Vatican Creates New Church Structure For Non-Catholics

Pope Benedict has approved a new church provision that will allow non-Catholics and in particular, the Anglicans, to convert to Catholicism while at the same time, maintaining many of their distinctive spiritual and liturgical traditions.

The Vatican made this decision in response to the disillusionment of some Anglicans over the election of openly gay bishops and the blessing of same sex marriage which has caused a major uproar in the Anglican church not only in England, but across the world.

This never-before provision for Protestants to become a part of the Catholic Church has many Protestant leaders concerned about the breakdown in doctrinal differences between the Catholics and Protestants that came out of the Reformation 500 years ago.

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Catholic Church Is Making A Comeback

Catholicism appears to be growing in popularity and attendance.

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New World Order – Tony Blair Set To Become First President of EU

Recent convert to Catholicism, Tony Blair has emerged as the leading candidate to become the first permanent president of the European Union after Gordon Brown gave his grudging blessing to the plan. The former prime minister has stepped up his campaign for the job, which he wants to use to build a bridge between Europe and the new Obama administration.

His return to the global stage would be a shock to his critics over the Iraq war and dismay many in Europe.

But The Independent on Sunday has learnt that Mr Brown has accepted that his old rival should be in pole position for the appointment, on the basis that Britain needs to have a key figure in the architecture of the “new world order”.

A senior British official said: “He [Brown] will have to swallow hard to sit down in meetings once again with Blair. But he accepts that there needs to be someone from the UK in the new global architecture. There is no opposition to the plan. Things have moved on, people have moved on.”
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Americans Calling Themselves Christians Drops 11% In One Generation

When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

These dramatic shifts in just 18 years are detailed in the new American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), to be released today. It finds that, despite growth and immigration that has added nearly 50 million adults to the U.S. population, almost all religious denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS survey in 1990.

“More than ever before, people are just making up their own stories of who they are. They say, ‘I’m everything. I’m nothing. I believe in myself,’ ” says Barry Kosmin, survey co-author.

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Pope To Visit Israel – Hopes To Build Catholic-Jewish Ties

A papal trip to the Holy Land would be a decisive step in overcoming the problems that still dog Catholic-Jewish relations, a senior Vatican official said.

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican official in charge of relations with Jews, made his remarks in an interview Wednesday in the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican has said that a papal trip to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories may still take place in 2009 despite the current violence in Gaza.

Kasper said progress had been made in Jewish-Catholic relations over the past year but “there is no lack of problems.” He underscored two issues in particular: the reintroduction of a “prayer for the Jews” into the Good Friday liturgy and the continuing controversy over the role of Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust.

“I’m convinced then that the pope’s hoped-for trip to the Holy Land would be decisive to overcome prejudice and incomprehension that mark our relations with Judaism,” he said.

via ‘Papal visit to Israel could help Catholic-Jewish ties’ | Jewish News | Jerusalem Post.

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Blair a Secret Catholic At No10

Tony Blair was a secret Catholic throughout his years in office, according to one of his former advisers.

Lance Price, who was a Downing Street spokesman, recalled that, a year after being elected, Mr Blair asked him to ‘’squash” a report that he had told the Archbishop of Siena ”in my heart I feel more of a Catholic”.

Mr Price told the Today program on BBC Radio 4 that Mr Blair had told him, ”I don’t discuss my Catholicism with anybody.” He went on, ”I thought what he meant to say was, ‘I don’t discuss my Christianity with anybody.’ But looking back, I think, in his heart he was a Roman Catholic throughout the time that he was prime minister.” Mr Price was commenting on a program to be shown on BBC1 yesterday in which the former prime minister appears to express regret that he was not more open about his religion while at No10. In an interview for Christmas Voices, Mr Blair says, ”It would have caused such a palaver if I had done it while I was still in office.” But he admits most people would not have minded. ”Probably we could have been a little more adventurous on this without bringing the house down.”

Mr Blair, whose wife is a Catholic and whose children have been brought up in the faith, was received into the Church last December. Independent

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Bishops Encourage Multi-faith Prayer Rooms In Catholic Schools

A document issued by the Catholic Education Service said facilities for other faiths should be made available in all primary and secondary schools if possible.

Catholic schools in England and Wales should also consider adapting toilet facilities to accommodate ritual cleansing, the document said.

The guidance also said “respectful understanding” should be shown to pupils of other faiths who are withdrawn from or remain silent during Christian worship.

The advice – issued on behalf of the Catholic bishops of England and Wales – comes in response to new rules forcing all state schools to promote “community cohesion”.

Schools must foster race relations and religious tolerance to stop communities becoming divided.

It followed a warning from the Commission for Racial Equality that Britain’s segregated schools are “a ticking time bomb waiting to explode”.

In a document, the Catholic Church said around 30 per cent of pupils in Catholic schools were from other faiths or none.

The Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham, and chairman of the Church’s education board, said: “Dialogue with other faiths is a consistent theme in the life of the Catholic Church. Such dialogue is conducted in many parishes and neighbourhoods, in colleges, universities and other academic circles.

“It has become increasingly important as the presence of other faith communities grows and becomes more evident in our society.”

The guidance said schools should consider putting aside a prayer room “if reasonably practicable” for use by staff and pupils from other faiths.

Existing toilet facilities might be adapted to accommodate individual ritual cleansing “which is sometimes part of religious lifestyle and worship”, it recommended.

It said schools should ensure “pupils’ health is attended to in times of fasting” – and canteens should take children’s religious dietary requirements into account.

In a further conclusion, schools with large numbers of non-Catholic students are advised to read out “messages of goodwill” at assemblies or send them directly to parents during religious ceremonies. This includes the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu celebrations, the guidance said.

The new community cohesion duty was introduced after the Government shelved controversial plans to force all faith schools to admit at least a quarter of pupils from other religions.

The U-turn followed protests by the Catholic Church which said schools should not be “coerced” into the move. It insisted schools already admitted large numbers of pupils from other faiths.

Oona Stannard, chief executive of the Catholic Education Service, said: “I am confident that schools will find the new publication helpful as we live out our clear vision of Catholic education, increasingly undertaken with those of other faiths in our midst.”

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