 |
THURSDAY April 13, 2000 vol. 11, no. 74 SECTION THREESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
e-mail: webmaster@dailycatholic.org |
|
| ||||
Yesterday the Holy Father continued his Jubilee Year series on the Trinity during his regular Wednesday Papal Audiences that are attracting such huge throngs that Paul VI Hall no longer can accommodate the crowds. Therefore he spoke to over 30,000 gathered in St. Peter's Square. During his address he spoke of his recent visit to the River Jordan, where the Father and the Holy Spirit were made manifest to mankind, as was the Son. The Pope's teaching makes the Trinity as meaningful to us today as the Holy Trinity was at the beginning of all time...at the moment of creation.
continued inside
VATICAN CITY, APR 12 (ZENIT.org).- Today, John Paul II went deeper into
Christianity's most important and difficult mystery: the Trinity. He
carried his listeners to the banks of the Jordan river, where Christ was
baptized, and which he himself visited in his recent pilgrimage, to the
unique moment when the Father and the Holy Spirit made themselves known.
With this morning's catechesis, the Holy Father continued the Jubilee
series he is dedicating to the Trinity. There were 30,000 pilgrims
present from some 20 countries, the majority being students.
John Paul II evoked the scene when the Father's voice resounded,
proclaiming: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." At the
same time, the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, making the
whole Trinity present.
The image of the Holy Spirit as a dove appears several times in the
Bible and in extra-Biblical texts. The Holy Father quoted several words
from the Jewish Talmud to convey how at the creation, the Spirit of God
"fluttered over the surface of the waters like a dove who flies around
its young without touching them."
The history of salvation "involves time and space, human ups and downs
and the cosmic order, but primarily the three divine Persons. The Father
entrusts the Son with the fulfillment of a mission, in the Spirit, in
'justice,' namely, divine salvation," the Pontiff said.
Therefore, the Trinity is not distant or impersonal. To demonstrate the
opposite, the Pope explained that this presence of the three divine
Persons is happening at every moment of our life. In emphasis, he quoted
a great 4th century Christian intellectual, St. Chromatius, Bishop of
Aquileia, who said: "The Father does nothing without the Son and the
Holy Spirit, because the Father's work is also the Son's, and the Son's
work is also the Holy Spirit's. There is but one grace of the Trinity.
Therefore, we are saved by the Trinity, because in the beginning we were
created by the Trinity alone."
ZE00041209
How callow, how crass can the medical profession get than in an Australian hospital where the doctor was so flippant as to evoke outrage from every pro-lifer in the world. In an Australian courtroom yesterday in Darwin, testimony was heard in the case of an aborted baby which survived nearly an hour and a half after having been aborted while the hospital staff stood and waited for the young aborted infant to die! The coroner explained that a "vacuum" of responsibility was created when the fetus was born alive...no one knew what to do since the fetus was supposed to be dead! God works in wondrous ways...and now there is one more innocent who was baptized in blood, rather than in water and the Spirit. How are the pro-aborts going to deny this is outright murder with plenty of witnesses who can't deny it!
continued inside
DARWIN, AUSTRALIA, APR 12 (ZENIT.org).- An aborted baby survived 80
minutes while the hospital staff waited for her to die, according to
testimony at a coroner's court in Darwin, Australia, yesterday. The
abortionist had induced labor in the mother to remove the 21-22-week-old
aborted fetus. However, the nurse-midwife found herself delivering a
live child.
Greg Cavanaugh, the coroner, said that there was a "responsibility
vacuum" when "Baby J" was unexpectedly born alive, leaving the nurse
with a moral dilemma. The nurse, Carrie Williams, said that she called
the Royal Darwin Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Department Director
Dr. Kai Man Henry Cho to report the live birth. The doctor reportedly
responded, "So?"
The Coroner said that no instructions were left for the nurses for such
an event. In the end, Williams did everything she could: she wrapped the
baby in a blanket and waited for her to die. Babies born before 22 weeks
seldom survive, and almost always require artificial assistance to
breathe properly. Even without this minimal care, "Baby J" lived more
than an hour.
The coroner ruled the cause of death to be premature delivery. He said
deaths after such live births, even if the gestational age made survival
impossible, should be reported to the coroner and the public had the
right to be informed and take part in any debate. The deceased should
not be described as 'fetus', an 'aborted fetus', a 'non-viable fetus' or
anything that diminished her status as a human being. Neither should
the purpose of the induction procedure be allowed to diminish her status
as a human being.
"The deceased having been born alive deserved all the dignity, respect
and value that our society places on human life," Mr Cavanagh said. "The
fact that her birth was unexpected and not the desired
outcome of the [abortion] should not result in her and babies like her
being perceived as anything less than a complete human being."
Australian Right to Life Chairwoman Margaret Tigue said that she hoped
the story of this baby's short life would "serve to remind others that
unborn babies are people too and are as deserving of their rights to
life as are all others."
ZE00041220
His Holiness Pope John Paul II will turn 80 years old on May 18th this year and Mother Angelica and EWTN are inviting all Catholics to log on and to offer their own Spiritual bouquet to the Vicar of Christ as a birthday present that will be presented to the Holy Father on his birthday. The opportunity to offer your birthday spiritual bouquet for the 264th successor of Peter will be available until May 4 at ewtn.com. Mother has said it's a special way we can all express our love and gratitude to the Holy Father. continued inside.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, APR 12 (ZENIT.org).- EWTN's website has started a
campaign to give John Paul II a special present for his 80th birthday --
a Spiritual Bouquet. All Catholic Internet users are invited to visit
http://www.ewtn.com/spiritual_bouquets/pope.htm to promise prayers and
other spiritual acts for the intentions of the Holy Father. The page
will be open until May 4. On May 18, his birthday, the Spiritual Bouquet
will be presented to the Pope.
"We wanted to express our thanks and love for the Holy Father in a
special way," said Mother Angelica, Foundress of EWTN. "We felt a
Spiritual Bouquet of prayers from faithful around the world woudl be
very dear to his heart."
ZE0004123
Hoping to avoid a worldclass black eye, the Cuban government reversed their decision to ban Holy Week processions and services yesterday. Realizing the eyes of the world are focused on Fidel Castro and Cuba over the Elian Gonzalez predicament and fearing another revolt by enraged Catholics who experienced religious freedom when the Holy Father visited two years ago, Castro can see the writing on the wall and thus is backpedaling, allowing the traditional Holy Week services to continue as they have since 1998. continued inside.
HAVANA 12 (NE) The Cuban government decided to allow religious
processions to take place in the Island during Easter
celebrations, revoking a previous decision to forbid such
celebrations. As Misna news agency informed, Cuban authorities
decided to withdraw a previous measure that prohibited religious
processions during Holy Week, putting a stop to the preparations
the Church in this country was making in view of the
celebrations.
On Monday, a spokesman to the Conference of Catholic Cuban
Bishops had announced the decision of the communist government
to suspend religious processions in the Island. The measure was
"communicated to the Church by local authorities in every
diocese," said a communique issued by the Bishops. The statement
also expressed the surprise caused by the decision, especially
when Easter celebrations had taken place in 1999.
As Misna news agency reported, the Cuban government's change in
position after its initial prohibition has caused great joy
among Cuban faithful, who will once again be able to celebrate
Easter. Nevertheless, although religious processions will be
allowed, a government officer declared without given further
explanations that "in some cases and because of determined
circumstances, religious manifestations could be prohibited."
Jerusalem is gearing up again for the second time in a month for massive crowds as they await a great number of pilgrims to flood Israel and the Holy City during Holy Week. A number of churches in the area are expected to pick up the overflow that will undoubtedly occur, and the languages of the foreign pilgrims are also being considered with priests being provided to accommodate their sacramental needs. Thus different churches will conduct Holy Week services in a specific language as an aid to all pilgrims with one church serving English-speaking pilgrims, another Spanish, another French, and so on. continued inside.
JERUSALEM, APR 13 (ZENIT.org).- Jerusalem is preparing for a great
influx of pilgrims during this Holy Week. There are many foreign
pilgrims already in evidence on the streets of the Holy City, wishing to
live the Paschal mysteries very intensely during the Jubilee of 2000.
Given the fact that the Holy Sepulcher Church cannot receive all the
pilgrims, because of lack of space and other organizational difficulties
due to the number of confessions that share this sacred place, services
are being scheduled in other churches in Jerusalem according to
different languages.
Spanish-speaking pilgrims will observe the Easter Triduum in the Church
of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary on Nablus Street. English-speaking
pilgrims have been assigned the "Ecce Homo" Church, St. Anne's Basilica,
and the Holy Land College Chapel. French-speaking pilgrims will meet in
St. Stephen's Basilica on Nablus Street, in the Latrun Abbey of the
Trappist monks, and in the Crusade Church of the Resurrection in Abu
Gosh.
ZE00041203
Finally, a Supreme Court that makes sense and one that has come to its senses is the Supreme Court in Italy which ruled that homosexuality is a "psychiatric illness or disorder." This ruling upholds the Church's stance against the practice and propaganda of gay and lesbian activities and vindicates those who have spoken out strongly on the abnormality of the gay lifestyle as Cardinal Thomas Winning of Scotland and Bishop Kenneth Angell of the Burlington, Vermont Diocese to name just a few over the past several months. continued inside.
ROME (CWNews.com) - The Italian Supreme Court this week
ruled that homosexuality is "a psychiatric illness or
disorder" in a case of a woman suing for alimony after her
husband of 25 years admitted he was homosexual.
The supreme court confirmed the decision of the Church's
marriage tribunal to declare the marriage null since the
husband had been a secret homosexual from before the
wedding. The Sacra Rota, the Vatican's highest
ecclesiastical court, had ruled that in matters of
marriage, homosexuals are "psychologically incapable of
assuming their conjugal obligations" and suffered from "a
grave inability to carry out the duties of matrimony."
Using the Church court's decision, the Italian court ruled
the wife was not entitled to alimony payments since the
couple had been married in the Church and the Church had
declared the marriage to be annulled.
For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and the Dossiers, features and Daily Dispatches from ZENIT International News Agency CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC, but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.
