Pope Benedict XVI told a group of bishops from the Philippines who were on their ad limina visit that the economic problems faced by their country are “not the only stumbling blocks that must be addressed by the Church”.
He continued: “Filipino culture is also confronted with the more subtle questions inherent to the secularism, materialism, and consumerism of our times. When self-sufficiency and freedom are severed from their dependence upon and completion in God, the human person creates for himself a false destiny and loses sight of the eternal joy for which he has been made.
“The path to rediscovering humanity’s true destiny can only be found in the re-establishment of the priority of God in the heart and mind of every person.”
US bishops criticise President Obama
The US bishops strongly criticised President Barack Obama whose administration stopped supporting the Defence of Marriage Act passed by Congress and signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton.
“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman.” The Act says the federal government defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and that no state must recognise a same-sex marriage from another state.
“The principal basis for today’s decision is that the President considers the law a form of impermissible sexual orientation discrimination,” the bishops said.
2,000 reports of clerical abuse
According to Catholic World News, an independent investigator in the Netherlands reports that his commission has collected more than 2,000 reports of abuse by Catholic priests.
Wim Deetman, the former government official whose commission began its probe in March 2010, said it has now compiled a list of about 1,000 people who have been reported as either victims or perpetrators of abuse.
He has called on all other victims or witnesses to contact the commission, and urged the Dutch bishops to help publicise that appeal.
Bishops seek to delay elections
Southern Africa’s Catholic bishops urged the region’s governments to intervene in Zimbabwe, where they warned elections would be “dangerously premature” if held this year.
“Conditions in the country are emphatically not conducive to elections in 2011”, the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa said in a statement addressed to Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who heads the Southern African Development Community.
The bishops said reports have emerged that Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was preparing to restrict freedom of association among people, impose stricter limits on the media, and use an outdated voters’ roll.
“The nation is in the grip of extreme fear, polarisation is still evident”, and there are “increasing signs of intimidation” and violence as the election campaign builds, they said.
Unreal reality TV
The Catholic bishops of Brazil have criticised the “low moral level” of reality TV shows, saying they “attack the dignity of people, as much that of the participants, who are as fascinated by a cash prize or fleeting celebrity as the public, which is made up of Brazilian families”.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)