In Brief
Italy: The abortifacient pill RU-486, “a cruel game” against life
On November 16, L’Osservatore Romano, the daily paper of the Holy See, condemned the experimentation with the abortive pill RU-486 in the Italian regions of Piedmont and Tuscany and soon at the Roman hospital of St. Philip Neri. “We are facing a kind of game between the regions who have turned into standard bearers at the forefront of the negation of the value of life.” “All of this in the name of a ’secularity of the State’ badly interpreted,” it read, and of “the emancipation of women.” “This is a cruel and cynical hypocrisy,” because “the abortive pill prevents awareness of the true nature of abortion which is and remains a suppression of an innocent human life.”
Vatican: Benedict XVI in medallion at Saint-Paul-Outside-the-Walls
On November 29, the medallion representing Benedict XVI was installed in the frieze of medallions of the 264 popes of the greater basilica Saint-Paul-Outside-the-Walls, entrusted to the Benedictines. Created by the Mosaic workshop of the Vatican, it was blessed by the pope on November 23, during the weekly general audience.
Great Britain: Roman Catholic appointed ambassador to the Holy See
On November 16, the British government appointed Francis Campbell, an Irish Roman Catholic, aged 36, ambassador of Great Britain to the Holy See. Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, archbishop of Westminster hailed the nomination of this career diplomat, the first Catholic to be promoted to this post since the time of Henry VIII.
Diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See were reestablished in 1914 after an interruption of 350 years. It was in 1938 that the Holy See appointed an apostolic delegate in Great Britain.
Taiwan: The “Beatitudes credit card”
On November 27, the Bishops Conference of Taiwan launched a campaign with the slogan “Do you want to be a ’little angel of the Beatitudes’ ? Go straight to the bank and ask for a ’Beatitudes credit card’”. This campaign offers everyone, Catholic or not, “who wants to spread around some Christian charity and social service”, to use a ’Beatitudes credit card’ available from the China Commercial Bank.
Vatican: Excluded from the Christmas concert
The Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury was unable to take part in the Vatican Christmas concert given in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI on December 3. Excluded for having taken part in a televised publicity campaign by the Brazilian Ministry of Health which advocated the use of condoms, as a means of preventing Aids. “For me, the use of a condom is an instrument for the protection of life,” the singer said on television. Attached to the social sector of the Catholic church of Salvador de Bahia, in the North East of Brazil, she reaffirmed her right “to not be in agreement with the Church on this subject.”
