The Weekly News In
Review
Newsletter is a
compilation of the news articles that have appeared
on the Understand The Times website during the
previous week.
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September 4 - Human-animal embryo study wins approval
Article: Cloning And Genetic Engineering
Plans to allow British scientists
to create human-animal
embryos are expected to be approved tomorrow by
the government's fertility
regulator. The Human Fertilisation and
Embryology Authority
published its long-awaited public consultation on
the controversial research
yesterday, revealing that a majority of
people were "at
ease" with scientists creating the hybrid
embryos.
Researchers
want to create hybrid embryos
by
merging human cells with animal eggs, in the
hope they will be able to extract
valuable embryonic stem cells from
them. The cells form the
basic building blocks of the body and
are expected to pave the way
for revolutionary therapies for diseases
such as Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's and even spinal cord injuries.
Opponents
of the research and some religious groups
say the work blurs the distinction between humans
and animals, and creates
embryos that are destined to be destroyed when
stem cells are extracted from
them.
Most support was expressed for
the creation of so-called
cytoplasmic hybrid embryos, in which a human
cell is inserted into an empty
animal egg. Other hybrid embryos,
such as those created by
fertilising an animal egg with human sperm, or
vice versa, were less well
supported.
Martin
Rees, president of the Royal Society, said:
"The HFEA's consultation
reveals welcome recognition of the potential of
this research, [with] 61% of the general public
agreeing with the creation of
human-animal embryos, if it may help
understand diseases, with
only a quarter opposed to this
research."
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September 2 - Jordan king urges greater EU role for Mideast peace
Article: Israel And The Last Days
AMMAN
(AFP) - Jordan's
King Abdullah II called
for the
European Union to
bridge differences
between Israel and the
Palestinians
ahead of a US-
sponsored peace conference in talks on Sunday with
visiting Italian Prime Minister
Romano Prodi.
"King Abdullah II and
Prodi
stressed the importance of increased efforts by
the European Union to support
peace in the Middle East and bring back
the Palestinians and the
Israelis to the negotiations table," a
palace statement said.
"It is necessary to bring closer
the points of
view between the Palestinians
and Israelis in light of US
President George W.
Bush's call for an
international peace conference
for the Middle East," the king was
quoted as saying.
"I feel that the divisions between
the
Palestinians will not help the
peace process. I am sure that the
Palestinian divisions will bring
negative consequences to any future
development in the
area," Prodi said.
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September 5 - Blair gets to work developing steps to peace in the Middle East
Article: Israel And The Last Days
It's just his first
week on the job but Middle East envoy
Tony Blair has begun
developing a plan that would spell out
steps to
peace in the Middle East.
The plan would spell
out practical
steps that Israeli, Palestinian and
business leaders would gradually take to
try to boost peace prospects,
officials said today.
Israeli government
sources said the goal was to set a
rough timeline to roll out what diplomats
refer to as "deliverables" -
feasible incremental
steps meant to improve
Palestinian daily life and increase Israeli
confidence in Abbas.
Olmert is seeking a
broadbrush
"declaration of principles" in
time for the November conference,
whereas Abbas wants a more explicit
"framework" agreement with
a timeline for
implementation on the core issues of
borders, Jerusalem and the fate of
Palestinian refugees.
Livni said the
November conference should
embrace the
"widest common ground" and could serve
as
the "beginning of a more concrete
process between Israel and the
Palestinians".
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September 5 - Hillary suffers Walter 'Cronkitis'
Article: One World Government
Does Sen.
Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate for the
Democratic presidential
nomination, endorse efforts to form
a world
government?
In his acceptance speech,
Cronkite embraced the idea that the U.S.
would be subsumed into a
regional or world
government. His views were
seconded by Clinton in a closed-circuit
television link-up.
Cronkite said, "Today
we must develop federal structures
on a
global level. To deal with world problems, we
need a system of enforceable
world law, a democratic federal world
government."
Clinton, then first lady,
congratulated Cronkite, saying,
"For decades you told us 'the
way it is,' but
tonight we honor you for
fighting for the way it could be."
"First, we Americans are going
to have to yield
up some of our
sovereignty," Cronkite said. "That's
going to be
to many a bitter pill. It would
take a lot of courage,
a lot of
faith in the new world order."
The World Federalist
Association, now known as Citizens for Global
Solutions, says its aim is
to
build a "future in which
nations work together to abolish war, protect
our rights and freedoms and
solve the problems facing humanity that no
nation can solve alone."
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September 5 - CISA: Faith leaders praise dialogue between Libya, Holy See
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
African
religious leaders have praised a more than
25-year-long dialogue
between Libya and the Vatican
as a
positive contribution to good relations
between Christianity and
Islam.
"Given the global situation
between Christians and
Muslims which is understood
to be very tense because of what happened on
11 Sept. (2001), I think this is a
very good contribution," Rev.
Ishmael Noko, general
secretary of the Lutheran World Federation told
Ecumenical News
International.
Unknown to many people,
according to Sheikh Saleh Habimana, the Mufti of
Rwanda and the chairperson
of the Muslim Councils for East, Central and
Southern Africa,
representatives of the Catholic
Church and Tripoli have been
holding discussions over the past 25 years
aimed at bridging the faiths.
Father
Maloba Wesonga, the administrative secretary of
the Catholic Archdiocese of
Nairobi here praised
the dialogue as an
"indispensable initiative" promoting unity in
diversity.
The interfaith
meeting was organized by the Union of
Muslim Councils for East,
Central and Southern Africa.
It
brought together representatives of seven
religions in Africa: African
Traditional Religion, Baha'i, Buddhism,
Christianity, Hinduism, Islam
and Judaism.
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September 6 - Pope: True Christian dialogue includes listening as well as speaking
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Misc.
When people listen to each other,
these encounters lead to good
relationships that are then based on
understanding, which involves
a "deepening and transformation of our
lives as
Christians," he told participants of the
third European
Ecumenical Assembly
meeting in Sibiu, Romania. The written message was
released Sept. 5 by the
Vatican.
The Sept. 4-9
ecumenical assembly brought together
representatives of the
Conference of European Churches and the Council
of European Bishops'
Conferences. The delegates, who represented
European Catholic bishops'
conferences and representatives of the
Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican
confessions,
considered issues of unity,
spirituality, paying common witness,
interreligious dialogue,
migration, respect for creation, and justice
and peace.
In his
message, Pope Benedict said, "We Christians
must
be aware of the task entrusted
to us, that of
bringing to Europe and the
world" the voice of Christ, who said
in the Gospel of St. John,
"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows
me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life."
He urged
Christians to continue to work for
full and
visible Christian unity "and peace for
people in Europe," as
well as band together to foster "true
development"
in European communities.
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September 7 - Christianity not just legacy, but future way, pope says in Austria
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
The pope said the
focus of his journey, a visit to
the Marian shrine at Mariazell, would
take him to the "maternal
heart of Austria" and underline the role of
Mary throughout Central
Europe.
The Marian sanctuary, the
pope said, "reminds us of an essential
dimension
of human beings: their
capacity for openness to God and his word of
truth."
"Mariazell does not only represent
850 years of history,
but shows us on the basis of
that history -- as
reflected in the statue of the
Blessed Mother pointing to Christ her son
- the way to the
future," he said.
The pope
said he also wanted to
encourage renewed interest in
pilgrimages, especially among young people
seeking space for reflection
and meditation. The important thing,
he said, was to make a
connection between these spiritual excursions and
daily life.
After the
airport formalities, the pope traveled to the
center of Vienna for two
important ceremonies: a
prayer before a Marian
pillar and a silent tribute to Holocaust
victims.
Standing
before the altar, the pope began
a prayer
to Mary that Austrian young people were
to continue to recite throughout
his three-day visit.
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September 6 - Syria fires on Israeli war planes
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria
said its air defences
opened fire on
Israeli warplanes which had violated
Syrian airspace at dawn on Thursday,
ratcheting up the tension between the
neighbouring foes.
Syria's allegations came
amid a war of
words with Israel, with each blaming the
other for stoking regional tensions
and for the failure to revive peace talks that
have been stalled for seven
years.Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told
pan-Arab satellite television Al-Jazeera
that Syria's leadership was
"giving serious
consideration to its response... to
this aggression."
"They intervened
in our airspace...
which they should not do -- we are a
sovereign country and they should not
come into airspace,"
Expatriate Affairs Minister Bussaina Shaaban
said.
Over the past few
months, Israeli and Syrian leaders have
both said their countries do not want a war, but were
preparing for any possibility while each
side has accused the other of
arming for a conflict.
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September 6 - Peres hopes for new light in dark Middle East
Article: Israel And The Last Days
Rome - Israeli
President Shimon Peres said on Thursday
that he was "more optimistic" about
the
possibility of peace between
Israel and the Palestinians, after meeting
with the pope and Italian
leaders in Rome.
"I am a little
bit more optimistic...
There is a sign of
light at the end of the tunnel
between us and the Palestinians,"
he said during a press conference.
Peres said Israel "would like to have
peace" with Syria but accused it of
"giving arms to Hezbollah" and
"hosting the headquarters of Hamas", the
radical Islamist movement.
He said Israel would seek a "declaration of principles
between us and the Palestinians" to
submit to a major Middle East peace
summit called by US President
George Bush and expected for
mid-November in Washington.
Israel has issued several invitations for
the pope to visit but
the Vatican has said this will only be
possible when there is lasting peace
or at least a solid truce between Israelis
and Palestinians.
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September 7 - Look to Mary, Pope Urges Faithful
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days.
VIENNA,
Austria, SEPT. 7, 2007 - On the first leg of his
three-day pilgrimage to the
Marian shrine of Mariazell, Benedict XVI
urges the faithful to turn to Mary, who will lead
them to Christ.
"As the first stop of my
pilgrimage to Mariazell," the Holy Father said
during the service, "I
have chosen the Mariensaeule, to reflect briefly
with all of you on the
significance of the Mother
of God for Austria past and
present, and her significance for each one
of us."
"In
her maternal love, Mary continues to take
under her protection people of
all languages and cultures, and to lead
them together, within a
multiform unity, to Christ. In our problems and
needs we can turn to
Mary," he added.
The Pope continued: "Yet
we must also learn from her to
accept
one another lovingly in the same way that
she has accepted all of us:
each as an individual, willed as such and
loved by God.
"In God's universal family, in which
there is a place for everyone,
each person must
develop his gifts for the good
of all."
"Our Christian hope
includes much more than the mere fulfillment of our
wishes and desires, great or
small. We turn our
gaze to Mary, because she
points out to us the great hope to which we
have been called, because
she personifies our true humanity!
After the conclusion of the
prayer service, the Pope entered the church
to pray
before the Blessed Sacrament. Youth from
Vienna will continue adoration
of the Eucharist in the Church for the
duration of the papal
trip.
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September 7 - Secularization and Christian Division Linked
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Misc.
"No
ecumenical progress will be possible
without conversion and
penance. From that will come
openness to renewal and reform, which is necessary
in every Church and requires
that each Church start with itself," he
said.
Cardinal Kasper linked the question of the visible and
full union of all
Christians with the problems facing Europe: "Christian
unity is subordinate to world unity and, in particular in
our situation, to the
unification of Europe."
The cardinal continued: "The principle danger is
not represented by atheistic
opposition but rather by forgetting about God, passing
over God's precepts, by
indifference, by superficiality, by
individualism and not
working for the common good or knowing how to
sacrifice oneself to this end.
"The new evangelization is
our task. ... A lived and
decisive faith is needed. Europe cannot only be an
economic and political
entity; if Europe wants a future it needs a common
vision and a common system of
fundamental values.
"Europe, and this means we European
Christians, must wake up; Europe must side
with itself, with its history and its values that at one
time gave it its
greatness and that could guarantee it a new beginning."
"This," he
said,
"is our common
mission."
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September 9 - Catholic Outreach Program - Professor explains why he became Catholic
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
The Catholic Outreach Program kicked off
its first meeting of the year
Thursday at the Chapel of the Holy Family
with a presentation by
Mickey Mattox,
associate professor of theology,
on why he
became Catholic.
Mattox spoke to about 45 students, faculty
and graduates about his agnostic
upbringing and experience with the Southern Baptist
and Lutheran faiths. He said he
struggled for
10 or 12 years with deciding whether or
not to become Catholic. He
said the dilemma was apparent when
Pope John Paul II died in 2005.
"He had been the pope all my adult
life, but he was the pope I didn't
believe in," Mattox said.
A few months later, Mattox, his wife and
two sons became Catholic on
Marquette's campus. He said it was the Eucharist
and drawing power of Jesus Christ that
finally pulled
him toward Catholicism.
Tommy Nelson, a 2007 Marquette
graduate, said he related with the influence
the Eucharist had on Mattox.
"It was during
Eucharistic Adoration when I
decided - or Jesus decided - that I
would go to Marquette," he said.
"The Eucharist
is the source and summit of Christian
life."
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September 6 - President addresses 16th national confab on Namaz
Article: Islam
President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said here Thursday that
Namaz (prayer) is
the pillar of the Islamic thoughts
and the true way to mankind's salvation.
"A religion without prayer is a
body
without soul," stressed the
president in his address to the
inauguration ceremony of national Namaz
conference in this provincial city,
293 km southern capital Tehran.
Parents played a key role in
promoting the "culture of
prayer" among their children, said the
president in his address.
He urged all Iranians
to promote
religious principles in the society.
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September 9 - U2charists combine U2 music and worship in Wellington church
Article: Emerging Church
"I realized pretty quickly that the kids
were
disconnected
during the service," Cannon said of the
teenagers in
his youth group at
St. David's Episcopal Church.
So on Aug. 19,
Cannon brought in Bono to lead worship and made
Where the Streets
Have No Name the offertory song at St.
David's. It was the first U2charist at an
Episcopal church
in Palm Beach County.
U2charists have popped up in
churches around
the United States,
the United Kingdom and Ireland. Rock bands and
loud music in
church services is nothing new in some Christian
circles. But for the Episcopal Church, heavily
steeped in
tradition, the U2charists offer a way for it to
experiment with
contemporary worship. And many of them find the
services invigorate
younger members and draw people who might not
normally attend
church.
"We love our
tradition, and we love the fact we love our tradition.
It's a big part of our
identity," said the Rev. Paige Blair, the
rector at St.
George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine,
which
popularized the
U2charists. "It's a safe way for Episcopalians to
try these 21st-century ways to
worship."
"They can
hear it while still being able to hear the message and
spread it in a more fun and enjoyable
way."
"People who are in church
now and people who aren't will say
going to a U2 concert is a spiritual
experience,"
she said.
"I was really
afraid the priest wasn't going to go for it. He said,
'Why would I play
that kind of music in church?'" Cannon said.
"I
said, 'If you read the lyrics of the songs,
they all speak
about the mystical experience of
God.'"
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
In Jesus,
Roger Oakland
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