ARCHBISHOP BACKS HIGHER TAXES

ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams sparked fury yesterday by claiming higher taxes could be a way to create a better society.


His backing for new levies on financial transactions and carbon emissions enraged low tax campaigners.

Susie Squire, political director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The Archbishop is showing yet again how out of touch he is with the British taxpaying public.”

Dr Williams, the most senior priest in the Church of England and a self-confessed “hairy lefty”, was speaking at a TUC conference. He said that in recent decades, the market had been treated as an “independent authority”, creating social disruption around the world. “Fantasies of unlimited growth” had spun a “vicious cycle” where people were encouraged to buy more and more – also using up finite raw materials.

Instead, the economy should be geared towards creating a secure and sustainable environment for families, he said.

That could include “green taxes” to discourage environmentally damaging behaviour and build the means to tackle climate change.continues here

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Future of the Church of England? God knows, says Archbishop Rowan Williams

The Archbishop of Canterbury last night admitted the future of the Church of England was 'chaotic and uncertain'. 

Rowan Williams said 'God knows' what will happen amid attempts by the Vatican to lure Anglican clergy to convert to Roman Catholicism.

The bleak analysis from the leader of the Church of England came after the Vatican smoothed the way for hundreds of thousands of disaffected Anglicans to convert to Catholicism, while retaining their liturgies and key parts of their ecclesiastical identity.

The Pope vowed to set up personal ordinariates, or Roman Catholic dioceses, to take in former Anglicans who oppose women bishops and accept the authority of Rome.

It is thought traditionalists could switch if the Church proceeds with plans to consecrate women bishops - 400,000 have already quit over the issue.

The acceptance of homosexual clergy has also caused deep divisions.

In a sermon, delivered at All Saints Church in Central London, Dr Williams said: 'God knows what the future holds for any of us, for any of our ecclesiastical institutions, but we can at least begin with what we can be sure of; that God has graced us with the lives of saints ...'

And he added: 'And at times when the future seems more than usually chaotic and uncertain, it doesn't hurt simply to give thanks.'

He also said it was possible to be Anglican and still 'lead lives of Catholic holiness even in the Communion of the See of Canterbury'. continues here

EURO COURT BANS CRUCIFIXES IN CLASSROOMS

DISPLAYING a crucifix in a classroom violates religious and education freedoms, according to a landmark ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

Italian schools will now be told they have to remove the symbols for fear their presence could disturb children who are not Christians. 

The judgment in Strasbourg could force a Europe-wide review of the use of religious symbols in government-run schools and has infuriated the Vatican.

The case was brought by an Italian mother, Soile Lautsi, who complained that her children had to attend a public school in northern Italy which had crucifixes in every room.

Ms Lautsi said this ran counter to her right to give her children a secular education and the court ruled in her favour.

The Italian government had argued that the crucifix was a national symbol of culture, history and identity. But its case was rejected and it was also ordered to pay 5,000 euros in “moral damages” to Ms Lautsi.

“The presence of the crucifix...could be encouraging for religious pupils, but also disturbing for pupils who practised other religions or were atheists, particularly if they belonged to religious minorities,” the court said in a written ruling.

“The State (must) refrain from imposing beliefs in premises where individuals were dependent on it,” it added.

The Italian government immediately said that it would appeal against the ruling, which will be enforced in three months.

Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini said having a cross in the classroom was “a symbol of our tradition.” continues here

Rebirth

Today is a special day; it heralds renewal, rebirth, the entrance of light into darkness and the dawning of a new age, today it is recorded that the Jews killed Christ, that by their skilful manoeuvring they crucified the living god. This simple element within the Christian belief system, is now censured and to speak of it risks reprisal, yet for all the modern spin, that is the truth of the matter, at least as the bible sees it, even today many within Jewry despise the cross, spitting in its presence and Christ himself is described as being boiled alive in excrement, so in a very real sense there is and has been, an ongoing war between Christianity and Judaism. A war Christianity is losing and in its desperation it turns to non-whites, non-whites form the only element within Christendom that is growing, moreover, most whites have moved away from Christianity recoiling in subconscious horror from its liberalist teachings and abject betrayal of the people. 

The church today turns to the dark continent, whilst Europe becomes evermore secular and the people flounder, Jewry or at least elements within it have sought to undermine Christianity, to secularise the west and they have succeeded. Movies made in Hollywood, therefore Jewish financed, seek to portray Christian belief as unfashionable, as perhaps a little “geeky” and in many cases as sinister, this of course has worked on an unbelievable scale and Christianity is, to all intents and purposes on its last legs. In fact the only religion showing substantial growth is Islam, which of course is itself under threat from those self same forces of malignancy. Yet still within the broad body of the church there are still some traditionalist believers, those that live according to original scripture, those that share a similar knowledge to nationalists themselves, there is of course another spectrum, Christian Zionists, those misguided fools or deceiving devils that infest the rank and file of the church proper. 

This reprehensible creed, places the human suffering experienced in Gaza far, far below that of the need to protect the rogue state of Israel, moreover, this creed preaches a doctrine bizarre, a dogma of evil. Christianity, as with white civilisation may very well be on the way out, approaching the abyss and falling fast, so it reaches out to others, those others not we and so it betrays us. Yet now is not really the time to talk of that, now is a time of renewal, a time of rebirth and this is exactly what the Christian church needs, it needs to be born again, to recognise the great evils swirling within the world and join with the people against them, it must purge the leftists, egalitarians and Zionists from its ranks, embrace correct scripture and become again a force for good, instead of what it is now, a collaborator priesthood, aiding evil. 

As does nationalism, it needs to contest Jewry’s influence, free itself from it and stumble anew into the light, it must recognise the uniqueness of all peoples and strive and fight for the grand design, not that of elites but of divine hand. It must recognise that rather than multiculturalism being benign it is hateful, it keeps the sub-continent in poverty and creates a fertile climate for migratory pattern, which will lead to the extinction of one of god’s creations, namely the white man. How, with any conscience, any man of the clothe can support such evil is beyond me, surely even a fool can see daily its consequence, better to alleviate misery at its source, keep culture and gene distinct and avoid at a stroke resentment, anger and yes violence. 

Many of today’s problems stem from conflicting belief systems, from divergent traditions and disparate morals, therefore Muslims feel great offence on one hand, Sikhs on another Jews on another and so on and so forth, is it not better to prevent this by permitting all cultures, creeds and genotypes to remain fixed within their natural territorial area, rather than expecting so much to coexist within a small land-mass. The church could help in this, it has fantastic reach, respect and the wherewithal to facilitate change, to contest exploitation of all peoples under all circumstance and this includes we much maligned westerners here at home.  

Quite simply the church needs to again look to traditional teaching, nothing dramatic, just a return to biblical scripture, merely to follow Christianities core teaching, of course this will never happen, they look to a brown world now, not to the old but to the new, yet in that future world they to will die. In that world to come Christianity will change, become more tribal, lose much of its European humanitarian streak and become more warlike, future wars will be bloody, brutal and prolonged. If they wish to prevent such a world, to maintain peace on earth and good will to all men, then they must lend an ear to St John not Stalin, Christ not Che Guevara. 

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Catholic scholars warn against canonisation of Pope Pius XII

Leading Jewish and Roman Catholic scholars are warning against the canonisation of the wartime Pope Pius XII, arguing that he did not do enough to save the Jewish people from persecution by Hitler. 

In a letter to be published in The Times today, six senior Catholic academics join three top Jewish scholars in calling for the process towards his beatification to be put on hold. 

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints last year voted in favour of a decree that Pope Pius XII had “heroic virtues”, moving him a step closer to beatification. 

Pope Benedict XVI has not yet signed the decree and had appeared to put the process on hold, calling for a “period of reflection.”   

But the German-born Pope reignited the controversy, dubbed the “Pius wars”, earlier this month when he praised Pius XII during a Mass in Rome to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his death. 

The fears of Jewish leaders around the world that Pius XII might be canonised after all were raised again after Pope Benedict said that the man dubbed Hitler’s Pope by author John Cornwall had saved the “largest possible number of Jews” and had acted silently to avert the worst. 

He said: "I am praying that Pius’s progress towards sainthood will continue happily." 

In 1942, Pius referred to those condemned to death or progressive extinction “solely because of their nation or race” but failed to refer explicitly to Nazis or the Jewish people. 

He refused pleas for help on grounds of neutrality. 

Although he privately may have sheltered a small number of Jewish people and encouraged some officials to help others, had he done more, many scholars believe that the murder of more than six million Jewish people in the Holocaust could have been significantly mitigated, such was the influence of the Catholic Church. 

As the canonisation moves closer, backed by many conservative Catholics around the world who regard Pius XII as a saintly upholder of tradition and the Gospel and defend him on the grounds of his great personal piety, the row threatens to damage relations between Israel and the Vatican. 

Earlier this month, Father Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit relator or “judge” of the Cause for the canonisation of Pius XII, said Benedict XVI would never visit Israel until a panel in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, was removed. 

The panel depicts Pius XII was one of the “Unjust”. 

It condemns his failure "to leave his palace, with crucifix high, to witness one day of pogrom". It says that when reports of the massacre of the Jews reached the Vatican, he did not protest either verbally or in writing. The panel continues: “In 1942, he did not associate himself with the condemnation of the killing of the Jews issued by the Allies. When they were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, Pius XII did not intervene." 

A few days ago, a photograph of Benedict XVI with a Nazi swastika superimposed was published on a prominent Israeli website, but later replaced with a smiling Benedict in St Peter’s Square after intervention from an Israeli government minister. 

The Vatican, which has repeatedly criticised the panel, contradicted Gumpel’s statement and said the display would not be a “determining factor” in any visit. 

In their letter to The Times, the scholars, headed by Dr Edward Kessler, of the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths in Cambridge and Professor John Pawlikowski, of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, say that the evidence released so far does not show whether Pius XII acted soon or decisively enough to help the Jewish people.  continues here

Top Anglican Seeks a Role for Islamic Law in Britain
JOHN F. BURNS

LONDON — The archbishop of Canterbury called Thursday for Britain to adopt aspects of Islamic Shariah law alongside the existing legal system. His speech set off a storm of opposition among politicians, lawyers and others, including some Muslims.

The archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, said in his speech and a BBC radio interview that the introduction of Shariah in family law was “unavoidable.” But he said such “constructive accommodation” should not deprive Muslims of their right to take their cases to the existing court system.

The archbishop compared allowing Muslims to take carefully defined issues to their own religious courts to the established practice among Orthodox Jews here of referring religious disputes to rabbinical courts.

Roman Catholics might also benefit from what he called “plural jurisdiction” in matters affecting religious conscience, he said. He noted that the Church of England, formally headed by the monarch, also has its own ecclesiastical courts.

Shariah is drawn from the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. It prescribes religious and secular duties, along with punishments for their breach.

In countries where Islamic militants have gained power, like Afghanistan under the Taliban, harsh forms of Shariah law have been imposed. These have included stoning to death for adultery and the chopping off of hands for theft, along with severe restraints on women’s rights and provisions subjugating them to the will of men.

But much of Shariah law deals with issues like marriage, divorce and inheritance, and many Muslims in Britain, a small but often isolated minority of 1.5 million in this nation of 60 million, have for many years taken disputes in these areas to Shariah councils in neighborhood mosques.

“Nobody in their right mind,” the archbishop told the BBC, “would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that sometimes appears to be associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states — the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women as well.”

But equally, he said, “I don’t think we should instantly spring to the conclusion that the whole of that world of jurisprudence and practice is somehow monstrously incompatible with human rights simply because it doesn’t immediately fit with how we understand it.”.....Article conts (-)