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WEDNESDAY May 3, 2000 vol. 11, no. 86 SECTION THREESee why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!"
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Questioning whether globalization of the world's economy would be geared to serve all of mankind, or become a tool concerned only with profit, Pope John Paul II expressed his concerns over a one-world economy to Italian workers who remained in Rome following the Jubilee celebration on Monday. The Holy Father's remarks should alert all nations to which pursuit their individual governments are taking - the road of service and concern or the road of greed and profit. continued inside
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- As he received union leaders and
corporate executives in an audience on May 2, Pope John Paul II
said that he is "ambivalent" about the globalization of the
economy.
The Pope met with 200 labor and management leaders on the day
after the Vatican's Jubilee for Workers. Most of the participants in
the audience were Italians who had remained in Rome after that
celebration.
The globalization of the financial world, the Holy Father said, "is a
new phenomenon," which should be studied carefully.
"Globalization could be a benefit for mankind," he said, "but it
could also turn out to be a form of prejudice, with consequences
that should not be overlooked." An unhealthy form of
globalization, he explained, would establish a bias against the
poor, and in favor of commercialization and consumption at the
cost of human solidarity.
Which route will globalization actually take? The Pontiff said that
the answer to that question would "all depend on the
consequences of certain basic choices." Specifically, he said, the
question would hinge on whether "globalization is put in the
service of mankind-- of all men-- or whether it is concerned
exclusively with the pursuit of profit."
The globalization of the marketplace, the Pope continued, could
help to create "a global culture of solidarity, attentive to the needs
of the neediest." But that can happen, he said, only if the "new
culture" of the world economy pays careful attention to the
principle of subsidiarity, and avoids the temptation toward
monolithic and monopolistic forms of financial control.
The ranks of the Swiss Guards will be filled on their traditional day of May 6th in the presence of the president of Swiss Federation Adolf Ogi who will travel to Rome for the event commemorating the memory of the 147 Guards who gave their lives for Pope Clement VII during the sacking of Rome by Charles V during the bloody years of the Protestant Revolt. Thirty-five new members of various languages, but with Swiss birthrights, will be installed during special ceremonies for new candidates who pledge their life to protect the Vicar of Christ. The Guard will also honor their fallen comrade Alois Estermann along with his wife who were murdered in their Vatican residence two years ago by a jealous Cedric Tornay. Their burial anniversary is May 6, 1998. continued inside.
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Adolf Ogi, the President of the Swiss
Federation, will be received at the Vatican on May 6, in
conjunction with the annual ceremonies in which new recruits are
welcomed to the ranks of the Swiss Guard.
May 6 is traditionally the day when the Vatican swears in new
members of the Swiss Guard, and pays tribute to the 147 members
of the unit who gave their lives in defense of Pope Clement VII,
during the sacking of Rome in 1527.
Some 35 new members of the Guard (30 of whom will be native
German speakers, 12 French, 2 Italian, and 1 Romany) will be
sworn in on May 6 in the St. Damasus court, in the traditional
ceremony under the windows of the papal apartment. President
Ogi will be among many Swiss and Italian political figures on
hand for the occasion.
While the world media has centered on the celebrations in Brazil for the 500th Anniversary of the country, unprecedented rains have caused massive flooding of the mighty Amazon River and its tributaries. The devastation has left more than 20,000 homeless with five reported dead thus far. The native Indians of the jungle areas have shown remarkable charity in helping their fellow man as all strive to remain alive amidst the torrential rains and floods. continued inside.
ROME (CWNews.com/Fides) - Flooding on the Amazon River in
Brazil has left 20,000 homeless and five people, including
a four-year-old boy, dead following months of unprecedented
rains. Aid workers in the Brazilian town of Laranjal do
Jari, at the mouth of the Amazon River have issued a
desperate plea for help.
As world media concentrated on Brazil's celebrations
marking the 500th anniversary since its discovery by
Europeans and discussions about past violence against the
native Indians, little attention has been paid to the
gravity of the disaster which struck right in the Amazon
region, the Indians' homeland.
Laranjal do Jari (Amapa) has a population of about 50,000,
half living in riverside dwellings along the Amazon, which
because of torrential rainfall rose by over 2 meters,
flooding the poor homesteads and destroying the caboclos
(homes of Indians who move to towns). The flooding began
before Easter and the water level still continues to rise.
Father Aleandro Castrese, PIME, who has served in Brazil
for the past five years, said he has no idea what to do:
"Thousands have lost everything, they have no food. Our
churches, at some distance from the waterfront, are now
havens for hundreds of flood victims." Father Castrese
spent Holy Week celebrating the various rites in the
different churches and using his jeep to carry people to
safety on higher ground. He himself is convalescing from a
road accident in which he fractured a leg.
Because of the high water level, roads are flooded and even
the jeep cannot pass. People are moved using fragile boats.
Homes, churches, shops, and discos are used as night time
refuges.
"The most edifying thing is the generous hospitality among
the people," the missionary said. "Those with a safe home
readily take in others, the poor help the poor. And all
this while the political leaders discuss matters of
responsibility, thinking of the electoral gains assistance
may bring."
Meanwhile Father Castrese and another priest are nailing
wooden planks to the floor to raise it: the water is
ankle-level but could rise. "In the future, homes and
churches must be built much higher, and of more resistant
wood: most of our chapels rot in the water. But at the
moment food and clothing are the priority: these people
have lost everything," he said.
Fides, the news service of the Vatican's Congregation for
the Propagation of the Faith, has set up a mail drop for
charitable donations to assist the afflicted. Aid or funds,
marked "Amazon Floods," can be sent to:
Fides International Agency
Via di Propaganda l/c
00187 Rome
Italy
Though he hails from the dairy state of Wisconsin, there is nothing cheesy about the selection of Governor Tommy Thompson by presidential candidate Texas Governor George W. Bush to the GOP Platform Committee. In doing so, Bush sends a message to those trying to undermine the pro-life plank for Thompson is a staunch pro-lifer and will help articulate to all Republicans and hopefully the nation that all life is sacred. All Christians, especially all Catholics should rally around this pro-life platform for without it the world will descend into the abyss of death, for it is fast becoming a soul-less society. continued inside.
WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - Republican presidential
candidate George W. Bush on Monday appointed Wisconsin Gov.
Tommy Thompson, a staunch pro-lifer, to head the platform
committee for the Republican National Convention this
summer.
The pro-life plank of the party's policy platform has been
in place since 1980 and was a cause of dissension in 1996
when pro-abortion Republicans wanted it removed or water
down. The plank states the party principle and objective
that all human life is sacred and abortion should be banned
in all cases. Bush has said he opposed abortion except in
cases of rape, incest, or danger to life of the mother.
Thompson, first elected governor in 1986, said he looked
forward to "serving ... to articulate our party's most
innovative ideas, the principles that bind us together and
our vision for the future."
More good news on the pro-life front is word that Hillary Clinton may have a decidedly pro-life candidate running against her no matter what Mayor Rudolph Giuliani decides to do. On Monday, Joseph DioGuardi, a staunch pro-lifer and conservative, announced his candidacy for the Senate seat. If Guiliani decides to continue his campaign, then there could be a split of votes that might favor Clinton, but if he would opt out because of prostate cancer or enough can rally behind a true candidate who upholds the culture of life, there could be an interesting race in New York come November. continued inside.
NEW YORK (CWNews.com) - A former Republican US
representative entered the New York Senate race on Monday,
saying he would seek the nomination from the Conservative,
Right to Life, and Independence parties on the November
ballot.
Joseph DioGuardi's announcement puts him in direct conflict
with New York City mayor Rudolph Guiliani who would also
need those parties' nominations, in addition to the
Republican party nomination, to fend off Hillary Rodham
Clinton, the presumptive candidate for the Democratic
Party. Conservative Party leader Michael Long has already
refused to back Giuliani because of the mayor's support for
abortion.
DioGuardi said he entered the race because Guiliani doesn't
uphold conservative principles. "It's not that Giuliani
isn't conservative enough; he's not conservative at all,"
DioGuardi said. He also said he wasn't worried about the
other two candidates' lead in raising funds. "They need a
lot more money than me," DioGuardi said. "They have to
disguise who they are. She has to disguise that she comes
from Arkansas, he has to disguise that he believes in
'partial-birth' abortions."
"Right now, they're popping the champagne corks at Clinton
campaign headquarters," said GOP consultant and television
commentator Jay Severin told Associated Press. "You could
almost run a dead body on the Conservative line and attract
enough votes to defeat the Republican candidate." The
Guiliani-Clinton race is a statistical tie in recent polls
and the small-party endorsements could mean the margin of
victory.
Heaping more shame on the northeast, the liberal state of New Hampshire may join Vermont in approving gay unions. That is the bent of Democratic Senator Burt Cohen who has hinted at this. Yet he's playing it coy, not showing his hand until he sees who wins in the fall. In other words, if Al Gore were to get in you can bet the homosexuals would overrun the country because of the legislation that would be forced through, totally ignoring the Laws of God and the natural law of procreation - the reason He created man and woman...not man with man, or woman with woman. They've disguised their campaign with such spins as "gender equality" and trying to drum up memories and emotions of the Black movement with Martin Luther King but that's a totally different scenario. Anyway you draw it up, sodomy is sodomy and, in God's book sodomy is a sin! No Catholic can condone sin, but every Catholic should love the sinner in their heart and pray those afflicted with homosexual tendencies will be healed of their abnormalities that satan preys on and lead a celibate life. continued inside.
CONCORD, New Hampshire (CWNews.com) - A Democratic New
Hampshire state senator said last Friday he is considering
proposing a same-sex civil union bill -- similar to the one
just signed into law in neighboring Vermont -- next year,
according to Conservative News Service.
Senator Burt Cohen said he will decide whether to file the
bill "depending on who wins" in the state's general
election this fall. "I hear wind of it," Cohen said. "Some
people are encouraged by what happened in Vermont."
Democrats control the state senate and the governor's
office, but Republicans still hold a majority in the House
of Representatives.
Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen has apparently
backed off from her earlier statement that she disagreed
with the Vermont law which grants same-sex couples the same
legal benefits as married couples. Last Thursday, her press
secretary said the governor had not yet read the Vermont
law and had no opinion on it. In addition, she said the
governor opposed homosexual marriage, but did not know
whether the governor considered civil unions the same as
marriage.
The Holy Father celebrated Mass at the sight that will host the vast throngs of youth who will convene here in August for the Jubilee World Youth Day celebrations. Monday, in honor of May Day, the Mass was held outdoors earlier in the day while later in the day the stage gave way to rockers with the goal of reducing the debt of all Third World countries. Though many of the rock musicians have shown disregard for the Church and her values and morals, the Church feels the means justifies the end since the rockers used their talents for a worthy cause. The Holy See has always approved of the cause, not necessarily the lifestyles of many of the musicians involved.continued inside.
ROME (CWNews.com) - A rock concert in Rome this past Monday
featured Pope John Paul II, Lou Reed, and Alanis Morissette
as the headliners -- although they weren't on stage at the
same time.
The Vatican had given its approval to the concert promoting
the Jubilee Year theme of debt relief for Third World
Nations and the Holy Father celebrated a Mass before
the concert for the more than 600,000 people in attendance.
Afterward, he left before the slate of
musicians -- most of whom are not known for their Christian
moral values -- took the stage. Reed was best known in the
early 1970s for his crossdressing and drug use, while
Morissette recently starred as God in the film Dogma, which
was panned by many Catholics as blasphemous.
Vatican officials said the May Day concert should not
surprise observers. Bishop Fernando Charrier, the organizer
of the Vatican May Day celebrations, said: "Do not be
astonished. Rock is an expression of today's world,
particularly dear to the young. All (forms of) human
expressions, when they have dignity, command respect. I do
not believe that there has ever existed a (form of) rock
that is diabolical."
He added, "At most I think that there can be some
diabolical personalities, because real human beings can do
good, but also bad. The concert is not a way to consecrate
rock, but a chance to to give space to a form of expression
widely shared."
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