Controversy prompts Vatican to clarify synod midterm

Vatican City, Oct 14, 2014 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After a media frenzy and lively internal debate were both raised by the publication of the midterm relatio of the Synod of Bishops, its secretariat issued a statement clarifying its merely provisional nature. “The General Secretariat of the Synod … reiterates that it is a working document, which summarizes the interventions and debate of the first week,” said an Oct. 14 declaration of the Holy See press office on behalf of the secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

The statement was made “in response to reactions and discussions following the publication of the Relatio post disceptationem, and the fact that often a value has been attributed to the document that does not correspond to its nature.” The relatio’s publication was hailed in the secular media with such headlines as “Synod signals Catholic shift on gays” and “Vatican’s New Views On Gays, Divorced”.

The Holy See press office also noted that the relatio “is now being offered for discussion by the members of the Synod gathered in the Small Groups, in accordance with the Regulations of the Synod.” Among the synod fathers who received the relatio less than warmly was Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, O.F.M., of Durban, South Africa’s largest port on the Indian Ocean.

Cardinal Napier, a moderator of one of the small circles at the synod, openly dismissed the relatio during an Oct. 14 briefing with journalists, saying, “that’s Cardinal Erdo’s text, not the synod text.” The cardinal questioned whether “some expectations of the synod are unrealistic,” and underscored that “the synod is not called to discuss contraception, abortion, same-sex marriages. It was convoked to speak about the family.” “How it is written, the relatio conveys that there is an agreement on issues, on which there is not in fact an agreement” the Archbishop of Durban underscored. And he concluded: “I hope the line of the synod, not that of some group, prevails.”

  TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Six Syrians were detained Monday during raids in north Lebanon for lacking identification documents, security sources said. Members of the Lebanese Army intelligence branch raided sites in the towns of Zghorta and Iaal in the Zghorta district, and the village of Deir Nabouh in the district of Dinnieh. (Link)

  The Defense Minister was granted a 10-day ultimatum to determine the demands of the military corps regarding the new pay hike. “As long as all the rights of the military corps were granted, then we will not demand separating the army’s new wage scale from the original draft law,” Moqabel told reporters gathered at […]

By Nicholas Blanford, Correspondent 

Apple and Facebook will pay female employees up to $20,000 to help cover the cost of freezing their eggs.

The goal is to enable women who want to continue focusing on their careers without sacrificing their chance to have children later on.

NBC News reports that Facebook recently began its program and that Apple will start paying employees who want to freeze their eggs in January.

Known as oocyte cryopreservation, egg freezing is a process by which a woman extracts and stores her eggs so that they can be reinserted into her uterus at a later date, allowing her to have children at a time when she might otherwise be infertile.

By Guy Lodge

Modestly tucked away below a Dunkin’ Donuts in Beirut’s built-up Ain el-Rammaneh district, the Abraj multiplex does not often play host to international movie stars. Yet while gracing its linoleum-floored halls on Oct. 1 for the Middle Eastern premiere of her film “Clouds of Sils Maria,” Juliette Binoche seemed sufficiently overwhelmed by the reception to tear up visibly before leaving the stage, reappearing in a more jovial mood for the more elegantly appointed afterparty.

The occasion was the opening night of the Beirut Intl. Film Festival, and Binoche’s reaction seemed appropriate for an event that aims for a delicate balance of glamour and gravitas. Pushing liberal social ideals and freedom of expression in a vibrant country still culturally scarred by the Lebanese Civil War, it’s a more intimate affair than other fests in the region like Doha or Dubai, which is how festival director Colette Naufal likes it: Its bijou scale and political positioning allows her to be both selective and progressive in her programming. “We are able to bring movies others can’t,” she says. “We don’t auto-censor at all.”

(Reuters) – Lebanon is set to postpone next month’s parliamentary elections to 2017 because instability linked to the Syrian crisis has made it impossible to hold a nationwide poll, a government minister said on Monday.

The civil war in neighboring Syria has stoked sectarian tensions and aggravated long-standing rivalries in Lebanon. This would be the second postponement of the elections, which should have taken place in June 2013.

Now the 128-member parliament is set to delay them for another two years and seven months from November, the minister said.

"There is no longer a possibility of holding the elections because of the deteriorating security situation in the country," the minister told Reuters. He declined to be named because the parliament has not yet voted on the new postponement.

By Ann Schneible

Vatican City, Oct 11, 2014 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church in Nigeria has been at the forefront in fighting discrimination towards persons with same-sex attraction, says Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, who adds that media coverage of the Church has been imbalanced. In one of the strongest statements made about homosexuality during the first week of the Synod on the Family, the Nigerian prelate told the press on Oct. 8 that “the Catholic Church respects all human beings, and we believe we are all created in the image and likeness of God.”

Archbishop Kaigama said that the people of Africa believe marriage is only between a man and a woman, based on culture, biology, and religious belief. However, he stressed that this does not translate into support for the “the criminalizing of people with different sexual orientations.” “The Catholic Church is in the forefront of defending them,” he said, “and we would defend any person with a homosexual orientation who has been harassed, who has been imprisoned, who has been punished.”

The archbishop criticized the media for focusing on the Church’s defense of marriage between a man and a woman, while ignoring the Church’s advocacy against discrimination towards persons with same-sex attraction.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The dog, named Sheru along with Mangli were treated to a lavish wedding with more than 70 guests. The dog was brought to the wedding in a chauffeur-driven car and welcomed by the celebrants.  A local elder told Mangli’s parents that she possessed ill-luck and that marrying a man would bring destruction to the family and her community. 

Mangli is not happy with her current arrangement, but insisted that it will help change her fortunes. "I am marrying a dog because the village elders believe that my evil spell will be passed on to the dog. "After that is done, the man I will marry will have a long life."Mangli’s father Sri Amnmunda agreed and even found the dog as a match for his daughter. "The village elders told us that we should organize the wedding as soon as we can. We had to make sure that the evil spell is destroyed. "And marrying a dog is the only way to get rid of the bad luck."

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – "ISIS has plants in Baghdad. That’s why the archbishop wanted us gone. The other day, they discovered 150 bodies of people who had been shot. Nobody knows who did it, but we know that ISIS is already operating in Baghdad," White said in a recent interview.  White related how the Islamic State burst into the house of one of "his families" and offered the parents a choice: "Convert right now or we will kill your children in front of you."

Visiting a different family, White recalls, "The kids were told to convert or be killed. They refused. There were four of them from 15-years old and younger. They beheaded all of them," he related crying. "They were all our children. That is how evil these people are. So evil. They have no respect for anyone. The other day, they chopped a four-year old boy in half. He didn’t do anything. What can a four-year old boy do? He was just a boy ."

The 50-year-old Anglican vicar, from London is the president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, an aid and advocacy group that works for peace between different religious groups in the Middle East. The foundation, which has 260 centers around the world, has worked with Nigerian Christians and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians and different groups in Germany.