Report: Church of China, a by-product of persecution and the crisis of materialism

From AsiaNews:
In the just published ‘Letter to Chinese Catholics,’ the Pope offers a totally new image of the Church in China, happy for the fidelity that Catholics have shown in almost 60 years of Communist persecution. At the same time he has called for the unity and reconciliation of official and underground Catholics, noting that [...]

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Report: EU and UN continue to threaten Nicaragua with loss of funds if abortion it does not legalize abortion

From Catholic News Agency:
The European Union and the United Nations have kept up pressure on Nicaragua to reverse the law passed last October 26 outlawing therapeutic abortion in the country, saying economic aid could be lost if the law is not changed.
In the parliamentarian debates prior to the outlawing of abortion, Nicaragua was under pressure [...]

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Report: Poland rejects EU charter on homosexual rights

From Catholic World News:
The Polish government will not accept the portion of the the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that covers issues of discrimination on the basis of sexual preference.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has announced that Poland will not grant legal recognition to same-sex unions, saying that the step would violate [...]

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Report: Last Minute Heroics Stave Off Homosexual Bill in Colombia

From LifeSite:
A band of Colombian lawmakers rallied enough support at the eleventh hour to defeat a bill that would have given certain rights and benefits enjoyed by married couples to homosexual couples.
The bill, backed by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, would have made Colombia the first nation in Latin America to provide homosexual couples rights [...]

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Report: The Holy Father Reflects on “A New Humanism”

From Catholic News Agency:
The Holy Father joined rectors and university professors from all over Europe in the Paul VI Auditorium on Saturday to discuss the theme of a ‘New Humanism.’ The meeting was organized to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, “which gave rise to the present European Union”, the Holy [...]

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Article: Honor-Killings, Islam, and Christendom

R. Cort Kirkwood / Taki’s Top Drawer:
One example of what Moslems think of women is the so-called honor killing, the murder of women who disgrace a Moslem’s family. This estimable practice, occurring with alarming frequency in Islamo-Europe, has Western elites wringing their tremulous, uncalloused hands. On one hand, they fear offending the feminists seeking justice [...]

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Article: Pope Benedict XVI and Islam: Allah the Irrational

Scott Richert / Taki’s Top Drawer (tip to Tea at Trianon):
Many sympathetic commentators, who didn’t bother to read the speech, concluded that the main point of Benedict’s address was to denounce the use of violence in the service of religion. That is certainly a good secondary lesson to take from his remarks, but the [...]

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Book Review: The Last Days of Europe

Review of The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent, Walter Laqueur, Thomas Dunne Books.
Theodoe Dalrymple / American Conservative:
It is Europe’s doom that Walter Laqueur explores and explains in this succinct and clearly written book. He does not say anything that others have not said before him, but he says it better and [...]

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Article: Europe has forgotten its families

Carolyn Moynihan / MercatorNet
Leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union are gathered in Brussels right now to hammer out a new treaty for the enlarged union. The grander idea of a constitution has been dropped, following rejection of a draft two years ago by French and Dutch voters, and because of deep scepticism [...]

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Article: Hope for Old Europe?

Fred Siegel / City Journal:
Sarkozy’s road to the Elysee Palace was paved not only by the mini-Intifada in the Paris banlieues, but also by a memorable public exchange about Islam. An intellectually confident Sarkozy, then the interior minister, debated suave, articulate Tariq Ramadan, the grandson and heir of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. With [...]

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