A book-length interview with Benedict XVI, due to be released on Tuesday, is already causing controversy in the public spotlight due to the Pope’s comments on the use of condoms.

Some quotes from the book, “Light of the World” (Ignatius Press), were published ahead of the release date, prompting media opinions and a statement of clarification by Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office.

“Despite media claims of a revolutionary change, Pope Benedict is not altering Catholic teaching on condom use or justifying the disordered use of sexuality, ” Fr. Federico Lombardi has explained.

Janet Smith, a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family who holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and has published extensively on the topics of sexuality and bioethics, explained in a ZENIT interview:

“We must note that the example that Pope Benedict gives for the use of a condom is a male prostitute; thus, it is reasonable to assume that he is referring to a male prostitute engaged in homosexual acts.

The Holy Father is simply observing that for some homosexual prostitutes the use of a condom may indicate an awakening of a moral sense; an awakening that sexual pleasure is not the highest value, but that we must take care that we harm no one with our choices.

He is not speaking to the morality of the use of a condom, but to something that may be true about the psychological state of those who use them. If such individuals are using condoms to avoid harming another, they may eventually realize that sexual acts between members of the same sex are inherently harmful since they are not in accord with human nature. …”

The Holy See Press Office clarification says “Pope Benedict states that AIDs cannot be solved only by the distribution of condoms, and, in fact, concentrating on condoms just trivializes sexuality, which loses its meaning as an expression of love and becomes like a drug. …”

The following are some of the many clarificatory references:

• ZENIT article;
• Holy See Press Office clarification/statement;
• MercatorNet article;
• ncregister.com blog and a follow up article by Jimmy Akin;
• Fr. Z (Fr. Zuhlsdorf);
• Catholic News Agency;
• catholic.org article;
• CARITAS statement.
• See also: catinfor.com/en
• Michael Pakaluk’s take on the issue

Here’s a clarification by Jack Valero on BBC News:

Here’s a video interview with Austen Ivereigh:

]]> http://opusdeitoday.org/2010/11/who-said-what/feed/ 3 http://opusdeitoday.org/2010/05/5-easy-steps-to-staying-cool/ http://opusdeitoday.org/2010/05/5-easy-steps-to-staying-cool/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 08:34:46 +0000 Aliza Racelis http://opusdeitoday.org/?p=446 Stay Cool while communicating and defending your convictions

Video for Pope Benedict’s 82nd birthday

Happy 83rd birthday, Pope Benedict XVI! There are many ways of sending greetings to the Pope or expressing support.  One is by visiting the site SupportThePope.  There are also several Pope Birthday events pages created by the many Pope Benedict Facebook FanPages and groups…

For the 5th anniversary of his election, we recommend the reading of the interesting ‘report card’ on the first 5 years of his Pontificate at National Catholic Register.

For his Pastoral Visit to Malta, April 17-18, you may bookmark:

• Vatican Information Service (VIS) blog;
• ZENIT, the world seen from Rome;
• Watch the LIVE coverage via EWTN.

Don’t forget to bookmark and follow the Benedict XVI channel at MercatorNet!

Viva il Papa!

 :-)  :-)

]]> http://opusdeitoday.org/2010/04/happy-birthday-pope-benedict/feed/ 0 http://opusdeitoday.org/2010/03/recommended-articles-for-current-church-happenings/ http://opusdeitoday.org/2010/03/recommended-articles-for-current-church-happenings/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:07:35 +0000 Aliza Racelis http://opusdeitoday.org/?p=55

Recommended readings for issues relating to the Church and the Pope:

Father Raymond J. de Souza‘s article in response to the New York Times article:  ”The story is false. It is unsupported by its own documentation. Indeed, it gives every indication of being part of a coordinated campaign against Pope Benedict, rather than responsible journalism. It’s possible that bad sources could still provide the truth. But compromised sources scream out for greater scrutiny. Instead of greater scrutiny of the original story, however, news editors the world over simply parroted the New York Times piece. Which leads to the more fundamental problem: The story is not true, according to its own documentation…”

Please click here for the full article.

• MercatorNet now has a Benedict XVI ‘channel’: The articles there are great reads! Please click and bookmark.

mercatornet.com/justb16/

• Collection of responses and articles at Xt3, the social network that resulted from WYD 2008 Sydney: XT3 on Pope.
• Great article from firstthings.com! “Murphy Case: NYT never talked to Judge”.
• Check out the article of Phil Lawler! The Pope and the Murphy case: what the New York Times story didn’t tell you.

The following catholiceducation.org articles are highly recommended:

• Bluster masquerading as reason, by Rex Murphy.

It would likewise be good to review previous CERC articles that had already been written:

• Answering scandal with personal holiness, by Fr. Roger Landry.
• Truth and Tolerance, Again, by the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus.

For those who know Spanish, we highly recommend the collection of articles, sources and links, here at OpusDeiAlDia.org.  Some English-language references are included in the link.

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There have also been a number of sites put up, offering and asking for special prayers for the Pope and the Church.  One of them is the Cardinal Newman Society.  You may go to the Easter Prayer Campaign for Pope Benedict.