June 18, 2005 |
Note from the Executive Officer:
Please pray for the preservation of marriage in Canada, or at least that a vote in parliament might be postponed until the fall. We are at a desperate 11th hour. - J. Fraser Field
This
CERC Bi-Weekly Update is also available on our web site here.
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15 Free to Choose - Milton Friedman - Wall Street Journal Little did I know when I published an article in 1955 on "The Role of Government in Education" that it would lead to my becoming an activist for a major reform in the organization of schooling, and indeed that my wife and I would be led to establish a foundation to promote parental choice. |
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| 01 It's trendy to be suspicious of people with "deeply held views." And it's wrong. |
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16 The Pope of the Youth - Mary Beth Bonacci - Crisis It was funny, really, watching the media try to figure out why the youth of the world so loved Pope John Paul II. |
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04 Doctors Doubt Darwinism - Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., and Robert J. Cihak, M.D. - NewsMax.com If you believe you are just a blob of cellular tissue, please raise your right protoplasm. |
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05 In search of a scapegoat - Michael Cook - MercatorNet Was John Paul II responsible for the deaths of millions of African AIDS victims because he refused to sanction the use of condoms? |
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09 Edward Piszek - Rev. George W. Rutler - Crisis Having known Edward Piszek for nearly 15 years, my mistaking him for the groundskeeper of the Colorado retreat house where we first met still seems understandable. |
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11 Generation to Generation: Nuturing the Faith in Our Homes - Kimberly Hahn - Lay Witness From the moment we hold our child for the first time, we care for his physical needs. We feed him, clothe him, and clean him. Yet he has deeper needs than physical care — he has a soul that needs to be fed, clothed, and cleansed. |
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08 John Paul II's Saints — and Us - George Weigel - The Catholic Difference Why was Pope John Paul II the greatest saint-maker in the history of the Church? |
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06 The Stages of World Religion - part 4 - Christopher Dawson This concluding section of The Stages of World Religion, as shown in the different books of Christopher Dawson, deals with Stages VI and VII, the period from the Renaissance and the Reformation down to the 20th century. Because of the breakup of the Catholic synthesis which had brought the Hellenic and Hebraic traditions together in a common unity, the culture of the West is now vulnerable to the invasion of alternative syntheses of thought and culture. |
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14 What is God's Answer to Human Suffering? - Peter Kreeft - from Making Sense Out of Suffering The answer must be someone, not just something. |
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07 Dark side of the soul - Rev. Raymond J. de Souza - National Post With the release of The Revenge of the Sith (Episode III), George Lucas delivered the final episode in the most commercially successful cinema series ever. The films are notable for dazzling special effects, clunky dialogue and only occasional lapses into good acting. Why then their popularity? I suspect it's because they tell, in a thoroughly contemporary way, the most ancient stories about the human condition. |
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10 Retaking the Universities - Roger Kimball - The New Criterion The sea is far from full, but the current still can serve. The tide, ebbing for decades, has begun to flow. It is time to seize the initiative lest we miss the moment and lose our ventures. |
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12 Philistines at the Gate - Lee Harris - Tech Central Station In a recent meeting of the Board of Education in the city of Artichoke, Alabama, it was decided to ban the reading of Homer's Illiad and Odyssey in the classroom. The grounds given for the exclusion of these towering masterpieces of ancient literature is that reading them in a public school violated the first amendment's guarantee of the separation of church and state. |
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13 Back to the Beginning: A Brief Introduction to the Ancient Catholic Church - George Sim Johnston - Crisis The culture is now flooded with bogus scholarship whose main purpose is to put Christianity - and especially orthodox Catholicism - on the defensive. But most Catholics have no idea how to respond, and more than a few take these books and documentaries at face value. After all, they have the imprimatur of the History Channel or a large publishing house like Doubleday. |
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| 02 How many times have your heard that "Our founding fathers were not Christians! They were deists!"? It is an absurd assertion. |
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12 God, Sex, & Babies: What the Church Really Teaches about Responsible Parenthood - Christopher West In my experience sharing Catholic teaching on marital love and sexuality around the world, one thing is certain: confusion reigns regarding Church teaching on responsible parenthood. |
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13 Compendium of Social Wisdom - Zenit In spite of the limited media coverage of Monday's publication of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, the event was an important moment. The compendium gathers, for the first time in the Church's history, magisterial teachings on social issues. |
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| 02 This report on the current state of family law holds up for clear public view the underlying, dramatically different models of marriage that are contributing to deep public clashes over the law of marriage, cohabitation, and parenthood. Obtaining conceptual clarity about marriage and its meanings will allow family law experts, scholars from other disciplines, judges, legislators, and the general public to make more informed choices among competing legal proposals now being advanced in the United States and Canada. |
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12 Meal Ordeals - Dr. Ray Guarendi - DrRay.com Dear Dr. Ray, My four-year-old daughter is a picky eater. Often she refuses to eat anything at all. Mealtime is not pleasant in our home. Fed Up |
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| EDITORIALS OF INTEREST: |
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| 25 Blown clean away by a brush with Benedict - The Scotsman I know, I know, so many things going on, but perhaps I could just tell you that on the Feast of Corpus Christi, I almost literally bumped into the Pope. |
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25 Pope John Paul II's longtime private secretary said Saturday he did not burn the late pontiff's notes as his will demanded, arguing that the papers contain "great riches" and should instead be preserved. |
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| 26 We have a passel of pope books! - USA Today When Pope Benedict XVI was elected this spring, all the time-honored rituals happened: whitish smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, bells from St. Peter's and the announcement, in Latin, "We have a pope!" But, this time, something entirely modern kicked in, too: the launch of instant books. |
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| 27 Seeing Red - Peggy Noonan - Wall Street Journal In America there is a lot of political integration. Democrats and Republicans are friends. Life forces them to be if they need to be forced, which most don't. They know each other from the office, Little League, school meetings, the neighborhood. |
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| 28 The Vocation of a Catholic Journalist - Philip F. Lawler - Catholic Insight Born and raised in the Boston area, Philip Lawler attended Harvard College, graduating with honors in Government in 1972. He did graduate work in political philosophy at the University of Chicago before entering a career in journalism. |
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| 29 AP Poll: Religion Key in American Lives - Yahoo Americans are far more likely to consider religion central to their lives and to support giving clergy a say in public policy than people in nine countries that are close allies, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. Yet, the U.S. embrace of faith has its limits. |
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| 32 Study shows G-rated fare more profitable - Netscape News A new study set to be released Tuesday shows that family-friendly movies are more profitable than R-rated films, throwing more fuel onto the fire of the long-running debate over sex and violence in entertainment — and whether it sells. |
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| 33 The Case of Theresa Schiavo - Joan Didion - New York Review of Books Theresa Marie Schindler was born on December 3, 1963, to prosperous and devoutly Catholic parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, in a Philadelphia suburb, Huntingdon Valley. Robert Schindler was a dealer in industrial supplies. |
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| 27 Atrophy of Compassion - CUF News Fr. Frank Pavone comments on the Terri Schiavo autopsy |
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| 28 Woman is kept alive to save unborn baby - USA Today "I hate seeing her on those darned machines," Torres says, "and I hate using her as a husk, a carrying case, because she herself is worth so much more. But Susan really wanted this baby. And she's a very — how should I put this? — a willful lady. That's probably why she's made it this far." |
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| 28 Former actress works to overturn Roe vs Wade - Spero News Caron Strong is a former actress who has appeared on TV and in film. She's the mother of a young daughter, Cayla, her pride and joy. |
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| 28 Gallup: Public Confidence in Newspapers, TV News Falls to All-Time Low - editor and publisher Public trust in newspapers and television news continued to decline in Gallup's annual survey of "public confidence in major institutions" in the United States, reaching an all-time low this year. |
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| 33 Now sex with other people doesn't mean you're unfaithful - The Observer When Ali Sheik met Tori Coxon they knew that they had something. Ali, 33, from south London, and Tori, 27, from north London, hit it off straight away and within a month were seeing each other four or five times a week. |
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| 33 Is the Faith Dead in France? Not Quite... - National Catholic Register If the problems of the Church in France are disheartening, there are many signs that give hope. |
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| 25 Mock gay wedding at Notre Dame - News24 A priest was slightly hurt on Sunday at the famed Notre Dame cathedral when clashes broke out between church security personnel and gay rights activists who performed a mock marriage of two lesbians. |
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| 26 Vatican Restoring Dome of St. Peter's - Guardian Visitors to the Vatican this summer might have their view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica marred by scaffolding as workers clean and restore the top of Michelangelo's towering cupola. |
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| 27 "Co-belligerents" or good Samaritans? - Prolifetraining.com Evangelical Christians committed to sound doctrine must distinguish themselves theologically from those who reject fundamental truths of the Protestant Reformation. |
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| 28 Victory for Church in Italian fertility poll - The Telegraph Italy's Roman Catholic Church scored an important victory yesterday when a low turnout for a national referendum foiled attempts to relax a strict law on assisted fertility. |
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| 29 Canada Same Sex 'Marriage' Bill Very Likely to Pass Next Week Sources Say - Lifesite The back and forth in Parliament over the same-sex 'marriage' Bill C-38 has even MPs confused. |
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| 30 Incidental godliness may be allowed in civil weddings - The Guardian For many a bride and groom, it's the perfect wedding: the country house hotel, the vintage Rolls, vowing eternal fidelity to the strains of Ave Maria. Sadly, under current rules the dream must remain a fantasy. |
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| 31 Geldof condemned over Pope 'invite' - Yahoo.com Campaigners have penned an open letter to Bob Geldof in protest at his decision to invite the Pope to support Live 8. |
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| 28 Pope Gave Evangelicals the Moral Impetus We Didn't Have - Christianity Today Timothy George discusses how "the greatest pope since the Reformation" changed evangelicalism without us knowing. |
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| 28 Women get the vote in Kuwait - Middle East Online Islamist, tribal legislators defeated after fiercely campaigned against women's participation in political life. |
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| 28 On Wings and Prayers - Wall Street Journal How much religious intolerance is there at the U.S. Air Force Academy? |
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| 33 Autopsy Reveals Terri Schiavo Would Have Lived "At Least" another 10 Years - Lifesite Results of an autopsy performed on Terri Schiavo, released Wednesday, revealed that she could have lived "at least" another 10 years, according to Pinellas-Pasco medical examiner Jon Thogmartin. |
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| 33 God-Lite Doesn't Cut It - National Review A new poll tells an old story: Americans are deeply religious, especially compared to Europeans. |
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| 25 The End of Europe - Washington Post Europe as we know it is slowly going out of business. |
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| 26 To be or not to be a priest - Chicago Tribune As bishops gather here to weigh church's challenges, a new generation of seminarians wrestles with the hardest choice of all. |
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| 27 A new-look Pope and a new Pope mobile - Times on Line A group of Vatican firemen offered Pope Benedict XVI a helmet engraved with the name Ratzinger to try on. |
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| EDUCATION MATTERS: |
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| 34 Rebuilding schools of hope - Good Housekeeping Leslye Arsht, formerly the senior advisor to the Iraqi Minister of Education, has won the Good Housekeeping award for women in government. Arsht braved insurgents, logistical nightmares, and blazing desert heat to help the Iraqi government rebuild its K-12 education system. |
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| 35 As they learn about the American Dream, these kids wonder if it's theirs to pursue. |
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| 37 Jordan Is Preparing to Tone Down the Islamic Bombast in Textbooks - New York Times Jordan, facing extremism at home and pressure abroad, is attempting to change its textbooks by downplaying the violence often associated with jihad. While Jordanian textbooks are, by Middle Eastern standards, light on religious extremism, they still emphasize themes like the Western plot against Muslims and deceitful Jews attacking Islam. Eliminating these entrenched radical beliefs will take a delicate balance of religiosity and modernity. |
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| 38 The predictable, but unpredictably personal, politics of teacher licensure - Journal of Teacher Education There is nothing unpredictable or even surprising about the debate over teacher training. What is odd, is the extraordinary rancor of this debate. Ad hominem attacks, overblown rhetoric, and the imputation of sinister motives are failings of both sides and have made compromise next to impossible. |
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| 39 Ed board could use some Wal-Mart smarts - Los Angeles Times The Broad Foundation's fellowship program puts young, skilled executives from the private world into top positions in urban school districts. Many experience culture shock once dropped into these bureaucracies where they must contend with "antiquated accounting systems, personnel with the most basic training in word-processing programs, [and] enormous bureaucracies with no clear statement of how people get promoted from one position to another." |
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| 40 Bishop Rejects 62 X-Tians - AllAfrica.com The Bishop of Rwenzori Diocese, Benezeri Kisembo, on Sunday refused to confirm 62 Christians after they failed to answer the scripture questions put to them. |
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| 40 The Return of the Parents - Warren Throckmorton Students are approaching the final days of this educational year but increasingly parents are heading back to school. |
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| 40 Arrest for 'gay' horse jibe is absurd, says Tatchell - The Telegraph Police officers who arrested a student for calling a police horse "gay" have been accused of "absurd heavy-handedness and over-reaction" by a leading campaigner for homosexual rights. |
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| 34 First Baptists, Now Presbyterians Urge Withdrawing Kids from Public Schools - Lifesite This week, the Presbyterian Church in America voted to receive a personal resolution encouraging Christian parents to remove their children from the public schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education. |
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| 35 The problem with "problem" young-adult fiction. |
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| 37 Fallout Continues over University's Honouring of Abortionist — Student Senator Resigns - Lifesite The University of Western Ontario's decision to give an honorary doctorate of laws to notorious Canadian abortionist Henry Morgentaler continues to hurt the institution. |
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| 38 Study Relates Marijuana Use to Psychosis - Concerned Women for America Scientists have found that marijuana use at a young age raises the risk of developing psychotic symptoms later in life, such as schizophrenia, delusions and paranoia, and the risk was even higher in those who were already genetically vulnerable to developing it. |
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| 39 Compulsory African history? - Gadfly Philadelphia's public school system, under the leadership of Paul Vallas, has been making so much progress on so many fronts that it's a special disappointment when they blunder. But blunder they are doing. |
| St.
Justin Martyr, pray for us |