DEFENDING LIFE AMONG CHURCH PRIORITIES

As Well as Human Rights, Religious Liberty, Peace. The primary objectives of the Church's pastoral action include defending life and religious liberty, and the quest for peace and human rights, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Cardinal Renato Martino affirmed this today at the congress titled "Social Action Today: Memory and Project," under way in Fatima. The event is being sponsored by the Portuguese episcopate.
The cardinal emphasized the need for the Church to maintain a clear and firm stance when "human dignity and fundamental moral truths" are at stake.
He said these cases are "abortion, euthanasia, violence -- especially against children -- torture, man's merciless abuse of man," and situations where "the integrity of the family, religious liberty and educational liberty" are compromised.
"In cases where these principles are at stake, Christian communities can and must pronounce a sentence of condemnation, with prudence when it comes to judging causes and situations that at times are complex and avoiding easy simplifications," said Cardinal Martino.
Fundamental
The president of the justice and peace dicastery highlighted in particular the defense of life, "which should be at the origin of all social projects, inspired by the Christian faith, and of all interventions of the Church in society."
He also stressed the importance of religious liberty, which he described as "fundamental" to "root all other rights on an absolute and transcendent base," both against "intransigent secularism" as well as "all types of religious fundamentalism."
Moreover, Cardinal Martino mentioned new topics in social pastoral action to be discussed in the near future, such as "the progress and regression of democracies" and the "transnational power of finance."
He also mentioned other topics such as "novelties in the world of work, the new forms of injustice and poverty, the new fundamentalisms and the tragedy of international terrorism."
"The fundamental criterion to address them," he explained, "is the ever closer relation between natural and human ecology, as respect of the latter will also bear fruits of material development and correct management of material resources and the environment."
Shalom:
Ed

Dear Ed
Thank you for sharing your thoughts here. I work as management and systems consultant to some Private Internation School Systems and some Multi-national Corporate Organizations. I basically engineer their systems and procedures and we also train them according to the Policy. I do not work for anyone but I own this business and God is too kind to me. Whatever I am saying is based on facts. Sometimes, I do pick up Christian Schools because God blesses me a lot. I do not charge them and it is all in gracia .
However, whether these schools belong to sacramental churches or evangelical churches, I find them to be very inhuman towards Christian employess. They make them work on peanuts and ask them to have a missionary attitude. Even if we don't talk of schools, other business concerns they run, the situation is same. I feel that all the heads of Parish must look in to the existing situations in non-Christian countries and at least pay them something so that they can live a better life.
Secondly I do not believe in secularism in religion because God Almighty in all His wisdom called this secularism as a snare for us. I live in a muslim country and I know how they are willing to destroy the so-called Christian world with schemes and plots.
You only understand this when you live among non-Christians and learn about their schemes. Therefore, the Church must not preach secularism for they mislead others to destruction. We must follow God according to His will than to make God follow according to our so-called humane nature.
I meet many people every day and I yet to find a humane person. Whatever they do (any kind act) there are selfish motive behind it or they want to listen to their praise by others, how kind and humane they are.