Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Catholics and Muslims to fight terror and defend faith

A Cardinal (L) looks at a religious book with a Muslim scholar during a meeting at the Vatican November 4, 2008.
REUTERS/Osservatore Romano


Thu Nov 6, 2008 3:31pm EST

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Catholic and Muslim leaders at unprecedented Vatican meetings vowed on Thursday to jointly combat violence committed in God's name, to defend religious freedom and to foster equal rights for minority faith groups.

After three days of meetings, the 58 scholars and leaders -- 29 from each faith -- issued a joint declaration that also appealed for respect for religious figures and symbols.

The meetings came two years after the pope gave a speech hinting Islam was violent and irrational, sparking angry protests in the Middle East. The Muslim participants formed a group to challenge that and seek better mutual understanding.

The joint manifesto, A Common Word, called for dialogue based on shared principles of love of God and neighbor.

"We profess that Catholics and Muslims are called to be instruments of love and harmony among believers, and for humanity as a whole, renouncing any oppression, aggressive violence and terrorism, especially that committed in the name of religion, and upholding the principle of justice for all," said the statement describing the talks as "warm and convivial."

Religious minorities were "entitled to their own places of worship, and their founding figures and symbols they consider sacred should not be subjected to any form of mockery or ridicule," it said.

The Vatican has long defended minority Christians in places such as Saudi Arabia, where they cannot worship publicly, and urged safety for Iraqi Christians. Muslims in western countries say they face discrimination and suspicion by the majority.

The declaration's words about avoiding mockery or ridicule reflected continued Muslim concern about the 2005 publication in a Danish newspaper of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that sparked violent protests in the Islamic world.

VAST FIELD FOR COOPERATION

Earlier in the day, Pope Benedict received the delegations at the Vatican and said the faiths should cooperate much more.

"There is a great and vast field in which we can act together in defending and promoting the moral values which are part of our common heritage," the German-born pope said.

"Let us resolve to overcome past prejudices and to correct the often distorted images of the other which even today can create difficulties in our relations," he added.

The Abu Dhabi-based Bishop of Arabia Paul Hinder said he discussed with Muslim delegates the Vatican wish's to build churches in Saudi Arabia for Catholic migrant workers there.

"I don't think we'll get any right away, but things are changing," he told journalists.

The Vatican has also participated in interfaith talks launched this year by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, who will meet at the United Nations in New York next week with other heads of state to further promote his initiative.

These and other dialogues reflect a new urgency Muslim leaders have felt after the September 11 attacks, the "clash of civilizations" theory and the pope's 2006 speech in Regensburg showed a widening gap between the world's two largest faiths.

Benedict said the Catholic-Muslim Forum, the official name for this dialogue now set to take place every two years, was "now confidently taking its first steps."

The Catholic delegation included Vatican officials, Catholic scholars of Islam and bishops leading minority communities in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Three were women.

The Common Word group, an independent union of Islamic thinkers from across the Muslim word, sent Sunni and Shi'ite religious leaders and scholars from the Middle East, Africa, Asia and western countries, including two women.

Ingrid Mattson, a convert who heads the largest Muslim organization in North America, said the Common Word represented "the broad mainstream of the Muslim world ... Those who oppose us, their voices will become increasingly marginalized."






Related News
Jewish charges against Pius XII outrageous: Vatican
06 Nov 2008
FACTBOX: Catholic-Muslim dialogue
06 Nov 2008








Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/inDepthNews/idUSTRE49T54420081106?sp=true

Government warns of "catastrophic" U.S. quake




Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:42pm EST


By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - People in a vast seismic zone in the southern and midwestern United States would face catastrophic damage if a major earthquake struck there and should ensure that builders keep that risk in mind, a government report said on Thursday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said if earthquakes strike in what geologists define as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, they would cause "the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States."

FEMA predicted a large earthquake would cause "widespread and catastrophic physical damage" across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee -- home to some 44 million people.

Tennessee is likely to be hardest hit, according to the study that sought to gauge the impact of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in order to guide the government's response.

In Tennessee alone, it forecast hundreds of collapsed bridges, tens of thousands of severely damaged buildings and a half a million households without water.

Transportation systems and hospitals would be wrecked, and police and fire departments impaired, the study said.

The zone, named for the town of New Madrid in Missouri's southeast corner, is subject to frequent mild earthquakes.

Experts have long tried to predict the likelihood of a major quake like those that struck in 1811 and 1812. These shifted the course of the Mississippi River and rang church bells on the East Coast but caused few deaths amid a sparse population.

"People who live in these areas and the people who build in these areas certainly need to take into better account that at some time there is ... expected to be a catastrophic earthquake in that area, and they'd better be prepared for it," said FEMA spokesperson Mary Margaret Walker.




Fighting the Global Slump: Less Is Dangerous


Richard Mia


Financial Crisis Crunch

November 20, 2008, 5:00PM EST


Amid a debt-deflation spiral, the governments' greatest risk is enacting stimulus measures that are too little to fight the slump



For more than six decades, through oil shocks and terrorist attacks, the world's advanced economies have managed to expand their collective output at least a little bit each year. But that long lucky streak is probably about to end, a victim of the severe global credit crunch. The International Monetary Fund is now projecting that 2009 will bring the first aggregate decline in economic output in advanced economies since at least World War II.

The IMF still expects China and other developing nations to grow next year as a group, but it warns that "downside risks to growth, even for the emerging economies, remain significant." Some economists are even gloomier. "There is a very severe deleveraging which you can't stop," says Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "My guess is that [even] if we have good economic policies, the world will see a [gross domestic product] fall of 10%... . This is global, and it's fierce."

Even if things don't get that bad, it's clear that we're deep in uncharted territory—or at least territory that hasn't been explored since the Great Depression. Economists and policymakers are floundering. Since they don't know how severe the recession will be, they don't know how extreme their measures to combat the downturn should be. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who has struggled to find a path for American policy, defended himself in a Nov. 18 op-ed article in The New York Times, saying: "There is no playbook for responding to turmoil we have never faced."

The greatest risk at the moment is that governments will do too little to fight the slide. BusinessWeek estimates that governments around the world have committed more than $2.6 trillion for bank bailouts and other efforts to spur growth. But even that may not be enough. Germany, the powerhouse of Europe, has moved only haltingly to stimulate its economy, fearing that aggressive steps might cause inflation. Holger Schmieding, chief European economist at Bank of America (BAC) in London, says Germany's tax-cut plan "is so small, I wouldn't even count it." Japan, once again in recession, remains unable to muster the energy to break out of an off-and-on performance that dates back to 1990. Britain, Ireland, and other nations with big government deficits are reluctant to spend too much on stimulus for fear it could invite a speculative attack on their currencies.

"PROMISCUOUS" WITH DEBT
The U.S., where the crisis originated, may also be moving too slowly given the depth of the slump, many economists say. Washington is unlikely to pass a substantial stimulus package until after the new Congress and President take office in January. On Nov. 18, Treasury's Paulson clashed with lawmakers who want him to spend some of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program on aid to homeowners. Paulson said TARP is supposed to bolster financial institutions and "was not intended to be an economic stimulus or an economic recovery package."

The problem with slow or tentative measures is that they could allow the worldwide downturn to gain a momentum that would be even harder to reverse later. The lack of quick and massive intervention may have been one of the reasons why the Great Depression, which began in 1929, lingered until the outbreak of World War II revved up the war machines.

An unprecedented debt overhang is what makes this downturn both severe and hard to forecast. Consumers, particularly in the U.S., overborrowed to buy houses, cars, toys, and vacations. The bubble in housing prices misled lenders into thinking the loans were well collateralized. A similar dynamic was at work in other kinds of secured lending. Now the spiral has reversed. The declining value of collateral is causing lenders to withdraw credit. That forces borrowers to sell assets to raise cash, pushing prices down further in a vicious cycle.


Hardest hit are small, open economies such as Ireland, Iceland, and Taiwan (all island nations) that were exemplars of globalization and financial innovation just a few years ago. They relied even more than the U.S. on free flows of trade and investment. But big European countries such as Britain, France, and Italy also feel their ability to stimulate is limited. "The British government has been wildly promiscuous with public debt over the last 10 years," says Geoffrey Wood, an economist at Cass Business School of City University London. He says British public debt "will inevitably take its toll on the pound. There's no logical floor for how long it could go against the dollar."

Least affected are several big countries, such as China, that are beginning to switch from export-driven growth to domestic demand. The IMF expects China's economy to expand 8.5% in 2009—not bad, albeit the country's first year of single-digit growth since 2002. Beijing announced plans for $586 billion in stimulus over two years to keep things humming. Indonesia, surprisingly, chugged ahead at a 6.4% rate in the third quarter, driven by domestic demand. And sub-Saharan Africa is also likely to be spared, if only because much of it is desperately poor and barely tied to the global economy.

The world economy's ordinary shock absorbers are inadequate for a crisis of this scale. Central bank reductions in interest rates are becoming less effective because people are afraid to borrow no matter how low the rate. And of course, rates can't be cut below zero.

As a result, governments are being forced to turn to spending programs that are not part of their usual recession-fighting arsenal. In addition to the usual tax breaks and rebate checks, they are resorting to government loans and investments in financial institutions, as well as debt guarantees aimed at restarting private lending. Many countries are pursuing all three.

The bad news is that government responses do not yet match the scale of the crisis. The good news, on the other hand, is that governments have more elbow room than usual to borrow and spend because, with the plunge in commodity prices and slack in labor markets, inflation is no longer an immediate threat. On Nov. 19 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 1% drop in consumer prices in October—the biggest monthly decline since the bureau began tracking those figures in 1947.

Recognizing the risks of a debt-deflation spiral, aides to President-elect Barack Obama are working on plans to ask Congress to spend up to $500 billion more. Other countries may have to follow suit. In the end, a synchronized recession will require synchronized stimuli.


Coy is BusinessWeek's Economics editor.With Jason Bush in Moscow, Mark Scott in London, and Carol Matlack in Paris

G. K. Chesterton


"The Catholic Church is like a thick steak,a glass of red wine, and a good cigar."
..
G.K. Chesterton


G.K. Chesterton

Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him


1Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.

2Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.

3Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

4For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.

5He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

6By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

7He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.

8Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

9For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

10The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

11The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

13The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.

14From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

15He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.

16There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.

17An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

18Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;

19To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

20Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

21For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

22Let thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

Psalm 33

Monday, November 24, 2008

Support, criticism swirl around Bourgeois


Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, outside a congressional office building in Washington in 2007 (CNS photo/Paul Haring)


By Tom Roberts
Published: November 20, 2008


The news that peace activist Fr. Roy Bourgeois was threatened with excommunication for his support of women’s ordination unleashed a storm of commentary and reaction from various Catholic interest groups and around the blogosphere.


If the issue is settled for Rome, it is still wide open in some Catholic circles. In addition to the expected sharp division between those who applaud Bourgeois’ action and those who find it scandalous, people have posed thoughtful questions about conscience, and how and whether the church can force someone to violate his conscience. Others, in what amounts to a fairly robust discussion of the question of women’s ordination, raise issues of history and women’s place in the early church based on an understanding of scripture and archaeological evidence.


Another thread that runs through much of the commentary asks how the church could act so swiftly against Bourgeois when decades passed before the church even began to investigate cases of sex abuse of children by priests. Meanwhile, Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest of 36 years, is trying to meld issues that normally operate in separate spheres by claiming that the ban on ordaining women is as serious an injustice within the church as the injustices he has confronted in the realms of the political and military.


Bourgeois, who concelebrated an ordination of women in Kentucky in August, responded to the Vatican’s warning that he recant his position or face excommunication with a letter stating that he considered the ban on ordination of women an injustice within the church and that he could not recant what he considered a matter of conscience.


He expects to receive final notice of excommunication from the Vatican in the very near future.
On Amy Goodman's news program Democracy Now! Nov. 20, Bourgeois said he wanted to go to Rome. "I will be going to Rome. A number of fellow priests have already asked me, said they would like to join me, along with a bishop friend. We will be going to Rome to appeal this. I would want to have, and I think I have a right to -- and it’s reasonable to request, after 36 years as a priest, a short meeting with Pope Benedict and other leaders in the Church to appeal my case, to simply appeal to them personally and say what I said in my letter to them that this cannot be justified."


In a homily delivered during the August ordination, Bourgeois declared, “Just as soldiers in Latin America abuse their power and control others, it saddens me to see the hierarchy of our church abusing their power and causing so much suffering among women. Jesus was a healer, a peacemaker, who called everyone into the circle as equals.”


Roman Catholic Womenpriests, who sponsored the ordination that precipitated the Vatican action against Bourgeois, asked in a release how the Vatican could “excommunicate women who honor their call to the priesthood and, in the case of Fr. Roy, the men who support them, but not the priest s and bishops who have perpetrated sexual abuse of children?”
In a series of questions, the group also asked why the Vatican continued to ignore “the voice of the community,” citing surveys that regularly show a heavy majority of Catholics would approve of women priests.


“Why do you continue to deny the documented archaeological evidence that supports the spiritual leadership of women as deaconesses, priests and bishops for the first 1200 years of church history?” the group asked.


One of the most high profile clerics to weigh in on the Vatican discipline is Jesuit Fr. James Martin, an author and frequent contributor to America magazine, the weekly Jesuit publication. In a Nov. 11 blog posting, Martin essentially explained the collision course that was inevitable when Bourgeois clearly violated church teaching by participating in the ordination, no matter that on another level, he was following his conscience, an inviolable activity. Martin cites several of the powerful references to conscience in Vatican II documents and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, including the line from Gaudiem et Spes: “Conscience is man’s most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.”
Martin tacks a “reflection” to the end `of his entry in which he recounts that the excommunication warning was sent to Bourgeois in October, within three months of the ordination ceremony in August. “Would that the church had acted with equal swiftness against sexually abusive priests. Would that bishops who had moved abusive priests from parish to parish were met with th same severeity of justice.


“Were their offenses of lesser ‘gravity?’” he asked. “ Did they cause lesser ‘scandal?’”
Many people spoke of writing to Pope Benedict XVI as well as Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency that corresponded with Bourgeois.


One long missive that was sent to both the pope and NCR was from Charlotte Therese of Sweden. Near the end of the letter, she states:


“I’ve studied all the arguments against women ordinations in detail and I’ve found that none of them is solid enough to build any teachings upon. It’s rather the opposite way -- they all fall down like a pile of cards if they’re slightly touched. I thus hope you will welcome and reopen theological discussions about this in the Vatican, through inviting theologians from all over the world who has (sic) studied the question at depth -- both women and men -- and both those who based on their studies are positive to change and those who aren’t, and they should all have the right to speak and vote.”


A respondent on one blog who said he accepts “the stand of those in charge at this time” opposed the action against Bourgeois. “Instead of refuting Fr. Roy’s position, they silence his voice. What does this accomplish? Have those in charge not learned the lessons of history?”


Call to Action, the lay reform group that has long supported women’s ordination, was attempting to gather 2,000 signatures on a petition supporting Bourgeois prior to this year’s demonstration at Ft. Benning, Ga.


Bourgeois was founder of the annual event, which attracts thousands and is referred to as SOA Watch after the School of the Americas, the former name of the school at the fort. It was changed in 2001 to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The protest began in 1990, a year after six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were assassinated in El Salvador by troops that had been trained at the SOA.


On Nov. 20, Bourgeois was preparing for the crowds that were beginning to arrive. Asked in a phone interview about reactions to his impending excommunication, he said he continues to receive calls of support, but said he had heard nothing further from the Vatican.
As for the SOA protest, Bourgeois said happily that he was finished with his organizational duties. He said he was in charge of arranging for portable potties and had just met the crew that delivered them. “I’m finished for the weekend. My work is done. And it’s one of the most important jobs here,” he joked.



(Tom Roberts is NCR editor at large. His e-mail address is troberts@ncronline.org.)



Pope Benedict XVI may name new St. Louis archbishop soon


Jan. 26, 2004--Raymond Burke (right), walks toward the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica with Bishop Joseph Naumann before the service for Burke's installation as archbishop of the St. Louis Archdiocese. Naumann, now serving as archbishop in Kansas City, may be among the candidates to succeed Burke in St. Louis. (By J.B. Forbes/P-D)By Tim Townsend


11/22/2008

In May 2005, a month after his election, Pope Benedict XVI transferred Archbishop William Levada from San Francisco to the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Benedict chose Levada, now a cardinal, to fill the position he was vacating as head of the Catholic Church's orthodoxy office.

Seven months later, Benedict appointed Levada's good friend, Archbishop George Niederauer, to succeed Levada in San Francisco.

In June, former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke joined Levada as one of the highest-ranking Americans working in the Vatican. And like Levada, Burke's recommendation for his successor in St. Louis will hold a lot of weight with Benedict.

Vatican watchers have suggested recently that St. Louis Catholics might hear from Benedict sooner rather than later — as in days or weeks, not months — about their next archbishop. The Vatican all but closes down in December and Benedict wants to put some key bishops in place before the end of the year, according to sources.

The search for the new leader of a diocese is both prescribed and secretive. Few people know all the pieces of the puzzle during the meticulous process, and anyone who does is bound by an oath of silence called a "papal secret."

St. Louis is one of eight dioceses — and the only archdiocese — currently without a bishop in the U.S. church. (The others are Biloxi, Miss.; Charleston, S.C.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Duluth, Minn.; Gallup, N.M.; Juneau, Alaska, and Knoxville, Tenn.) And Benedict has about 125 vacancies around the world he needs to fill, including 11 archdioceses.

While some Vatican watchers contend Burke has a tremendous amount of influence in Benedict's decision, others say Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the Vatican's top diplomat in the U.S. — called the apostolic nuncio — who shepherds the selection process along and is often called the gatekeeper of the selection process, will hold sway.

In his three years as Benedict's man in America, Sambi has leaned toward bishops liberal Catholics would call "more pastoral." (The appointments of centrists like Archbishop Donald Wuerl in Washington and Niederauer are examples.) Conservative Catholics say bishops like Burke adhere to church teaching and are therefore truly pastoral.

Following are some of the names that have been floated as candidates to become the ninth archbishop of St. Louis: RELATED
More religion news

— Archbishop Joseph Naumann, 59, of Kansas City, Kan. Naumann, who was ordained in St. Louis, was rumored to be the first choice of former St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali to succeed him when Rigali was named archbishop of Philadelphia in 2003. As a member of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, Rigali, who is now a cardinal, will have a lot of influence in the process. In May (after reportedly counseling her multiple times on the issue), Naumann wrote a public letter asking Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic and abortion-rights supporter, not to receive Holy Communion.

— Bishop Robert Finn, 55, of Kansas City, another vocal abortion opponent and St. Louis native. Other St. Louis natives whose names have come up include Bishop John Gaydos, 65, of Jefferson City, and Bishop George Lucas, 59, of Springfield, Ill.

— Bishop Thomas Paprocki, 56, auxiliary bishop of Chicago. He is a canon lawyer (who, in fact, defeated Burke in a 2007 election among U.S. bishops to chair their conference's canon law committee) and former chancellor of the Chicago Archdiocese. He is Cardinal George's liaison for health and hospital affairs and at last week's bishops' meeting in Baltimore warned that Catholic health care facilities would have to close their doors if a new federal law passed that forced health care workers to perform abortions. Paprocki is also on the boards of the Polish American Association and the Polish American Leadership Initiative, which would give him an interesting perspective on the ongoing battle between the archdiocese and St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.

— Bishop Salvatore Matano, 62, of Burlington, Vt. He is a Rhode Island native and a former classmate of Burke's — the two studied together in Rome in the early 1980s and are friends. Public speculation about Matano began last month, after an influential and well-sourced Catholic blog, "Whispers in the Loggia," floated his name.

Other bishops who have a connection to Burke and whose names have been bandied about as possible successors:

— Bishop Kevin Vann, 57, of Fort Worth, Texas. He was born and ordained in Springfield, Ill. Burke took part in his consecration as bishop. He's only been in Fort Worth for three years.

— Bishop Michael Cote, 59, of Norwich, Conn. He also was co-consecrated by Burke, but is not a Midwesterner and may be in line to take over the Hartford Archdiocese.

— Bishop Peter Jugis, 51, of Charlotte, N.C. — singled out by Burke in a recent interview with an Italian newspaper as having a similar position to the archbishop on Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.

If there really are two ways Pope Benedict could go on the selection — either with Burke or with Sambi — then the bishops Sambi might promote could include:

— Bishop Terry Steib, 68, of Memphis, Tenn. He's possibly too old to get the nod, but if he did, he would be St. Louis' first African-American bishop, something that Sambi reportedly would like to see more of. Before the presidential election, during which several bishops told Catholics abortion should be the pre-eminent issue they take into account when voting, Steib took a different position, saying "we cannot be a one-issue people." Steib also gets high marks for packing potential priests into his seminary in unprecedented numbers.

— Bishop Gerald Kicanas, 67, of Tucson, Ariz. A native of Chicago, Kicanas is the vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which means he is in line to succeed Cardinal George as president — a time-consuming job — in two years. Kicanas' history as rector of the graduate-level seminary in Chicago would give him a good perspective on the scheduled $65 million expansion of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

— Bishop Blase Cupich, 59, of Rapid City, S.D. At the bishops' meeting last week, he took a more diplomatic stand than some on the issue of Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. A native of Omaha, Neb., Cupich may be in line to take over the archdiocese of his hometown when Omaha's Catholic leader, Archbishop Elden Curtiss, 76, retires.



Even the Dominican Catholic church scolds the Government


SANTO DOMINGO.- The Catholic church affirms that bureaucracy and inertia reign in many Government agencies, that their chiefs sidestep planning and are “striking out blindly” without information, where there’s a lack of creativity, dynamism and a vision on the country that we wish to build.

The scolding is the latest blast against the government, after business associations, popular groups and of civil society have blasted its lack of effective plans to confront the lingering problems, in addition to those expected to soon reach the country from the global financial crisis.

The Catholic Church, in the Editorial in its weekly publication Camino, says the routine and even parasitism lurk around the many offices, where their employees are being dragged like a leaf floating down a river. “The case is so serious that we’ve seen through history ministries giving money back to the National Treasury at the end of the year, because they didn’t find what to use it in.”

It said the most convincing proof of ineptitude and lack of management in the ministries is that while our communities are full of needs, basic services are lacking and drag deficiencies that continue from one decade to another without being solved.

Camino adds that this situation brings about irritation among the inhabitants in many towns, who live suspended amid a progress that makes its presence in other zones of the country, sparking popular protests that spill innocent blood. “How many mothers will cry forever the loss of a son who left inopportunely as a result of a bullet lodged in youthful years and those responsible get wrapped within the penumbra of time and forgetfulness.”

“How much tension and violence we would spare the nation if we were to have Cabinet Ministries whose members were capable people, with a vocation of service and with a work attitude that surmounts all the obstacles they find,” the weekly said, adding that “It’s enough already that even to change a lamp in a park the approval and the permit from the President must be sought. Let us open the door of progress and institutionalism assuming each one the role society has assigned them.”


Dominican Catholics don’t oppose bill on the clergy, but warn of risks


SANTO DOMINGO.- While the Catholic Church doesn’t oppose the approval of a Religious Associations Law, it does warn that some observations must be made, for which it held meetings with representatives of other Christian congregations.

The statement came Monday morning from monsignor Ramon Benito Angeles, of the Dominican Episcopal Conference’s Legal consultancy, and the priest Carmelo Santana, executive secretary.

They clarified that they don’t oppose the bill, because of the Concordat between Dominican State and the Vatican, which they affirm is over any legislation.

The catholic priests said they’ve met with delegates of other Christian faiths more than once to speak on the topic, because they’re all centered on Jesus Christ.

As to the part of the Law allowing non-cathoilc Christian churches to officiate marriage, the catholics say their concern is justified because not all churches have control mechanisms to prevent a person from marrying twice, and that society would be at risk if ministers without experience nor training are allowed to realise marriages.

“There are congregations that don’t have the logistics to control the marriages they do,” Santana said in the interview by Huchi Lora and Rafael Acevedo in the program El Dia, Channel 11, adding that there are some concepts in the bill that need to mature, but the catholics at heart don’t object it.



How Many Clinton Retreads Does It Take to Screw Up an Obama Administration?


November 22, 2008 at 01:05:01
Headlined on 11/22/08:


by Kevin Gosztola Page 1 of 3 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com/


While I suppose many Obama supporters and fans have not been vetting Obama’s picks for his staff and his Cabinet, I have by going through Internet databases and Google to find information on any person Obama has selected to be part of his administration. And, it appears that Americans who wanted real change have been deluded. Not tricked but deluded.



Now, there is a virtual one-stop shop for anyone interested in Obama’s prescription for change. Written by Jeremy Scahill, this piece titled, “This Is Change? 20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House” details all the people posed to shape Obama’s foreign policy.



As for Obama’s economic policy, it looks like Obama will be tapping in to Robert Rubin & Co. and will be utilizing Rubinomics when establishing economic policy. Rubin is responsible for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, which enabled commercial to underwrite and trade instruments such as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. (This in layman’s terms means the repeal is partly responsible for the current financial meltdown.)



It’s not like a significant portion of America didn’t see this coming. It’s just that less than 5% had the fortitude to not choose John McCain or Obama on Election Day and instead vote for a third party candidate like Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Bob Barr, or Chuck Baldwin.
Throughout the election, this sliver of the American population continuously tried to compel Obama supporters and members of Obama’s fan club to force him to earn their vote and were brushed off or snubbed.



Voters who considered voting for a candidate other than Obama or McCain based on the fact that Obama and McCain had yet to earn their vote were mocked and derided.
As Chris Hedges detailed recently in his must-read piece, “America the Illiterate”, Americans, even peace, justice, and freedom activists whose agenda was and still is at odds with Obama, were bought off by “slogans, smiles, the cheerful family tableaux, narratives and the perceived sincerity and the attractiveness” of a candidate.



Many Americans made small contributions to Obama’s campaign despite the fact that private entities like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Latham & Watkins, Time Warner, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Microsoft, General Electric, Google Inc., and News Corp were donating hundreds of thousands of dollars.



In fact, while the Obama campaign made a big to-do out of the small contributions, the Washington Post reported this on October 22nd:



Lost in the attention given to Obama's Internet surge is that only a quarter of the $600 million he has raised has come from donors who made contributions of $200 or less, according to a review of his FEC reports. That is actually slightly less, as a percentage, than President Bush raised in small donations during his 2004 race, although Obama has pulled from a far larger number of donors. In 2004, the Bush campaign claimed more than 2 million donors, while the Obama campaign claims to have collected its total from more than 3.1 million individuals.
Dear Obama supporters, was Obama promising change we could believe in or change we needed to small contributors or big donors, which donated to the Obama for America Fund and then the Obama Victory Fund and then forced the Obama campaign to open a third fund, the Committee for Change, so that donors which had already donated tens of thousands of dollars could donate tens of thousands of dollars more?



Ask yourself, just what did these big donors hope to get?



I mean, Obama supporters may not have thought about this but bipartisanship and unity and making Washington work are all things that the private sector may have been hoping for. Corporations need a government willing to unite and not engage in partisanship so that gridlock does not prevent deregulations and bills which benefit Big Business from being stalled.
We can’t have that next big bailout being stalled in the House or Senate now, can we?
Let’s be honest. Delusions of grandeur, visions of hope and change, filled the hearts and minds of America’s electorate and Americans having been through Bush gladly bought into these delusions.



Few prepared for this moment otherwise many Americans especially bloggers and Internet news writers would be talking about who they think should be an Obama Cabinet like In These Times did at the end of September when they published their two-part piece, “22 to Know: Our Picks for an Obama Cabinet.”



Had progressives and liberals been organized and less invested in a candidate who was at odds with many of their beliefs and values, they would be out in the streets like they were when Bush was planning to go to war in Iraq right now, and they would be demanding that this policy change opportunity not be squandered



1 2 3

Source: http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Many-Clinton-Retreads-by-Kevin-Gosztola-081122-184.html

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Americans teetering on $14 trillion debt pile


Fri Nov 14, 2008 7:32am EST

By Emily Kaiser - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Free-spending U.S. consumers who bought everything from homes to groceries on borrowed money are running out of credit, and paying the bills will cost the world's biggest economy and its trading partners dearly.

The housing bust has exposed just how much Americans were relying on rising home values to pad spending and replace traditional savings. During the five-year real estate boom that ended in late 2006, household wealth expanded, retail sales grew faster than income, and savings dwindled.

But as banks restrict access to mortgages, auto loans and credit cards, consumers are altering their spending behavior so rapidly that companies cannot adjust fast enough.

Banks that eagerly handed out credit cards during the good times are reducing credit limits and setting asides billions of dollars to cover losses as customers miss payments.

U.S. automakers are warning of a near collapse in demand because would-be buyers are unable or unwilling to get loans.

Stores are bracing for the worst holiday season sales performance in at least 18 years.

Meredith Whitney, the Oppenheimer & Co analyst who was among the first to warn that banks needed to raise huge amounts of money to offset mortgage losses, worries that cuts to credit limits will constrain already cautious consumers, reinforcing a vicious cycle of bank losses and economic decline.

"If you lose your job, if you get sick, if any unforeseen event happens, that's your slush fund," Whitney said at the Reuters Global Finance Summit in New York.

"If all of a sudden you lose your slush fund (or it) gets cut dramatically -- and it will -- everything about you changes, and you become more guarded as a consumer. You could be absolutely fine in every other area of your life, but getting your credit line cut changes your whole outlook."

Over the past decade, American households have piled on $8 trillion in debt, an increase of 137 percent, twice the gain seen in the size of the economy. At $14 trillion, the debt load is now roughly equal to the entire economy's annual output.

Much of the increase comes from home mortgages, which have expanded by $6 trillion since 1998, but it also reflects higher balances on credit cards and auto loans.

Despite the expanding debt burden, investors around the world poured money into securities backed by mortgages and credit card receivables for much of this decade, keeping borrowing costs low.

Thanks to the easy credit, U.S. consumers kept increasing their spending throughout the housing run-up, easily exceeding wage growth. Retailers opened hundreds of new stores to fill newly constructed shopping centers. Imports soared, swelling the reserves of exporters such as China. U.S. household savings dwindled to almost nothing.

All of that is changing as the world grows wary of offering more credit to overextended Americans. As defaults jump, banks are now having trouble finding buyers for any investments tied to U.S. household borrowing.

RESTORING FAITH

The Treasury's decision, announced on Wednesday, to use some of its $700 billion rescue package to back consumer lending is likely to fall short until investors have faith that Americans are good credit risks.

That means paring the $14 trillion of debt, but there is no consensus on exactly how much households ought to borrow.

This much is clear: the portion of income that consumers save has steadily declined over the past 30 years from around 10 percent to near zero, and that trend will be reversed.

Economists think the saving rate will rise to somewhere around 5.0 percent in the next couple of years. Based on current household income, that would work out to around $500 billion less for consumers to spend, or about six weeks worth of U.S. retail sales on average.

What is most worrisome for the economy is that the reversal is occurring so quickly. Anxious households have already slashed spending, and banks worried that savers will yank deposits are clamping down even harder on credit.

Whether it is declining demand for cars from Japan, Chinese furniture or clothes from Central America, the slowdown in U.S. spending is casting a shadow over the world economy.

China has pledged a $586 billion stimulus to support growth as exports slide. Europe appears headed for a recession. Even emerging economies that had little exposure to the banking crisis are struggling with slower growth.

WORSE TO COME

Next year may be worse. Credit agency Fitch Ratings expects deeper credit card losses in 2009, and they could reach record highs. Card issuers are trying to cut losses while they can.

"You're seeing a lot of pre-emptive strikes from banks," said Joseph Beaulieu, an retail sector analyst at Morningstar in Chicago.

"You're seeing banks cut credit card limits and home equity lines of credit across the board. You're seeing credit card companies close unused accounts because they don't want someone to max out a card they haven't used in two years."

Credit card debt grew at a modest 1.2 percent annual rate in September to $971.4 billion, well below the 7.4 percent increase recorded in 2007, according to data from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The Fed's survey of loan officers showed that banks tightened lending standards in the last three months.

"It used to be that if you had a heartbeat and applied for a card, you'd get a $10,000 credit line," said Curtis Arnold, a consumer advocate and founder of CardRatings.com. "Those days are long gone."

It is a difficult cycle to break. As credit dries up, consumer spending slows, which forces companies to cut more jobs and more people to default.

How bad it gets depends on how many more jobs are lost as the U.S. economy slumps into a recession that could be the deepest since the mid-1970s. If unemployment climbs another two percentage points to 8.5 percent, as many economists expect, that would mean about three million more people out of work -- and likely struggling to pay credit card bills and mortgages.

Retailers have already suffered plenty of pain.

Several large chains have filed for bankruptcy protection, including the second largest electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. Construction of new retail space is on a pace to decline by 37 percent this year.

Even companies that appear to be survivors haven't gone unscathed. Brad Anderson, the chief executive of Circuit City's biggest competitor, Best Buy Co Inc, said his company simply could not react fast enough to the "rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior" in the past couple of months.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)




© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved


Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AD3A620081114?sp=true

Preparing for a Charismatic Meltdown




Wednesday, November 19, 2008




Three prominent charismatic ministries have suffered huge setbacks this month. What does this mean for our movement?

Foreclosure. Eviction. Bailouts. We’re hearing those terms a lot these days, and not just in the newspaper’s business section. In the last two weeks three charismatic churches that once enjoyed huge popularity have fallen on hard times.


In Tampa, Florida, Without Walls International Church is facing foreclosure. The megachurch, which once attracted 23,000 worshipers and was heralded as one of the nation’s fastest-growing congregations, shrunk drastically after co-pastors Randy and Paula White announced in 2007 that they were divorcing. On Nov. 4 their bank filed foreclosure proceedings and demanded immediate repayment of a $12 million loan on the property.

In Duluth, Georgia—northeast of Atlanta—sheriff’s deputies arrived at Global Destiny Ministries and ordered Bishop Thomas Weeks II to leave the property. According to documents filed in state court, Weeks—who divorced popular preacher Juanita Bynum in June—owed more than $511,000 in back rent to the building’s owners. He was escorted out of the building on Nov. 14 while a church service was in progress.

"The wrecking ball of heaven is swinging. It has come to demolish any work that has not been built on the integrity of His Word."

In the case of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, many parishioners walked out 16 years ago when it became known that Earl Paulk and other staff members were involved in wife-swapping. Paulk created a bizarre culture of secrecy to cover the immorality, which included his affair with a sister-in-law—and resulted in the birth of Donnie Earl (who thought he was Earl Paulk’s nephew until last year). The church has only had a few hundred members in recent years.


Today, Donnie Earl has embraced the inclusionist doctrines of Oklahoma pastor Carlton Pearson, who left the faith in 2003 and was labeled a heretic by a group of African-American bishops the following year. The younger Paulk now preaches that all people, not just Christians, are saved. He told Charisma last week that the Cathedral “has expanded to include all of God’s creation—Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, gay, straight, etc.” And this distorted message is broadcast from a pulpit that hosted the premier leaders of the charismatic movement during the 1970s and 1980s.

Even before Weeks was charged with assaulting Bynum in a hotel parking lot in August 2007, the pastor of Global Destiny Ministries defiled his pulpit during a “Teach Me to Love You” marriage conference. He told married men they should use profanity during sex to heighten their experience, and he brought couples on stage to play a game in which men were asked to name their favorite female body parts.

Lord, help us.

Was it supposed to end like this? How did a movement that was at one time focused on winning people to Christ and introducing them to the power of the Holy Spirit end in such disgrace?

I hear the sound of bricks and steel beams crashing to the ground. The wrecking ball of heaven is swinging. It has come to demolish any work that has not been built on the integrity of God’s Word.

All of us should be trembling. God requires holiness in His house and truth in the mouths of His servants. He is loving and patient with our mistakes and weaknesses, but eventually, if there is no repentance after continual correction, His discipline is severe. He will not be mocked.

Romans 11:22 says: “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (NASB).

God is not married to our buildings. If He allowed foreign armies to burn Jerusalem and its glorious temple, He will also write “Ichabod” on the doors of churches where there is no repentance for compromise.

I pray the fear of God will grip our hearts until we cleanse our defiled pulpits. Let’s examine our hearts and our ministries. Let’s throw out the wood, hay and stubble and build on a sure and tested foundation. It is the only way to survive the meltdown.




J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma.






Wind Ensemble concert to feature infernos, drums and holidays



November 11, 2008


La Sierra University’s Wind Ensemble will play it up during their fall concert this Saturday evening. The group will perform a range of works including Robert W. Smith's “The Inferno” and “The Ascension,” based on the imagery of Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” Sam Hazo’s “Across the Halfpipe,” featuring percussion instruments, Richard Saucedo’s “Full Tilt!,” and a piece for the holidays. Conducting and composition student Nic Coffey, in his conducting debut, will also present Gordon Goodwin’s “Ever Braver, Ever Stronger.” The event will be held Sat., Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. in the university’s Hole Memorial Auditorium. Admission for this concert is free. Call (951) 785-2036 for additional information.


For more info on upcoming music performances, please use the following link:http://www.lasierra.edu/departments/music/calendar.html




PR Contact: Larry BeckerExecutive Director of University RelationsLa Sierra UniversityRiverside, California951.785.2460 (voice)





P.S. Bolds added for emphasis...............Arsenio.

La Sierra’s Stahl Center to honor martyred German theologian


Third Reich resistance martyr, German Lutheran theologian, DietrichBonhoeffer.


October 24, 2008

By Darla Martin Tucker

On Nov. 1, La Sierra University will pay tribute to a revered German Lutheran theologian and author whom Nazi forces killed for conspiring against the Third Reich.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, alarmed at Adolf Hitler’s control of both church and state, returned to his native land to suffer with his people. He co-founded the Confessing Church, essentially a movement against Nazi Germany. After much spiritual wrestling, Bonhoeffer, an avowed pacifist, reluctantly joined underground and military forces in one of several plots to assassinate Hitler. Nazi forces captured the religious leader in 1943 and imprisoned him on charges of conspiracy. While incarcerated, Bonhoeffer ministered to both guards and inmates and wrote extensively. On April 9, 1945, the Nazis executed him by a brutal hanging just three weeks before Allied forces liberated Berlin.

On Nov. 1, La Sierra’s Stahl Center for World Service, during its annual Stahl Center Day, will honor Bonhoeffer with several events. A liturgical service and international processional is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. at the La Sierra University Church, 4937 Sierra Vista Ave., Riverside.

To begin the service, La Sierra students will enter bearing flags of their various ancestral nations, quilts from the Stahl Center’s global quilting project, artifacts from the Stahl Center Museum of Culture and candles in candleholders fashioned with clay from sites around the world.

The service will include vocal and wind ensemble performances and responsive readings with quotations from such Bonhoeffer works as “Life Together,” “Communion of the Saints,” and “Letters and Papers from Prison.” University President Randal Wisbey will present a service homily that draws from Bonhoeffer’s life and writings.

At 12:30 p.m., the university will induct Bonhoeffer into the university’s Path of the Just by placing an honorary marker on the university’s central mall. The Path of the Just is a series of continental patios, trees and benches. Special markers will honor several world-renowned humanitarians including Mother Theresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Weisel, as well as influential community leaders and Seventh-day Adventists who have fostered individual empowerment, human rights or religious toleration.

At 4 p.m., the university will show a film on Bonhoeffer’s life titled, “Hanged on a Twisted Cross.” The film will be presented at the La Sierra University Church and will be followed by a short panel discussion. Admission is free.

The Stahl Center for World Service, founded in 1989, annually features a liturgical program that invites students to envision themselves becoming agents of altruistic service. Stahl Center Day honors humanitarians of all faiths and also celebrates the national, ethnic and cultural diversity of the campus.

In August, U.S. News and World Report ranked La Sierra University first among universities in 15 western states for its diverse student population. The recognition, cited in the magazine’s America’s Best Colleges report, marked the fifth consecutive year that La Sierra has led the West in diversity rankings.

The Stahl Center’s mission statement is, “passing a vision of world service to a new generation of students.” Its projects include the Path of the Just at La Sierra’s campus; a global quilting project that has collected 20,000 quilts worldwide for aiding displaced children and babies stricken by AIDS; global museum displays; and global service projects including school and orphanage construction and well digging in underdeveloped countries.

The center was established in honor of Ana and Fernando Stahl, Seventh-day Adventist missionaries who in 1909 left a comfortable life in the United States for the challenges of the remote Peruvian and Bolivian highlands. There they established chapels, clinics, markets and the region’s first co-educational school system for indigenous peoples who were languishing under repression and ignorance. The educational system founded by the Stahls ultimately grew to a chain of 200 schools encircling the vast Lake Titicaca. A graduate of the schools eventually became the region’s first representative in Peru’s National Congress.

Call the Stahl Center director at (909) 732-6608 for more information. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A map can be found at http://www.lasierra.edu/resources/campusmap/.

Photo opp: Oct. 28, 10 a.m. - La Sierra students will prepare the European continent garden for the induction commemorating Bonhoeffer and his contributions.




PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)


The Meaning of The Third Angel's Message



The Meaning of the Third Angel’s Message

Norval F. Pease

Review and Herald
May 7, 1953

What does the third angel’s message really mean? Every Adventist, of course, can define what is symbolized by the beast, the image, and the mark. It would be a waste of time to pause to prove these points. There has been no change in the Adventist interpretation of these symbols.

“The light that we have upon the third angel’s message is the true light. The mark of the beast is exactly what it has been proclaimed to be.” Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 17.


This does not mean, however, that we have exhausted the meaning of the term the third angel’s message. The quotation introduced in the last paragraph continues:


“Not all in regard to this matter is yet understood, and will not be understood
until the unrolling of the scroll; but a most solemn work is to be accomplished
in our world.” Ibid.


What we have already learned is true, but there is much more that we may learn. It is this large aspect of the third angel’s message that we wish to explore in this article. It is one thing to learn the multiplication tables and another to figure the lumber for a home. It is one thing to learn the parts of speech and another to write a book. And, my Seventh-day Adventist friend, it is one thing to know that the beast symbolizes the Papacy, that the image symbolizes apostate Protestantism, that the mark is Sunday observance; but it is another thing to relate the facts to the problems of practical Christian living.


The third angel’s message refers to the Sabbath, but it must not be interpreted to mean that the mere keeping of a day ensures salvation. The opposite of the mark of the beast is the seal of God. According to Revelation 7:3 and 14:1, this seal is the Father’s name, or character, written in the forehead. This includes the Sabbath, but it includes much more, as may be seen in the following quotations: “Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master’s will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works…

“Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one
spot or stain upon them…


“Those who are uniting with the world are receiving the worldly mold and preparing for the mark of the beast. Those who are distrustful of self, who are humbling themselves before God and purifying their souls by obeying the truth – these are receiving the heavenly mold and preparing for the seal of God in their foreheads. When the decree goes forth and the stamp is impressed, their character will remain pure and spotless for eternity.” Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 216.

“Now is the time to prepare. The seal of God will never be placed upon the forehead of an impure man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of the ambitious, world-loving man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of men or women of false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who receive the seal must be without spot before God – candidates for heaven.” Ibid. p. 216.

What does this all mean? Language could not be plainer than the keeping of a
false Sabbath by those who know God’s Sabbath is not the only way of ensuring
the reception of the mark of the beast. Dishonesty, impurity, selfishness,
deceitfulness, faithlessness—all these sins and many more will prepare men for
this mark.

Also Sabbathkeeping is not the only requisite for the seal of God. Faith, integrity, purity, unselfishness, devotion—these are part of the same pattern of obedience that includes loyalty to the Sabbath.



“Our faith at this time must not stop with an assent to, or belief, in, the theory of the third angel’s message.” Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 155.


This message is intensely practical. It touches all phases of life and practice,
because its purpose is to seal men and women for the kingdom of God.
Christ is the center of this message. Righteousness by faith in Christ has been
said to be the third angel’s message “in verity.”


The proclamation of the third angel’s message calls for the presentation of the Sabbath truth. This truth, with others included in the message, is to be proclaimed; but the great center of attraction, Christ Jesus, must not be left out.” Gospel Workers, p. 156.



This message not only demands character but points out the only source of true
character, Jesus Christ, the Savior of men.


This third angel’s message is the core of our evangelistic message. Rightly presented, it has the power of converting and saving men. The effectiveness of our preaching of this gospel message depends largely on what it has done for us. The third angel’s message can be proclaimed effectively only by those whose lives have been transformed by it. That transformation touches the whole life as well as the day of worship. That transformation makes men and women like
Christ. That transformation is the central fact of Christianity.”


.

President Attends the 3rd Annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast


President George W. Bush acknowledges the crowd after being introduced to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast by Archbishop Jose Gomez, in Washington on April 7, 2006. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch)




Washington Hilton Hotel

Washington, D.C.

April 7, 2006

8:30 a.m.



THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much.



I'm so thrilled to be here with the cardinals of the church. Cardinal McCarrick I know is here, and Cardinal Bevilacqua. My spirits are always uplifted when I'm in the presence of Their Excellencies, and it's great to see you both.



Laura sends her love and her best. I want to thank the leadership of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast for having me, and, more importantly, having this chance for all to worship together.



I appreciate so very much the Chief Justice joining us. I'm proud you're here, Chief Justice.



Secretary Nicholson, I appreciate you being here. Jim Nicholson and Suzanne, as you might recall, he was our Ambassador to the Vatican, and he did a fantastic job.



Looking around, I see members of the United States Senate, members of the House of Representatives. Thank you all for coming. Proud you're here. Thanks for taking time out of your day.



We needed a hopeful moment for this world of ours. It's a time when more people have a chance to claim freedom that God intended for us all. It's also a time of great challenge. In some of the most advanced parts of our world, some people no longer believe that the desire for liberty is universal. Some people believe you cannot distinguish between right and wrong. The Catholic Church rejects such a pessimistic view of human nature and offers a vision of human freedom and dignity rooted in the same self-evident truths of America's founding.



This morning we ask God to guide us as we work together to live up to these timeless truths. When our founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they called liberty an unalienable right. An unalienable right means that freedom is a right that no government can take away because freedom is not government's to give.



Freedom is a gift from the Almighty because it is -- and because it is universal, our Creator has written it into all nature. To maintain this freedom, societies need high moral standards. And the Catholic Church and its institutions play a vital role in helping our citizens acquire the character we need to live as free people.



In the last part of the 20th century, we saw the appeal of freedom in the hands of a priest from Poland. When Pope John Paul II ascended to the chair of St. Peter, the Berlin Wall was still standing. His native Poland was occupied by a communist power. And the division of Europe looked like a permanent scar across the continent. Yet Pope John Paul told us, "Be not afraid," because he knew that an empire built on lies was ultimately destined to fail. By reminding us that our freedom and dignity rests on truths about man and his nature, Pope John Paul II set off one of the greatest revolutions for freedom the world has ever known.

Pope John Paul has now been succeeded by one of his closest friends and colleagues, Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict, when he was a Cardinal, and recently—when he was a Cardinal, Laura and I had a chance to meet him, and recently she went back to Rome to see him again. He was such a gracious host, wonderfully kind man.



Like his predecessor, Pope Benedict understands that the measure of a free society is how it treats the weakest and most vulnerable among us. In his Christmas homily, the Pope noted that the Savior came to earth as a "defenseless child," and said that the splendor of that Christmas shines upon every child, born and unborn. Here in the United States, we work to strengthen a culture of life, through many state and federal initiatives that expand the protections of the unborn. These initiatives reflect the consensus of the American people acting through their elected representatives, and we will continue to work for the day when every child is welcome in life and protected in law.



I appreciate the leading role that the Catholic faith-based organizations play in our nation's armies of compassion. And one of the many ways that Catholic faith-based organizations serve their neighbors is by welcoming newcomers and helping them become good citizens. This nation of ours is having an important debate about immigration, and it is vitally important that this debate be conducted in a civil tone. I believe that the American Dream is open to all who work hard and play by the rules, and that America does not have to choose between being a compassionate society and a society of law.



An immigration system that forces people into the shadows of our society, or leaves them prey to criminals is a system that needs to be changed. I'm confident that we can change our immigration system in ways that secures our border, respects the rule of law, and, as importantly, upholds the decency of our country. As the Congress continues this debate, its members must remember we are a nation of immigrants. And immigration has helped restore our soul on a regular basis.



I ask for your prayers again, that our nation may always be an inspiration to those who believe that God made every man, woman and child for freedom. It is such an honor to be here. May God bless you all, and may God continue to bless our country.
,
,
P.S.Bolds added for emphasis............................ Arsenio

Be thou my vision


Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Words: Dal­lan For­gaill

(Rob tu mo bhoile, a Com­di cri­de);

trans­lat­ed from an­cient Ir­ish to Eng­lish by
Ma­ry E. Byrne,

and versed by
El­ea­nor H. Hull,


Music: Slane, of Ir­ish folk or­i­gin
lmn(MI­DI, score).

Make your calling and election sure


2 Peter 1


1Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

2Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

3According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

5And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

6And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

7And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

8For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

10Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

11For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

12Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

13Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

14Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

15Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

16For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

17For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

18And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

20Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Food Riots, Tax Rebellions By 2012...Trend forecaster, renowned for being accurate in the past, says


The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.

Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting fut More..ure world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week.

Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

"We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas....we're going to see a fundamental shift take place....putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".

"America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.

The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.

The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."

In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America.

"There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It’s not going to come yet, but it’s going to come down the line and we’re going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."

"The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That’s going to be the big one because people can’t afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You’re going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."

"It’s going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we’re going to see many more."

"We’re going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It’s going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It’s going to come as a shock and with it, there’s going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people’s minds weren’t wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody’s comprehension."

"When CNN wants to know about the Top Trends, we ask Gerald Celente."
— CNN Headline News

"A network of 25 experts whose range of specialties would rival many university faculties."
— The Economist

"Gerald Celente has a knack for getting the zeitgeist right."
— USA Today

"There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about."
- CNBC

"Those who take their predictions seriously ... consider the Trends Research Institute."
— The Wall Street Journal

"Gerald Celente is always ahead of the curve on trends and uncannily on the mark ... he's one of the most accurate forecasters around."
— The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Mr. Celente tracks the world’s social, economic and business trends for corporate clients."
— The New York Times

"Mr. Celente is a very intelligent guy. We are able to learn about trends from an authority."
— 48 Hours, CBS News

"Gerald Celente has a solid track record. He has predicted everything from the 1987 stock market crash and the demise of the Soviet Union to green marketing and corporate downsizing."
— The Detroit News

"Gerald Celente forecast the 1987 stock market crash, ‘green marketing,’ and the boom in gourmet coffees."
— Chicago Tribune

"The Trends Research Institute is the Standard and Poors of Popular Culture."
— The Los Angeles Times

"If Nostradamus were alive today, he'd have a hard time keeping up with Gerald Celente."
— New York Post

So there you have it - hardly a nutjob conspiracy theorist blowhard now is he? The price of not heeding his warnings will be far greater than the cost of preparing for the future now. Storable food and gold are two good places to make a start.