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.
Understand The Times is happy to announce a new
feature on or website called
UTT-TV. To read more about this new service, please
click
here
March 10 - Warming Report to Warn of Coming Drought
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
The harmful effects of global warming on
daily life are already showing up,
and within a couple of decades hundreds
of millions of people won't have
enough water, top scientists will say next
month at a meeting in Belgium.
At the same time, tens of millions of
others will be flooded out of their
homes each year as the Earth reels from
rising temperatures and sea levels,
according to portions of a draft of an
international scientific report
obtained by The Associated Press.
Tropical diseases like malaria will
spread. By 2050, polar bears will
mostly be found in zoos, their habitats
gone. Pests like fire ants will
thrive.
For a time, food will be plentiful
because of the longer growing season
in northern regions. But by 2080, hundreds
of millions of people could face
starvation, according to the report, which is
still being revised.
But the present is nothing
compared to the future.
Global warming soon
will "affect
everyone's life ... it's the poor sectors that
will be most affected,"
Romero Lankao said.
And co-author Terry
Root of Stanford University said:
"We truly are standing at the edge of
mass extinction" of species.
March 12 - Brown demands 'new world order'
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
Chancellor Gordon Brown is seeking to
regain the initiative on the
environment with a call for a "new world order"
to
combat climate change.
Ahead of the launch of the Government's
Climate Change Bill on Tuesday, the
Chancellor will herald the Government's
role in new European emissions
standards and call
for the UN to prioritise the fight
against global warming.
And he
will dismiss Tory leader David
Cameron's capacity to lead the continent
on the environment because of his,
and his party's Euroscepticism.
A Tory Government would have
"no credibility, no influence and no
achievements" within the EU, he will
say. "Let us also be clear: only a
government fully committed to the UK's
role in Europe can show such
leadership. Euro-scepticism and continent-
wide environmental action are at
odds with each other.
"A government ambivalent about
the UK's future in Europe and allied to
the most reactionary forces in the
European Parliament would have no
credibility, no influence and no
achievements."
March 13 - Vatican plans new TV network
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
ROME (Hollywood Reporter) - Days after
Pope Benedict XVI criticised the
media for its "destructive"
influence, the Vatican on
Monday announced plans to launch its first
television network by the end of
the year.
H2O will broadcast news and original
entertainment programming worldwide
in seven languages, according to a
statement. Additional details were
sketchy.
Over the years, the Vatican has been
quick to adopt new technologies in
its efforts to communicate with the world's
more than 1 billion Catholics.
In 1996, the Vatican introduced its Web
portal nearly three years before the
Italian state unveiled its own Web site. And
it has embraced digital and
satellite technology.
In a speech to the Vatican's
communications department last Friday, the
Pope called on the media to promote
family values, human dignity and the
common good.
March 13, 2007 - No apology from Gen. Pace for gay stance
Article: Perilous Times
By
PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The
Pentagon's top general
said Tuesday
he should not have voiced his
personal view that homosexuality is
immoral and should have just
stated his support for the military's
"don't ask, don't
tell" policy in an interview that has drawn
criticism
from lawmakers and gay-
rights groups.
The
written statement by Marine Gen. Peter
Pace, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, did not apologize for his
stance on homosexuality. In a
newspaper interview Monday, Pace likened
homosexual acts to adultery
and said the military should not condone it
by allowing gays to serve
openly in the armed forces.
After a flurry of condemnation Tuesday,
Pace
issued a statement
acknowledging that the Defense Department's
"don't
ask, don't tell" policy on
gays is a sensitive subject and said: "I
should have focused more on
my support of the policy and less on my
personal moral
views."
...Pace, a native of New York City, and a
1967 graduate of the U.S.
Naval Academy, said in the interview that he
based his views on his
upbringing.
"As an individual, I
would not want (acceptance of
gay behavior) to be our policy, just like
I would not want it to be our
policy that if we were to find out that
so-and-so was sleeping with
somebody else's wife, that we would just
look the other way, which we
do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral
behavior," he said,
according to the audio and a transcript released by
his staff.
Two gay advocacy groups strongly
condemned Pace's remarks.
"General Pace's comments are
outrageous,
insensitive and disrespectful
to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now
serving in our armed
forces," said the Servicemembers Legal
Defense
Network, which has
represented some of the thousands dismissed from
the
military for their sexual
orientation.
"Their sexual orientation has
nothing to
do with their capability to serve
in the U.S. military," said Luis
Vizcaino, spokesman for the
gay rights group Human Rights Campaign.
March 10, 2007 - Pope's envoy hails Putin meeting
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
VATICAN CITY - A meeting
between Pope Benedict XVI and
Russian
President Vladimir Putin next week will
benefit Russia's small
Catholic community, the pope's envoy to Moscow
said on Vatican radio Saturday. He
declined
to say in a separate interview
whether he expected Putin to invite
Benedict to Moscow.
Benedict's talks with Putin at the Vatican
on Tuesday will be the first
meeting between the pope and the Russian
leader. Putin twice met Pope
John Paul II but
issued no invitation to Moscow.
That meant that the late pope's dream of
going to Moscow never
overcame tensions between Catholic and Orthodox
Christians following the fall of
Soviet-bloc communism. The Russian
Orthodox church suspects
Catholics of looking for converts in its
traditional territory, an
accusation the Vatican denies. Long-running
property disputes between the
churches have also hurt relations between
the two churches.
The meeting between Benedict
and Putin "certainly will
be a portent of good fruits in further
relations between the Holy
See and the Russian Federation, to the
advantage as well of the
Catholic Church in Russia," Monsignor Antonio
Mennini told Vatican
Radio.
March 13 - See Eucharist as real presence, live faith fully, pope says in exhortation
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Catholics must
believe in the
real presence of Jesus
in the Eucharist,
celebrate the liturgy with devotion and live
in a way that demonstrates
their faith, Pope Benedict XVI said.
In a 31,000-word apostolic
exhortation, "Sacramentum Caritatis" ("The
Sacrament of Charity"), Pope
Benedict said "the celebration and worship
of the Eucharist enable us to
draw near to God's love and to persevere
in that love." The
exhortation, dated Feb. 22, the feast of the Chair of
St. Peter, serves as the final
document of the Oct. 2 - 23, 2005, world
Synod of Bishops. The
document, was released by the Vatican press office
on March 13. It has been
published in Latin, Italian, English, French,
Spanish, German, Portuguese
and Polish.
When Jesus
instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper,
he did not simply thank God for
the ways he had acted throughout history
to save people, the pope said.
Rather, Jesus revealed that he himself
was the sacrifice that would
bring salvation to fulfillment, he added.
"The
institution of the Eucharist demonstrates how
Jesus' death, for all its
violence and absurdity, became in him a
supreme act of love and
mankind's definitive deliverance from evil,"
Pope Benedict wrote.
Celebrating
the Eucharist, he said, "the church is able
to celebrate and adore the
mystery of Christ" who
is present in the bread and
wine through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In addition to
offering a spiritual reflection on
the
meaning of the Eucharist, the liturgy and
eucharistic
adoration, Pope Benedict made
several concrete suggestions
for further study and
for celebrating the Mass in the
Latin rite:
- While he encouraged wider
knowledge and use of the
Mass prayers in Latin and of Gregorian chant,
he also repeated the synod's
affirmation of the "beneficial influence"
of the liturgical changes made
by the Second Vatican Council on the life
of the church.
However, he
also endorsed the synod's suggestion that at
Masses with a large,
international congregation, the liturgy be
celebrated in Latin "with
the exception of the readings, the homily and
the prayer of the faithful."
NEWS ALERT March 14 - Papal Eucharist exhortation confirms renewal validity
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Comment from Understand
The Times:
The following article confirms that
Pope Benedict XVI is dedicated
to carrying on the New
Evangelization program, as was his
predecessor Pope
John Paul II. For those who believe
that Roman Catholicism has changed and
is no longer Roman Catholicism, this
article should put that myth to rest.
What is important here is that according to
the pope, there is no unity with
Rome unless the "separated
brethren" come home to Rome.
Further, note the pope's
emphasis on "perpetual Eucharistic
adoration" as part of his new
"apostolic exhortation." As more and more
of
the faithful spend time in
"adoring" the "Roman Catholic
Eucharistic Christ"
that is "present" in the host
(following transubstantiation) and contained
in the monstrance and placed on display,
there will be more and more false
appearances of Jesus, as the Jesus of the
Bible warned would happen in the
last days (Matthew 24: 23-24, 26). This is
when the "New Evangelization
Program" becomes very
effective.
VATICAN CITY (UCAN) - The newly released apostolic
exhortation of Pope Benedict
XVI on the Eucharist has confirmed
the validity of the liturgical
renewal prompted by the Second Vatican
Council, but demands full
respect for liturgical norms and advocates a
return to traditional
devotional
practices and the wider use of
Latin.
"Sacramentum Caritatis"
(Sacrament of Charity) endorses
recommendations that had
been voted by most of the more than 250 people
from 118 countries who
attended the Synod of
Bishops on the
Eucharist, held at the Vatican Oct. 2-23, 2005. It
also reaffirms the obligation of
celibacy for priests of the Latin rite,
confirms
church regulations that deny communion to
Catholics who have divorced
and remarried, and prohibits
inter-communion with
Christians not in full communion with
Rome.
The English
version of the Latin text contains more than
25,000 words and more than
250 footnotes. The document is also available
in six other European
languages: French, German, Italian, Polish,
Portuguese and Spanish.
The proposals approved by the 2005
synod were made public by
decision of the German-born pope, so
the text has few surprises.
Even so, the pontiff's own scholarly
insights permeate the rich
theological text, as does his strong
preference for more traditional
elements in the Eucharist and the
liturgy.
"This is
a document of great importance both at the
doctrinal and pastoral
level," Cardinal Angelo Scola, the patriarch of
Venice, Italy, stated as he
presented the text at a Vatican press
conference on March 13. He
was "relator general," a kind of coordinator,
at the Synod on the
Eucharist.
To
highlight the value of eucharistic
devotion in the life of Catholics, the pope
endorsed another proposal that
Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon
had introduced at the Synod.
The pope advocated "perpetual
eucharistic adoration, both individually and
in community" and suggested that
churches be set aside for this purpose.
He also endorsed other popular
eucharistic devotions, such as "the 40
hours"
and processions with the blessed
sacrament.
March 15, 2007 - 'Threat of home grown terrorism growing in US'
Article: Islam
WASHINGTON: A top intelligence official has said the
threat of home grown
terrorism is growing in the United States and the
phenomenon needs to be
understood to effectively tackle it.
Charles Allen,
the Chief Intelligence
Officer with the Department of Homeland security, told
a Congressional panel on
Tuesday that, "We are increasingly facing the
threat of homegrown terrorists.
The US-UK aviation plot, occurring a year after the
subway attacks in the United
Kingdom, was a wake-up call to the British in terms of
the breadth and depth of
Islamic radicalization there".
..."To address
Islamic radicalization, my office
is taking a geographic and collaborative approach to
assessing radicalization in
the homeland. Working with our state and local
partners, we initially have
focused on assessing radicalization in California and
in the New York City
metropolitan area, to include New Jersey. We're now
focusing on the Midwest, the
national capital region, and Texas" Allen
remarked in response to a query.
"We will conduct additional
regional or state assessments. And our goal is to
build a baseline that
addresses the how and the why of radicalization at the
local level. Again with
our state and local partners, we will use this baseline
to develop a national
assessment of radicalization" he added.
In a different context,
Allen maintained that the
Internet is indeed a major "driver" for self-
radicalisation even as officials
have said that relevant authorities in the
administration are keeping a very
close watch on those potential radical elements that
might enter the country
including Imams on the religious "R"
Visas.
During the course of the
hearing the Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security, Michael Chertoff,
who testified was asked how authorities differentiate
between terrorism
motivated by radicalised Islam versus other types of
extremist ideologies.
March 13, 2007 - Jerusalem scholar offers new criticism of 'Jesus Tomb' documentary
Article: Bibical Archeology
MATTI FRIEDMAN
JERUSALEM (AP) - A prominent scholar
looking
into the factual basis of a
popular but widely criticized documentary
film that claims to have located
the tomb of Jesus said Tuesday a
crucial piece of evidence that
filmmakers used to support their claim is
a mistake.
Stephen Pfann, a textual scholar and
paleographer at the University
of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, said he
has released a paper claiming
the makers of "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"
were mistaken when they
identified an ancient ossuary from the cave as
belonging to the New
Testament's Mary Magdalene.
...The film and book suggest that a
first-century ossuary found in a
south Jerusalem cave in 1980 contained
the remains of Jesus,
contradicting the Christian belief that He was
resurrected and ascended to
heaven. Ossuaries are stone boxes used at
the time to store the bones of
the dead.
The filmmakers also suggest that Mary
Magdalene was buried in the
tomb, that she and Jesus were married, and
that an ossuary labelled
"Judah son of Jesus" belonged to their
son.
The scholars who analyzed the Greek
inscription on one of the
ossuaries after its discovery read it as
"Mariamene
e Mara," meaning
"Mary the teacher" or "Mary the
master."
Before the movie was screened,
Jacobovici
said that particular inscription
provided crucial support for his claim.
The name Mariamene is rare,
and in some early Christian texts it is
believed to refer to Mary
Magdalene.
But having analyzed the
inscription, Pfann, who made a
brief appearance in the film as an
ossuary expert, published a
detailed article on his university's website
asserting that it doesn't read
"Mariamene" at all.
The inscription, Pfann said, is made up
of two names inscribed by two
different hands: the first, "Mariame," was
inscribed in a formal Greek
script, and later, when the bones of another
woman were added to the box,
another scribe using a different cursive
script added the words
"kai Mara," meaning "and
Mara." Mara is a
different form of the name
Martha.
According to Pfann's reading, the ossuary
did not house the bones of
"Mary the teacher," but rather of two
women,
"Mary and
Martha."
March 14, 2007 - EU's Solana urges Syria to work for Lebanon peace
Article: Israel And The Last Days
DAMASCUS (AFP) - EU foreign policy
chief
Javier Solana, on his first visit to
Syria in two years,
urged Damascus on
Wednesday to work for peace
and security in neighbouring Lebanon.
He
said he told President Bashar al-Assad to
make a "great effort" to ensure
implementation of
the UN resolution that ended
last year's 34-day war between
Israel and the
Lebanese Hezbollah
militia, which is backed by
Damascus.
Lebanon is in the grip of a paralyzing
political crisis with deep
divisions between the anti-Syrian government
and the pro-Damascus
opposition led by Hezbollah.
March 13, 2007 - Jordan quietly gaining Temple Mount control
Article: Israel And The Last Days
By
Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM - Jordan has been quietly
purchasing real estate
surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in
hopes of gaining more control
over the area accessing the holy site,
according to Palestinian and
Israeli officials.
The officials confirmed to WND the
Jordanian Kingdom has been
using shell companies during the past year to
purchase several apartments
and shops located at key peripheral sections
of the Temple Mount.
...Real estate ownership in
Jerusalem's Old City is widely
considered a sensitive matter. Previous
Israeli-Palestinian peace
proposals tentatively divided parts of the
city based on Jewish or Arab
residence.
Jordan previously
controlled eastern Jerusalem
and the Temple Mount from 1948 until Israel
liberated the territory in the
1967 Six Day War. During the period of
Jordanian control, Jews were
barred from the Western Wall and Temple
Mount, Judaism's holiest sites,
and hundreds of synagogues were
destroyed. Jordan constructed a
road to the Intercontinental
Hotel that stretched across the Mount of
Olives, bulldozing hundreds of
Jewish gravestones.
