RU 10/2008 - NEW YORK, VATICAN

- NEW YORK: Pro-life victory in the United Nations ! At the end of February, with the annual conference of the UN Commission at the Status of Women (CSW) in New York, someones wanted to introduce, upon a proposal of Norway, the notion of abortion into various texts to be ratified, and this under the hidden wording “sexual and reproductive health and rights” which are considered to include abortion, without spelling it out openly. Until now, this term had never succeeded to enter into any official document of the UN. This time the attack was considerable, since a large majority of the European countries supported it - except for Poland, Malta and Ireland, thanks to God. Those formed a true phalange, by collecting on their passage the support of Syria, Iran, El Salvador and - the United States. This pro-life bloc with the world’s highest authority was inevitable. It was first the current president of the EU, the president of Slovenia, who announced that the normally unified EU bloc would not have a common position on this question, i.e. on abortion. There was even a tiny country which joined the UN only very recently, the island Kiribati in the Pacific, which proposed courageously a new wording, in the place of the twisted and deathbringing formulation of Norway: “access to  maternal and newborn health care as necessary to promote a healthy outcome for mother and child”. Naturally this radically pro-life wording didn’t find any consensus neither. Thus, to the great displeasure of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and all abortionists of the globe, in the final resolutions of last week in New York, all references to abortion were again avoided in UN documents, thanks to a small group of determined and courageous countries, gathered and supported by the Holy See. - (Ru; cf. LifeNews.com March 11)

- VATICAN: Benedict XVI made modify the prayer of Good Friday “for the Jews”, which was used in the ancient liturgy (extraordinarily called “extraordinary”), in order not to hurt the Jews. The prayer indeed mentioned “the blindness of the Jews” and other terms which they criticized. But after this modification by the Holy Father, the Jews complained again bitterly saying that, according to the new version of the prayer, the Church still does not give up its intention “to convert them”. Certain Jewish authorities even proposed to stop “for one year or more” the dialog with the Catholic Church. The German cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews, quickly apologised by declaring, first that this prayer would concern only some “little and marginal communities” using this liturgy (note: in other words, some nostalgic hillbillies). Then he added: “If the pope speaks now about the conversion of the Jews, that should be understood correctly” (note: he avoided to say “in a religiously correct way“…). He explained: “The pope expressly quotes the 11th chapter of the Letter to the Romans. In this letter the apostle Paul says that the Christians hope, when the plenitude of heathens will enter into the Church, that at this moment Israel will convert. So this is an eschatological hope, for the end of the times, which does not mean that we would intend to practice the mission of the Jews now, like one makes the mission of the pagans”. One awaits the next reaction of the Jews, probably causing other gesticulations of this very oecumenical - and eschatological - cardinal. However Jesus clearly ordered: “Go into the whole world and preach all peoples, and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!” There is no other Gospel, Eminence Kasper! - (Ru; cf SJN March 10)

- NEGATIVE METER: 1028e day of the maintenance of the “excommunication” of the bishops of (the largest portion of) Catholic Tradition by our Holy Father Benedict XVI.

- POSITIVE METER: Last weekend, the 414e baby was saved from abortion by the French association S.O.S MOTHERS.  It’s a little boy!

- - O.A.M.D.G. - -