On which values should a new Europe be based?

In March, 2007, The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, COMECE held a conference in Rome to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Community.

For the occasion, COMECE appointed a committee to produce a report on the values of the EU. The name they gave to their Committee was “The Group of the Wise” and it consisted of 25 prominent Europeans, among them Pat Cox and Peter Sutherland.

The publication of The Group of the Wise’ initial report, brought with it considerable disquiet because, notwithstanding the Report’s title A Europe of Values, it made no reference to issues such as abortion, euthanasia and Gay marriage.

Some of this disquiet found a voice in the President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Angelo Benasco of Genoa. As reported by Vatican Radio (23/3/2007), Archbishop Benasco reminded the Conference that, “The Catholic Church’s main concern is that the dignity of the human person remain the ethical centre of the Union. He said that human life must be protected from conception until natural death. He also said, the family must be respected.”

However, neither the Archbishop’s words nor his sentiments made their way into the final version of the Report which COMECE later presented to the European Commission.

So what does all this mean? It seems clear that there are two competing visions for Europe here, each having its own distinct set of values. One vision seems to involve the belief that “peace” in Europe can be successfully built (without putting too fine a point on it) on euthanised sick and elderly people; on an ‘anything goes’ attitude to marriage and sexual morality and; even, on the bodies of millions of aborted children. The other vision might be represented in the words of Archbishop Benasco, or, to quote the present Pope, in a timely address which he delivered for the 2008 World Day of Peace, “Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman…is an objective attack on peace.” (emphasis added)

The Treaty of Lisbon, if approved by the people of Ireland, would establish for the very first time a new supranational state, a State which would have a working Constitution explicitly based on the shared values of the Member States — values to which we will be giving our approval, if we vote ‘YES’ on October 2nd.

And what values are these? Well, 24 of the Member States effectively treat abortion as a “human right”, for starters. Euthanasia is also practiced.

More explicitly within the Constitution is the requirement that there may be no discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation (Article 10, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union) –the word ‘orientation’ is not here meant to mean a disposition (over which a person may have no say) but rather an openness, for example, to homosexual behaviour.

The requirement that there be no discrimination of this nature would seem to imply that homosexual, bisexual and other harmful behaviour must be valued at least equally with the sexual relationship that is proper to the marriage between a man and a woman.

There is also no right to life for unborn children in the proposed Constitution but, ironically, the fact that a right to life is mentioned at all, as it is in Article 2.1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, would seem to preclude the recognition of a right to life for unborn children as this right is recognised in almost none of the Member States.

Article 53, of the Charter, in particular could lock a country irreversibly into its tragic abortion regime and we would be turning the key! It is amazing to think that with our votes here in Ireland we have the power to establish such a potentially monstrous supranational state and consign 500 million Europeans to be citizens of that state, without them having any individual say in the matter. It is as if the people of Britain were being required to vote on setting up the old Soviet Union and on making the people of Ireland its citizens!

In the words of German Constitutional expert Prof. Dr. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, “Ireland is now the most important country in the world.” If the Irish people vote YES on October 2nd they will be voting YES to this Superstate, YES to its Constitution and YES to the values contained in that Constitution.

In effect, they will be giving much more than ‘a nod anda wink’ to the killing of millions of children in the EU every year. No, the Irish people will be signing their names to a Charter which by protecting the false “rights” already being practiced in these countries will strengthen the hold that the culture of death has over our European brothers and sisters. Christian charity demands that we stay our hand!

The Jewish people had it right. After one of their Kings had sacrificed (his) children to the false god Molech, the site of the sacrifice (the valley of Hinnom from which Jesus derived His name for hell, Gehenna) was
effectively turned into a rubbish dump situated outside the City walls. How terrible it would be for us and for the people of Europe if we were to build our city on our very own Gehenna.

Dear Madam,

We are writing this letter as we feel that the views on the Ryan report by moderate Catholics in Ireland, which we hope make up the majority of our Church, have not been properly represented through the ongoing debate in these pages.

As active and practicing young members of the Catholic Church we are deeply saddened by what the report has shown and we are deeply horrified to think that such actions could have been perpetrated by men and women who claimed to be living out a relationship with God. These actions and the ensuing debacle over the apportioning of blame in no way represent us, our faith or the Church we hold to be built on such a faith. As Catholics we would like first to ask all other outspoken Catholics to refrain from downplaying or whitewashing the full extent of the horror which has now proven to be a very real part of our most recent history. Furthermore, we abhor any culture of self-preservation which exists within the Church and argue that it is incompatible with the faith we profess.

The fact that it is uncomfortable in no way opens the doors for us to continue to insult the abused by minimizing their suffering for our own peace of mind. It is too late to change what has been done. We can only move forward in the hope of a new approach. What has emerged from the Ryan report has been referred to as the ‘Irish Holocaust’ and the widespread and systematic abuse of our nation’s most vulnerable members by those in positions of authority and trust can only make all men and women of good will stand to attention and shudder.
The Ryan Report identifies eighteen Catholic religious orders involved in the abuse of children. To date, the response of most of these orders has, in our view, been entirely inadequate. The report identifies in particular the Christian Brothers as the order responsible for a system where abuse was considered acceptable. The Christian Brothers seem not to have recognized what it is they have done. They continue to veer away from admitting liability and seem only to move in that direction when forced to do so by external pressures. We believe that a debate with regard to the continued presence/survival of the Christian Brothers in Ireland should be initiated both within Church circles and State. It is, after all, within the State’s powers to expel the order.
The orders concerned should accept nothing less than full liability in these abuse cases and there should be no cap on their acceptance of culpability.

How, one might ask, can we remain active members of such a Church? As young Catholics we were not complicit in a culture of secrecy and do not wish to be associated with arrogance, egotism and self-preservation. Yet we believe in a God who is Love and we also believe that this God is active through the community of faith which we call the Catholic Church. It is however a Church filled with and run by sinners. The song is beautiful but the singers are off key. We remain members of the Church in the hope that a humble and, ultimately, more Christ-like future may emerge.

To this end, we, as the future of the Church in Ireland, must ensure that children feel safe and welcome. This requires full, uniform and rigorous implementation of the civil and ecclesiastical guidelines. As concerned and frustrated Catholics we intend to write a letter to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, in Rome, imploring him to force the religious orders to accept full liability, whatever the cost. We exhort other Catholics, who are determined that this can never be allowed happen again, to do likewise. – Yours, etc,

Conor Gannon, David Cleary, Iva Beranek, Christine Santisteban, Ronan McCoy and Majella Moloney

http://blog.catholicireland.net/?p=1272

In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine out tomorrow, actress Jennifer Aniston spoke about the “pressure” people felt to have a relationship that will last. “Whoever said that everything has to be forever? That’s unrealistic or hoping for too much. I don’t think it’s worth all that pressure,” Aniston told Cosmo!

Now, hold on a minute there, ‘friend’! Let’s just unpack this awhile! First of all, where is this “pressure” you’re referring to coming from? Surely, these days, to quote Cole Porter, “Heaven knows, anything goes”?

What does a modern western society care about who should be allowed to marry, how long a marriage should last or, if, indeed, anyone should get married, in the first place?

Well, perhaps the answer is, that despite all the noise to the contrary, ’society’, actually, does care about these things and ’society’, actually, cares a lot.

But, why? Why does society care so much? Given the way the ’free love’ commandment (’do unto others and do and do and do’) is regularly genuflected to in our media, why is society resisting the ’slime directive’ and stubbornly putting poor people like Jennifer under this pressure to have a relationship that will last?

Could it be that it is actually written into our nature, and Jennifer’s, too, to seek out lasting relationships? Why? Because, ultimately, we know, deep within our genes — or wherever — that that is what we should do because that is what will make us happy or happi-er, in any case ( I mean, only God can make us truly happy, right? )

Only yesterday, Trinity College’s leading Neuroscientist, Professor Ian Robertson (I hope I haven’t trod on anyone’s toes here) told Newstalk’s Orla Barry that to break the values you hold (in that case, honesty — the discussion was about a taxi driver who had found $32,500 and returned it to its rightful owners) is to damage yourself.

These inconvenient values, along with our requirement to act in accordance with them, are built into our genes or something over millions of years and you can’t just jettison them because you feel like it or because some other psychologist says you should (jettison them, that is).

You see, looking at it again, Jennifer’s call to hopelessness – for that is what it is – seems like the tail of that trojan horse which an old atheist and pseudo-psychologist named Albert Ellis deposited in our lives many years ago. Ellis ‘observed’ (psychologists always say they ‘observe’ when they want to avoid being contradicted) that what makes us mentally ill, in the shape of anxiety and depression, is our beliefs about what we should do when what we do do contradicts those beliefs.

That makes a lot of sense, in a way, I suppose, but instead of suggesting that people change their behaviour and follow their consciences ( the reasonable thing to do, surely ), Ellis proposed that the word ’should’ itself was the problem — Ellis used to speak about his patients ’shoulding’ all over themselves! The word ’should’, according to Ellis, should be taken out of the English language.

I think the first thing one should notice here is that the old Ellis idea which, at one point, enjoyed almost universal approval in pseudo-psychological and, I’m afraid, Church and religious circles too, seems to contradict what Prof Robertson said — it also contradicts the latest scientific research, by the way! You can’t just shake off your ’shoulds’ as if they were some acquired and otherwise inexplicable social ‘construct’. No, they come straight from, wait for it, this is going to hurt, the Natural Law, yes, the old Ten Commandments themselves. Surprise, surprise, there’s no real getting away from your conscience.

Secondly, just think about it for a minute: If you took the word ’should’ out of the English language, how many of the Ten Commandments would you be left with? But that was the whole point, wasn’t it?

Amazing, really: that intelligent, often religious people fell for this ruse from the author of The Case against Religion: the Psychotherapist’s View; that an atheist activist who who liked to refer to Christianity as “an irrational belief system” which he taught was at the core of many mental health problems – particularly among Catholics – was allowed a powerful place in the heart of many a Christian counselor! So much for John Paul II’s exhortation “duc(ere) in altum” ( “put out into the deep”). For goodness sake, forget about the deep, all you have to do is barely scratch the surface and you see this anti Christian / anti monotheistic idea for what it is.

What’s really ironic is that the exhortation to ‘be your best’ seems to have near universal approval in every area other than morality. The one area that offers life ( “the flesh has nothing to offer” –  John 6:63 — after all ) only offers life if we love to the end, to the utmost, with our whole heart, our whole mind, our whole strength — assuming we want to be happy. St Paul (a word for him as we approach the end his year) talked about Christians running in a race looking for an imperishable wreath (1 Corinthians 9: 24-27). So let’s hold out for excellence in the moral life and for one expression of that, the pursuit of permanent lasting relationships. Let’s not be taken in by Jennifer’s and Albert’s ‘call to hopelessness’ because it is “by hope we are saved” (Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007).

And, on the day, more or less, that the Pope visits Mt Nobo where tradition states that God gave Moses a view of the Promised Land from afar, let’s hear it for Moses, let’s hear it for perseverance and let’s hear it for the hope that the word ’should’ should point to!

This blog has been brought to you today by the number 10 and by the word ’should’!

Kelly Thompson , from Port Talbot,  was taken in agony to a special burns unit after spending 16 minutes on a coin-operated sunbed. Apparently if she would have spent two minutes longer, she would have needed skin grafts to help undo the damaged caused. Oh and by the way, Kelly is 10 years old.

Please, please, please someone tell me not only why the Electrik Avenue salon in Port Talbot allowed a child to use one of their tanning beds; but also why did Kelly’s family allow her to use it. Who is putting these crazy ideas in her head to say, she should be concentrating on getting a sun tan at such a young age?

Kelly’s mother Sharron Hanaford said, “I want the salon closed down because I know other kids are going in there.” It still begs the question how can you even advocate your child even considering using one at such a young age.

I agree that there is a responsibility on the salon’s part and just having a sign, that says you have to be 16 or over to use the beds, is nowhere near good enough. These things have to be enforced.

Stories circulated in Ireland, in 2006 where children were using sunbeds in the lead up to their communion. Regardless of health, does it not sound incredibly tacky and stupid?

What kind of message does it send to your child? That the way you look will always be the most important thing? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Also in 20006, the EC’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP), stated that the use of sunbeds to achieve and maintain cosmetic tanning ‘is likely to increase the risk of malignant melanoma of the skin’.

Malignant melanoma is the least common yet most dangerous type of skin cancer, with almost 400 Irish people are diagnosed with it every year.

Does the message start to sink in yet? Probably not, but I hope that Kelly Thompson recovers fully and that this incident will start to wake people up to the dangers of just “trying to look good”.

I see old promises that have not been kept before being made again and I wonder that because they scrape off the rust, does it make the new image any better or brighter? I am sure there are many politicians that are there for the right reasons and that they want to do what is right for their constituency or country, but at the same time there are those that are either in so far over their heads that they do not know what to do or there are others who take the glory for doing very little at all.

From Credit Cards with, reportedly, €50,000 limits on it to accountability being a word that I would think is very rarely used, the ministers in our government are living in a different world and I would love something to bring them down a few pegs and back to reality.

The local elections are a way to do that, everyone should use their right to vote and finally show politicians in this country that they cannot have everything their own way, that responsibility is not just a fantasy dreamed up years ago.

Protests can go on forever and last minute rebel pickets will do nothing to change the minds and the mood of those in power. To change political views, hit them in the spot where it will really hurt, place the people in power you want to see; not the people who dictate to us how “lucky” we are to have them. You take away power and there is not much left for those who supposedly run this country.

Mrs Ahmed is currently in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has six months to find a kidney after suffering failure when seven months pregnant.  Despite having only 7% kidney function, she gave birth by caesarean section on Easter Sunday.

Her family are incredibly worried, as is to be expected, but are hopeful that a donor can be found.

I think if there was a way to give of ourselves to those close to us, we would. It can seem vulture like as there is a wait for a donor or someone to pass away, who has a donor card but there are good people out there who are willing to help others.

Hopefully they will find a donor for Mrs Ahmed and she will be able to be reunited with her first child Liyana. It is a big thing to give of yourself, in this case it is paramount.

Every winter we have our bouts of flu and in some cases (mostly men’s) we feel like we want to die and that we will never get better. This time Swine flu is something that can cause exactly that death.

I realise some will say this is not a time to panic, but with 100 people already said to be dead and the people of Mexico are certainly suffering; the symptoms have already started to make their way to America and some parts of the UK.

It can be a frightening thing to battle against something you cannot see but that knows how to bring you down from the inside.

The problem that can generate now is mass hysteria, the second someone gets flu like symptoms it will be seen as Swine Flu. I hope it is something that can be contained and that there is the least amount of pain and suffering possible.

There is the old saying that your health is your wealth. In these times, the last thing we all need is something else that we cannot control. Let’s hope Swine flu will not continue to make the headlines, death is never good news.

The Frenchman has been living in Finland since 2006 and has created a ‘nap’ restaurant to help those who want to get away from the stresses and strains of work and home.

The idea came to me in a restaurant when I felt a bit sleepy after a meal,” he told AFP. “I thought it would be so nice to have place (for resting) and I started to think what it could be like.”

The Naphouse, located in the Western city of Turku, opened in January after Mast secured funding from the European Union’s youth culture budget.

Customers seeking sleep or relaxation are given slippers, a pillow, a blanket and even a teddy bear before entering the blue coloured nap room, which has bean bags and doughnut-shaped mattresses on the floor.

The café is also used as an activities workshop and an art gallery.

Moving on to Scotland and the police force appears to have some Star Wars fans in its midst, after eight of its officers recorded their religion as Jedi.

Strathclyde Police said the officers and two civilian staff had listed themselves as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms. Jane’s Police review commissioned a survey of 55 police forces across the UK.

Jane’s Police Review editor Chris Herbert, who requested the information, said: ‘The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde Police with their Jedi police officers and staff.

‘Far from living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, some members of the noble Jedi order have now chosen Glasgow and its surrounding streets as their home.’

And finally we go to Buckinghamshire, where Gaz Houghton’s introduction of a £20 fine for every own goal scored by his team backfired on him and he scored four himself in Marlow.

Ms Stacey, discovered a lottery ticket on the floor of her local supermarket in Swindon only to find that it was a winning one worth £30,000 GBP. She and husband Michael cashed the windfall and spent half of it on new carpets, treats for their children and paying off their debts.

However this did not sit well with the Ms McDonagh, who convinced Camelot, the lottery operator that the slip was hers. The Stacy’s were given an 11 month suspended sentence for theft and dishonesty.

Now how does someone proof that the ticket was theirs? They can memorise the numbers as much as they want but at the end of the day, if you lose your ticket you cannot be that shocked if someone finds it and uses it.

Much like if there is a small amount of money found on the ground, you would not walk for miles to ask did anyone lose it. If someone’s wallet or purse was found and it had identification of that person that is a different thing altogether, I think efforts should be made to return it or to hand it in to the Police.

With that action you are making a choice and one that is judged on your character and honesty. If an ad would have been placed to say “Lottery Ticket found in Supermarket in Swindon” the world and their Uncle would have descended on it and you may have heard 20 different stories as to how the ticket belonged to them.

It is a tough one to call. Is it considered stealing? Can you really call it theft? Maybe if they had donated the funds to charity instead of spending it on themselves, there would have been more thought of them and less chance of this ending up in court.

Either way, when money comes into an argument people definitely lose the run of themselves and a different character is shown. Sometimes it is not a pleasant sight.

The 32-year-old, who has not been named, leaped a fence and then swam more than 10 metres across the bears’ pool at Berlin Zoo. Apparently she was trying to connect with Knut, who is said to be the friendliest and most famous polar bear around.

The bear she met did not appear to be Knut and she was taken to hospital with bites on her arm, back and legs.

Apparently last year a man climbed into the enclosure as he felt lonely and wanted to be close to Knut.

It sounds like madness, it is madness but on some occasions something can make people belief that whatever they do, nothing can harm them. The harsh reality sometimes kicks in and in this case it happened to the this young woman.

Another story in 2003 saw a British woman in Spain have her arm torn off by a lioness. The woman, who was visiting the El Arca sanctuary for wild animals near Alicante with her sister, reached through the bars of the lion pen to try to pet one of the cats.

I remember reading her story, which I think she sold to one of the Sunday tabloids, she said something along the lines of “ I just wanted it to lick my fingers”. You cannot predict someone’s reasoning and I am sure if you would’ve ask her beforehand, she would not have even considered trying it.

Maybe it is temporary insanity, too much activity and energy that we build up, but something makes us lose the run of ourselves from time to time. On most occasions it can be a good thing because there is always a need to release tension.

If we acted the same way all the time, things might become pretty boring. If that were to happen, normality would be overrated.

I get no pleasure in watching programmes and clips where animals attack humans because in some way they are gaining a measure of revenge for humans doing just that to animals.

There is no doubt about it, when you step inside someone’s domain and you are not certain of your surroundings, strange things can happen.