Sudbury Christian Messenger - April 4, 2007
07/04/07 17:54
The Full of the Sudbury Christian Messenger - April
4, 2007 - Easter Edition
''Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Prov 3:5
"Every day is a gift, as long as I can open my eyes. I will focus on the new day and all the happy memories that I have built up during my life". (Anonymous)
For peace of mind, resign as general manager of the universe.
-- Larry Eisenberg
______________________________________________________________________________________
God bless your Easter commemorations and celebrations
with family, friends, and your favourite church
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Table of Contents
Local News
1. "The Man Who Was Amazing" Good Friday Service All Nations April 6
2. The Living Last Supper Good Friday presentation Glad TT April 6
3. Good Friday Musical Drama St. Anthony's Parish April 6
4. The Ultimate Escape Easter Sunday Service All Nations April 8
5. The Living Last Supper Easter Sunday Service Glad TT April 8
6. Easter Miracle Rally Abundant Life Healing Centre April 6-8
7. Sudbury Christian Businessmen Lunch Meeting April 11
8. CJTK Christian Radio Sharathon April 12
9. Divine Healing Technician Training Church of the Way April 12
10. Trinity United Church Soup and Sandwich Luncheon April 13
11. REAL Women of Canada Vice-President to speak in North Bay April 14
12. St. Alexander's CWL Tea and Bazaar April 15
13. Earth Day Festival and Local Food Fair 2007 April 22
14. Warren Hugel United Church Turkey Supper April 22
15. Gardening Workshop by Sudbury Public Library April 25
16. Our Lady of Hope Gala Dinner and Silent Auction April 28
17. Invitation to All Women from Janet Gasparini re: cancer fundraising
18. Greater Sudbury Public Libraries Offer Story Time for Under 5s
19. National Women's Prayer Wave May 5
20. Dowling Brethren Church Mother's Day Dinner May 7
Reader Response re: Doctor Ratings Website
Book Review: Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins When Family and Work Collide?
By Andy Stanley
Provincial News
1. Conference The Value and Future of Catholic Education
2. Ontario Court Ruling: No Right to Freedom of Conscience for Catholic Federal Civil Service Union Member
National News
1. Tories drafted law on religious rights
2. REAL Women of Canada News Release: Government Budget Aids Families
International News
1. Anti-Religious Measures an Assault on Democratic Foundations, Westminster Cardinal Warns
2. Pot Is More Dangerous than LSD or Heroine” - Liberal UK Newspaper Apologizes for Efforts to Legalize Cannabis
3. If We Don’t Say No to Same-Sex Unions, then Why Not Incest and Pedophilia Says Archbishop
4. Disturbing trend: Designer children designed to be disabled
5. Study Shows Family Instability Has Bad Effect on Children’s Behavior
6. Two Years Later: Pope John Paul II Especially Remembered as Greatest Defender of Life and Family
Words of Wisdom
1. Born Again
2. Habit of Success
3. The U in Jesus
4. Let Your Life Shout
5. On St. Irenaeus of Lyons "The First Great Theologian of the Catholic Church"
6. The Other Side of Fear
Local News
1. "The Man Who Was Amazing" Good Friday Service All Nations Church
7:00 pm Fraser Auditorium Laurentian University
2. The Living Last Supper Good Friday Service Glad Tidings Tabernacle
1101 Regent St. S.
Free Admission Bring non-perishable food item for local distribution
3. Good Friday Musical Drama St. Anthony's Parish 7:30 p.m.
4. The Ultimate Escape Easter Sunday Service All Nations Church
10:00 a.m. Fraser Auditorium Laurentian University
5. The Living Last Supper Easter Sunday Service Glad Tidings Tabernacle
1101 Regent St. S. 6:30 p.m.
Free Admission Bring non-perishable food item for local distribution
6.. Easter Miracle Rally April 6-8th Abundant Life Healing Centre
Abundant Life Healing Centre
Invites you to their Easter Miracle Rally from April 6th through the 8th at 7pm nightly.
This takes place at 361 Perreault Street in Sudbury.
For more details please call 671-9757.
7. Sudbury Christian Businessmen
Invite you to their monthly luncheon on Wednesday, April 11th at 12 noon
at the Holiday Inn on Regent Street in Sudbury.
There will be special Guest speakers and for reservations call 674-2585.
For more details please call Shawn Day 674-2585.
http://www.sudburybusinessmen.ca
8. The Church of the Way
Is hosting a divine healing technician training course
on behalf of John G. Lake Ministries
from Thursday, April 12th till April 15th at 360 Perreault Street in Sudbury.
The cost to register is $25.
For more details please call Jack Dominique at (705) 665-3481.
9. CJTK Sharathon
Join us for 16 hours of non-stop fun and fellowship
on Thursday, April 12th from 6am till 10pm!
In Sudbury you can join us live at 417 Notre Dame for all day open-house,
and in North Bay you can join us live at the Northgate Square from 8am till 9pm.
The goals for this Sharathon are HUGE! And nothing short of a miracle is needed to keep the station going
For more details please call Curtis Belcher at (888) 674-2585.
http://www.cjtk.com
10. Trinity United Church
Invites you to their Soup and Sandwich Luncheon
from 11:30am till 1:30pm on April 13th at the church.
Admission is $6.00
For more details please call Wendy at 692-4683.
11. REAL Women of Canada lunch with Gwen Landolt, National Vice-President
"The Future of Canadian Families" April 14
NORTHERN ONTARIO CHAPTER
REAL WOMEN OF CANADA
SATURDAY APRIL 14, 2007
LUNCH SERVED AT 12:00 NOON
TICKETS $20.00
GUEST SPEAKER: MRS GWEN LANDOLT,
National Vice-President, REAL Women of Canada
TOPIC: THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN FAMILIES
Location:- Best Western Hotel, 700 Lakeshore Drive, North Bay, Ont.
For tickets please call Shirley: 705-472-7964 or Jeannine: 705-724-3424
Tickets must be purchased or reserved ahead of time
*Editor's Note: If you are interested in attending, please rsvp to Diane Ikonen
566 9752 or ikonen@cyberbeach.net for car pooling
12. St. Alexanders CWL
Invites you to their Spring Tea and Bazaar at the Community Centre in Azilda on Sunday, April 15th at noon. There will be coffee, tea, juice and desserts available. Admission is Free.
For more details please call 855-2525.
13. Warren Hugel United Church
Invites you to their Turkey Supper on Sunday, April 22nd at 4pm at the Warren Arena. There wil be a salad bar, and a pie table. The price of admission is $12 and children under 5 get in for free.
For more details please call The Warren United Church.
14. SUDBURY EARTH DAY FESTIVAL AND LOCAL FOOD FAIR 2007
I am writing to request that you invite your church members to the Earth
Day Festival on Sunday April 22 at Market Square, from 10am until 4pm. The
festival will make a great stop for lunch after your service as a number
of local food vendors are teamed up with local farmers to promote eating
locally.
As a member of a church community, I admire the efforts pastors make to
improve the world every day. The Earth Day Sudbury Committee is made up of
citizens who are equally concerned about saving our planet, one step at a time.
The following outlines our festival:
The Greater Sudbury Environment Network invites you to a special
celebration! We are celebrating Earth Day again this year by holding a
festival where local green organizations and businesses can showcase
their environmental practices, projects, technologies and products. In
addition, this year's event will include a food fair, children activities,
entertainment and workshops.
It is a great opportunity for people to learn about green initiatives
and businesses and to network with the local green community. The event is
open to the public and encourages and recognizes local environmental
achievements and initiatives.
The event will be held Sunday April 22nd from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in
Greater Sudbury's downtown Market Square (Corner of Elm & Elgin Streets).
Best regards,
Allisyn Wood
The Sudbury Earth Day Festival Committee
15. GREATER SUDBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY
presents: Gardening Workshop: Perennials and Shrubs for Beginners
All novice gardeners are invited to the Main Public Library for a
workshop on perennials and shrubs. The workshop will take place at the
Main Library, 74 MacKenzie Street, Wednesday, April 25 at 7:00 p.m.
Tammy DeAmicis will tell all on the planting and maintaining of
perennials and shrubs, including what to plant and how to avoid common
mistakes. Tammy will conclude the session by answering your questions
and addressing your concerns.
Whether you are brand new to the gardening game, or if you just want a
refresher course, join us at the Main Library for an informative and fun
workshop. The workshop is free and everyone is welcome.
For more information or to reserve your seat, please call Lise Larose
at 673-1155, extension 225.
For more information, please contact:
Lise Larose
Adult, Senior and Client Education Programmer
Greater Sudbury Public Library, 673-1155, extension 225
lise.larose@greatersudbury.ca
16. Our Lady Of Hope Parish
Invites you to their "Evening Under The Stars"
gala dinner and silent auction at 5:30pm on Saturday, April 28th.
There will also be live entertainment.
For more details please call 673 1774.
17. Invitation to all women from Janet Gasparini
Hello all,
Family experience has taught me that breast screening does save lives!
Did you know that at 50 women can become clients of the Ontario Breast Screening Clinic without a doctor's referral?
I am anxious to have you join me in the celebration of my 50th birthday and the launch of OBSP's exciting new recruitment initiative that my family has had the privilege of being involved in. Follow the link www.viphoto.ca/OBSP to my personal invitation to you.
I'm asking you to please pass this email along to all of the people in your life so that they too will become informed about the importance of breast screening. Feel free to print the invitation and post in your workplace etc.
The party promises to be a blast! Hope to see you there!
Janet Gasparini
18. GREATER SUDBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY OFFERS STORY TIME
FOR CHILDREN
The Greater Sudbury Public Library is pleased to present Family Story
Time.
Story Time is a weekly half-hour program for children aged 5 and under
accompanied by an adult. It is designed to encourage children to become
life-long readers by promoting an appreciation of language, rhythm and
imagination. It includes storytelling, puppets, finger plays, songs and
rhymes.
For more information, please call or visit the Greater Sudbury Public
Library closest to you or contact Monique Roy at 673-1155 extension 270
or visit the library's website at www.sudbury.library.on.ca.
Walk-ins are welcome.
For more information, please contact:
Monique Roy - Children's Librarian
Greater Sudbury Public Library, 673-1155, extension 270
monique.roy@greatersudbury.on.ca
19. National Womens Prayer Wave
On Saturday May 5th, 2007, thousands of women will gather together in cities and towns across Canada to pray for this nation. The “National Women’s Prayer Wave” is an interdenominational prayer gathering of women of all ages across Canada. Women will be gathering to pray at the same clock time within each time zone across Canada, beginning in Newfoundland and spreading across this nation to British Columbia like one great prayer wave. Sudbury area women are planning this event for our community which will be held this year at All Nations Church, 885 Prete Street, Sudbury from 1 – 3 pm This will be the third annual Prayer Wave held in Sudbury and the Lord’s Prayer will be used as an outline. Women f
For more details please call Helen @ 983-4370.
20. Dowling Brethren Church
Invites you to their Mother's Day dinner in Dowling is Monday May 7th from 6-9pm at the Dowling Community Center. Join us for a great evening including a Spring Fashion Show by Talk of the Town, inspirational speaker and singers and a lovely catered meal. Tickets are $15 each.
For more details please call Sirpa at 855-2851.
For an up-to-date listing of community events, please see http://www.cjtk.com/events/displayevents.asp ."
Reader Response re: Doctor Ratings Website
Dr. ratings - internet website of interest
Dr. ratings .... when the site comes up, go into the Canadian doctors and check out the ratings for your area .... interesting
http://www.ratemds.com/
Editor's Note: On March 22nd when this item went out on the Sudbury Christian Messenger, the following reply came.
Josee has given her permission to share it with our follow readers:
Doctor Ratings Website
Hi Diane:
Want to wish you a Happy Easter and hope that you are having a great Year.
This is Josee Rainville ( owner of Dinosaur Valley Mini Golf & Josephine's Vegetables No Herbicide FArm.
Your Sudbury Christian Messenger is a wonderful tool.
I enjoy it very much. Nice to learn about the politics of everything.
I hate politics but it is life.
The rating on Doctors is really nasty sometimes. The people forget that they do not really have a life. The have the same troubles as we do, people getting sick in their families, wives, and children. They really do not get time to spend the money they make, with all the sick people with cancer and such.
I think as Christians we should really think about others and stop thinking about ourselves. Alot of people just do not do this anymore.
Anyway. These are my thoughts. What do you think?
Josee Rainville & my family and kids.
Sending our thanks, and best wishes for the Easter Season.
A friend always.
God bless you and all your friends and family.
Editor's Note: Josephine's Vegetables No Herbicide Farm and Dinosaur Valley Mini Golf open on May 1st.
Book Review
Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins When Family and Work Collide? By Andy Stanley. Description: “Work. Family. Church. Hobbies. Fitness. Housekeeping. Socializing. Sleep. With only 24 hours in each day, we simply can't fit everything in. And what we choose to cheat is a clear announcement of our values. When you come home an hour earlier, miss a round of golf, or let the dishes sit while you play with your child, you make your family feel valued and secure. Bestselling author Andy Stanley helps you restore your vision of what really matters, and guides you in making courageous decisions about your time.”
Provided by Mom's Moments e mail newsletter for new Moms
Provincial News
The Value and Future of Catholic Education
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Catholic Education Centre, 80 Sheppard Ave. East, 2nd Floor, Toronto
A discussion about the distinctiveness and value of Catholic schools and major issues facing Catholic schools now and in the future.
For more information, go to www.tcdsb.org
Presented by: Toronto Catholic District School Board
No Right to Freedom of Conscience for Catholic Federal Civil Service Union Member
Decision called “chilling” in its implications for religious expression in Canada
By Hilary White
TORONTO, April 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Personal opposition to her union’s support of the homosexual creed is not sufficient reason for a devout Catholic federal civil servant to withhold union dues, an Ontario court ruled on Friday.
The National Post reports that Susan Comstock, a Catholic and senior intergovernmental relations officer with the Indian Affairs Department, has lost her bid to have her union recognize her right to freedom of conscience.
Comstock had argued that the support of the homosexual political agenda by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) violated her right to freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. She had proposed to divert her union dues, about $800 a year, to charity.
She argued that a collective agreement clause adopted by the union allows members to donate their dues to charity when they are members of a religious organization “whose doctrine prevents him or her as a matter of conscience from making financial contributions to an employee organization.”
Despite the existence of this clause, Justice Frederick Gibson ruled, “the union's political or social causes does not force her to act in a way contrary to her beliefs or her conscience.”
Comstock's lawyer, Phil Horgan, head of the Catholic Civil Rights League of Canada, told the Post the decision is “chilling” in its implications for religious expression in Canada. “I think it's indicative of a problem Canadians will have in addressing what is becoming a somewhat oppressive environment,” said Horgan.
“The reach of these decisions is only starting to be felt,” Horgan added.
While PSAC claims to represent equally all its members, during the 2004 federal election campaign, the union declared “zero tolerance” for homophobia and “heterosexism,” which it defined as “the presumption that everyone is heterosexual and that heterosexuality is superior to other forms of loving.”
The Canadian Human Rights Commission had rejected Comstock’s complaint that the union’s policy discriminated against her based on her religious beliefs. She said the policy “has the effect, at the very least, of making me a moral and social outcast within my union, creating the impression or belief that my contribution in the workplace ... is unwelcome, inferior, and of little or no positive value.”
Comstock’s attempt to have her freedom of conscience rights recognized was supported by her PSAC Local. Last May, PSAC Local 70160 voted with none opposed, to support a motion denouncing “the actions of the leadership of PSAC for failing to accommodate Sister Susan Comstock's religious beliefs by allowing her to divert her union dues to a charity.”
Comstock said she hopes to appeal the ruling, citing the protection of religious freedom in the federal same-sex “marriage” law. Although the Canadian Catholic bishops praised the provision, many observers were more sceptical in the light of recent decisions that have largely disregarded religious conscience in cases of conflicts with the homosexual activist community. Courts and extra-judicial human rights tribunals have consistently found in favour of homosexual claims against Christians.
Union Local Supports Catholic Member's Bid to Redirect Dues away from Gay "Marriage" Support
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052508.html
National News
1. Globe and Mail
April 2, 2007
Tories drafted law on religious rights
BILL CURRY
OTTAWA -- Internal documents obtained by The Globe and Mail confirm that the Conservative government was preparing an amendment to the Criminal Code last fall dealing with same-sex marriage under the heading of "Freedom of Religion."
The Department of Justice released 1,200 pages of government records in response to a request under access to information law. The records are almost entirely edited.
The Globe requested all documents relating to policy options aimed at protecting religious rights and freedom of speech in relation to the same-sex marriage debate.
But the few phrases that were not blacked out reveal Department of Justice officials were drafting new legislation dealing with religious rights and gay marriage.
The Globe and Mail reported last October that the government was planning legislation that would allow public officials, such as justices of the peace, to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
The Globe also reported that the measures were intended to protect the free-speech rights of religious leaders and others who criticize homosexual behaviour. The report was based on confidential sources and a partial confirmation from then-justice minister Vic Toews.
Mr. Toews, who is now president of the Treasury Board, told The Globe then that the government was preparing options depending on whether a government motion to restore the traditional definition of marriage were to carry or fail.
The government's motion to repeal gay marriage was ultimately defeated 175-123 last December and after the vote, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters: "I don't see reopening this question in the future."
Asked yesterday about the documents, a spokeswoman for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government "has no intention of bringing forward such legislation."
When asked whether such legislation could be introduced if the Conservatives had a majority, spokeswoman Genevieve Breton said: "I'm not going to speculate on what can happen in the future, but at this point, it's definitely not there."
The Oct. 4 Globe report triggered a furor in the House of Commons, with the Liberals accusing the Conservatives of planning to "legalize discrimination against the gay and lesbian community."
Under fire in Question Period later that day, the Prime Minster urged the Liberals not to "engage in unfounded speculation about what this government is proposing."
The response to The Globe's request was delivered to the newspaper's Ottawa office on Friday afternoon as MPs were leaving town for a two-week recess.
The documents show Lisa Hitch, the Justice Department's senior counsel, held a meeting last September to discuss the existing protections for religious freedoms contained in the Civil Marriage Act passed in 2005 under the Liberals.
She also sent e-mails to her colleagues titled "Possible amendment to the Criminal Code."
Ms. Hitch's reference materials included a private member's bill on religious freedom, since defeated in the Alberta legislature, from Conservative MPP Ted Morton, with links to socially conservative websites such as campaignlifecoalition.com; lifesite.net; evangelicalfellowship.com and a website that does not currently work called "http://www.thescaryliberals.com/blog."
Senior Justice officials also traded e-mails under the heading "Binder of Freedom of Religion Material."
Mr. Toews was personally involved, sending e-mails to his deputy minister and top political aides on the issue. The e-mails are mostly blacked out.
On Oct. 13, 2006, he received a briefing note titled "Freedom of Religion final" but its contents are entirely blacked out on the grounds that it contains advice to the minister and is protected by privilege.
2. REAL Women of Canada
“Women’s Rights Not at the Expense of Human Rights”
NGO in SPECIAL consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
M E D I A R E L E A S E
For immediate release March 19, 2007
Government Budget Addresses The Needs Of The Family
This government is demonstrating that it is protecting the future of the Canadian family in its 2007 budget, by acknowledging that “Canadians still pay too much tax.”
The budget addresses the needs of ordinary Canadians with the promise to cut personal income taxes as part of the tax-back guarantee.
Increasing the spousal amount to equal the basic personal exemption has long been advocated by REAL Women of Canada, so this is an important advancement.
Canadian families will benefit from the new $2,000 child tax credit. Additional funding for both the protection of children from prostitution, and to implement a National Anti-Drug Strategy are also welcome.
Pension splitting is a step in the right direction to reduce tax discrimination against single-income families. This is long overdue.
We commend the government and encourage it to further address areas of taxation which burden the young family struggling to form the next generation of Canadians.
- 30 -
Contact:
Diane Watts
Researcher
613 236-4001
International News
1. Anti-Religious Measures an Assault on Democratic Foundations, Westminster Cardinal Warns
By Hilary White
LONDON, April 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Tony Blair’s Labour party has been waging an intolerant ideological war against religious belief in the name of tolerance, according to the Catholic archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor.
Delivering the 30th Thomas Corbishley Memorial lecture at Westminster Cathedral Hall on March 28, the Cardinal, leader of England and Wales’ 4 million Catholics, wondered aloud “whether the threads holding together democracy have begun to unravel.”
He denounced the passage of the Sexual Orientation Regulations of the Equality Act that, religious leaders have said, will coerce public compliance with homosexual ideology by faith-based services including schools and adoption agencies.
The Cardinal said that religious freedom is more than the freedom to worship: “It is the freedom to serve the common good according to the convictions of our faith,” he said. “It seems to me we are being asked to accept a different version of our democracy, one in which diversity and equality are held to be at odds with religion.”
Describing the passage of the SOR’s as an historic turning point, the Cardinal said, “I am conscious that when an essential core of our democratic freedom risks being undermined, subsequent generations will hold to account those who were able to raise their voices yet stayed silent.”
He added, “What looks like liberality is in reality a radical exclusion of religion from the public sphere.” Since the destruction in the 16th century of Catholic social agencies by King Henry VIII, Britain has periodically discriminated against Catholics and full civil rights were not granted to English Catholics until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829.
While debates were raging earlier this year in the media and Parliament over the imposition of the SOR’s on religious groups, many warned that the claim the Regulations would merely prohibit unjust discrimination were a smoke screen for an all-out assault by secularists on public expressions of religious faith.
In January, the Cardinal sent a letter to MP’s saying that the imposition of homosexual ideology on Catholic charitable services, particularly adoption agencies, may result in the closure of those services.
“My fear is that in an attempt to clear the public square of what are seen as unacceptable intrusions, we weaken the pillars on which that public square is erected, and we will discover that the pillars of pluralism may not survive.”
Other legislation mandating changes to the charities law will require churches to prove their services are of “public benefit,” a tactic popular with 19th century French anti-clericals and secularists. The charities are being overseen by one of Britain’s most prominent secularists, Dame Suzi Leather, who has said that the “advancement of religion” may no longer be considered sufficient qualification for charitable tax exempt status.
The Cardinal may have been anticipating this next stage in the assault on religious bodies in Britain when he said, “I wonder how far we can still claim as British the assumption that if a religious organisation serves the public interest according to its own rights, it has a legitimate claim on public resources.”
“I begin to wonder whether Britain will continue to be a place which protects and welcomes the works of people shaped and inspired by the church,” the Cardinal said.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
UK: Religious Schools May Not Teach Christian Sexual Morals "As if They Were Objectively True"
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07030504.html
UK Demonstration Against Sexual Orientation Legislation, and an Angry Response from an MPs Office
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032709.html
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2. “Pot Is More Dangerous than LSD or Heroine” - Liberal UK Newspaper Apologizes for Efforts to Legalize Cannabis
25,000 of 250,000 schizophrenics in UK could have avoided affliction if they had not used cannabis says psychiatry prof
By Meg Jalsevac
ENGLAND, April 2, 2007, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Independent on Sunday, a British newspaper notorious for its vigorous efforts to persuade the British government to decriminalize marijuana, has issued an apology for its previous position and announced that, due to new evidence concerning the dangers of cannabis, it will cease advocating decriminalization of the drug. This latest development should give serious pause to efforts in Canada, the US, Mexico and other nations attempting to legalize marijuana use.
On March 18, The Independent published an article by writer Jonathon Owen in which Owen listed some of the more detrimental effects of pot use and informed readers the newspaper would no longer continue its campaign to decriminalize pot. Owen’s article, entitled “Cannabis: An Apology” lamented the newspaper’s previous decriminalization efforts and began with the subtitle: “In 1997, this newspaper launched a campaign to decriminalize the drug. If only we had known then what we can reveal today...”
Owen proceeded to summarize some of the newest data recently publicized in Britain on cannabis and the shockingly high numbers of users who are facing devastating consequences.
Citing statistics released from the National Treatment Agency, Owen revealed that the number of young people under the age of 18 who sought drug treatment for an addiction to pot almost doubled in a year’s time - from 5,000 in 2005 to 9,600 in 2006. 13,000 adults also sought similar treatment for addiction to pot.
The article claimed that the cannabis that is smoked in today’s day and age, referred to as ‘skunk’, is many times stronger than the pot of the free-wheeling 1960’s. Skunk seeds are easily accessible to anyone online where the potency of the drug is revealed by its nicknames which include AK-47, White Widow and Armageddon.
According to a separate Independent article written by Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “The cannabis now in circulation is many times more powerful than the weed that today's ageing baby-boomers smoked in college. In the flower-power era, the concentration of THC, as the main psychoactive substance in cannabis is known, was typically 2 or 3 per cent. Present-day cannabis can contain 10 times as much.”
Owen referred to new data that asserts pot, in its present ‘skunk’ form, is considered more dangerous than heroine or LSD.
Robin Murray, professor of psychiatry at London's Institute of Psychiatry, says that, in his estimation, at least 25,000 of the 250,000 schizophrenics in the UK could have avoided the affliction if they had not used cannabis.
Owen identified several individuals who, along with The Independent, had previously campaigned for the decriminalization of pot but who now acknowledge, due to recent medical data, that key elements of their decriminalization arguments were flawed.
Professor Colin Blakemore, chief of the Medical Research Council admitted “The link between cannabis and psychosis is quite clear now; it wasn't 10 years ago.” Conservative Party leader David Cameron has abandoned his efforts to lighten penalties for marijuana and is instead working to have stricter laws and enforcement efforts implemented.
Costa condemned supporters of legalization saying that they “would have us believe that cannabis is a gentle, harmless substance that gives users little more than a sense of mellow euphoria and hurts no one else.”
“Evidence of the damage to mental health caused by cannabis use - from loss of concentration to paranoia, aggressiveness and outright psychosis - is mounting and cannot be ignored. Emergency-room admissions involving cannabis are rising, as is demand for rehabilitation treatment.”
Professor Neil McKeganey, from Glasgow University's Centre for Drug Misuse Research cautioned, “Society has seriously underestimated how dangerous cannabis really is. We could well see over the next 10 years increasing numbers of young people in serious difficulties.”
The alarming data being released by Britain’s top minds is mere confirmation of data from previous studies such as a 2005 study at New Zealand’s University of Otaga which revealed that pot smoking can raise the risk of a mental illness by 50 percent. Researchers at Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland, revealed in 2004 that marijuana use can also lead to infertility in men. Long known as a ‘gate-way drug’, marijuana is also well known to lead users to more and harder drug use.
In recent years, several countries have been vigorously debating whether to legalize marijuana and other drugs. Under the rule of former Canadian Prime Ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, the Liberal Party pushed for several years to have pot legalized in Canada, despite a Canadian Supreme Court ruling that declared it within the federal government’s jurisdiction to instead outlaw it. Some Canadians thought legalization to be so essential that they formed a political party called the Marijuana Party with the express goal of having the substance legalized.
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews.com, Focus on the Family Canada research director, Derek Rogusky condemned the Liberal Party’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana. Rogusky pointed out that decriminalization in fact leads to greater cannabis use.
In the Netherlands marijuana decriminalization was accompanied by large increases in the number of users, particularly among youth. From 1984 to 1992 the rate of cannabis use among students increased by 250%. Rogusky added that adolescents who use marijuana are 85 times more likely to begin using cocaine than teens who have never smoked marijuana.
In April of 2006, newly elected Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper dropped the Canadian legalization initiative.
Just a month later, Mexican Prime Minister Fox rescinded statements issued from his office which initially seemed to indicate his approval of drug legalization. Fox later refused to sign a bill into law which would have legalized marijuana, heroine and cocaine in specific quantities and instead announced, “In our country the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, crimes.”
Canada’s National Post newspaper vehemently condemned Fox’s decision insinuating that political leaders in Mexico and Canada were mere pawns being manipulated by the US. The Post denounced the decisions to leave cannabis illegal saying that to do so was merely yielding to the “war on drug-style hysteria which dominates U.S. drug policy.”
Another National Post writer, Alan Young went even farther and ripped into the Conservative Canadian leader and his policies – accusing the government of “rewriting history” and causing “millions of people to suffer needlessly”. Young ridiculed Harper’s stance on marijuana saying, “Only in the world of science fiction can a plant become public enemy number one. But the oracle has now spoken, and Canadians will probably have to endure another decade of a misguided drug strategy that converts cannabis consumers into common criminals.”
Young voiced his relief that a medical exemption for marijuana would remain in the Canadian criminal code. Contrary to the scientifically proven data quoted in Owen’s article, Young emphatically claimed “We know pot works and we know it has a high margin of safety, but we don't really know how it works.”
Young blasted governments for disregarding or “even hiding” data that would prove the effectiveness of marijuana in health care but heralded Canada as the future of medical marijuana as “we are the only country in the world where patients have a constitutional right to use marijuana as medicine, and where the government has a constitutional obligation to produce this medicine or to facilitate reasonable access through other channels.”
Interestingly, at the end of Mr. Young’s article full of encouragement for the broad use of medical marijuana and expostulation on its benefits, he admitted that he is, in fact, a shareholder in Cannaset Therapeutics, a for-profit company dedicated to the research and development of medical marijuana.
Read the full Independent article with links to further coverage of the issue:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2368994.ece
Read Previous LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:
Mexican President Fox Reverses Decision to Decriminalize Marijuana, Hard Drug, Possession
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06050402.html
Canada Conservative Government Scraps Plan to Decriminalize Marijuana Use
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06040401.html
Smoking Pot Doubles Mental Illness Risk
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/mar/05030102.html
Further indications of the trend in Canada were shown today in a full-page opinion piece in the National Post advocating the legalization of marijuana.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06072707.html
Marijuana in Canadian Drugstores by 2006
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05092202.html
Prime Minister Martin To Re-Introduce Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Without Changes
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jan/04010608.html
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3. If We Don’t Say No to Same-Sex Unions, then Why Not Incest and Pedophilia Says Archbishop
By Peter J. Smith
ROME, April 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The new head of the Italian bishops conference has made political waves by asking on what basis may incest and pedophilia be denied if Italy legalizes same-sex unions and other alternatives to the family.
Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, who was appointed last month to lead the Italian Bishops Conference, is spearheading efforts of the Catholic Church in Italy against legislation giving unmarried unions – including same-sex ones – legal status and benefits.
“Why say 'no' to forms of legally recognised co-habitation which create alternatives to the family? Why say 'no' to incest?” the Archbishop said at a meeting of Church workers, according to the Italian journal, La Repubblica.
“Why say 'no' to the pedophile party in Holland?” Bagnasco stated, referring to the Dutch Brotherly Love, Freedom and Diversity party, which lobbies to reduce the age of consent from 16 to 12 and legalize child pornography.
Supporters of the “DICO” bill, which would grant legal recognition of opposite and same-sex civil unions and benefits, immediately objected that the Archbishop had equated the legislation with pedophilia and incest.
Environment minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, a vociferous advocate of the homosexual agenda, said Archbishop Bagnasco had created a “grave, foolish comparison which offends millions of people”.
However, an editorial in Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference, dismissed the controversy as a “storm in a teacup”, saying that Archbishop Bagnasco had merely illustrated the fact that family policy must be founded on principles other than whichever way public opinion gravitates.
“No equating DICO with incest or pedophilia, then, in his words,” the newspaper said.
In other words, the Church is emphasizing family policy must have a basis in natural law and the moral order, or else public opinion someday may justify with law destructive sexual relationships once believed inconceivable, even well beyond homosexual unions.
Italy's bishops have called on Catholic politicians to vote against the bill backed by Prime Minister Romano Prodi, warning that it undermines traditional marriage and the family, which Pope Benedict XVI has called a "pillar of humanity."
Benedict XVI has warned that projects legalizing pseudo-marriage arrangements are “dangerous and counterproductive” to the health of society by “weakening and destabilizing the legitimate family based on marriage."
"Only the foundation of complete and irrevocable love between man and woman is capable of forming the basis of a society that becomes the home of all men.”
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews:
Italian Government Approves Bill to Recognize Civil Unions
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/feb/07020908.html
Pope: Legal Recognition of Gay Unions is “Dangerous and Counterproductive”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jan/07011110.html
Vatican Says Italian Government Wants to "Eradicate" Traditional Family
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/dec/06121102.html
Head ‘Justice and Peace’ Cardinal Fights Gay Civil Unions in Italy
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jul/06071001.html
New Italian Government in Clash With Vatican over Homosexual Civil Unions
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/may/06052409.html
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4. Disturbing trend: Designer children designed to be disabled
Writer warns of these latest developments - "things must change or we shall perish"
By Joseph A. D'Agostino
Population Research Insititute
FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, April 2, 2007 (POP.org/LifeSiteNews.com) - For a number of years now, a great deal of discussion has taken place among scientists and in the popular media about the genetic engineering of children. Will it soon be possible, for prices widely affordable at least to the upper-middle class, to guarantee that children have a high IQ, or excellent athletic ability, or be over 6 feet tall, or have blond hair and blue eyes? Is it right to commodify children in this way, and have parents choosing options as they do with cars? And wouldn’t it be boring to live in a world someday where almost everyone is extremely intelligent and beautiful? Variety, or even the politically correct term “diversity,” is the spice of life.
But not everyone wants what seemed to be the three genetic engineering options: refrain and let nature take her course, attempt to repair genetic diseases but otherwise let well enough alone, or select positive qualities in children. There are parents who are deliberately ensuring that their children are born with disabilities, from deafness to dwarfism. A fourth option—inflicting permanent disabling conditions on children—is now being used.
For some years now, some deaf parents have refused to allow their deaf children to receive cochlear implants that would enable them to hear. The devices must often be implanted when children are very young in order to work, so such parents condemn their children to a lifetime of deafness when they could have been able to hear.
Some dwarf couples are even using in-vitro fertilization to create embryos in the lab, then killing the normal ones and implanting the ones with the dwarfness gene to ensure having a dwarf child .
The standard Marxist-Frankfurt School arguments are used to justify such acts by Deaf Life magazine and other radical organizations representing some disabled people. They argue that deaf folks, dwarfs, and others aren’t disabled at all, just different. Deaf Life types complain of an “oralist” culture that discriminates against deaf people who use sign language. “Oralism” oppresses the deaf, you see, just as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other isms ad nauseam oppress others.
In a Jan. 21, 2007 story, the Associated Press reported that, of American clinics it surveyed that perform embryo screening, 3% admit to screening in favor of disabilities. This story contains perhaps the most revealing statement on the question. It was uttered by a dwarf woman angered that anyone would dare suggest that deliberating inflicting permanent suffering on children is bad:
“Cara Reynolds of Collingswood, N.J., who considered embryo screening but now plans to adopt a dwarf baby, is outraged by the criticism. ‘You cannot tell me that I cannot have a child who's going to look like me,’ Reynolds said. ‘It's just unbelievably presumptuous and they're playing God.’”
Funny to think that it’s playing God to say it’s wrong to use high-tech techniques to choose certain qualities in children rather than letting nature take her course. Isn’t intervening to choose a major genetic
quality in your child much more like playing God?
First abortion, then fetal and embryonic tissue experimentation, and on the anti-child bandwagon goes. Some kill children because they have disabilities, others choose to inflict suffering that only God could
possibly have a right to allow. What hate there is in the world.
I will let others comment upon the dark spiritual impulses that must be behind a parent’s decision to do such a thing. But I will ask this: How relativistic can a society become and still be worthy of preserving?
Things must change soon. With such degeneration, and such low birthrates in this anti-child age, things must change or we shall perish. I am banking on the former.
Joseph A. D’Agostino is the outgoing Vice President for Communications at PRI.
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5. Study Shows Family Instability Has Bad Effect on Children’s Behavior
Family make-up –whether raised in a two-parent or a single parent environment - also linked to behavioral problems
By Meg Jalsevac
BALTIMORE, April 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new sociology study from John Hopkins University in Maryland confirms what pro-family groups have been saying for decades - family instability has a direct correlation to bad behavior in children. According to a Hopkins press release about the new study, “children who go through frequent transitions are more likely to have behavioral problems than children raised in stable two-parent families and maybe even more than those in stable single-parent families.”
Entitled “Family Instability and Child Well-Being”, the study was authored by Hopkins sociologists Paula Fomby and Andrew Cherlin and will be published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review.
The data used for the Fomby and Cherlin paper was gathered from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data which is comprised of a 21-year project focusing on women and their children. The children studied in the test were between 5 and 14 years old in 2000. Data researchers utilized a cognitive achievement test, a mother-reported log of behavioral problems and, in the older age group of 10 to 14 years, a self-reported log of behavioral problems.
Fomby and Cherlin took the NLSY data and correspondently applied the number of marital and co-habitational alterations the children had respectively undergone.
Using a scoring process similar to that used for a standard IQ test, the study’s authors determined that a child who endured three family living alterations would be likely to have a behavioral problem score approximately 6 points higher than a child who had experienced no such alterations. Multiple family transitions were also directly linked with more frequent instances of juvenile delinquency such as vandalism, theft and truancy.
The study also illustrated that children who have experienced multiple family transitions tend to achieve lower than average test scores in mathematics and readings but these findings were thought justified by evaluating the mother’s own final educational level.
The research indicated that white children are more negatively impacted in both behavioral issues and academic achievement by family instability than black children. The authors suggested that black children possibly weather the emotional storm better due to the fact that they typically have more immediate family nearby for emotional support.
The researchers cautioned that their sample data may have also affected the racial disparity found in the study since the women involved were between the ages of 21 and 39 years old at the time of the birth of their child. Black women frequently have children at younger ages than white women and thus would not have fallen within the established age guidelines established.
In both black and white children, the study indicated a consistent correlation between living in a ‘mother only’ household during the first years of life and mother-reported behavior problems. White children living under the same circumstances also experienced lower reading skills than white children raised in a two-parent home.
Fomby concluded, “Family instability does appear to have a causal role in determining whether white children exhibit more behavior problems. But for both white and black children, other dimensions of family structure, like being born to a single parent or living with a step-parent, also have persistent effects. Instability isn't the whole story, but looking at change tells us more about what explains children's behavioral development than what we would see by looking at a cross-section.”
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6. Two Years Later: Pope John Paul II Especially Remembered as Greatest Defender of Life and Family
By Peter J. Smith
VATICAN CITY, April 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two years after his death, a Vatican investigation concludes today on the life of a leader pro-life advocates will remember as perhaps the Catholic Church’s most ardent defender of the sanctity of human life and the family.
Officials of the Catholic Church marked a milestone in the process of sainthood for Pope John Paul II on Monday, ceremoniously completing an investigation into the well-loved Pope’s life on the second anniversary of his death.
The same day, the Vatican received a dossier detailing the miraculous cure of a nun suffering from Parkinson’s disease, which she and her community attributed to the intercession of John Paul. The miracle means the Pope is one step closer to beatification, the last step before canonization in the sainthood process for perhaps the world’s greatest missionary of the Gospel of Life and ardent defender of innocent human life and the family.
For a much of his life, the late Pope John Paul II had lived under two regimes that embraced ruthless ideologies opposed to life and opposed to God. He experienced firsthand the Nazi regime in Poland that denied human life and dignity to countless millions, including the Jews and his own Polish people, and lived through the atheist satellite regime of the Soviet Union which banished God from public life and encouraged anti-life and anti-family attitudes in its populace for over 70 years.
However, until his dying day, Pope John Paul II dedicated his pontificate to rallying the world to fight against a new “ideology of evil” that seeks the destruction of human life and the human family.
John Paul II warned in his 1994 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “the Gospel of Life”, that an ever-growing “culture of death” was devouring civilization through artificial birth control, abortion, euthanasia, and other attacks on the sanctity of human life.
The Pope summoned all people of good will to champion the “culture of life”, to defend relentlessly the unborn, the disabled, the terminally ill, the elderly, and the defenseless as having the right to life and an inherent human dignity no matter their condition.
John Paul opposed UN fear mongering about population control, defending large families as a blessing from God and rejecting any measures coercing families to limit the number of children. In this, he found himself abandoned by former Cold War allies, US President George H.W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who went to the table with former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss the threat of overpopulation.
However, John Paul would not believe that the world’s population constituted any sort of danger, when rich nations in the West could help poorer nations economically lift up their populations by sharing the abundance of their wealth.
Instead, he pointed out that many powerful and influential leaders “haunted by the current demographic growth” were behaving like the biblical Egyptian Pharaoh, who killed the Hebrew male children to stunt a population he perceived as a threat to Egypt’s interests.
“Consequently, rather than wishing to face and solve these serious problems with respect for the dignity of individuals and families and for every person's inviolable right to life, they prefer to promote and impose by whatever means a massive programme of birth control,” said the Pope. “Even the economic help which they would be ready to give is unjustly made conditional on the acceptance of an anti-birth policy.”
In his last book, Memory and Identity, the Pope also suggested that besides abortion, the world-wide push for same-sex unions may be “perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, perhaps more insidious and hidden, which attempts to pit human rights against the family and against man.”
In 2003, the Pope approved a document prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith run by his friend Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI, reasoning the Church’s opposition to same-sex unions.
The Pope opposed homosexual unions and adoptions saying children needed to grow up and find nurturing in a family with a father and a mother. He lamented that same-sex unions distort “what should be a communion of love and life between a man and a woman in a reciprocal gift open to life.”
On his deathbed the Pope asked Catholics and people of good will to protect the rights of the unborn, and also expressed solidarity with Terri Schiavo and her right to be kept alive on food and fluids through the feeding tube which she was denied. He would follow her death 48 hours later.
Just the year before, the Pope had settled the question that food and fluids were morally obligatory to all human beings, and said that all persons were owed recognition of their inherent human dignity regardless of their cognitive state.
Above all, the Pope was what biographer George Weigel called a “Witness to Hope”, and he had hope in young people, who responded enthusiastically to his message, and he knew that they could renew the world into a better place for life and family. No more fitting words represent this than his last words to the youth as he lay dying: “I have called you and you have come, thank you.”
Words of Wisdom
1. Born Again!
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
(John 3:3)
Born again. Do you know what Jesus had in mind when He said those two words to Nicodemus? He was talking covenant talk. He was telling Nicodemus what it meant to have a covenant with God.
Let me paint the picture I believe was in Jesus' mind. Imagine a baby, a little baby born of an unwed mother. No one knows who its daddy is and no one wants to know. He is a child that nobody wants. He doesn't belong to anyone.
Now, picture the best kind of family you can think of. A family that loves God. The man has a good job. They're blessed financially. They're givers and lovers of people, and they fall in love with this baby. Before long, they adopt it.
What's happened? That baby was reborn. He got a new set of parents. Through adoption, he has now become an heir. Why? Not because of anything the baby has done. Those parents didn't say, "I want you to look at that baby. I'm so impressed with all that child has done for us. He has certainly earned our love and respect."
No, it's a baby. It couldn't have done anything to earn its new life. This man and this woman agreed together out of the love in their hearts and bestowed grace on that child. Now he has access to everything they have. When they offer him a bottle, he doesn't knock the bottle away and say, "I'm so humble and undeserving. Just give me water."
Of course not. That baby acts like part of the family--and not just part of the family but the best part of the family. Because in Jesus' day a covenant or adopted child had the same birthright as the firstborn son.
That's what Jesus was talking about when He said, "You must be born again." He was talking about grace. He was talking about a new relationship of favor. A new family. A new authority. A new power.
If you feel unworthy to receive the rich blessings God has for you today, think about that. Meditate on it, so instead of worrying about and struggling with the needs in your life, you can just walk boldly into the throne room of your Father and receive help to get those needs met.
Discover what it really means to be a blood-bought child of Almighty God with a big brother like Jesus. Discover what it means to be born again!
Scripture Study: John 3:1-8
2. Habit of success
What you do consistently and repeatedly grows stronger. And that provides you with nearly unlimited opportunity.
Success is not a secret that is hidden from you. Success is a habit that is readily available to you.
Life is made up of moment after moment. Point all those moments in the same direction, and truly magnificent achievements will come about.
There are very few things of value that you can create instantly. Yet when you expand your horizon to a few weeks or months, the possibilities for achievement increase dramatically.
The hours and the days will pass whether you make use of them or not. Choose to focus your energy in a specific direction, again and again, and put the power of time to work for you.
Keep your thoughts, your words and your actions pointed in the direction you would most like to go. Develop the habit of success, and with it you can create whatever you choose.
-- Ralph Marston
"For this and other previous devotionals, please see http://www.kcm.org/studycenter/devotional/f2f/index.php ."
3. The U in Jesus
Before U were thought of or time had begun,
God stuck U in the name of His Son.
And each time U pray, you'll see it's true,
You can't spell out JesUs and not include U.
You're a pretty big part of His wonderful name,
For U, He was born; that's why He came.
And His great love for U is the reason He died.
It even takes U to spell crUcified .
Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand
He rose from the dead, with U in His plan?
The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew,
And this word resUrrection is spelled with a U.
When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension,
He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.
"Go into the world and tell them it's true
That I love them all - Just like I love U."
So many great people are spelled with a U,
Don't they have a right to know JesUs too?
It all depends now on what U will do,
He'd like them to know,
But it all starts with U.
4. Let Your Life Shout
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good."
(Psalm 14:1)
Most of us would never dream this verse could apply to us. After all, we're believers! We'd never say that there is no God.
But maybe we should think again. It's true that with our mouths we would never say something like that...but what about with our actions?
Do we say it by sinning just a little here and there and thinking it won't matter? Do we go to an immoral movie or have a gossip session about the pastor, ignoring God's command to the contrary?
With our actions are we saying, "There is no God?"
Psalm 14:1 connects that kind of thing to corruption. Whether he realizes it or not, the more a person acts that way, the more corrupt he's going to become.
Don't make the foolish mistake of publicly proclaiming Jesus as your Lord, and then privately denying Him with one little action at a time. Use wisdom in everything you do so that both your heart and your life shout loudly, "My God reigns!"
Scripture Study: Psalm 14:1-7, 15:1-5
"For this and some of the other previous devotionals, please see http://www.kcm.org/studycenter/devotional/f2f/index.php ."
5. ----------------------------------
I thought this was a good article that may be of interest ......... from a Sudbury Christian Messenger reader
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ZENIT News Agency, The World Seen from Rome
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On St. Irenaeus of Lyons
"The First Great Theologian of the Church"
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave at the general audience today in St. Peter's Square. The reflection focused on St. Irenaeus of Lyons.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
In the catechesis on the great figures of the Church during the first centuries, today we reach the figure of an eminent personality, Irenaeus of Lyons. His biographical information comes from his own testimony, sent down to us by Eusebius in the fifth book of the "Storia Ecclesiastica."
Irenaeus was most probably born in Smyrna (today Izmir, in Turkey) between the years 135 and 140. There, while still a youth, he attended the school of Bishop Polycarp, for his part, a disciple of the apostle John. We do not know when he moved from Asia Minor to Gaul, but the move must have coincided with the first developments of the Christian community in Lyons: There, in 177, we find Irenaeus mentioned among the college of presbyters.
That year he was sent to Rome, bearer of a letter from the community of Lyons to Pope Eleutherius. The Roman mission took Irenaeus away from the persecution by Marcus Aurelius, in which at least 48 martyrs died, among them the bishop of Lyons himself, the 90-year-old Pothinus, who died of mistreatment in jail. Thus, on his return, Irenaeus was elected bishop of the city. The new pastor dedicated himself entirely to his episcopal ministry, which ended around 202-203, perhaps by martyrdom.
Irenaeus is above all a man of faith and a pastor. Like the Good Shepherd, he has prudence, a richness of doctrine, and missionary zeal. As a writer, he aims for a twofold objective: to defend true doctrine from the attacks of the heretics, and to clearly expound the truth of the faith. His two works still in existence correspond exactly to the fulfillment of these two objectives: the five books "Against Heresies," and the "Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching" (which could be called the oldest "catechism of Christian doctrine"). Without a doubt, Irenaeus is the champion in the fight against heresies.
The Church of the second century was threatened by so-called gnosticism, a doctrine which claimed that the faith taught by the Church was nothing more than symbolism for the simpleminded, those unable to grasp more difficult things. Instead, the initiated, the intellectuals -- they called themselves gnostics -- could understand what was behind the symbolism, and thus would form an elite, intellectual Christianity.
Obviously, this intellectual Christianity became more and more fragmented with different currents of thought, often strange and extravagant, yet attractive to many. A common element within these various currents was dualism, that is, a denial of faith in the only God, Father of all, creator and savior of humanity and of the world. To explain the evil in the world, they asserted the existence of a negative principle, next to the good God. This negative principle had created matter, material things.
Firmly rooted in the biblical doctrine of Creation, Irenaeus refuted dualism and the gnostic pessimism that devalued corporal realities. He decisively affirmed the original holiness of matter, of the body, of the flesh, as well as of the spirit. But his work goes far beyond the refutation of heresies: In fact, one can say that he presents himself as the first great theologian of the Church, who established systematic theology. He himself speaks about the system of theology, that is, the internal coherence of the faith.
The question of the "rule of faith" and its transmission lies at the heart of his doctrine. For Irenaeus, the "rule of faith" coincides in practice with the Apostles' Creed, and gives us the key to interpret the Gospel, to interpret the creed in light of the Gospel. The apostolic symbol, a sort of synthesis of the Gospel, helps us understand what the Gospel means, how we must read the Gospel itself.
In fact, the Gospel preached by St. Irenaeus is the one he received from Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and the Gospel of Polycarp goes back to the apostle John, Polycarp having been John's disciple. Thus, the true teaching is not that invented by the intellectuals, rising above the simple faith of the Church. The true Gospel is preached by the bishops who have received it thanks to an uninterrupted chain from the apostles.
These men have taught nothing but the simple faith, which is also the true depth of the revelation of God. Thus, says Irenaeus, there is no secret doctrine behind the common creed of the Church. There is no superior Christianity for intellectuals. The faith publicly professed by the Church is the faith common to all. Only this faith is apostolic, coming from the apostles, that is, from Jesus and from God.
To adhere to this faith publicly taught by the apostles to their successors, Christians must observe what the bishops say. They must specifically consider the teaching of the Church of Rome, pre-eminent and ancient. This Church, because of its age, has the greatest apostolicity; in fact its origins come from the columns of the apostolic college, Peter and Paul. All the Churches must be in harmony with the Church of Rome, recognizing in it the measure of the true apostolic tradition and the only faith common to the Church.
With these arguments, very briefly summarized here, Irenaeus refutes the very foundation of the aims of the gnostics, of these intellectuals: First of all, they do not possess a truth that would be superior to the common faith, given that what they say is not of apostolic origin, but invented by them. Second, truth and salvation are not a privilege monopolized by a few, but something that everyone can reach through the preaching of the apostles' successors, and, above all, that of the Bishop of Rome.
By taking issue with the "secret" character of the gnostic tradition and by contesting its multiple intrinsic contradictions, Irenaeus concerns himself with illustrating the genuine concept of Apostolic Tradition, that we could summarize in three points.
a) The Apostolic Tradition is "public," not private or secret. For Irenaeus, there is no doubt that the content of the faith transmitted by the Church is that received from the apostles and from Jesus, the Son of God. There is no teaching aside from this. Therefore, for one who wishes to know the true doctrine, it is enough to know "the Tradition that comes from the Apostles and the faith announced to men": tradition and faith that "have reached us through the succession of bishops" ("Adv. Haer." 3,3,3-4). Thus, the succession of bishops, personal principle, Apostolic Tradition, and doctrinal principle all coincide.
b) The Apostolic Tradition is "one." While gnosticism is divided into many sects, the Church's Tradition is one in its fundamental contents, which -- as we have seen -- Irenaeus calls "regula fidei" or "veritatis." And given that it is one, it creates unity among peoples, different cultures and different communities. It has a common content like that of truth, despite different languages and cultures.
There is a beautiful expression that Irenaeus uses in the book "Against Heresies": "The Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points (of doctrine) just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the world."
We can already see at this time -- we are in the year 200 -- the universality of the Church, its catholicity and the unifying force of truth, which unites these so-very-different realities, from Germany, to Spain, to Italy, to Egypt, to Libya, in the common truth revealed to us by Christ.
c) Finally, the Apostolic Tradition is, as he says in Greek, the language in which he wrote his book, "pneumatic," that is, spiritual, led by the Holy Spirit. In Greek, spirit is "pneuma." It is not a transmission entrusted to the abilities of more or less educated men, but the Spirit of God who guarantees faithfulness in the transmission of the faith.
This is the "life" of the Church, that which makes the Church always young, that is, fruitful with many charisms. Church and Spirit are inseparable for Irenaeus. This faith, we read in the third book of "Against Heresies," "which, having been received from the Church, we do preserve, and which always, by the Spirit of God, renewing its youth, as if it were some precious deposit in an excellent vessel, causes the vessel itself containing it to renew its youth also. . For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace" (3,24,1).
As we can see, Irenaeus does not stop at defining the concept of Tradition. His tradition, uninterrupted Tradition, is not traditionalism, because this Tradition is always internally vivified by the Holy Spirit, which makes it alive again, allows it to be interpreted and understood in the vitality of the Church.
According to his teaching, the Church's faith must be preached in such a way that it appears as it must appear, that is "public," "one," "pneumatic," "spiritual." From each of these characteristics, one can glean a fruitful discernment of the authentic transmission of the faith in the Church of today.
More generally, in the doctrine of Irenaeus, human dignity, body and soul, is firmly rooted in Divine Creation, in the image of Christ and in the permanent work of sanctification of the Spirit. This doctrine is like the "main road" to clarify to all people of good will, the object and the limits of dialogue on values, and to give an ever new impulse to the missionary activities of the Church, to the strength of truth which is the source of all the true values in the world.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[After the audience, Benedict XVI greeted visitors in various languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Continuing our catechesis on the Church Fathers, we turn now to Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, a great theologian and bishop at the end of the second century. In his writings, Irenaeus clearly sets forth the contents of the apostolic faith and appeals to the Church's living tradition in order to defend that faith from false teachings. He thus emphasizes the regula fidei: the "rule of faith" contained in the Apostles' Creed and in the Gospel proclaimed by the Church's Bishops. The Gospel Irenaeus preached was the Gospel preached by his teacher Polycarp, who in turn received it from the Apostle John in an unbroken line of succession going back to Christ himself. Irenaeus also writes of the unique authority of the Church of Rome as founded on the Apostles. This zealous pastor illustrates for us three important characteristics of the Apostolic Tradition: it is "public", because it is available to all through the teaching of the Bishops; it is "one", because its content remains the same
despite the variety of languages and cultures; and it is "pneumatic", because, through it, the Holy Spirit continues to enliven and renew the Church even today.
I am pleased to welcome the many English-speaking pilgrims present. In a special way, I offer cordial greetings to the priests from the Institute for Continuing Theological Education and to the students of the NATO Defense College. Upon all of you I invoke God's blessings of peace and joy.
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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6. The other side of fear
Most of your fears would disappear if you would simply decide to walk right up to them. Fear has only the power that you give it.
Your fears can intimidate you or they can illuminate you. The choice is entirely up to you.
Your fears can stop you or they can prepare you. And you get to decide which it will be.
Listen to each fear just long enough to absorb the useful and reasonable information it may contain. Then realize that once that is done, it is time to move on beyond the fear.
On the other side of fear, there is value, there is accomplishment, there is fulfillment. See fear as the gateway that it is, and make the choice to carefully and persistently go through it.
Allow the fear to prepare you well, then move on past it. And be amazed at the great things you can do.
-- Ralph Marston
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