Just Doing His Job Is Catholic Official's Defense

Just Doing His Job Is Catholic Official's Defense

by BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY

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Monsignor William Lynn leaves the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia in March. When he finally took to the stand after two months of testimony, the prosecutor called him a liar over and over.

May 27, 2012

A clergy sex-abuse trial in is reaching a crescendo in a Philadelphia courtroom. One defendant is James Brennan, a priest accused of trying to rape a minor, which is not that unusual.

What's drawing attention is the second defendant, Monsignor William Lynn. Lynn is first high-level Catholic official to be criminally prosecuted — not for abusing minors himself, but for failing to protect children from predator priests.

Failure To Protect?

So far, it's been a brutal trial for Lynn. He served as the archdiocese's secretary for clergy between 1992 and 2004, and it was his job to investigate sex abuse claims and protect children.

For eight weeks, prosecutors presented a mountain of evidence — nearly 2,000 documents and some 50 witnesses — that Lynn put the priests and the Church ahead of abused children.

But possibly the most compelling evidence against Lynn was his own words: statements before a grand jury a decade ago when he detailed what he did, or more importantly, did not do about priests suspected of abuse.

"He never called the police," says Ralph Cipriano, a journalist who has chronicled every day of testimony for the blog Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial. "He never talked to authorities of any kind. He never reported anything to anybody except his superiors. And he kept everything in-house. It seemed to be like an intelligence network set up totally for the benefit of the Church."

Taking The Stand

After two months of punishing testimony, Cipriano and others say, defense attorneys worried they could be losing the case. So they took a risk. They put Lynn on the stand.

"The thinking seemed to be ... 'It's fourth and 35, let's try the Hail Mary. Send in Lynn, and let's see what he can do,'" Cipriano says, "and maybe if the prosecutor will cooperate by beating him up so badly, that perhaps the jury will feel sympathetic for him."

Lynn did take a beating from the prosecutor, Patrick Blessington, who called Lynn a liar over and over again. Blessington forced the priest to admit he did not follow up on anonymous complaints. He said Lynn didn't tell victims when there were other allegations against a priest. Blessington also claimed Lynn even misled victims, by implying that the accused priests were out of ministry when they still had access to children.

Lynn replied the prosecutor was twisting his words. When Lynn said was doing his best to protect children, Blessington shot back, "Your best is nothing."

The prosecution paid particular focus to a document that Lynn created in 1994 — a list of 35 priests who were known or suspected abusers. Dave Pierre heads The Media Report, which has provided the Church's perspective on the trial. He says, as with much of the evidence, there are two ways to look at the list.

"The prosecution has presented this list as basically a smoking gun, in that this list shows that Lynn knowingly allowed priests to remain in ministry," Pierre says. "Lynn's defense, on the other hand, is, 'Wait a moment, this list shows that I sought to tackle this problem and address this problem.'"

That is Lynn's first defense — that he did more than any of his predecessors to stop sexually abusive priests.

Chain Of Command

Lynn's second defense, Pierre says, is that he was low man in the hierarchy.

"He did not really have defining authority," Pierre says. The power in the archdiocese rested with Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died earlier this year.

"Only Bevilacqua had the power to assign priests and move them around and remove them from ministry, and Lynn has argued that his role was merely advisory to the bishop," Pierre says.

Marci Hamilton, a professor at Cardozo Law School who has represented victims of abuse, calls this "the classic Mei Lei defense or the Nuremberg defense."

"It's the idea that ... as someone who was under orders, the person had no choice as to what they could do," Hamilton says. "But it's not a defense to criminal charges because you're charged according to your actions, and his actions were clearly part of a conspiracy to cover up abuse and to permit these abusers to have access to numerous children."

Hamilton believes the defense is hoping the jury will acquit Lynn because he wasn't ultimately responsible.

On Tuesday, the prosecutor will resume his cross-examination of Lynn. Then the attorneys for Brennan — the priest accused of trying to rape a 14-year-old boy — will put on their defense. Closing arguments could come as early as this week.

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Vatican In Chaos After Butler Arrested For Leaks

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VATICAN CITY May 27, 2012, 01:06 pm ET

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican's investigation into the source of leaked documents has yielded its first target with the arrest of the pope's butler, but the investigation is continuing into a scandal that has embarrassed the Holy See by revealing evidence of internal power struggles, intrigue and corruption in the highest levels of the Catholic Church governance.

The detention of butler Paolo Gabriele, one of the few members of the papal household, capped one of the most convulsive weeks in recent Vatican history and threw the Holy See into chaos as it enters a critical phase in its efforts to show the world it's serious about complying with international norms on financial transparency.

The tumult began with the publication last weekend of a book of leaked Vatican documents including correspondence, notes and memos to the pope and his private secretary. It peaked with the inglorious ouster on Thursday of the president of the Vatican bank. And it concluded with confirmation Saturday that Pope Benedict XVI's own butler was the alleged mole feeding documents to Italian journalists in an apparent bid to discredit the pontiff's No. 2.

"If you wrote this in fiction you wouldn't believe it," said Carl Anderson, a member of the board of the Vatican bank which contributed to the whirlwind with its no-confidence vote in its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. "No editor would let you put it in a novel."

The bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, issued a scathing denunciation of Gotti Tedeschi in a memorandum obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. In it the bank, or IOR by its Italian initials, explained its reasons for ousting Gotti Tedeschi: he routinely missed board meetings, failed to do his job, failed to defend the bank, polarized its personnel and displayed "progressively erratic personal behavior."

Gotti Tedeschi was also accused by the board of leaking documents himself: The IOR memorandum said he "failed to provide any formal explanation for the dissemination of documents last known" to be in his possession.

In an interview with the AP, Anderson said the latter accusation was independent of the broader "Vatileaks" scandal that has rocked the Vatican for months. But he stressed: "It is not an insignificant issue."

Gotti Tedeschi hasn't commented publicly about his ouster or the reasons behind it, saying he has too much admiration for the pope to do so. He also hasn't been arrested, avoiding the fate that befell Gabriele.

The 46-year-old father of three has been in Vatican detention since Wednesday after Vatican investigators discovered Holy See documents in his apartment. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Gabriele had met with his lawyers and that the investigation was taking its course through the Vatican's judicial system.

Gabriele, the pope's personal butler since 2006, has often been seen by Benedict's side in public, riding in the front seat of the pope's open-air jeep during Wednesday general audiences or shielding the pontiff from the rain. In private, he is a member of the small papal household that also includes the pontiff's private secretaries and four consecrated women who care for the papal apartment.

Lombardi said Gabriele's detention marked a sad development for all Vatican staff. "Everyone knows him in the Vatican, and there's certainly surprise and pain, and great affection for his beloved family," the spokesman said.

The "Vatileaks" scandal has seriously embarrassed the Vatican at a time when it is trying to show the world financial community that it has turned a page and shed its reputation as a scandal plagued tax haven.

Vatican documents leaked to the media in recent months have undermined that effort, alleging corruption in Vatican finance as well as internal bickering over the Holy See's efforts to comply with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The Vatican in July will learn if it has complied with the financial transparency criteria of a Council of Europe committee, Moneyval — a key step in its efforts to get on the so-called "white list" of countries that share financial information to fight tax evasion.

Anderson acknowleged that the events of the last week certainly haven't cast the Holy See in the best light. And he said the bank's board appreciated that the ouster of its president just weeks before the expected Moneyval decision could give the committee pause.

"The board considered that concern and decided that all things considered it was best to take the action at this time," Anderson said. "These steps were taken to increase the IOR's position vis-a-vis Moneyval."

The Vatileaks scandal began in January when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi broadcast letters from the former No. 2 Vatican administrator to the pope in which he begged not to be transferred for having exposed alleged corruption that cost the Holy See millions of euros in higher contract prices. The prelate, Monsignor Carlo Maria Vigano, is now the Vatican's U.S. ambassador.

Nuzzi, author of "Vatican SpA," a 2009 volume laying out shady dealings of the Vatican bank based on leaked documents, last weekend published "His Holiness," which presented a trove of other documents including personal correspondence to the pope and his secretary — many of them painting Benedict’s No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a negative light.

Nuzzi has said he was offered the documents by multiple Vatican sources and insisted he didn't pay a cent € to any of them.

Gabriele was in Vatican custody and unavailable for comment. No known motive has come to light as to why Gabriele, if he is found to be the key mole, might have passed on the documents. Nuzzi declined to comment Saturday on whether Gabriele was among his sources.

Bertone, 77, has been blamed for a series of gaffes and management problems that have plagued Benedict's papacy and, according to the leaked documents, generated a not inconsiderable amount of ill will directed at him from other Vatican officials.

"For some time and in various parts of the church, criticism even by the faithful has been growing about the lack of coordination and confusion that reign at its center," Cardinal Paolo Sardi, the former No. 2 official in the Vatican secretariat of state, wrote to the pope in 2009, according to the letter cited in "His Holiness."

Anderson, who heads the Knights of Columbus, a major U.S. lay Catholic organization, said he was certain the Holy See would weather the storm and that the Vatican bank, at least, could move forward under a new leader with solid banking credentials as well as a desire to show off the bank's transparency.

"I hope this will be the beginning of a new chapter for the IOR and part of that chapter will be restoring the public image of the IOR," he told AP. "I think we have a good story to tell."

___

Connect with Nicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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An unlimited broadcasting station

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver

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Vatican translates rules for assessing apparitions for first time

By CAROL GLATZ on Friday, 25 May 2012

Pilgrims pray around a statue of the Virgin Mary on Apparition Hill in Medjugorje (CNS photo)

The Vatican has translated and published procedural rules used to determine the credibility of alleged Marian apparitions which for 30 years have only been available in Latin.

The “Norms regarding the manner of proceedings in the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations” were approved by Pope Paul VI in 1978 and distributed to the world’s bishops, but never officially published or translated into modern languages.

However, over the past three decades, unauthorised translations have appeared around the world, according to Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In a note dated December 2011 the cardinal wrote that the doctrinal office “believes it is now opportune to publish these ‘Norms,’ providing translations in the principle languages” so as to “aid the pastors of the Catholic Church in their difficult task of discerning presumed apparitions, revelations, messages or, more generally, extraordinary phenomena of presumed supernatural origin”.

His note and the newly translated norms have been published on the congregation’s website www.doctrinafidei.va.

Cardinal Levada wrote that he hoped the norms “might be useful to theologians and experts in this field of the lived experience of the Church, whose delicacy requires an ever-more thorough consideration”.

More than 1,500 visions of Mary have been reported around the world, but in the past century only nine cases have received Church approval as worthy of belief.

Determining the veracity of an apparition falls to the local bishop, and the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation established the norms to guide the process.

Granting approval is never brief, with some cases taking hundreds of years. Visionaries and witnesses must be questioned and the fruits of the apparitions, such as conversions, miracles and healings, must be examined.

According to the norms, the local bishop should set up a commission of experts, including theologians, canonists, psychologists and doctors, to help him determine the facts, the mental, moral and spiritual wholesomeness and seriousness of the visionary, and whether the message and testimony are free from theological and doctrinal error.

A bishop can come to one of three conclusions: he can determine the apparition to be true and worthy of belief; he can say it is not true, which leaves open the possibility for an appeal; or he can say that at the moment he doesn’t know and needs more help.

In the last scenario, the investigation is brought to the country’s bishops’ conference. If that body cannot come to a conclusion, the matter is turned over to the pope, who delegates the doctrinal congregation to step in and give advice or appoint others to investigate.

The alleged apparitions at Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina are an example of a situation in which the country’s bishops requested that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith intervene.

In that case, the congregation established an international commission in 2010 to investigate the claims of six young people who said Mary had appeared to them daily beginning in 1981.

The apparitions purportedly continue and thousands travel to the small town each month to meet the alleged seers and to pray.

Pope Benedict XVI has reaffirmed that the Church never requires the faithful to believe in apparitions, not even those recognised by the Church.

In his note, Cardinal Levada quoted the Pope saying: “The criterion for judging the truth of a private revelation is its orientation to Christ himself,” in that it doesn’t lead people away from Jesus, but urges them toward closer communion with Christ and the Gospel.

The cardinal also quoted from the writings of St John of the Cross, who emphasised that God said everything he had to say in Jesus Christ – in his one and only son and Word.

“Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely on Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty,” the saint wrote.

Church approval of a private revelation, in essence, is just the Church’s way of saying the message is not contrary to the faith or morality, it is licit to make the message public “and the faithful are authorised to give to it their prudent adhesion,” the Pope said in his 2010 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “Verbum Domini” (“The Word of the Lord”)

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Richard Land: Constraint on Gov't, Not Citizens Regarding Religious Freedom Issues

(Photo: Lauren Hammond)

Dr. Richard Land receives the national award at the 10th annual Religious Liberty Dinner at the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 24, 2012.

By Michelle A. Vu , Christian Post Reporter

May 26, 2012|1:12 pm

WASHINGTON – The constraint is on the government, not citizens when it comes to church-state issues according to the Constitution, stated Dr. Richard Land, who was honored with a national religious liberty award earlier this week at the Canadian embassy.

"I'm always fond of pointing out to people that when you look at our First Amendment to the Constitution, which is in large part there because Baptists insisted that it be there in order for them to vote to ratify the Constitution, all of the restrictions are on the government, not on citizens," said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, at the 10th annual Religious Liberty Dinner on Thursday.

He continued, "It says Congress shall make no laws establishing a religion nor interfere with the free exercise thereof. It doesn't say that we as people of faith cannot bring our faith conviction into the public square."

The annual Religious Liberty banquet is sponsored by the more than 100-year-old Liberty Magazine, which is dedicated to covering religious freedom issues, the International Religious Liberty Association, the North American Religious Liberty Association, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The event counts ambassadors, high-level diplomats, and U.S. politicians among its guests.

Past honorees and speakers of the Religious Liberty Dinner include Hillary Clinton, Suzan Johnson Cook, John McCain, John Kerry, Trent Franks, and Barry Black.

This year, Land was honored with the event's national award, while Gerald Chipeur, a well-known civil rights lawyer who frequently appears in the Supreme Court of Canada, received the international award for religious liberty.

Land, who is also the executive editor of The Christian Post, told CP after the dinner that he is honored to receive the award that has been given to such prestigious leaders in the past.

During his brief speech after accepting the award, Land said that religious freedom is not only an American value, but a universal and human value.

"Every human being deserves the right to work out his or her relationship with their creator without coercive interference from any government or ecclesiastical [body]," the 2012 National Religious Liberty awardee stated.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird agreed with Land that religious freedom is a universal value. Baird, who was the keynote speaker, said history has proven that religious freedom and democratic freedom are inseparable.

"Societies that protect religious freedom are more likely to protect other freedoms," said Baird, who was elected to be Canada's foreign minister last year. "They are typically more stable and they are typically more economically prosperous. When we have religious freedom, other freedoms follow."

He also reflected on Canada's past of trying to be an "honest broker" and not taking a strong stand on hot-button issues, saying, "I call it being afraid to take a clear position even when that's what's needed. So I am proud to say Canada is no longer a country that goes along to get along in the conduct of our foreign affairs.

"We will stand for what is principled, regardless of whether it is popular, convenient or expedient," he declared. "We do so as part of our commitment to human rights for all."

Part of Baird's campaign promise last year was to establish the Office of Religious Freedom. He briefly spoke about it during the speech, saying that the office will help diplomats around the world support religious freedom. But details about the progress of setting up the office, according to Canadian media, are scant.

Source

Execute true judgment

4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,

5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?

6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,

9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts:

14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.

Zechariah 7 :4-14.

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While The United Nations And Obama Endorse Same-Sex Marriage,..

PRESS RELEASE
May 23, 2012, 1:21 p.m. EDT

While The United Nations And Obama Endorse Same-Sex Marriage, The World Congress Of Families VI Meets In Madrid To Affirm The Natural Family As The Future Of Society

MADRID, May 23, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The World Congress of Families Defends the Rights of Children to Have a Mother and Father in Every Home

In two days, World Congress of Families VI will open in Madrid's Palacio de Congresos to affirm the natural family as the fundamental unit of society while President Barack Obama and world leaders try to force so-called same-sex marriage on a global society suffering from economic decline, moral bankruptcy, family breakdown, and social chaos.

The theme for WCF VI in Madrid, Spain (May 25-27) is "Marriage and Family, Future of Society." This theme reflects that there is no greater social indicator for the future success of our civilization than the strength of natural marriage and natural families in society. For example, decades of research indicates that natural marriage can reduce rates of poverty by over 80%.

"We had no idea when we began planning our sixth Congress over two years ago that it would come on the heels of an announcement by a U.S. president that he supports homosexual 'marriage,' based on spurious claims of equality and ignoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the rights of children to be raised by their biological mothers and fathers," said Larry Jacobs, World Congress of Families Managing Director.

In many ways, the timing is providential, Jacobs observed: "The Congress will open in Spain almost two weeks to the day after President Obama announced his repudiation of the natural family. Spain's civil society and economy is still recovering from many years of a socialist government, led by Zapatero, who forced the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion on the Spanish people despite overwhelmingly public opposition. Just as our radical opponents have lobbied and organized to make their voice heard, advocates for the natural family must continue to organize internationally and speak out against radical LGBT and feminist injustice against children and families."

Speakers at the three-day Congress will include Cardinal Ennio Antonelli (President of the Pontifical Council on the Family) on "The Natural Family and the Revolution Against the Family," Rabbi Moshe Bendahan (Chief Rabbi of Spain) on "Family, the Future of Society," Erich W. Kopischke (Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) on "The Value of the Natural Family," Fr. Philaret Bulekov (delivering a message from Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of the Russian Orthodox Church) and Dr. Paige Patterson (President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary).

Speeches by social scientists, authors, physicians and officeholders will touch on such varied topics as: the worldwide decline in fertility, how government policies impact on the family, the family and international law, contraception vs. natural family planning, the health effects of promiscuity and infidelity, family economics and social capital, rediscovering the role of homemaker, the culture of life versus the culture of death, fighting for freedom to educate, the social cost of pornography and sexual slavery, and family-friendly entertainment.

A plenary session on The Homosexual Lobby will include addresses on: "Solutions to Homosexual Behavior," "Violation of Rights of Conscience Today," "Effects of Social Experimentation and Same-Sex Adoption," and "Hate Speech Laws and Anti-Discrimination Measures to Marginalize Believers."

"Just as the movement to de-construct marriage and the natural family are international in scope, so too must be our response," Jacobs declared. "World Congress of Families is uniting individuals across diverse faiths and cultures in support of institutions which serve as the bedrock of civilization. Article 16 (3) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR ratified by all nations in 1948) states that, "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State."

Delegates, including Pro-family leaders, scholars and activists from over 60 nations, are expected to attend the Madrid Congress. Previous World Congresses of Families have been held in Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw (20070 and Amsterdam (2009). World Congress of Families VII is scheduled for Sydney, Australia in 2013.

Those interested in attending World Congress of Families VI in Madrid (May 25-27) can register online at www.worldcongress.es .

WCF VI is organized by HazteOir.org (the local host committee) and The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society. Co-conveners for WCF VI in Madrid include Alliance Defense Fund, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and Focus on the Family. World Congress of Families is also supported annually by our 35 partners, in 11 countries. Click here for a complete list of WCF Partners.

For more information on World Congress of Families go to www.worldcongress.org . To schedule an interview with Larry Jacobs, contact Communications Director Don Feder at 508-405-1337 , dfeder@rcn.com or Judy Hodge 815-964-5819 , media@worldcongress.org.

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 80 countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948). The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois. To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009). World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.

SOURCE World Congress of Families

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AP: Churches To Raise Money To Fight Gay Marriage

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Maine May 25, 2012, 03:04 am ET

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Scores of Maine churches will pass the collection plate a second time at Sunday services on Father's Day to kick off a fundraising campaign for the lead opposition group to November's ballot question asking voters to legalize same-sex marriages.

Between 150 and 200 churches are expected to raise money for the Protect Marriage Maine political action committee, said Carroll Conley Jr., executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine evangelical organization and a member of the PAC. Conley is also trying to drum up support for the Maine campaign from religious leaders from around the country.

It's unusual, but not unheard of, for churches to take up collections for political causes. Maine's Catholic diocese says it raised about $80,000 with a designated collection in 2009 in its effort to overturn Maine's same-sex marriage law, which was passed by the Legislature that year and later rejected by voters. The Catholic church isn't actively campaigning this time, instead focusing on teaching parishioners about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman Father's Day, June 17, seemed an appropriate time to kick off this year's fundraising campaign because of the day's focus on family, Conley said. Additional collection-plate offerings at churches are expected in the months ahead.

"The messaging we're using is that those who are seeking to redefine marriage in Maine believe there's no difference between moms and dads," Conley told The Associated Press. "We believe those differences are relevant. We don't think the differences in the genders are societally imposed roles, and we believe that children benefit when they're in that ideal environment where there's a mom and dad."

Protect Marriage Maine has been in contact with about 800 churches across the state and expects 150 to 200 to participate in the Father's Day collections, Conley said. They include Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Nazarene, Church of God, Wesleyan, Evangelical Free, Advent Christian and other denominations.

While many churches are joining the campaign against the referendum, others of various denominations are working to support the ballot measure.

Some churches have hosted phone banks where congregation members have made calls in favor of the referendum, said the Rev. Sue Gabrielson, the minister at the Sanford Unitarian Universalist Church. Other churches have held educational forums and training sessions on door-to-door canvassing.

The referendum, she said, is about inclusion, a "loving God" and being nonjudgmental and compassionate.

"What we want is for people to know that this is a religious issue," she said.

Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, who created an international uproar when he became the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church in 2003, is coming to Maine in early June on behalf of the campaign in support of gay marriage. He will appear at three screenings of the film "Love Free or Die," which depicts his life, in Portland, Lewiston and Ellsworth.

Churches in Maine and elsewhere have raised money from parishioners for political campaigns in the past on issues including gay rights, doctor-assisted suicide, abortion and gambling.

Federal law prohibits churches and other 501(c) (3) charitable organizations from supporting or opposing candidates running for office, either through financial contributions or endorsements, said Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Washington advocacy group that supports separation of church and state.

"But they can, with near impunity, support issues and causes, including same-sex marriage referenda," Walker said.

Supporters of Maine's ballot question have said they expect to raise $5 million or more for their campaign. Opponents have said they expect to raise far less, but collection plate offerings will go a long way toward helping fund the campaign, Conley said.

Conley has been in Washington, D.C., this week at a pastors conference organized by the conservative Family Research Council. There, he met with other gay marriage opponents from Minnesota, Washington and Maryland, where same-sex marriage ballot initiatives are being debated.

Minnesota will decide in November whether a ban on gay marriage should be part of the state constitution. Maryland and Washington are expected to have ballot measures seeking to overturn same-sex marriage laws that were recently passed by their legislatures.

Conley's also seeking endorsements from well-known pastors who might be willing to record video and audio clips that can be played at churches taking part in Maine's collection-plate drive, he said. Those clips would also be sent to the state's Christian radio stations as public service announcements.

Conley said he realized churches should play a central role in the Maine campaign after being in North Carolina earlier this month when voters approved an amendment to the state constitution affirming that marriage may only be a union of a man and a woman.

"I was impressed with the coordination I saw among the faith community in North Carolina," he said.

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The battle among Catholic bishops

E.J. Dionne Jr.
Opinion Writer


By E.J. Dionne Jr., Published: May 23

There is a healthy struggle brewing among the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops. A previously silent group, upset over conservative colleagues defining the church’s public posture and eagerly picking fights with President Obama, has had enough.

The headlines this week were about lawsuits brought by 43 Catholic organizations, including 13 dioceses, to overturn regulations issued by the Obama administration that require insurance plans to cover contraception under the new health-care law. But the other side of this news was also significant: The vast majority of the nation’s 195 dioceses did not go to court.

It turns out that many bishops, notably the church leadership in California, saw the litigation as premature. They are upset that the lawsuits were brought without a broader discussion among the entire membership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and wanted to delay action until the conference’s June meeting.

Until now, bishops who believed that their leadership was aligning the institutional church too closely with the political right had voiced their doubts internally. While the more moderate and liberal bishops kept their qualms out of public view, conservative bishops have been outspoken in condemning the Obama administration and pushing a “Fortnight for Freedom” campaign aimed at highlighting “threats to religious freedom, both at home and abroad.”

But in recent months, a series of events — among them the Vatican’s rebuke of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, encouraged by right-wing U.S. bishops — have angered more progressive Catholics and led to talk among the disgruntled faithful of the need for a “Catholic spring” to challenge the hierarchy’s shift to the right.

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., broke the silence on his side Tuesday in an interview with Kevin Clarke of the Jesuit magazine America. Blaire expressed concern that some groups “very far to the right” are turning the controversy over the contraception rules into “an anti-Obama campaign.”

“I think there are different groups that are trying to co-opt this and make it into [a] political issue, and that’s why we need to have a deeper discussion as bishops,” he said. “I think our rhetoric has to be that of bishops of the church who are seeking to be faithful to the Gospel, that our one concern is that we make sure the church is free to carry out her mission as given to her by Christ, and that remains our focus.”

Clarke also paraphrased Blaire as believing that “the bishops lose their support when the conflict is seen as too political.”

Blaire’s words were diplomatic. But in a letter to the national bishops conference that has not been released publicly, lawyers for California’s bishops said the lawsuits would be “imprudent” and “ill-advised.” The letter was not answered by the national bishops group before the suits were announced.

Already, there are reports that some bishops will play down or largely ignore the Fortnight for Freedom campaign, scheduled for June 21 to July 4, in their own dioceses. These bishops fear that it has become enmeshed in Republican election-year politics and see many of its chief promoters, notably Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, as too strident.

The irony in the current acrimony is that Catholics were broadly united in January across political lines in opposing the Department of Health and Human Services’ initial rules on contraception because they exempted only a narrow category of religious institutions from the mandate.

Facing this challenge, the president fashioned a compromise under which employees of Catholic organizations such as hospitals and social service agencies would still have access to contraceptive services but the religious entities would not have to pay for them. This compromise was accepted by most progressive Catholics, though many of them still favor rewriting the underlying regulations to acknowledge the religious character of the church’s welfare and educational work.

But where the progressives favor pursuing further negotiations with the administration, the conservative bishops have acted as if it never made any concessions at all. Significantly, Blaire identified with the conciliatory approach. As Clarke wrote, “Bishop Blaire believes discussions with the Obama administration toward a resolution of the dispute could be fruitful even as alternative remedies are explored.”

For too long, the Catholic Church’s stance on public issues has been defined by the outspokenness of its most conservative bishops and the reticence of moderate and progressive prelates. Signs that this might finally be changing are encouraging for the church, and for American politics.

ejdionne@washpost.com

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Vatican bank chief ousted with no-confidence vote, failed to do job Vatican says

Andrew Medichini/Associated Press - ** FILE ** In this Dec. 21, 2011, file photo, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, head of the Vatican bank I.O.R., leaves after greeting Pope Benedict XVI at the end of a weekly general audience at the Vatican. Gotti Tedeschi was ousted after a no-confidence vote of the Vatican bank I.O.R. governing body on Thursday, May 24, 2012.

By Associated Press, Published: May 24

VATICAN CITY — The president of the Vatican bank has effectively been ousted after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from bank overseers for having leaked documents and failed to do his job at a critical time in the Holy See’s efforts to show financial transparency, the Vatican and officials said.

Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has been a polarizing figure ever since he was named president of the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, in 2009. He is under investigation for alleged money laundering by Italian magistrates, but the investigation isn’t believed to have factored into the decision since the Vatican considers the probe to be motivated by outside political interests.

The Vatican said in a statement Thursday that the vote was taken because of Gotti Tedeschi’s failure to fulfill the “primary functions of his office.” He himself has told prosecutors that he barely paid attention to the bank’s works, showing up only two days a week while tending to his primary position as head of Spain’s Banco Santander’s Italian unit in Milan.

In addition, Gotti Tedeschi was found to have leaked confidential documents to serve his personal and political interests, according to a person familiar with the Vatican’s investigation. The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.

The Vatican is in the midst of a scandal over leaked documents and has begun a criminal investigation into the source of the leaks, as well as appointed a commission of cardinals to get to the bottom of it.

In the statement, the Vatican said the board had grown increasingly concerned about the governance of the bank and that the situation had deteriorated recently.

During a regularly scheduled board meeting Thursday, the five superintendents, who include the former No. 2 at Deutsche Bank, Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz, and Carl Anderson, head of the Knights of Columbus, a major U.S. Catholic fundraising organization, unanimously adopted a no-confidence motion and recommended that Gotti Tedeschi’s mandate be terminated.

His fate isn’t final. On Friday the cardinals who sit on the IOR’s governing council are to meet to consider the board’s decision. While it wasn’t clear if they could ignore the no-confidence vote, the Vatican made clear the search was already on for a replacement.

“The council is now looking forward to search for a new and excellent president who will help the institute rebuild relationships between the institute and the financial community based on mutual respect based on internationally accepted banking standards,” the IOR said.

The no-confidence vote comes at a critical time for the Holy See in its efforts to shed the IOR’s image as a secretive tax haven battered by years of scandal.

The Holy See is heading into a July meeting of Moneyval, a Council of Europe committee that will determine whether it has complied with international norms to fight money laundering and terror financing. Transparency of the IOR’s finances has been one of several criteria that the Moneyval evaluators have investigated.

It wasn’t clear if the timing of Gotti Tedeschi’s ouster was aimed at sending a message to the Moneyval investigators, but just last week the Holy See met with them to discuss the preliminary findings of their report.

Gotti Tedeschi has long painted himself as the symbol of Vatican financial transparency, but the vote Thursday indicated that his primary collaborators on the board had found him to be anything but. He was faulted for not keeping the board of superintendents apprised of the work of the bank, among other failings.

Recently, he raised eyebrows when he made a joke about Hitler, war and economics.

Gotti Tedeschi was a frequent contributor to the Vatican newspaper and went on a very public speaking tour extolling the benefits of a morality-based financial system and citing frequently from the pope’s encyclical on the subject, “Charity in Truth.”

Italian authorities placed Gotti Tedeschi and the IOR’s top manager under investigation in September 2010 and seized €23 ($30 million) from a Vatican bank account at the Rome branch of Credito Artigiano Spa, after the bank informed the Bank of Italy about possible violations of anti-money laundering norms.

Gotti Tedeschi and the Vatican have denied any wrongdoing, calling the investigation a misunderstanding. No charges have been filed, and the money was subsequently released after the Vatican passed a series of measures to combat money laundering and create a financial watchdog authority — key requirements for the Moneyval process.

The Vatican bank was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage assets destined for religious or charitable works. Located in a tower just inside the gates of Vatican City, it also manages the pension system for the Vatican’s thousands of employees.

The bank is not open to the public. Depositors are usually limited to Vatican employees, religious orders and people who transfer money for the pope’s charities.

The Vatican bank’s finances have long been shrouded in secrecy. Most famously, it was implicated in a scandal over the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano in the 1980s in one of Italy’s largest fraud cases. Roberto Calvi, the head of Banco Ambrosiano, was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in circumstances that remain mysterious.

Banco Ambrosiano collapsed following the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans the bank had made to several dummy companies in Latin America. The Vatican had provided letters of credit for the loans.

While denying any wrongdoing, the Vatican bank agreed to pay $250 million to Ambrosiano’s creditors.

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FBI asking Internet Companies for Wiretap-Friendly Back Door

By VC | May 8th, 2012

The push to make the internet a controlled space used to spy on citizens, where supposedly “private” information is automatically shared with authorities, might soon reach another threshold. A new report suggests that the FBI is currently discussing with major internet companies such as Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and Google to build backdoor accesses to their services to facilitate government surveillance. The FBI is also attempting to convince these companies to support an upcoming law that would allow the outright spying of social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers. The law, like many other similar ones that are being proposed and adopted, is in direct violation with the 4th Amendment, which states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Of course, those who wrote the Bill of Rights were not expecting the advent of the internet and the storing of information on remote servers. The application of its principles is however nebulous today. However, if those in power truly wished (and if citizens somewhat cared) to preserve the spirit of the Amendment (which was created to protect citizens from government oppression and tyranny) they would have extended the principles of the Fourth Amendment to cyberspace. We are however witnessing the exact opposite: The advent of the internet, of social networks and other technologies appears to be the perfect opportunity for state authorities to deny these historic rights to citizens and to move towards a high tech police state.

Here’s an article on these FBI discussions with internet companies.

FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites – now

CNET learns the FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers, and that the bureau is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory.

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.

In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.

The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

“If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding,” an industry representative who has reviewed the FBI’s draft legislation told CNET. The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.

The FBI’s proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers, not Web companies. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband networks.

FBI Director Robert Mueller is not asking companies to support the bureau’s CALEA expansion, but instead is “asking what can go in it to minimize impacts,” one participant in the discussions says. That included a scheduled trip this month to the West Coast — which was subsequently postponed — to meet with Internet companies’ CEOs and top lawyers.

A further expansion of CALEA is unlikely to be applauded by tech companies, their customers, or privacy groups. Apple (which distributes iChat and FaceTime) is currently lobbying on the topic, according to disclosure documents filed with Congress two weeks ago. Microsoft (which owns Skype and Hotmail) says its lobbyists are following the topic because it’s “an area of ongoing interest to us.” Google, Yahoo, and Facebook declined to comment.

In February 2011, CNET was the first to report that then-FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni was planning to warn Congress of what the bureau calls its “Going Dark” problem, meaning that its surveillance capabilities may diminish as technology advances. Caproni singled out “Web-based e-mail, social-networking sites, and peer-to-peer communications” as problems that have left the FBI “increasingly unable” to conduct the same kind of wiretapping it could in the past.

In addition to the FBI’s legislative proposal, there are indications that the Federal Communications Commission is considering reinterpreting CALEA to demand that products that allow video or voice chat over the Internet — from Skype to Google Hangouts to Xbox Live — include surveillance backdoors to help the FBI with its “Going Dark” program. CALEA applies to technologies that are a “substantial replacement” for the telephone system.

“We have noticed a massive uptick in the amount of FCC CALEA inquiries and enforcement proceedings within the last year, most of which are intended to address ‘Going Dark’ issues,” says Christopher Canter, lead compliance counsel at the Marashlian and Donahue law firm, which specializes in CALEA. “This generally means that the FCC is laying the groundwork for regulatory action.”

Subsentio, a Colorado-based company that sells CALEA compliance products and worked with the Justice Department when it asked the FCC to extend CALEA seven years ago, says the FBI’s draft legislation was prepared with the compliance costs of Internet companies in mind.

In a statement to CNET, Subsentio President Steve Bock said that the measure provides a “safe harbor” for Internet companies as long as the interception techniques are “‘good enough’ solutions approved by the attorney general.”

Another option that would be permitted, Bock said, is if companies “supply the government with proprietary information to decode information” obtained through a wiretap or other type of lawful interception, rather than “provide a complex system for converting the information into an industry standard format.”

A representative for the FBI told CNET today that: “(There are) significant challenges posed to the FBI in the accomplishment of our diverse mission. These include those that result from the advent of rapidly changing technology. A growing gap exists between the statutory authority of law enforcement to intercept electronic communications pursuant to court order and our practical ability to intercept those communications. The FBI believes that if this gap continues to grow, there is a very real risk of the government ‘going dark,’ resulting in an increased risk to national security and public safety.”

Next steps
The FBI’s legislation, which has been approved by the Department of Justice, is one component of what the bureau has internally called the “National Electronic Surveillance Strategy.” Documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show that since 2006, Going Dark has been a worry inside the bureau, which employed 107 full-time equivalent people on the project as of 2009, commissioned a RAND study, and sought extensive technical input from the bureau’s secretive Operational Technology Division in Quantico, Va. The division boasts of developing the “latest and greatest investigative technologies to catch terrorists and criminals.”

But the White House, perhaps less inclined than the bureau to initiate what would likely be a bruising privacy battle, has not sent the FBI’s CALEA amendments to Capitol Hill, even though they were expected last year. (A representative for Sen. Patrick Leahy, head of the Judiciary committee and original author of CALEA, said today that “we have not seen any proposals from the administration.”)

Mueller said in December that the CALEA amendments will be “coordinated through the interagency process,” meaning they would need to receive administration-wide approval.

Stewart Baker, a partner at Steptoe and Johnson who is the former assistant secretary for policy at Homeland Security, said the FBI has “faced difficulty getting its legislative proposals through an administration staffed in large part by people who lived through the CALEA and crypto fights of the Clinton administration, and who are jaundiced about law enforcement regulation of technology — overly jaundiced, in my view.”

On the other hand, as a senator in the 1990s, Vice President Joe Biden introduced a bill at the FBI’s behest that echoes the bureau’s proposal today. Biden’s bill said companies should “ensure that communications systems permit the government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, data, and other communications when appropriately authorized by law.” (Biden’s legislation spurred the public release of PGP, one of the first easy-to-use encryption utilities.)

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. An FCC representative referred questions to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, which declined to comment.

From the FBI’s perspective, expanding CALEA to cover VoIP, Web e-mail, and social networks isn’t expanding wiretapping law: If a court order is required today, one will be required tomorrow as well. Rather, it’s making sure that a wiretap is guaranteed to produce results.

But that nuanced argument could prove radioactive among an Internet community already skeptical of government efforts in the wake of protests over the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in January, and the CISPA data-sharing bill last month. And even if startups or hobbyist projects are exempted if they stay below the user threshold, it’s hardly clear how open-source or free software projects such as Linphone, KPhone, and Zfone — or Nicholas Merrill’s proposal for a privacy-protective Internet provider — will comply.

The FBI’s CALEA amendments could be particularly troublesome for Zfone. Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP who became a privacy icon two decades ago after being threatened with criminal prosecution, announced Zfone in 2005 as a way to protect the privacy of VoIP users. Zfone scrambles the entire conversation from end to end.

“I worry about the government mandating backdoors into these kinds of communications,” says Jennifer Lynch, an attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has obtained documents from the FBI relating to its proposed expansion of CALEA.

As CNET was the first to report in 2003, representatives of the FBI’s Electronic Surveillance Technology Section in Chantilly, Va., began quietly lobbying the FCC to force broadband providers to provide more-efficient, standardized surveillance facilities. The FCC approved that requirement a year later, sweeping in Internet phone companies that tie into the existing telecommunications system. It was upheld in 2006 by a federal appeals court.

But the FCC never granted the FBI’s request to rewrite CALEA to cover instant messaging and VoIP programs that are not “managed”–meaning peer-to-peer programs like Apple’s Facetime, iChat/AIM, Gmail’s video chat, and Xbox Live’s in-game chat that do not use the public telephone network.

If there is going to be a CALEA rewrite, “industry would like to see any new legislation include some protections against disclosure of any trade secrets or other confidential information that might be shared with law enforcement, so that they are not released, for example, during open court proceedings,” says Roszel Thomsen, a partner at Thomsen and Burke who represents technology companies and is a member of an FBI study group. He suggests that such language would make it “somewhat easier” for both industry and the police to respond to new technologies.

But industry groups aren’t necessarily going to roll over without a fight. TechAmerica, a trade association that includes representatives of HP, eBay, IBM, Qualcomm, and other tech companies on its board of directors, has been lobbying against a CALEA expansion. Such a law would “represent a sea change in government surveillance law, imposing significant compliance costs on both traditional (think local exchange carriers) and nontraditional (think social media) communications companies,” TechAmerica said in e-mail today.

Ross Schulman, public policy and regulatory counsel at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, adds: “New methods of communication should not be subject to a government green light before they can be used.”

- Source: CNet

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Google Alerts Users 'Your Computer Appears To Be Infected'

Google has launched an awareness campaign to identify systems compromised with DNSChanger and alert users before the DNS servers are shut down and their PCs can no longer get to websites.

By Charles Ripley, Content Works May 23, 2012 8:06 AM

Google launched a new awareness campaign to alert users whose PCs may be compromised with the “DNSChanger” malware. The DNS servers used by the malware will be shut down soon, and infected computers will no longer be able to communicate with the Web, so Google is doing its part to help users clean up and point their PCs to legitimate DNS servers.

In November of last year the United States FBI—in cooperation with Estonian law enforcement—tracked down and arrested the group behind the DNSChanger malware. With millions of infected systems around the world relying on the malicious DNSChanger DNS servers, the FBI chose to continue hosting them as legitimate DNS servers.

However, the FBI isn’t in the business of acting as an Internet Service Provider or DNS host, so as of July 9 the DNSChanger servers will be shut down. There are an estimated 500,000 systems still using those servers for DNS, and those PCs will no longer be able to reach the Web once the FBI pulls the plug.

Google is virtually synonymous with the Web. To many users--particularly the ones who lack the Internet savvy or technical skills to understand the security issues or determine if their PCs have been compromised with DNSChanger--Google is the Web. That gives Google some measure of civic responsibility, and puts it in a unique position to be able to help users out.

A blog post from Google states, “Starting today we’re undertaking an effort to notify roughly half a million people whose computers or home routers are infected with a well-publicized form of malware known as DNSChanger.”

Google will check to see if a PC is using the rogue DNSChanger servers. Systems suspected of being infected will display a message at the top of the Google search results page that says “Your computer appears to be infected.”

The Google blog post explains, “We believe directly messaging affected users on a trusted site and in their preferred language will produce the best possible results.”

The clock is ticking. In about six weeks a half million users may find that their PCs are unable to connect with Web sites. Hopefully, those 500,000 users will conduct a Google search at some point in the next few weeks, and pay heed to the warning from Google.

If you receive a message from Google, or suspect that your PC might be compromised with DNSChanger, check out the DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG) site. It contains a variety of tools to help remove the malware and clean up your system.

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I Cry Out Day and Night Before You

Psalm 88
King James Version (KJV)


1 O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:

2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;

3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.

4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:

5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.

6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.

7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.

8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.

10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah.

11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?

12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

14 Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

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Biblical Prophecies Unsealed

Uploaded by kytekuttertv on Jan 5, 2011
Check out the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation from the scriptures only standpoint.

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JFK Secret Society Speech

Uploaded by n400ark on Feb 18, 2009
JFK The speech that got him killed

The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.

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Obama, Hollande help tilt G8’s balance to stimulus

U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande take time for a photo opportunity at Saturday's G8 summit at Camp David, Md.

Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

KEVIN CARMICHAEL

Globe and Mail Update

Published Saturday, May. 19, 2012 9:02PM EDT

Last updated Sunday, May. 20, 2012 5:04AM EDT

Economic stimulus is making a comeback.

The most notable thing about the Group of Eight Summit in Maryland on Friday and Saturday was the recognition that austerity isn’t a universal cure for what ails the global economy, especially Europe.

President Barack Obama and France’s newly elected Socialist President, François Hollande, were the rhetorical winners on the weekend.

They successfully watered down the German-led position that the best way to deal with a debt crisis is to quickly pay down debt by shifting the consensus to an acceptance that austerity is a means, not an end. Fiscal consolidation remains a priority, but not at the expense of economic growth, a new emphasis that could reshape governments’ approach to maintaining the recovery from the financial crisis.

“The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist,” the G8 said in a statement. “We commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of us.”

The shift reflects the acute state of the European debt crisis, which Mr. Obama characterized on Saturday as a “serious” situation that could upend the global economic recovery. The G8 also said it stood ready to release strategic oil reserves if crude prices surge this summer, but it was the prospect of Europe sinking into a deeper downturn that most worried leaders.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters that he detected a “growing sense of urgency that action needed to be taken” on the euro-zone crisis, Reuters reported. “Contingency plans need to be put in place and the strengthening of banks, governance, firewalls – all of those things need to take place very fast,” Mr. Cameron said.

Europe’s economy is stagnant, struggling to avoid recession amidst double-digit unemployment rates in most countries. Britain, which sits outside the euro zone, nevertheless counts the 17 members of the euro region as some of its main trading partners. Mr. Cameron, too, is fighting off recession. His cause hasn’t been helped by his decision to implement draconian spending cuts.

Germany is a notable exception, and its economic strength has given Chancellor Angela Merkel considerable clout in discussions on dealing with the troubles in the euro zone.

The German formula is simple: sacrifice. Using her country’s own history of fiscal discipline as reinforcement, Ms. Merkel insisted the international rescues of Greece, Ireland and Portugal came with tough budgetary conditions.

Other euro-zone countries, including Italy and Spain, have implemented austerity programs to keep nervous bond traders from driving up their borrowing costs. But these programs were implemented in part because Germany made clear it has little appetite for bankrolling more bailouts.

The apotheosis of austerity came at the Group of 20 Summit in Toronto in 2010, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper orchestrated a group pledge to halve budget deficits by next year.

Mr. Harper insisted Saturday that the Toronto austerity pledge remains valid.

“Fiscal discipline and economic growth go hand in hand,” Mr. Harper said when asked about the G8’s shift to a better balance between cost-cutting and more direct growth measures. “All of our discussions recognized that. Fiscal discipline is not sufficient for economic growth, but it is absolutely necessary. We will not emerge from what is now a debt-driven crisis unless that issue is addressed.”

The cost-cutting measures implemented in Europe since the Toronto summit caused considerable economic pain, and voters are rejecting the medicine.

Mr. Hollande was attending his first international summit after French voters earlier this month rejected Nicolas Sarkozy, who championed austerity. Greece will hold its second election in a month in June after pro- and anti-austerity parties split the vote earlier this month, leaving none with enough support to form a government. The June vote is being characterized as a referendum on Greece’s future as a euro country.

Facing an election of his own in November, the last thing Mr. Obama wants to contend with is a rupture of the euro zone, which at a minimum would shake global financial markets. Under Mr. Obama’s guidance at the Camp David presidential retreat, the G8 took the rare step of referencing an outside country by name, saying the group – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia – desired Greece to stay in the euro zone.

With a debt well in excess of the size of its economy, and German voters resentful of their taxes being used to bailout nations they see as profligate, it’s unlikely the conditions of Greece’s rescue package will change significantly, if at all.

There is nothing binding about a G8 commitment, but countries do use them as political cover back home. European leaders are scheduled to meet in a few days, and it now seems likely that growth initiatives, such as a rumoured infrastructure program, stand a better chance of becoming reality.

“Today we discussed ways [Europe] can promote growth and job creation right now, while still carrying out reforms necessary to stabilize and strengthen their economies for the future,” Mr. Obama said at the end of the summit Saturday.

Ms. Merkel made the point that governments can enhance growth by other means than pumping taxpayers’ money into the economy. She said measures under consideration in Europe include investments in research and development, Internet networks, and infrastructure. “This doesn’t mean stimulus in the traditional sense,” Ms. Merkel said, according to the Associated Press.

There were other hints in the G8 statement about how European leaders will approach debt going forward.

The document said the G8 welcomed Europe’s commitment to fiscal consolidation, assessed on a “structural basis.” A “structural” assessment of budgets subtracts interest payments. The decision to write that into the final statement could reflect recognition that much of the pressure on budgets in Europe is the result of record-high borrowing costs.

G8 leaders also emphasized their pursuit of “bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral” free-trade agreements, suggesting they will seek to lower trade barriers in any way possible, rather than getting hung up on a big global agreement under the World Trade Organization.

The final statement also said efforts to overhaul financial regulations should result in “stronger systems over time while not choking off near-term credit growth,” language bank lobbyists will see as a willingness of by world major financial centres to slow the pace of regulatory reforms.

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