Thursday, February 27, 2014

Abortion law changes eyed as Dr Mark Hobart probed

 

 
The Napthine government is not ruling out changes to Victoria's abortion laws ahead of an investigation into a doctor who refused to give a couple an abortion referral because they wanted a boy.
 
The state government said it was interested in the outcome of the Medical Board of Victoria's investigation into Mark Hobart, a pro-life doctor who has been accused of breaking the state's abortion laws.
 
It comes as pro-life advocates run a concerted campaign to repeal a section of the Abortion Law Reform Act, which requires doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion to refer a woman to someone with no such objection.
 
When asked if there would be any changes to the act, which decriminalises abortion and was passed by parliament in 2008, a government spokesman said it respected the decision of the parliament on "this important issue".
 
But the spokesman said there was a variety of views across the parliament on the requirement for mandatory referral.
 
"All members of parliament will be interested in the board's decision and commentary on this case, and also in the views of the Australian Medical Association (Victorian Division) on these matters."
In keeping with past practice, it is likely there would be a conscience vote on any proposed changes to abortion laws.
 
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Pope Francis Shakes Up the Vatican's Corporate Governance

Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Pell (second from left) in Vatican City

Photograph by Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal Pell (second from left) in Vatican City









Corporate-style management is coming to the Vatican. In a sweeping overhaul of the Holy See’s bureaucracy, Pope Francis is centralizing its budgetary and administrative functions while naming an auditor and outside experts to scrutinize its finances.
The pontiff has created a new Secretariat of the Economy headed by Cardinal George Pell of Australia and overseen by a 15-member council that includes seven lay experts “with strong professional financial experience,” the Vatican said in a statement on its website.
The pope will directly oversee the new structure, which will include an auditor general who can conduct surprise audits “of any agency of the Holy See and Vatican City State at any time,” according to the statement.


The changes reflect the Vatican’s “formal commitment to adopting accounting standards and generally accepted financial management and reporting practices, as well as enhanced internal controls, transparency, and governance,” the statement said.
Until now, Vatican departments have managed most of their own operations under the oversight of a 15-member council composed entirely of clerics.
Cardinal Pell, 72, is a former Australian football player and an outspoken advocate of greater financial transparency within the church. The pope named him last year to an advisory council on reforming the Vatican bureaucracy.




After less than a year in office, Pope Francis has already replaced top managers and board members at scandal-tarred Vatican Bank, while suspending a German bishop who built a lavish residence at church expense.
The latest management shakeup was announced in a decree in Latin, entitled “Fidelis Dispensator et Prudens,” or “A Faithful and Wise Manager.” That title “is taken from a passage in the Gospel according to Luke,” according to the National Catholic Reporter, which summarized it: “Jesus tells a parable of servants who are put in charge of their masters’ goods, and one is disciplined after he puts the goods to bad use.”


Sunday, February 16, 2014

Jesus Christ: The Only Possible Legitimate Messiah




Matthew, who is the most Jewish of the Gospels, begins with the words, “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”


Is Jesus Christ the legitimate heir to the throne of King David? How can we be sure that He is the only possible legal, and the royal Messiah of Israel?


The Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ “was a descendent of David.” Therefore His Jewish ancestry is very important to establish His legitimacy as the Jewish messiah.



Two Lineages of the Son of David

God “promised beforehand through the prophets in the holy scriptures” things concerning the coming of the son of David. Those things related to the place, nature of His birth, life, death and resurrection. His Jewish background would demand that He be born of the line of David if He would be eligible to sit on the great king’s throne and reign forever as the true king of Israel.


The prophet Jeremiah was specific when he wrote in 23:5-6 of the coming of the royal son of David:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;

And He will reign as king and act wisely

And do justice and righteousness in the land.

“In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell securely;

And this is His name by which He will be called,

‘The Lord our righteousness.’”


The Jewish writer Matthew uses the genealogy of Jesus of Nazareth to prove that Jesus had descended from King David and therefore qualified to be Israel’s Messiah (2 Samuel 7:13-16). The promise had been given to King David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before Me” (2 Samuel 7:16).


Matthew uses at least forty formal quotations from the Old Testament, and at least sixteen times he uses the formula, “all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying . . .” Matthew traces the origins of Jesus to King David and to the Jewish patriarch Abraham.


Matthew begins his genealogy with Abraham and moves forward through fourteen generations in history to David, and then his descendents through fourteen generations to the Babylonian exile, and another fourteen generations to “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary by whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matt. 1:16).


Another genealogy is given by Luke, which moves in the opposite direction. He begins with Joseph and goes back to David, Abraham and Adam (Luke 3:31, 34, 38). He is giving evidence to show that Jesus “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end” (1:32-33).


Both of the genealogies are dealing with the same person, Jesus the Messiah. Both trace the lineage of Jesus through His adopted father Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.


Legal and Royal Rights to the Throne of David

The difficulty we encounter when we look at the two genealogies is quite interesting. They are the lines of two brothers and the children are cousins. Matthew says that Joseph was the son of Jacob who descended from David through David’s son and successor King Solomon (1:6). However, Luke says that Joseph was the son of Heli who had descended from David through Nathan (Luke 3:31), who was also David’s son and a brother of Solomon (v. 32).


Bernhard Weiss and James Orr carefully note that we are looking at two lineages of Joseph and Mary respectively, each who are descendents of King David. “Nathan’s line ran on through the years and ultimately produced the Virgin Mary. Solomon’s line ran on through the years and ultimately produced Joseph.” But Joseph was not the father of Jesus. He was the husband of Mary, the adoptive father of Jesus (Matt. 1:16). The distinction between these two lines of descent from David is between the “royal” line of those who actually sat on the throne and the “legal” line of descent from one oldest son to the next, even though these descendents never actually reigned as kings of Israel.


It is important to keep in mind these two lines of descendents from King David. Nathan was the older brother of Solomon, but the younger brother took the throne. Solomon was the king God chose to reign after David’s death. Normally, however, that would have fallen to the elder son, Nathan, who would have been king if God had not given it to Solomon. Of course, none of Nathan’s descendents ever claimed the throne. There were no reigning kings in his line of descendents, even though they had the legal right to the throne. When Joseph adopted Jesus as his legal son, Jesus became both David's direct descendent through David's son Nathan (Mary's side), and David's legal royal heir through Solomon (Joseph's side).


The line of Solomon continued down through the centuries until it eventually produced Joseph, who was betrothed to the virgin Mary who would eventually become her husband after she had given birth to Jesus. However, note very carefully that Jesus was not a descendent of Joseph. However, when Joseph took Mary under his protection and thus became the adoptive father of her divine child, he passed the right of royalty to Jesus.


A Divine Curse

Moreover, Jeremiah 22:30 tells us that if Jesus had been the physical descended from Joseph a divine curse would have been on Him if He succeeded to the Davidic throne. Jeremiah tells us a terrible curse was pronounced on king Jehoiachin (Jechonias, whom Jeremiah abbreviates to Coniah), the last of the actual reigning kings who descended from King Solomon.


“Thus says the Lord,
‘Write this man down childless,
A man who will not prosper in his days;
For no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting on the throne of David
Or ruling again in Judah.’ ”


Because of God’s curse on Jehoiachin, no king who ever descended in that line could be a legitimate king. "Thus says the Lord, �Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah ... (NET). Though Jehoiachin did have children, he was considered childless because none of his descendents were allowed by God to sit on the throne of David and rule Judah (1 Chron. 3:17). Judah's lat king was his uncle, Zedekiah. the line of rulership passed through Jeconiah's sons though none of them ever occupied the throne.


If Joseph had been the physical father of Jesus, Jesus could not have been the Messiah. Jesus is the son of Mary, not the son of Joseph and Mary. If Jesus had been a physical descendent of Joseph and not virgin-born, He would have been disqualified because of this divine curse.


But wait. What about Joseph and his descendents? Remember, Jesus was not a physical descendent of Joseph. Joseph was Jesus’ step-father. Joseph, a descendent of Solomon, with Jesus' legal father, therefore, His right to the throne came through His legal father. Each of his half brothers, who were the only other possible candidates for the Messiah had the curse of Jehoiachin on them and would have passed it on to their children if they had become king.



A Royal Heir

Because Jesus was a divine child his adoptive father handed the reign over to Him. Therefore, Jesus was a legitimate royal heir to the throne.


Many bible scholars follow this same line of thought. Donald Grey Barnhouse gives an excellent summary. The line that had no curse upon it produced Heli and his daughter the Virgin Mary and her Son Jesus Christ. He is therefore eligible by the line of Nathan and exhausts that line. The line that had a curse on it produced Joseph and exhausts the line of Solomon, for Joseph’s other children now have an elder brother who, legally, by adoption, is the royal heir. How can the title be free in any case? A curse on one line and the lack of reigning royalty in the other.


But when God the Holy Spirit begat the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the virgin without any use of a human father, the child that was born was the seed of David according to the flesh. And when Joseph married Mary and took the unborn child under his protecting care, giving him the title that had come down to him through his ancestor Solomon, the Lord Jesus became the legal Messiah, the royal messiah, the uncursed messiah, the true Messiah, the only possible messiah. The lines are exhausted. Any man that ever comes into this world professing to fulfill the conditions will be a liar and the child of the devil (Man’s Ruin: Exposition of Bible Doctrines, Taking the Epistle to the Romans as a Point of Departure, vol. 1, Romans 1:1-32. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952, p. 45-47).


A Legal Heir


Moreover, because Jesus descended from Mary, who also was a descendent of King David through the lineage of Nathan, He had a legal claim to the throne. The two lines of David focused on the Messiah. No one else could ever bring a legitimate claim to the throne of David.


Luke presented the physical line of Jesus through His mother who descended from David through the line of Nathan (Luke 3:31). in this way Jesus escaped the curse of Jehoiachin.


Donald Barnhouse concludes, “If Jesus is not the Messiah who has descended from David according to the Old Testament prophecies, there will never be a Messiah. For Jesus had no human children, and each of his brothers (who are the only other possibilities through whom another messiah might descend) had the curse on him and would have passed it on to his children” and Jeremiah’s prophecy would thus be fulfilled.


Jesus Christ is the legitimate descendent from two lines of King David. He is the King announced in the Jewish prophecies. He is the King Messiah who was also the Son of God. He is the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” No one else can make that claim. He is the only possible legitimate Messiah. There can absolutely be no other.


How significant that the great prophecy that the Messiah King would come through the line of David was given just a few verses after the great words of judgment on the descendents of Jehoiachin. C. C. Ryrie notes, “If Jesus had been born only in the line of Joseph (and thus of Jechoniah, Heb. Coniah), He would not have been qualified to reign on the throne of David in the Millennium.” He also writes, “Had our Lord been the natural son of Joseph, He could not have been successful on the throne of David because of this curse. But since He came through Mary’s lineage, He was not affected by this curse.” There was no curse on Nathan's line.


Though Jechoniah’s sons never occupied the throne, the line of rulership passed through them. If Jesus had been a physical descendent of Jechoniah, He would not have been able to occupy David’s throne. Luke’s genealogy makes it clear that Jesus was a legal descendant of David through his son Nathan (Lk. 3:31). Joseph, a descendent of Solomon, was Jesus’ legal adoptive father, so Jesus traced His royal rights to the throne through Joseph.


Jesus Christ is the only legitimate legal Jewish Messiah. Let us bow and worship Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

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Biblical snowstorm: Rare flakes in Cairo, Jerusalem paralyzed by over a foot



 
Comments
Vehicles are see stranded in the snow in Jerusalem on December 13, 2013. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI
Vehicles are see stranded in the snow in Jerusalem on December 13, 2013. AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI
A powerful, slow-moving storm is producing historic snows in the Middle East – from Jerusalem to parts of Cairo.
From all accounts, snow in Cairo is exceptionally rare – although historical records are difficult to attain.
Some reports suggest it’s the first snow in Cairo in over 100 years – although they are not substantiated.
New York Magazine offers this intelligence:
Claims that this is Cairo’s first snowfall in exactly 112 years seem to be sourced from a tweet by one local man who later admitted he was just guesstimating. Whatever the exact number is, though, the point is that it basically never snows in Cairo.
The Weather Channel notes even rain isn’t all that common in Cairo, which averages less than an inch a year.
The storm has generated crippling amounts of snow in Jerusalem, stranding commuters, cutting power in areas, and closing schools and businesses. A foot to a foot and half of snow has fallen across the city.

The Jerusalem Post reports dozens of cars trapped on roads leading into the city and within its confines and that the Israeli Defense Forces have been called in to assist. It adds Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat said the city was facing “a battle against a rare storm, the likes of which we have never seen.”

Snow falls on the streets of Jerusalem (Jonathan Hoffman)
Snow piles up on the streets of Jerusalem (Jonathan Hoffman)

“There are no words to describe the situation here,” said Jonathan Hoffman, a Jerusalem resident, posting on a weather hobbyist forum early this morning local time. “The heavy snow never stopped falling and is still coming down. The city: shut down, immobilized.”
Meteorologist Justin Consor, who lives in Israel, said the snow that fell Thursday in Jerusalem was the most in over 100 years in December.
Link: Unofficial list of Jerusalem snowfall records
And the storm isn’t over. Another round of heavy snow is possible Friday night into Saturday. The Jerusalem Post says the incoming round is “triple the size of the last day’s.” If that’s the case, this snowstorm could become the greatest on record in Jerusalem.
Snows of more than 6 inches occur in Jerusalem about every 5 to 7 years, whereas about 2 out of every 3 years see at least some snow, Consor said.

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Taken from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/12/13/rare-snow-in-cairo-jerusalem-paralyzed-in-historic-snow/

Friday, February 7, 2014

"... the UN feels it has some sort of superior mandate to set norms of sexual behaviour".

Fear of francis phenomenon


IF there is one area where your opinion columnist provokes the ire of a certain type of reader, it is on the topic of religion.

Only about religion, especially when it touches on the Catholic Church, do I get a lot of very negative correspondence – and then some.
Admittedly, lately there seems to have been only one story about the church and that is the seemingly endless one of the sex-abuse crisis. But then, last March, a new story emerged: the Francis phenomenon.
The European press is full of Pope Francis. Everyday we hear about the new Pope’s various eccentricities and style, but very little about what he really thinks. We know the new Pope, like previous popes, wants to end corruption and tackle some of the institutional problems that led to this crisis in the first place.
The church does have to keep on addressing this problem, at every level and all the time, in many different ways. In the West, the fact it is doing so hasn’t really quelled the criticism from the secularists.
There will never be accord between the secularists and the church on this, as a new report from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child illustrates.
The Holy See has had an uneasy relationship with the UN for a very long time now, partly because it is a very different kind of entity from any other nation-state: no temporal power at all but huge moral authority.
Meanwhile, the moral authority of the UN is dwindling, along with its malleable attitude to its own charter of human rights, and the corruption of many of its agencies.
The new report on the rights of the child has concentrated on repeated, and often justified, criticisms of the church. It may seem the UN has decided the new papacy is just the right time to respond to the church’s attempts to tackle this problem, via the UN representatives to the Holy See.
But that is not actually what the report is about. If it had confined itself to the administrative, practical area, that would have been perfectly fine.
However, it goes much further. It makes demands on the teachings of the church, which no secular organisation is justified in making. The UN exposes its deep ideological agenda in this report.
Not content to recommend ways in which abuse of minors can be exposed and tackled through institutional avenues, the UN has decided to give the successor of Peter a bit of a lesson in modern sexual mores, which it seems to think is a very successful way of implementing the rights of the child. So it has suggested the church change its teaching on contraception, abortion and, of course, “gender” – that is, homosexuality.
Considering the mess that liberalising sexual mores has made of 21st-century Western family life, it is strange indeed that the UN feels it has some sort of superior mandate to set norms of sexual behaviour.
It also seems rather pointless for the UN to suggest the church change its view on sexual morality when the UN has been less than successful in its own pursuit of the rights of the child, with the activities of sexual predators (some of whom are even Australian) making a multi-million-dollar business out of peddling children on the internet.
Not only that, in recommending the church have a more lax attitude to abortion the UN committee also recommends the ultimate abrogation of the child’s rights, and a contradiction of its own charter.
The preamble of the Rights of the Child speaks of the child’s rights “before and after birth”. Hypocrisy and doublethink is deeply emebdded in the UN rights agenda.
So why does the UN presume to make demands on church teaching when it knows the church cannot succumb?
It is simple, really. By doing so, and pointing to the intransigence of the church, the UN has tried to embarrass the Holy See, generate yet more negative publicity about what simple-minded secularists call “church policies”, and thus undermine the Francis phenomenon.
Nevertheless, at least the UN notes with approval that Pope Francis has set up a committee to create a special commission to deal with sexual abuse cases at the hands of clergy, to work with local authorities to prosecute offenders and to help victims.
The problem is that the church is global, with more reach than the UN, and it will take a long time to sort this.
In Australia, there has already been change. Oddly, there has been a rise in the number of vocations and many of these have emerged from the phenomenon of the new ecclesial movements, some of which use radically different styles of worship while maintaining Catholic orthodoxy.
The Missionaries of God’s Love, a new Australian order of priests started in Canberra, are an example of this.
They take a radical vow of poverty, they have a long period of discernment, and they are not trained in the old strict institutional model, which can be blamed for a lot of the stultifying, warping effect that caused the flourishing of sexual misconduct in the past.
Rather, they live within the community and have a lot of contact with lay people. Happy clappies are not everyone’s cup of tea, certainly not mine, but the modern church is less hung up on rubrics and more interested in substance.
The church won’t change overnight, but it is changing, and the new papacy is not just an engine of change; Pope Francis is almost a personification of it.
 

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Thursday, February 6, 2014

Movie: Finding Fatima



Watch this great movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMxHJQG1D0&feature=player_detailpage


To see more Fatima resources, visit the website here.

Produced by the award-winning filmmakers of the highly acclaimed feature film The 13th Day, this is a powerful and in-depth documentary that combines archival footage, dramatic reenactments, original interviews with Fatima experts and stunning visuals to tell the whole story of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. With high production values and a beautiful look, artists and filmmakers Ian and Dominic Higgins present a compelling docu-drama on all the crucial details about the appearances and messages of Our Lady in Fatima in 1917, a message of prayer, penance and conversion that is desperately needed in our modern world. From the initial apparitions of the Angel who prepared the children for Our Lady's coming, to the Miracle of the Sun, including moving film footage from The 13th Day, this illuminating and inspiring film will impact all those who see it to personally take heed of the critical messages of Our Lady of Fatima.
"Great new DVD from the makers of The 13th Day! This film, Finding Fatima, is shot in the same Bresson-esque and super-stylized way as The 13th Day. While hearkening to and honoring filmmaking's past, the Higgins brothers are simultaneously bringing the story and message of Fatima to a new generation.
They use clips from The13th Day for the re-enactments, as we get to know the personalities of the three visionary children in depth. This documentary is chock-full of fascinating, down-to-earth interviews and historical footage, all presented in a spritely way. There's not a dull moment in this life and joy-filled documentary, even with its more sombre sepia-toned visual edges! Innovative without being novel or gimmicky, Finding Fatima has a 21st-century feel to it.
The pacing is perfect, the interview clips are kept short, and the interviewees even sort of "dialogue" with each other! The soundtrack is as mottled as the bordering-on-dreamy palette of colors the film is shot in. Perhaps Ian and Dominic Higgins are onto something new: "transcendent filmmaking." Although all filmmaking should have the quality of the transcendent, what if your film really is about the real Queen of heaven and earth? Finding Fatima is a template of how you might want to proceed."
-Sister Helena Burns, FSP, Film Reviewer, The Catholic New World
This DVD contains the following language tracks: English with English or Spanish subtitles
Samples images from the film:

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