19 September 2003
NEWS
Byzantium Exhibition Includes Mount Athos Treasures
The splendor of Byzantine spirituality is being exhibited in Rome. Paintings on wood, frescoes and icons, kept in the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, are on display in Rome until Sunday, at the Capitoline Museums (www.museicapitolini.org).
Many of the works of art come from the monasteries of Mount Athos, especially some of the icons, jewels and liturgical objects in silk or gold. Mount Athos has some 20 monastic centers that have existed for more than 1,000 years in the theocratic republic situated in a peninsula in northeastern Greece.
The exhibition brings together masterpieces from the 15th to 18th centuries, namely, works produced after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). The icons reflect Ottoman influence, as well as Cretan and Venetian.
The 54 masterworks highlight the evolution of art from the Ottoman conquest to the establishment of the Modern Greek state in 1830.
[Source: Zenit]
European Parliament attacks Card. Ratzinger
The European Parliament publishes an annual report on human rights in the world and EU human rights policy. This report and the associated Parliament resolution are never more than symbolic gestures and often divide the political groups.
Paragraph 136 of the resolution for 2002 states the following:
The European Parliament
"136. Strongly disapproves the recent rejection of the proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Vatican"
This is the first time that a Catholic institution considers itself attacked by the European Parliament. However, this report does not have any binding legal force.
[Source: Euro-fam. org]
Chirac opposed to Christian reference in EU constitution
French President Jacques Chirac said recently he did not support the inclusion into a future European Union constitution of a reference to Christianity as underpinning European values.
An intergovernmental conference beginning next month and chaired by Italy will decide the constitution's final form. Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland all back a call by the European Churches for a reference to Christianity to be included.
But Chirac said France, a country where state and religion are kept separate, could not accept the idea. Chirac, visiting Spain for talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, stated that "the Christian origins of European civilisation are indisputable" from a historical point of view but that Europe also had disparate non-Christian influences.
"France is a lay state and as such she does not have a habit of calling for insertions of a religious nature into constitutional texts," Chirac told reporters. "France does not favour this reference," he added. "The lay character of French institutions does not allow them to accept a religious reference" in a domestic or EU constitution, Chirac concluded.
[Source: AFP]
Invasion of Sects and Cults in South America
Father Manuel Guerra Gomez, is the author of a book on Sects
on the Hispanic World (published by Navarra University Press). In an interview to Zenit He said:
"To speak of "invasion" might sound like a simple metaphor. But it is real. Obviously, I refer in the first place to Hispanic America, as it is the place where the greatest number of Spanish-speaking and praying people are."
"I challenge anyone who thinks it is an exaggeration to compare Hispanic
America of the first half of the 20th century with that of today, half a
century later. He will discover the proliferation of religious sects of
Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Shintoist, Afro-American, magic, and ideological
origin and stamp, which are spreading in all areas, including among the
Indians."
But of course, the European scenic it's exactly the same. We could speak for an invasion too in Russia and the other ex-communist countries. Even in Greece, which is not an easy target for cults and sects, there are more than 100 of them. See the page of the Synodical Committee on Heresies - in Greek only
Faith under threat
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Cardinal of Milan and Italy's leading candidate to become the next pope -as papers say-, warned this week that Christian values are in crisis, with birth rates plummeting, divorce rates on the up and young priests almost impossible to recruit.
"Children...don't even know how to make the sign of the cross," Cardinal Tettamanzi said in a document published recently. "The rich vitality of faith today is seriously under threat... Faith seems just a repetitive reality, tired, drawn out, dull and inward looking," he said.
Italians say they are Catholic but they are increasingly less interested in the Church, some finding it "out of date", and others outraged over sex abuse scandals in the US.
A recent poll for La Repubblica newspaper showed that while 87% of Italians say they are Catholic, only 29.3% regularly attended mass, compared to 35.7% in 1985.
[Source: CIN]
Coptic Church to launch campaign against gays
The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III, has pledged to launch a comprehensive campaign to root out homosexuality.
The patriarch also said in an interview with Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) that he had received death threats from gay rights groups during a recent tour of Australia because of his outspoken criticism of homosexuality.
The pope was quoted as promising to "initiate contacts with a number of international organizations to fight this plague".
He would begin with "the World Council of Churches, and the Middle East Council of Churches, and churches in the United States, Europe, Africa and Australia", has said to MENA. "We support the courageous persons who oppose homosexual marriage and the appointment of gays to the clergy", he said.
Earlier, the synod of the church met to discuss homosexuality exclusively for the first time, he told MENA. It denounced gay marriage and gay priests for "defying the teachings of Scripture and threatening the stability of marriage, the family, social morality and the ecumenical movement". According to official statistics, six million Copts live among Egypt's population of 67 million. The church claims there are more than 10 million faithful.
[Source: Egypt Times]
