70% Approve Homosexuality, Money Laundering, New Francis Book & They Wanted Martini?
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The Latest from the Conciliar Church...
Propagandist Poll for the Homosexual Agenda?
"70% of "Catholics" approve of homosexuality which is a jump from 58% last year..."
Pew study: More Americans reject religion, but believers firm in faith
The 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, released Tuesday (Nov. 3) by the Pew Research Center, also shows that nearly all major religious groups have become more accepting of homosexuality since the first landscape study in 2007.
More striking numbers in the study describe changing Christian attitudes toward gay Americans. Though the new landscape survey is not the first to document such change, it shows in detail how dramatically members of a broad swath of denominations — even those that officially oppose homosexuality — have shifted in their views.
The number of evangelical Protestants, for example, who said they agreed that “homosexuality should be accepted by society” jumped 10 percentage points between the 2007 and 2014 studies — from 26 percent to 36 percent. The increase for Catholics was even steeper, from 58 percent to 70 percent. For historically black Protestant churches, acceptance jumped from 39 percent to 51 percent.
“Despite attempts to paint religious people as monolithically opposed to LGBT rights, that’s just not the case and these numbers prove that,” said Jay Brown, head of research and education at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the national gay rights group.
Read it all here!
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/11/03/pew-americans-religion-believers-faith/
Vatican spokesman confirms money laundering investigation
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, papal spokesman, is pictured during an Oct. 26 press conference at the Vatican. Investigations into money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation through a Vatican office were launched after an initial report was filed by the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority in February 2015, the Vatican spokesman said Nov. 4. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See LOMBARDI-NATTINO-INVESTIGATION Nov. 4, 2015.
VATICAN
CITY (CNS) -- Investigations into money laundering, insider trading and market
manipulation through a Vatican office were launched after an initial report was
filed by the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority in February 2015, the
Vatican spokesman said.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, issued a statement Nov. 4 about the investigations involving the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. The office, known by its Italian acronym APSA, handles the Vatican's investment portfolio and its real estate holdings.
The Vatican spokesman's statement comes on the heels of a report by the British news agency Reuters that Giampietro Nattino, chairman of a private Italian bank, had accounts at APSA and used them for personal trades on the Italian stock market.
The Reuters article says investigators looked at Nattino's activities between May 22, 2000, and March 29, 2011. The investigations revealed that the Italian banker transferred more than 2 million euros out of his APSA account to a Swiss bank account several days before stricter financial regulations at the Vatican went into effect, Reuters reported.
The report also states that the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority passed its findings on to Vatican City State judicial authorities regarding Nattino's activities and recommended the Vatican prosecutor, Gian Piero Milano, also investigate possible involvement by some members of the APSA staff.
Although APSA in 2012 told investigators from "Moneyval" -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- that the Vatican decided in 2001 to phase out individual accounts, the Vatican's internal investigation revealed that accounts like Nattino's were active until 2009.
Father Lombardi said the Vatican prosecutor's office requested the involvement of Italian and Swiss judicial authorities in the investigation "by requests sent through diplomatic channels on Aug. 7, 2015."
The document was inspired by a December 2011 speech by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and draws on the work of national and international Catholic-Lutheran dialogues since 1965, particularly on the topics of church, ministry and the Eucharist. It was intended to mark the 50th anniversary of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue in 2015 and the upcoming 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.
"It's amazing to think that 500 years ago we were killing each other over" issues on which there is now consensus between the two communions, said ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton in a Nov. 4 telephone news conference about the declaration.
"We grew up in a time when our communities were absolutely divided; now instead we are rejoicing in the places we find agreement," she added.
Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore, the Catholic co-chairman of the task force, said Pope Francis on his recent U.S. visit and throughout his papacy has emphasized "a culture of dialogue" that is reflected in concrete form in the new declaration.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, a former ELCA presiding bishop, served as Lutheran co-chairman of the task force.
The document's introduction says the two churches have come a long way since "the disunity, suspicions and even hostilities that characterized our relationships for generations," but says the time has come "to claim the unity achieved through these agreements, to establish church practices that reflect this growth into communion and to commit ourselves anew to taking the next steps forward."
It concludes by asking the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 145 churches in 98 countries, and the Pontifical Council on Promoting Christian Unity to jointly "receive, affirm and create a process to implement" the 32 statements of agreement outlined in the declaration and to establish "a process and a timetable for addressing remaining issues on church, Eucharist and ministry."
"The expansion of opportunities for Catholics and Lutherans to receive holy Communion together would be a significant sign of the path toward unity already traveled and a pledge to continue together on the journey toward full communion," the task force added.
In addition, the task force urged action and study at the local level between Lutheran congregations and Catholic parishes, as well as formal and informal cooperation among bishops of both denominations at the regional level.
The declaration is not a statement of the full body of Catholic bishops, but was affirmed in October by the ELCA Conference of Bishops, an advisory body, which asked the ELCA Church Council to forward the document to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, its highest legislative body.
Bishop Madden said the Catholic bishops are not scheduled to vote on the declaration during their Nov. 16-19 annual fall assembly in Baltimore but that he hoped it would be the topic of much discussion among the bishops.
"We want all the bishops to know about this declaration and help promulgate it in their own dioceses," he added.
Jesuit Father Jared Wicks, a Catholic member of the task force and scholar in residence at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, said in an ELCA news release that the document represented "a moment to move from study to declaration, to expand in Catholic and Lutheran believers a shared awareness of their real agreements on significant and well-defined essentials of our faith and life."
Asked at the news conference what was the most difficult issue that continued to divide Lutherans and Catholics, Bishop Madden cited women's ordination as "one of those issues that we are still discussing."
The Lutherans have been ordaining women since 1970; the Catholic Church teaches it has no authority "to confer priestly ordination on women."
Bishop Eaton said Lutherans still had difficulty with the Catholic understanding of "the role of the bishop of Rome" and the issue of papal infallibility.
"We are really sorry for some of the things (Martin) Luther said about (the pope) back in the day," she said, adding that there have been "terrible misunderstandings and, on our part, unfortunate caricatures" surrounding the issue.
"But we really like this one (Pope Francis) a lot," Bishop Eaton said.
Kathryn Johnson, ELCA director for ecumenical and interreligious relations, said the declaration marked the beginning of "a totally different world of relationship and hopefulness" between Catholics and Lutherans.
Father John Crossin, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said he had been approached by an Anglican colleague about doing a similar document that looks at remaining issues dividing the two communions.
The declaration "is already starting to have a little ripple effect," he said.
In the new book, “The Name of God Is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli,” the pope “discusses mercy, a subject of central importance in his teaching and testimony, and in addition sums up other ideas—reconciliation, the closeness of God—that comprise the heart of his papacy,” according to Random House, which bought North American rights in English and Spanish at auction from Italian publisher Piemme.
Random House will also release an audiobook in January. A spokeswoman for the publisher declined to say how much the company paid for the rights.
Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, will publish the book in the U.K. and Commonwealth countries excluding Canada.
Rights so far have been sold in at least a dozen other languages, according to Piemme’s website, and after Friday’s announcement more queries came pouring in from countries including China, said Carole Tonkinson, Bluebird’s publisher.
This isn’t the first time the pope has used an interview format to speak to his flock. In a headline-grabbing 2013 interview with the Italian Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, Pope Francis warned that the Catholic Church had become too focused on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues. That interview was later published in book form by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins, which, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.
Earlier this year, several U.S. publishers, including Melville House, issued editions of the pontiff’s 183-page encyclical on climate change. Those editions have sold at least 43,000 print copies, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Mr. Tornielli is a reporter for the newspaper La Stampa and runs its Vatican Insider website. His 2013 biography of Pope Francis has been translated into 16 languages, according to Piemme.
The pope’s new book “is directed at everyone, inside or outside the Catholic Church, seeking meaning in life, a road to peace and reconciliation, or the healing of physical or spiritual wounds,” Random House said.
“Pope Francis is an extraordinary person and he’s inspired people,” Ms. Tonkinson said. “It’s really amazing how he’s reaching across all sorts of barriers in terms of country and religion. He’s a spokesperson for mercy much like the Dalai Lama is a spokesperson for compassion.”
This new book isn’t the only offering from Pope Francis in the coming months. In November, he’ll release a prog rock album.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the spokesman, issued a statement Nov. 4 about the investigations involving the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. The office, known by its Italian acronym APSA, handles the Vatican's investment portfolio and its real estate holdings.
The Vatican spokesman's statement comes on the heels of a report by the British news agency Reuters that Giampietro Nattino, chairman of a private Italian bank, had accounts at APSA and used them for personal trades on the Italian stock market.
The Reuters article says investigators looked at Nattino's activities between May 22, 2000, and March 29, 2011. The investigations revealed that the Italian banker transferred more than 2 million euros out of his APSA account to a Swiss bank account several days before stricter financial regulations at the Vatican went into effect, Reuters reported.
The report also states that the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority passed its findings on to Vatican City State judicial authorities regarding Nattino's activities and recommended the Vatican prosecutor, Gian Piero Milano, also investigate possible involvement by some members of the APSA staff.
Although APSA in 2012 told investigators from "Moneyval" -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- that the Vatican decided in 2001 to phase out individual accounts, the Vatican's internal investigation revealed that accounts like Nattino's were active until 2009.
Father Lombardi said the Vatican prosecutor's office requested the involvement of Italian and Swiss judicial authorities in the investigation "by requests sent through diplomatic channels on Aug. 7, 2015."
Catholic-Lutheran document sums up agreements, maps steps to "full unity" (cough, cough)
Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore holds a Catholic-Lutheran document titled "'Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist" during a a telephone news conference Nov. 4 in Washington. The newly released 120-page document marks the progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn) See CATHOLIC-LUTHERAN Nov. 5, 2015.
A new 120-page document marks the progress in Catholic-Lutheran relations over the past 50 years and maps the remaining steps needed to achieve full unity.
The "Declaration on the Way" was prepared by a joint task force of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which has more than 3.7 million members in 9,300 congregations across the United States.The document was inspired by a December 2011 speech by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and draws on the work of national and international Catholic-Lutheran dialogues since 1965, particularly on the topics of church, ministry and the Eucharist. It was intended to mark the 50th anniversary of Catholic-Lutheran dialogue in 2015 and the upcoming 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation in 2017.
"It's amazing to think that 500 years ago we were killing each other over" issues on which there is now consensus between the two communions, said ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton in a Nov. 4 telephone news conference about the declaration.
"We grew up in a time when our communities were absolutely divided; now instead we are rejoicing in the places we find agreement," she added.
Auxiliary Bishop Denis J. Madden of Baltimore, the Catholic co-chairman of the task force, said Pope Francis on his recent U.S. visit and throughout his papacy has emphasized "a culture of dialogue" that is reflected in concrete form in the new declaration.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, a former ELCA presiding bishop, served as Lutheran co-chairman of the task force.
The document's introduction says the two churches have come a long way since "the disunity, suspicions and even hostilities that characterized our relationships for generations," but says the time has come "to claim the unity achieved through these agreements, to establish church practices that reflect this growth into communion and to commit ourselves anew to taking the next steps forward."
It concludes by asking the Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of 145 churches in 98 countries, and the Pontifical Council on Promoting Christian Unity to jointly "receive, affirm and create a process to implement" the 32 statements of agreement outlined in the declaration and to establish "a process and a timetable for addressing remaining issues on church, Eucharist and ministry."
"The expansion of opportunities for Catholics and Lutherans to receive holy Communion together would be a significant sign of the path toward unity already traveled and a pledge to continue together on the journey toward full communion," the task force added.
In addition, the task force urged action and study at the local level between Lutheran congregations and Catholic parishes, as well as formal and informal cooperation among bishops of both denominations at the regional level.
The declaration is not a statement of the full body of Catholic bishops, but was affirmed in October by the ELCA Conference of Bishops, an advisory body, which asked the ELCA Church Council to forward the document to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, its highest legislative body.
Bishop Madden said the Catholic bishops are not scheduled to vote on the declaration during their Nov. 16-19 annual fall assembly in Baltimore but that he hoped it would be the topic of much discussion among the bishops.
"We want all the bishops to know about this declaration and help promulgate it in their own dioceses," he added.
Jesuit Father Jared Wicks, a Catholic member of the task force and scholar in residence at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, said in an ELCA news release that the document represented "a moment to move from study to declaration, to expand in Catholic and Lutheran believers a shared awareness of their real agreements on significant and well-defined essentials of our faith and life."
Asked at the news conference what was the most difficult issue that continued to divide Lutherans and Catholics, Bishop Madden cited women's ordination as "one of those issues that we are still discussing."
The Lutherans have been ordaining women since 1970; the Catholic Church teaches it has no authority "to confer priestly ordination on women."
Bishop Eaton said Lutherans still had difficulty with the Catholic understanding of "the role of the bishop of Rome" and the issue of papal infallibility.
"We are really sorry for some of the things (Martin) Luther said about (the pope) back in the day," she said, adding that there have been "terrible misunderstandings and, on our part, unfortunate caricatures" surrounding the issue.
"But we really like this one (Pope Francis) a lot," Bishop Eaton said.
Kathryn Johnson, ELCA director for ecumenical and interreligious relations, said the declaration marked the beginning of "a totally different world of relationship and hopefulness" between Catholics and Lutherans.
Father John Crossin, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said he had been approached by an Anglican colleague about doing a similar document that looks at remaining issues dividing the two communions.
The declaration "is already starting to have a little ripple effect," he said.
Francis to Publish First Book of His Papacy
Francis in January will publish the first book of his papacy, written in an interview format with Italian journalist and Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli.
The book’s world-wide release on Jan. 12 will coincide with a special jubilee “year of mercy” that Pope Francis has called to reach out to alienated members of the church and to non-Catholics in need.In the new book, “The Name of God Is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli,” the pope “discusses mercy, a subject of central importance in his teaching and testimony, and in addition sums up other ideas—reconciliation, the closeness of God—that comprise the heart of his papacy,” according to Random House, which bought North American rights in English and Spanish at auction from Italian publisher Piemme.
Random House will also release an audiobook in January. A spokeswoman for the publisher declined to say how much the company paid for the rights.
Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, will publish the book in the U.K. and Commonwealth countries excluding Canada.
Rights so far have been sold in at least a dozen other languages, according to Piemme’s website, and after Friday’s announcement more queries came pouring in from countries including China, said Carole Tonkinson, Bluebird’s publisher.
This isn’t the first time the pope has used an interview format to speak to his flock. In a headline-grabbing 2013 interview with the Italian Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica, Pope Francis warned that the Catholic Church had become too focused on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues. That interview was later published in book form by HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollins, which, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp.
Earlier this year, several U.S. publishers, including Melville House, issued editions of the pontiff’s 183-page encyclical on climate change. Those editions have sold at least 43,000 print copies, according to Nielsen BookScan.
Mr. Tornielli is a reporter for the newspaper La Stampa and runs its Vatican Insider website. His 2013 biography of Pope Francis has been translated into 16 languages, according to Piemme.
The pope’s new book “is directed at everyone, inside or outside the Catholic Church, seeking meaning in life, a road to peace and reconciliation, or the healing of physical or spiritual wounds,” Random House said.
“Pope Francis is an extraordinary person and he’s inspired people,” Ms. Tonkinson said. “It’s really amazing how he’s reaching across all sorts of barriers in terms of country and religion. He’s a spokesperson for mercy much like the Dalai Lama is a spokesperson for compassion.”
This new book isn’t the only offering from Pope Francis in the coming months. In November, he’ll release a prog rock album.