In reaction to a decision of the US Supreme Court to allow gay marriages, Bishop Richard Malone and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said:

“The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up any of the cases striking down state laws reflecting the authentic meaning of marriage in five states is extremely disappointing and surprising.

“All these state laws were democratically enacted, including most by the direct vote of large majorities within just the last decade. Millions of Americans had looked to the court with hope that these unjust judicial decisions might be reversed.

“Instead, as a result of the Supreme Court’s action today, those decisions are allowed to take effect.”

New light on JP II

St Pope John Paul II’s social ethics are being discussed in the light of two books he published when he was still a young priest. Only 300 copies of Katolicka Etyka Spoleczna (The Catholic Social Ethic)were printed clandestinely.

The books give further insight into the social philosophy of the former Pope. It shows him as a person with deep sensitivity to the social issues of Poland of the early 1950s and as one committed to radical change.

Mgr Albert Wierzbicki, director of the John Paul II Institute at the Catholic University of Lublin said the book contained a polemical dialogue with Marxism that was courageous at the time, and which throws light on his later evaluation of such things as liberation theology.

Government in Iraq ‘abandons’ Christians

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda told Aid to the Church in Need that the government in Baghdad is channelling the vast international help received toward Muslim refugees but is not helping Christian refugees who have fled from Mosul and Niniveh to the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

Warda alleged that the Iraqi government “has done absolutely nothing” to assist Christians who have fled from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On the other hand, he said the only help is coming from “Church agencies have been here helping us since day one”. He added that the homes of Christians were looted by Muslims who had been neighbours for a very long time.

Pope Francis set to visit CoE and EP

On November 25, Pope Francis will visit Strasbourg to address both the members of the European Parliament and then the Council of Europe. He will deliver two different speeches to these two most important European institutions. The Pope will return to Rome on the same day.

It has also been announced that Pope Francis will visit Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January 2015. France will be another country that the Pope will visit during 2015.

Pope Francis has made apostolic journeys to Brazil (July 2013), the Holy Land (May 2014), South Korea (August 2014) and Albania (September 21).

One million are in danger of starvation

The Fides news service reports that one million people in South Sudan will be in real danger of starvation in the beginning of 2015. This will be the result of a severe food crisis that is exacerbated by political unrest.

Oxfam had said that the current crisis is not the result of a natural disaster but it is a crisis wholly the fault of man. Although officially the fighting has stopped, the situation on the ground is totally different.

The fighting that has been going on is driving people from their homes and stopping agricultural production.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)

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