Church News

Funding Blocked for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Bishops praise victory of "Common Sense and Sound Medical Ethics"
WASHINGTON, D.C., AUG. 26, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops are welcoming a Monday decision from a federal district court judge that blocked Barack Obama's executive order to expand federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells.

In a statement Wednesday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, welcomed the decision as a "victory for common sense and sound medical ethics."

The cardinal said the injunction "vindicates a reading of Congress’s statutory language on embryo research" defended by the bishops for more than a decade.
The decision blocks Obama's 2009 order encouraging federal funds for research into any embryonic stem cell lines that either had been allowed by the Bush administration or had been created using embryos "left over" from fertility treatments and in which unpaid donors had provided written consent for the embryos to be used for research.

Dominican General Chapter Shows Modern Touch

Communications technology has been fundamental for the preparations of the 290th general chapter of the Order of Preachers.
The meeting to consider the Dominican mission and to elect new superiors began in Rome the last week of August and run through Sept. 21.
Preparations leading up to the chapter included a series of six videoclips, developed to help the religious go deeper into the Dominican spirituality as it is being lived today.

The clips, presented at the order's Web page, use friar's testimonies to preset four key elements of Dominican spirituality: mission, study, consecrated life and the governing of the order. As well, the internet has been essential for preparing the general chapter: the organization, distribution of information and the friars' responses.
The 130 delegates at the meeting will represent some 6,500 Dominicans around the world.
In a July 9 letter, Master of the Order Father Carlos Azpiroz Costa noted some of the challenges facing the general chapter.

"Well into the 21st century, at the beginning of the third millennium," he wrote, "the challenges today are new. Now, certain theologians speak of the need to 're-found' religious life. Not everyone accepts this expression."

Father Azpiroz spoke of the order's 800th anniversary in 2016 and he said the general chapter will "address and define, inspire us and motivate us to the courage of the future, to reform what needs to be reformed, restore what we should restore, renew what demands to be renewed, re-found -- in the sense of returning again to the sources, to the roots -- what needs to be re-founded to confirm us in our life and mission as friars preachers."

Vatican to Muslims: Let's Fight Violence Together

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue sent a message to Muslims, underlining the need for a joint effort against violence.
The message, published today by the Vatican, was sent to all Muslims on the occasion of the end of Ramadan, which this year will take place Sept. 10.
"Throughout this month, you have committed yourselves to prayer, fasting, helping the neediest and strengthening relations of family and friendship," the message affirmed. "God will not fail to reward these efforts!"

The message, which was signed by the council president, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, and secretary, Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, centered on the theme, "Christians and Muslims: Together in overcoming violence among followers of different religions."
The prelates noted that this theme is, "unfortunately, a pressing subject, at least in certain areas of the world."

They acknowledged that "the Joint Committee for Dialogue instituted by the Pontifical Council and al-Azhar Permanent Committee for Dialogue among the Monotheistic Religions had also chosen this topic as a subject of study, reflection and exchange during its last annual meeting," which took place in Cairo last February.

Africans Try Giving Europe an Inside Look at Issues

A group of bishops and other Church officials from Africa are making a tour to visit European political leaders and promote Africa-centered strategies ahead of the Millennium Development Goals Review Summit in New York next month.

The seven-member delegation includes three prelates, two priests and two laypeople.
"The Church in Africa, often the only civil society actor able to reach remote communities, provides services in the absence of effective governments. Taking these grassroot experiences into account in policy making is crucial to overcome difficulties which currently impede development of the African continent," affirmed a statement from the CIDSE in announcing the bishops' tour.

The CIDSE is an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, which is supporting the delegation. The delegation itself was organized by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).