
In Nostra Aetate, the Church explicitly rejects the charge of deicide against the Jews, and affirms the kinship between the Catholic and Jewish faiths. "The Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."
Let us remember that the American Jewish Committee worked closely with the Vatican at the time of the Council toward the creation of Nostra Aetate. The horror of the Holocaust, which took place a mere 20 years before, certainly was fresh in the minds of Catholic leaders as they composed the document.
Admittedly, the past two months have been difficult for Jews and Catholics. However, we can take heart that Catholic-Jewish relations in Southern California remain strong. Our commitment to this relationship is exemplified in the many initiatives that bring us together, like the annual InterSem Retreat for seminarians from various denominations; Model Seders that teach Catholic school students about this important Jewish ritual; and, the Catholic-Jewish Educational Enrichment Program, which educates our children and future leaders in each other's traditions.
For our part, as Catholic and Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, we recognize that only by working together with renewed vigilance will we be able to keep anti-Semitism at bay and prevent its reassertion as a legitimate expression.
Cardinal Roger Mahony is Archbishop of Los Angeles; Gary Greenebaum is U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee; and Seth Brysk is Los Angeles Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee.
In January, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four bishops of a small ultra-traditionalist group that broke from the Catholic Church over the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The pope's action might have passed largely unnoticed had not one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, questioned the historicity of the Holocaust in a previously-taped television interview that was broadcast the very day his excommunication was lifted.
Williamson's outrageous comments set off alarm bells among Jews and Catholics alike. Jews wondered whether the lifting of Williamson's excommunication suggested that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial would be seen as acceptable positions for those within the Catholic Church. Both Jews and Catholics questioned why the Vatican apparently had not thoroughly investigated Williamson, an unrepentant Holocaust denier and open anti-Semite, prior to the lifting of his excommunication.
Subsequent statements by the Vatican and the pope reiterated the Catholic Church's deep respect and esteem for the Jewish people, while sharply rebuking Williamson and other Holocaust deniers. In a mid-February meeting with American Jewish leaders at the Vatican, Pope Benedict said that denying or minimizing the Holocaust "is intolerable and altogether unacceptable." He added, "This terrible chapter in our history must never be forgotten."
Also reassuring to Catholics and Jews was the Vatican's declaration that the Society of St. Pius X, the group to which Williamson belongs, must fully recognize the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of all the popes from Pope John XXIII to Benedict XVI before it can rejoin the Catholic Church. The Vatican also singled out Williamson, saying that before he can be reconciled with the Catholic Church he must distance himself in an "absolutely unequivocal and public way" from his positions regarding the Holocaust.
Williamson's recent "apologies" fall far short of satisfying the letter or the spirit of the Vatican's directives. Yet while Williamson seems unwilling or unable to reject his odious positions, many religious and civic leaders have used his situation to acknowledge the Holocaust and to affirm its unique and terrible place in history.
We are heartened by the many leaders around the world who have rejected Williamson's views. In particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Argentine Minister of the Interior Florencio Randazzo, whose country recently expelled Williamson, not to mention nearly 50 Catholic members of the U.S. Congress who wrote to the Vatican to express their concerns.
In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican's directives regarding the Holocaust. Later this year, I, Cardinal Mahony, will visit Israel and pay my respects to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem.
Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not --- and may never become --- a member. In rejecting the Second Vatican Council, the Society of St. Pius X and Williamson also reject Nostra Aetate ("In Our Time"), one of the most remarkable documents to come out of the Second Vatican Council. Published in 1965, the document changed forever the Catholic Church's fundamental understanding of other religions, including Jews and Judaism.
In Nostra Aetate, the Church explicitly rejects the charge of deicide against the Jews, and affirms the kinship between the Catholic and Jewish faiths. "The Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone."
Let us remember that the American Jewish Committee worked closely with the Vatican at the time of the Council toward the creation of Nostra Aetate. The horror of the Holocaust, which took place a mere 20 years before, certainly was fresh in the minds of Catholic leaders as they composed the document.
Admittedly, the past two months have been difficult for Jews and Catholics. However, we can take heart that Catholic-Jewish relations in Southern California remain strong. Our commitment to this relationship is exemplified in the many initiatives that bring us together, like the annual InterSem Retreat for seminarians from various denominations; Model Seders that teach Catholic school students about this important Jewish ritual; and, the Catholic-Jewish Educational Enrichment Program, which educates our children and future leaders in each other's traditions.
For our part, as Catholic and Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, we recognize that only by working together with renewed vigilance will we be able to keep anti-Semitism at bay and prevent its reassertion as a legitimate expression.
Cardinal Roger Mahony is Archbishop of Los Angeles; Gary Greenebaum is U.S. Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee; and Seth Brysk is Los Angeles Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee.
Monday, March 2, 2009
VATICAN: PROMOTING A CULTURE OF PEACE
PROMOTING A CULTURE OF PEACE
VATICAN CITY, 27 FEB 2009 (VIS) - Made public yesterday afternoon was the final declaration of the annual meeting of the Joint Committee for Dialogue of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue (Vatican) and the Permanent Committee of al-Azhar for Dialogue among the Monotheistic Religions (Cairo, Egypt). The meeting was held in Rome on 24 and 25 February.
The English-language declaration explains that the annual meeting of the Joint Committee for Dialogue - an institution established in 1998 - was jointly presided by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and by Sheikh Ali Abd al-Baqi Shahata, secretary general of the Academy for Islamic Research of al-Azhar.
The theme of the meeting - "The Promotion of a Pedagogy and Culture of Peace with Particular Reference to the Role of Religions" - was presented from the Catholic point of view by Bernard Sabella, associate professor emeritus of sociology at Bethlehem University, and from the Islamic standpoint by Sheikh Ali Shahata.
A the end of the meeting the participants agreed on the following:
"1. Peace and security are much needed in our present world marked by many conflicts and a feeling of insecurity.
"2. ... No true and lasting peace can be achieved without justice and equality among persons and communities.
"3. Religious leaders, especially Muslims and Christians, have the duty to promote a culture of peace, each within his respective community, especially through teaching and preaching.
"4. A culture of peace should permeate all aspects of life: religious formation, education, interpersonal relations and the arts in their diverse forms. To this end, scholastic books should be revised in order not to contain material which may offend the religious sentiments of other believers, at times through the erroneous presentation of dogmas, morals or history of other religions.
"5. The media have a major role and responsibility in the promotion of positive and respectful relations among the faithful of various religions.
"6. Recognising the strong link between peace and human rights, special attention was given to the defence of the dignity of the human person and his or her rights, especially regarding freedom of conscience and of religion.
"7. Youth, the future of all religions and of humanity itself, need special care in order to be protected from fanaticism and violence, and to become peace builders for a better world.
"8. Mindful of the suffering endured by the peoples of the Middle East due to unresolved conflicts, the participants, in respect of the competence of political leaders, ask to make use, through dialogue, of the resources of international law to solve the problems at stake in truth and justice".
The next meeting of the joint committee is due to be held in Cairo on 23 and 24 February 2010.
OP/DIALOGUE MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS/TAURAN VIS 090227 (470)
VATICAN CITY, 27 FEB 2009 (VIS) - Made public yesterday afternoon was the final declaration of the annual meeting of the Joint Committee for Dialogue of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue (Vatican) and the Permanent Committee of al-Azhar for Dialogue among the Monotheistic Religions (Cairo, Egypt). The meeting was held in Rome on 24 and 25 February.
The English-language declaration explains that the annual meeting of the Joint Committee for Dialogue - an institution established in 1998 - was jointly presided by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and by Sheikh Ali Abd al-Baqi Shahata, secretary general of the Academy for Islamic Research of al-Azhar.
The theme of the meeting - "The Promotion of a Pedagogy and Culture of Peace with Particular Reference to the Role of Religions" - was presented from the Catholic point of view by Bernard Sabella, associate professor emeritus of sociology at Bethlehem University, and from the Islamic standpoint by Sheikh Ali Shahata.
A the end of the meeting the participants agreed on the following:
"1. Peace and security are much needed in our present world marked by many conflicts and a feeling of insecurity.
"2. ... No true and lasting peace can be achieved without justice and equality among persons and communities.
"3. Religious leaders, especially Muslims and Christians, have the duty to promote a culture of peace, each within his respective community, especially through teaching and preaching.
"4. A culture of peace should permeate all aspects of life: religious formation, education, interpersonal relations and the arts in their diverse forms. To this end, scholastic books should be revised in order not to contain material which may offend the religious sentiments of other believers, at times through the erroneous presentation of dogmas, morals or history of other religions.
"5. The media have a major role and responsibility in the promotion of positive and respectful relations among the faithful of various religions.
"6. Recognising the strong link between peace and human rights, special attention was given to the defence of the dignity of the human person and his or her rights, especially regarding freedom of conscience and of religion.
"7. Youth, the future of all religions and of humanity itself, need special care in order to be protected from fanaticism and violence, and to become peace builders for a better world.
"8. Mindful of the suffering endured by the peoples of the Middle East due to unresolved conflicts, the participants, in respect of the competence of political leaders, ask to make use, through dialogue, of the resources of international law to solve the problems at stake in truth and justice".
The next meeting of the joint committee is due to be held in Cairo on 23 and 24 February 2010.
OP/DIALOGUE MONOTHEISTIC RELIGIONS/TAURAN VIS 090227 (470)
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