Search

Results

Rebels without cause?

05 Jul 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading the prophet Ezekiel speaks of the Lord’s protest toward “rebels who have rebelled against me.” Honduran President Manuel Zelaya might relate after being forced into exile Sunday by a military coup. Soldiers stormed the presidential palace hours before a controversial referendum that could have paved the way for Zelaya running for reelection. It was the first military coup in Central America in 16 years. The chief lawyer of the Honduran armed forces insisted that what soldiers carried out over the weekend when they detained Zelaya was no coup d’état. “A coup is a political move,” Col. Herberth Bayardo Inestroza Membreño said Tuesday. “It requires the armed forces to assume power of the country, which didn’t happen, and it has to break the rule of law, which didn’t happen, either.” Roberto Micheletti, a member of Zelaya’s Liberal Party who was named interim leader by the Honduran Congress following the coup, said Zelaya “has already committed crimes against the constitution and the law.” “No one can make me resign if I do not violate the laws of the country,” Micheletti said. “If there is any invasion against our country, 7.5 million Hondurans will be ready to defend our territory and our laws and our homeland and our government.” Governments around the world insisted otherwise. The Organization of American States Wednesday gave Honduras 72 hours to reinstate Zelaya or face suspension from the group. Zelaya was elected in 2005 to a nonrenewable four-year term. On Tuesday he said he would not seek a second term in office, dropping his plans to try to run again for office in November elections which had provoked the crisis. Articles by Stephanie Griffith for Agence France Presse and Marc Lacey for the New York Times

honduras manuel zelaya coup herberth bayardo inestroza membreño roberto micheletti liberal party organization of american states
Vatican official supports legal protection for same-sex couples

10 Feb 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Your right hand saves me,” affirms the psalmist this Sunday, secure in the protection of the Lord. Laws around the world should provide some protection against discrimination for non-married couples, including same-sex couples, affirmed Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family on Monday, even as he reaffirmed the official church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.In his first press conference since his appointment to head the Vatican office on the family, Paglia conceded that there are several kinds of “cohabitation forms that do not constitute a family” and that their number is growing worldwide. He suggested that nations could find “private law solutions” to help individuals who live in non-matrimonial relations “to prevent injustice and make their life easier.”Paglia strongly condemned discrimination against gay people, who he said “have the same dignity as all of God’s children. . . . In the world there are 20 or 25 countries where homosexuality is a crime,” Paglia said. “I would like the church to fight against all this.”Homily hint: With this announcement the church is not changing its teaching on same-sex marriage but it is pointing out that the legal status of non-married couples is a justice issue. Talking about that distinction and perhaps applying it to other situations might useful for the assembly. Source: An article by Alessandro Speciale for Religion News Service

unmarried couples non-married couples vincenzo paglia pontifical council for the family same-sex couples
Vatican official supports legal protection for same-sex couples

10 Feb 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Your right hand saves me,” affirms the psalmist this Sunday, secure in the protection of the Lord. Laws around the world should provide some protection against discrimination for non-married couples, including same-sex couples, affirmed Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family on Monday, even as he reaffirmed the official church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.In his first press conference since his appointment to head the Vatican office on the family, Paglia conceded that there are several kinds of “cohabitation forms that do not constitute a family” and that their number is growing worldwide. He suggested that nations could find “private law solutions” to help individuals who live in non-matrimonial relations “to prevent injustice and make their life easier.”Paglia strongly condemned discrimination against gay people, who he said “have the same dignity as all of God’s children. . . . In the world there are 20 or 25 countries where homosexuality is a crime,” Paglia said. “I would like the church to fight against all this.”Homily hint: With this announcement the church is not changing its teaching on same-sex marriage but it is pointing out that the legal status of non-married couples is a justice issue. Talking about that distinction and perhaps applying it to other situations might useful for the assembly. Source: An article by Alessandro Speciale for Religion News Service

unmarried couples non-married couples vincenzo paglia pontifical council for the family same-sex couples
Vatican official supports legal protection for same-sex couples

10 Feb 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Your right hand saves me,” affirms the psalmist this Sunday, secure in the protection of the Lord. Laws around the world should provide some protection against discrimination for non-married couples, including same-sex couples, affirmed Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family on Monday, even as he reaffirmed the official church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.In his first press conference since his appointment to head the Vatican office on the family, Paglia conceded that there are several kinds of “cohabitation forms that do not constitute a family” and that their number is growing worldwide. He suggested that nations could find “private law solutions” to help individuals who live in non-matrimonial relations “to prevent injustice and make their life easier.”Paglia strongly condemned discrimination against gay people, who he said “have the same dignity as all of God’s children. . . . In the world there are 20 or 25 countries where homosexuality is a crime,” Paglia said. “I would like the church to fight against all this.”Homily hint: With this announcement the church is not changing its teaching on same-sex marriage but it is pointing out that the legal status of non-married couples is a justice issue. Talking about that distinction and perhaps applying it to other situations might useful for the assembly. Source: An article by Alessandro Speciale for Religion News Service

unmarried couples non-married couples vincenzo paglia pontifical council for the family same-sex couples
Pope offers three words of wisdom to engaged couples

23 Feb 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The psalmist praises the Lord for being “slow to anger and abounding in kindness.” Pope Francis encouraged engaged couples to adopt a similar attitude when he recently told thousands of couples that the recipe for success lies in three simple words: “please, thanks, and sorry.”Francis told fiancés gathered in St. Peter's Square on Valentine’s Day for a special papal meeting that expressions of courtesy, gratitude, and contrition go a long way toward conserving and enhancing love over time."Never finish the day without making peace!" he counseled. "Because if you end the day without making peace, what you have inside becomes hard and cold and it becomes harder to make peace the following day."Francis has on several occasions met with young couples to give them advice before embarking on marriage. The need for such church counseling, both before and after the wedding, is a theme he's expected to elaborate on at a major Vatican meeting on the family in October.Francis has often lamented how many marriages end in divorce and has blamed such failed relationships on today's prevailing "provisional culture" that makes people unwilling to make lifelong commitments.Originally the audience was due to be held inside a Vatican auditorium, but the response from soon-to-wed couples to Francis' invitation for a Valentine's Day date was so great—Vatican officials said 25,000 people from 30 countries showed up—that the event was held in the piazza on a perfect, sunny afternoon after weeks of rain.Homily hint: Loving marriages are hard enough under the best of circumstances, but ever more so today. Encourage couples you know who may be struggling to do all they can to work through differences, keeping in mind Francis' advice. Source: An article by Nicole Winfield for the Associated Press

Marriage Pope Francis engaged couples