In brief
Vatican City: Three anniversaries in 2006
This January 14 marked the 500th anniversary of the Vatican Museums. In fact, the date of the foundation of the Museums was fixed on January 14, 1506, the day of the discovery of a group of ancient statues of Laocoon, next to the Coliseum. Acquired by Pope Julius II on the advice of Michelangelo, it was the first element of the collection of ancient sculptures started by the Sovereign Pontiff. The statue, famous in Antiquity, represents a scene from the legend of the Trojan Horse. Laocoon, a Trojan priest of Poseidon, had warned his fellow citizens against the wooden horse offered by the Greeks. When two monstrous serpents killed him and his sons, the Trojans – attributing these deaths to divine chastisement – let the giant Horse into their city…
The Swiss Pontifical guard celebrated the 500th anniversary of their foundation by Pope Julius II (1503-1513), on January 22, 2006. As it was January 22, 1506 that the guards came at the request of the pope, and made their entrance into Rome. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State, celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel, followed by a special blessing which Benedict XVI gave during the Angelus to the Swiss Guard gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Mass was also celebrated by Cardinal Georges Cottier in Fribourg, Switzerland, for former Guards.
In the Spring, it will be the 500th anniversary of the symbolic laying of the first stone of the present St. Peter’s Basilica by Pope Julius II on April 18, 1506. It was pope Urban VIII who consecrated the basilica on November 18, 1626.
These anniversaries will be marked by various events and exhibitions throughout the year.
France: KTO in big trouble
In a recent press release, the Conference of French bishops(CEF) announced its demand for financial support from those responsible for the emission Le Jour du Seigneur in favor of the Catholic television channel KTO. They desire a structure which would guarantee “the most fruitful use” of the 15 million euros given by Catholic faithful, and shared between these two media.
KTO, a Catholic television station founded in 1999 on the initiative of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, it became a society in 2001 and received from its shareholders (Axa, Lagardère, Media Participations, Vivendi, le Diocese de Paris, Bayard-Presse, Lafarge and the French episcopate) 22 million euros. However, if the channel anticipates a return to balance in 2007, losses could exceed 22 million euros. KTO has at its disposal an annual budget of 6.5 million euros, The channel, which has 24 hour broadcasting on cable and satellite, has tripled its audience figures, and has a daily audience of 517,000, in spite of the refusal by the French broadcasting supervisory council (CSA) in 2005 to allow broadcasting by terrestrial digital television (TNT).
Le Jour du Seigneur, a weekly broadcast, is co-produced by France 2 and the French radio and television board, and benefits from around 10 million euros in annual donations.
On January 18, Fr. Arnaud de Coral, director of the French radio and television board (CFRT), announced co-productions with the Catholic television KTO and the granting of a loan of one million euros in order to cope with the emergency.
Lithuania: Bishops oppose publicity campaign
In a communiqué on January 18, Mgr. Sigitas Tamkevicius, archbishop of Kaunas and president of the Bishops Conference condemned, “the use of Catholic symbols for commercial purposes and particularly in advertisements for alcoholic drinks. It is absolutely unacceptable and unjustified.” The archbishop demanded that the manufacturing company put an end to the publicity campaign, which invites customers to buy their drink and win CDs, depicting Christ wearing headphones. “Many believers are hurt and offended by the fact that the image of Our Savior, with a crown of thorns on his head as the sign of a martyr, has been used for a beer advertisement.”
Russia: Could Benedict XVI visit Moscow one day?
Alexis II, Orthodox patriarch of Moscow and of all Russia, told the Greek socialist daily paper To Vima that a visit by the pope to Russia could happen only if the Catholic Church undertook concrete steps aimed at getting past the present difficulties. In the absence of improvements, he added, a meeting with the pope would be nothing more than “protocol.”
The patriarch targeted the “proselytism of the Catholic Church” carried out in the “canonical territory” of the former Soviet Union and the “very unfriendly” attitude of the Uniates or Catholics of the Byzantine rite in the Ukraine, pointing out that the Russian Orthodox Church must retain control of the Orthodox Church in the Ukraine. Rome in response, denies any proselytism in the territory of the Russian Federation, where Catholics represent less than one million faithful, many of whom were deported beyond the Urals by Stalinist repression.
In spite of everything, Alexis II considers that pope Benedict XVI holds opinions regarding morals and Christian values very close to those of the Orthodox.
Turkey: Brief moment of freedom for Ali Agça
Mehmet Ali Agça, who shot Pope John Paul II, on May 13, 1981, left Kartal prison in Istanbul on January 12. He was sent back to jail in Istanbul on January 23, after the revocation of his release by the Turkish Court of Appeal.
In fact, the Court overturned the decision taken by an Istanbul tribunal to free the prisoner in view of an amnesty declared in 2002 and diverse reductions of his sentence. Cemil Cicek, Minister of Justice, then declared to the daily paper, Milliyet: “I am not saying that his release was invalid, but I am saying that it may have been due to an error”. He added that “the critical point is the number of years Agça spent in prison in Italy. The judge says twenty years. (…) We will verify this calculation. If it is nineteen years and not twenty, Agça will have to go back to prison.”
The former militant of the ultranationalist “Grey Wolves” movement was also serving a sentence for the murder, in 1979, of Abdi Ipekiçi, a well known Turkish journalist. Furthermore, the publication by the press of extracts from letters written in prison, in which Ali Agça offers his services to assassinate Bin Laden or reveals his refusal of the offer by the Vatican to make him a cardinal, have called his sanity into question.
According to new calculations by the prosecutors of Kartal, Ali Agça will leave prison on January 18, 2010.
India: Ten million fewer girls born in the last twenty years
According to the correspondent of the London daily The Guardian, the study carried out by Prabhat Jha of St. Michael’s Hospital at the University of Toronto, Canada, and by Rajesh Kumar of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Research of Chandigarh, in India, shows that there is a growing trend by parents to choose boys rather than girls, when the preceding child is a girl.
“The practice of selective abortion, when the fetus is a girl, has increased considerably over the past twenty years, since the appearance of ultrasound gynecological examinations. The estimation of ten million less female births in twenty years is not unreasonable,” said Prabhat Jha.
Nevertheless, this type of abortion has been forbidden in India for the past ten years. But even if doctors are not authorized to tell parents the sex of the fetus, they do have recourse to non-verbal codes. Experts explain this female feticide by socioeconomic factors: a boy represents another pair of hands on the farm, whereas providing the dowry for a young girl can ruin a family.
Italy: Opus Dei and the Da Vinci Code
The film based on the book the Da Vinci Code which will be shown in May 2006 calls into question Opus Dei. It is for this reason that the Catholic Agency Zenit has interviewed Marc Carrogio, who is responsible for relations of Opus Dei with the media.
“It is worth asking,” said Marc Carrogio, “if this film should not be for adults only. An adult is able to distinguish reality from fiction: a little culture is enough. But in the face of the manipulation of history, children lack crucial elements. It is not enough to add the word “fiction”. So, just as we protect children from explicit scenes of sex or violence, should we not protect them from violence expressed in a more subtle, and therefore more insidious way?”
Without wanting to declare war, “I do not like the very much the casual way in which the film deals with the life of Christ. Moreover, the problem with this type of scenario is that it “demonizes” a group of people. It presents the Church as a band of delinquents, who for two centuries never shrank from anything in order to protect a gigantic lie,” he said.
Of course, added Marc Carrogio, “the stir caused by the Da Vinci Code has given Opus Dei a kind of indirect publicity,” our website is consulted much more and I would not be surprised if this year, many people felt like reading the Gospels or a good book on the life of Christ, and perhaps reflecting on the major aspects of faith.”
Spain: World meeting of families open to all
On January 15, Mgr. Augustin Garcia-Gasco, archbishop of Valencia, Spain, issued a personal invitation to all the bishops of the Catholic Church to the 5th World Meeting of Families and more especially to the closing Mass. “It is in the family that the future of humanity is forged,” John Paul II declared when he announced the creation of these meetings.
Organized by the Pontifical Council for the Family, with the collaboration of the diocese of Valencia, this meeting will take place from July 1 to 9, 2006, at Valencia, with an International Fair of the Family from July 1 to 7, and an International Theological-Pastoral Congress, from July 4 to 7. On July 8, Mass will be assured in different languages and Benedict XVI will celebrate the closing Mass on Sunday July 9.
According to the organizers, pilgrims from 25 countries have already subscribed.
United Kingdom: And now women bishops?
On January 16, the Anglican Church published a 57 page report entitled the Women in the Episcopate: the Guildford Group Report. The document was produced at the request of the General Synod of the Church of England and will be the object of a debate, and then submitted to the vote of Synod members during their meeting in July.
Christopher Hill, the bishop of Guildford, who was responsible for drafting the text, explained: “We have found a way which, in our opinion, offers the possibility of authorizing the admission of women to the episcopate and at the same time, preserves unity in the Church of England,” adding that the Church would infringe the law against sexual discrimination if this high office were refused to women. However, George Curry, president of The Church Society, an Anglican evangelical group opposed to women priests, said: “The Church continues to disintegrate. She is losing all credibility in the nation.”
Poland: Former communist marries in Church
On January 8, the Polish press announced the religious marriage of Aleksander Kwasniewski in the chapel of the presidential palace of Warsaw, before the end of his presidential mandate. The former communist “Apparatchik”, who became a social democrat, had a civil wedding 26 years ago. After the visit to Poland of John Paul II, the president’s wife, Jolanta, expressed the wish “that the words of the Holy Father become our daily bread.”
According to the Polish press, this fact can be added to the graces obtained since the death of the Polish Pope: enemies reconciled to each other, conversions of atheists and religious vocations which have increased…
Nigeria: Homosexual unions punishable by imprisonment
Unions between persons of the same sex will from now on be punishable by 5 years imprisonment. Frank Nweke, Minister of Information has deemed it necessary to take “preventive measures” in view of what is becoming widespread throughout the world. “In the many cultures of Nigeria, relations between people of the same sex as well as sodomy are regarded as abominable.” Obasanjo, the president of Nigeria said in October 2004, during a Conference of the Nigerian Bishops, that “such a tendency is clearly antibiblical, unnatural and definitely not African.”
Germany: Reshaping of a diocese
Mgr. Felix Genn, the bishop of Essen, announced on January 15 the reduction of the 259 parishes of his diocese to 42 … by the end of 2008. These measures will save around 15 million euros per year, the bishop explained, and allow us to cope with the financial crisis which the diocese has been experiencing since the fall in Church taxes and the decline in the numbers of faithful and of priests.
It cannot be ruled out that some jobs may also be axed, added Hans-Werner Thönnes, the vicar general. Ninety-six churches will be sold, but none of them will be transformed into mosques or nightclubs, according to Mgr. Genn. Three of them are already due to become a home for elderly people, a nursing college and the third a place of celebration open to all.
United Kingdom: Euthanasia bill challenged
According to an enquiry carried out by the English Brunel University and published in the medical journal Palliative Medicine, 0.5% of deaths recorded in 2004 were “assisted” by doctors. The survey was carried out on 857 GPs and specialists who replied to a questionnaire anonymously. Of these 2,865 assisted deaths, 936 were carried out on the explicit request of the patient.
In the United Kingdom, euthanasia is considered a crime punishable by 14 years imprisonment.
Professor Clive Seale, who led the enquiry, said that 82% of the doctors questioned declared themselves satisfied with the current legislation. A bill is being studied currently by Parliament which would authorize doctors in certain cases to prescribe fatal doses of products which patients would administer themselves. Both the Catholic Church and the Anglicans have strongly declared themselves against this.
Spain: A tax fatal to the Spanish Church
According to The Times of January 10, the Catholic Church in Spain has clashed with the European Union and the Spanish authorities on the subject of unpaid taxes. In actual fact, according to an agreement signed between the Spanish state and the Vatican in 1979, the Catholic Church in Spain is exempt from indirect tax on the assets and materials which she receives.
On December 16, the European Commission asked Spain to apply the VAT rules to goods supplied to the Spanish Catholic Church, recalling that the community tax system does not allow such exemption, and pointing out that there is nothing to prevent the Spanish government from “granting financial compensation to the Catholic Church for the taxes which she has to pay to the Spanish state.”
However, one might ask if the tension between the State and the Church since the laws on homosexual marriage and religious education, may not be an obstacle to the granting of this compensation. Several months ago, the government spoke of probable reductions in government contributions paid to the Catholic Church.
If compensation is refused by the government, the Catholic Church could register a loss of more than 86 million euros each year, which would put her in serious difficulty.
