Quotes and news

The Pope reminded a group of lawyers that they have a moral obligation to serve the truth. He was speaking at the conclusion of his regular weekly public audience on January 18 when he exhorted the lawyers present to do their work “in faithfulness to the truth”, since the search for truth “is a fundamental principle of justice”.

Religious freedom in US being eroded – Pope

While addressing American bishops who were visiting him, Pope Benedict warned that religious freedom is being eroded in their country.

He said that “it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the US come to realise the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a radical secularism which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres.”

He added: “The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at every level of ecclesial life.”

The Pope warned that “when a culture attempts to suppress the dimension of ultimate mystery, and to close the doors to transcendent truth, it inevitably becomes impoverished and falls prey, as the late Pope John Paul II so clearly saw, to reductionist and totalitarian readings of the human person and the nature of society.”

Papal thumbs up for Neo-Catechumenals

The Pope told more than 7,000 members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way that the Church recognises their movement as a special gift of the Holy Spirit. He said that “over these decades of life of the Way, your firm commitment has been to proclaim the Gospel of the risen Christ, ...often abandoning personal and material security”.

The Pope was presiding over a celebration during which he sent out 17 new ‘ad gentes’ missions of the Way: 12 to Europe, four to America and one to Africa.

Each mission is made up of three or four large families, members of the Neo-Catechumenal Way who, accompanied by a priest, go to live in an area where Christian practice has lapsed or where the Gospel has never been announced.

At the same time the Pontifical Council for the Laity published a decree approving the celebrations contained in the Catechetical directory of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.

Church land seized, buildings demolished

Two thousand Pakistani Christians, including Auxiliary Bishop Sebastian Shah of Lahore, priests, and Protestant leaders, protested against the Punjabi government’s decision to confiscate Church land and demolish the charitable and educational institutions located on it. The Church said it would continue to protest until the government returns the land and pays for the losses. The government said the demolition was needed to combat criminal activity.

Conflicting Irish views on Church schools

Aodhan O’Riordain, a member of the Irish Labour Party, said “religious ethos has no place in the educational system of a modern republic”. His position is in line with that of his party which wants to stop Catholic schools giving preference in admission to Catholic students.

But the education minister Ruairi Quinn, who is also a member of the Labour Party, said “religious education will have an important place in the future of education in Ireland”.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)