The Congress of Traditional Anglicans

Virtue Online details the Congress of Traditional Anglicans:

To Traditional Anglican Church leaders.
May 14, 2011

You may not have already read the scathing attack on RC Archbishop Collins, who has the responsibility for erection of a Canadian Ordinariate.

“TAC Primate Writes Angry Letter”. Clearly this appears to signify the end of the TAC’s bid to join.

The mission of the upcoming Congress of Traditional Anglicans is to help bring unity to Churches that have committed themselves to the Affirmation of St.Louis, but who through differences in canons and constitution have moved apart.

We hope you will agree that this will be an opportunity for discussions that will help foster unity and give Traditional Anglicans a powerful “voice” that may ensure many worshippers who have been struggling with the ecclesiastical chaos that has impeded the spread of the Gospel.  

We hope you will agree that this will be an opportunity for discussions that will help foster unity and give Traditional Anglicans a powerful “voice” that may ensure many worshippers who have been struggling with the ecclesiastical chaos that has impeded the spread of the Gospel…

Sadly it is in the chaos that Continuing (or Traditional) Anglicanism has become, that the spread of the Gospel has suffered most. What a terrible indictment!

Bad Vestment of the Day: Mrs Katharine Jefferts Schori

Via Bad Vestments… Enough to make you run a mile:

Katharine Jefferts Schori regains first place.  Knew you had it in you, Presiding Bishop!

Bishopess I think that should be?

Illusion of the Year

This colourful illusion, created at Harvard, was named the best illusion of the year:

Nice!

Amnesty International Cites Vatican for Human Rights’ Concerns

Vatican City – Amnesty International named the Vatican in its annual report on human rights’ concerns for not sufficiently complying with international mandates on protecting children from abuse.

It marked the first time the Vatican was named in the group’s Annual Report on the state of human rights around the world. The 2011 Annual Report covered human rights in 157 countries, looking particularly at rights abuses and restrictions and at failures to implement international rights’ agreements.

The report, released May 13, said, “The Holy See did not sufficiently comply with its international obligations relating to the protection of children,” specifically regarding sex abuse.

The Vatican is party to the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Article 19 of the convention says that states parties “shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse.”

The article also says measures should be implemented to aid in prevention, reporting and investigation of abuse as well as care for victims and, “as appropriate,” the involvement of the court system.

The Amnesty International report said, “Increasing evidence of widespread child sexual abuse committed by members of the clergy over the past decades, and of the enduring failure of the Catholic Church to address these crimes properly, continued to emerge in various countries.”

“Such failure included not removing alleged perpetrators from their posts pending proper investigations, not cooperating with judicial authorities to bring them to justice and not ensuring proper reparation to victims,” the report said…

NCR has more.

How discomforting.

UPDATE:  Amnesty International’s dig at Vatican called ‘preposterous’ here.

Iran: Sharia Court Sentences Man To Be Blinded With Acid…

 

(Guardian) — In a literal application of the sharia law of an eye for an eye, Iran is ready for the first time to blind a man with acid, after he was found guilty of doing the same to a woman who refused to marry him.

Majid Movahedi, 30, is scheduled to be rendered unconscious in Tehran’s judiciary hospital at noon on Saturday while Ameneh Bahrami, his victim, drops acid in both his eyes, her lawyer said.

Bahrami who had asked for an eye for an eye retribution in the court, was disfigured and blinded by Movahedi in 2004 when he threw a jar of acid in her face while she was returning home from work. “He was holding a red container in his hand. He looked into my eyes for a second and threw the contents of the red container into my face,” she told the court in 2008.

According to Iranian media, Bahrami’s lawyer, Ali Sarafi, has said: “A very good sentence has been given and an appropriate method has been adopted so that the convict will be blinded by few drops of acids in eyes after he is rendered unconscious.

HT

Vatican Issues New Instruction on Summorum Pontificum

The full text is here.

Africa Money: Wal-Mart Pays the Cost of Doing Business in Africa

Reuters:

Johannesburg – The biggest barrier to tapping into sub-Saharan Africa’s blockbuster growth may be in Pretoria — just ask Wal-Mart.

Competition authorities are hearing testimony until Monday in South Africa’s capital on whether to allow Wal-Mart Stores Inc to proceed with its $2.4 billion bid for control of local retailer Massmart.

South Africa’s government and powerful unions fear the takeover could lead to job cuts and a flood of cheap Asian imports, and are pressing for guarantees on job cuts and local procurement.

Home to the continent’s largest economy and its deepest capital markets, South Africa is seen as the top starting point for African expansion.

But the government’s drawn-out deliberation over the Wal-Mart deal — which was first announced in September — coupled with the onerous conditions foisted on Japan’s Kansai Paint in a deal earlier this year, show foreigners should expect plenty of hurdles.

“South Africa can put up these high hurdles, but every investor has a tipping point and at some point investors will say ‘It’s not worth it,’” said Adrian Saville, chief investment officer of Cannon Asset Managers in Johannesburg.

“It does beg a bigger question, which is: Is this inherent in the South African landscape? How easy is it to do business with South Africa?”

Read on here.

And believe you me, Wal-Mart is really struggling to get a foot in the door here in SA.

English Bishops Bring Back Meatless Fridays

Note That Penance Identifies Catholics With Christ on Cross.

Zenit has the news:

The bishops of England and Wales are re-establishing the practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays as a penance to identify with Christ on the cross.

In the resolutions published from their spring plenary assembly, which concluded Thursday, the bishops announced the re-establishment of the practice, to go into effect Sept. 16.

“Every Friday is set aside by the Church as a special day of penance, for it is the day of the death of our Lord,” a statement of resolutions from the assembly reminded. “The law of the Church requires Catholics to abstain from meat on Fridays, or some other form of food, or to observe some other form of penance laid down by the Bishops’ Conference.”

“The Bishops wish to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity,” the statement announced. 

The prelates added that it is “important that all the faithful be united in a common celebration of Friday penance.”

“Respectful of this, and in accordance with the mind of the whole Church, the Bishops’ Conference wishes to remind all Catholics in England and Wales of the obligation of Friday Penance. The Bishops have decided to re-establish the practice that this should be fulfilled by abstaining from meat,” the resolution stated.

The prelates said those who do not eat meat normally should abstain from some other food on Fridays.

The date for the re-establishment of meatless Fridays, Sept. 16, marks the anniversary of Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom last year.

“Many may wish to go beyond this simple act of common witness and mark each Friday with a time of prayer and further self-sacrifice,” the bishops’ statement concluded. “In all these ways we unite our sacrifices to the sacrifice of Christ, who gave up his very life for our salvation.”

Aids Vaccine ‘works in monkeys’

BBC reports:

A new vaccine can protect macaques against the monkey equivalent of HIV and could provide a fresh approach to an HIV vaccine, a study suggests.

US researchers say the vaccine offered protection to 13 of 24 rhesus macaques treated in the experiment.

In 12 of the monkeys, the vaccine was still effective 12 months later.

They claim the work, published in the journal Nature, could “significantly contribute” to the development of an effective HIV/Aids vaccine…

Read on here.