Halos Banned from Euro Coin

Depicting St Cyril and St Methodius:

The Commission of the European Union has demanded that Slovenia remove the halos from its new Euro coin commemorating the 1,150th anniversary of the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Moravia. A spokeswoman for the Bank of Slovenia explained their decision to comply with the European Comissions demands:

‘The European Commission and some member states have asked Slovakia to remove some symbols from the draft coin to comply with the principle of religious neutrality. We believe the final coin will be a dignified combination of a symbol of state and a symbol of Christianity,”

The European Commission defended its insistence that Slovenia remove the halos from  Cyril and Methodius:

“Under EU rules, when designing the national side of a euro coin, Member States are required to take into account that the coins will circulate throughout the whole eurozone, and in that context, proposed designs are shared in advance with other Member States so that they can provide any comments they deem appropriate.

The Commission acknowledged that some members states objected to the coin, adding that Slovakia submitted a slightly amended design, “which has now been approved by the [EU] Council of Ministers.”

Protect the Pope comment:  The European Commission’s demand that Slovenia  remove the Christian symbol of sanctity that has been included on coins throughout Europe for thousands of years is yet another attack on our common Christian heritage. In the censored coin St. Cyril and St. Methodius have been reduced to the stature of  mundane historical figures, their eternal significance and role as intercessors and exemplars of sanctity removed from the public arena.  The secular reformation of Europe continues to impose its intolerant ideology under the guise of ‘religious neutrality’.

http://www.thejournal.ie/no-halo-on-slovakia-2-euro-coin-680616-Nov2012/

South Africa Launches New Mandela Bank Notes

Reuters reports:

South Africa immortalised former president Nelson Mandela on Tuesday in a set of new banknotes bearing the image of the anti-apartheid leader, who remains a rare unifying force in a country still scarred by its racially divided past.

The government announced the new notes earlier this year on the 22nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison after serving 27 years for his opposition to white-minority rule.

The 94-year-old, who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994, rarely appears in public now but is still revered both at home and abroad and held up as a symbol of freedom, human rights and democracy.

Popularly known by his clan name “Madiba”, Mandela has lent his name to roads, buildings and universities, and a giant bronze statue of him in Johannesburg’s swanky Sandton City mall is a daily attraction for tourists.

“Madiba does represent something special not just in South Africa but in the world,” Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus said after using the new notes for the first time at her neighbourhood fruit market in Pretoria.

“He is really an extraordinary man and this is a way in which we pay tribute to him.”

The notes also feature South Africa’s “big five” wild animals – rhino, elephant, lion, buffalo and leopard.

The new notes will be used in conjunction with the existing currency, which will be gradually phased out, Marcus said.

 

Price of New Missal

This does make one think:

I am a 70-year-old pensioner and a staunch Catholic. I have a week-day missal and a Sunday missal which I have been using for years.

“I can’t afford the new missals!”

Now it was decided to change the wording in the Mass to suit whoever, I must buy new missals at such a high price for a pensioner. I cannot afford the missals.

How many other Catholics can afford new missals? What are we doing to our faith?

On the other hand, our BCP’s are out of print and date. Date? Yes, well just think of present and future Saints for one. And you also only ever find them lying around under dust in second-hand book shops.

 

Financially Troubled Parts of Europe Consider Taxing Church Properties

Alcala de Henares, Spain — Cash-strapped officials in Europe are looking for a way to ease their financial burden by upending centuries of tradition and seeking to tap one of the last untouched sources of wealth: the Catholic Church.

Thousands of public officials who have seen the financial crisis hit their budgets are chipping away at the various tax breaks and privileges the church has enjoyed for centuries.

But the church is facing its own money troubles. Offerings from parishioners have nosedived, and it has been accused of using shady bank accounts and hiding suspect transactions.

Now, along come officials like Ricardo Rubio.

Rubio, a city council member in Alcala, is leading an effort to impose a tax on all church property used for non-religious purposes. The financial impact on the Catholic Church could be devastating. As one of the largest landowners in Spain — with holdings that include schools, homes, parks, sports fields and restaurants — the church could owe up to 3 billion euros in taxes each year.

“We want to make a statement that the costs of the crisis should be borne equally by every person and institution,” said Rubio, a 36-year-old former accountant in his first term in office.

Similar efforts that target church coffers or powers are underway in neighboring countries. In Italy, Prime Minister Mario Monti has called for a tax on church properties or on those portions of properties that have a commercial purpose. In Ireland, the minister of education is fighting to end church control of many of the country’s primary schools, and the government has slashed in half the grants it gives poor families for first Communions. More than half the city councils in Britain have eliminated state subsidies for transportation to faith-based schools, leading to a precipitous drop in enrollment…

Read more from what is a generally negative article in The Washington Post here. All doom and gloom…

 

Church of England Disinvests from NewsCorp

The Church of England has pulled its £1.9m investment from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in a protest over its handling of the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

The Telegraph has the details.

 

Canadians Richer than Americans for First Time

Fox News.

The average Canadian individual is now wealthier than the average American.

According The Globe & Mail, Canadian households are on average $40,000 richer than American households. And the advantage does not have to do with exchange rates because in the last few years the Canadian dollar has caught up to the American dollar.

The Globe & Mail said that according to the latest Environics Analytics WealthScapes data report, the average net worth of a Canadian household was $363,201 in 2011, while that of an average American household was about $320,000.

Unemployment in Canada is also lower than in the U.S. — the rate is 7.2 percent in Canada, and in America it is hovering at 8.2 percent.

The Globe & Mail’s Michael Adams credits this surge in wealth in Canada a great extent to the 2008 economic and housing market crises that hit the U.S., as well as Canadians’ higher consumer confidence in the last years…

 

Rupert Murdoch Now Controls Half of Christian Publishing Market

Via the eChurch blog:

HarperCollins have now confirmed their acquisition of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson.

HarperCollins Publishers today announced it has closed on the acquisition of Thomas Nelson, a leading trade publisher providing multiple forms of inspirational Christian content including: books, Bibles, e-books, journals, audio, video, reference curriculum, digital apps and live events.

Thomas Nelson will continue to operate as an independent company with its unique editorial focus on inspirational and Christian content. Details, such as how Thomas Nelson will benefit from HarperCollins global print and digital platform, will be forthcoming.

Thomas Nelson self-report as the largest Christian publisher in the world and the seventh largest trade-book publisher in the United States.

HarperCollins is a division of Murdoch’s NewsCorp which already owns Zondervan, the main rival of Thomas Nelson and the largest publisher of bibles in the world.

It’s being reported that HarperCollins paid $200 million to private-equity firm Kohlberg & Co. for Thomas Nelson.

According to trade sales figures this aquisition will give Murdoch roughly 50% of the Christian publishing market.

As long as he doesn’t get his paws on Ignatius, I’m happy… and safe…

Ordinariate Returns £1m Grant to Charity after Ruling

Oh dear.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has returned a £1 million grant to an Anglo-Catholic charity after the Charity Commission ruled that it was invalid.

The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, founded in 1862, gave the money a year ago to ensure that the ordinariate’s priests would not be left penniless. It represented almost half of the charity’s assets.

The Charity Commission, however, said the grant was invalid because most of the trustees who agreed to it had a “personal financial interest” in it. Five out of six of its trustees had already been ordained as priests in the ordinariate.

The commission also ruled that there was “substantial doubt” over whether use of the money would be consistent with the charity’s objects – ”the advancement of the Catholic faith in the Anglican tradition”.

The ruling contradicts the advice lawyers gave to the charity before it approved the grant.

The Charity Commission concluded: “We have been informed that the grant has been returned in full (with interest) by the ordinariate of its own volition.”

The Confraternity has about 120 priest members in England and 1,500 worldwide. It was founded by the Rev T T Carter, a prominent Anglo-Catholic.

UPDATE:   Statement

A grant of funds from the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has been returned.

The grant was awarded by the Trustees of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament following extensive legal advice in 2011.

Subsequently the grant was challenged and, as the result of an investigation by the Charity Commissioners, the Ordinariate has returned the funds of its own volition.

Until the conclusion of the investigative process undertaken by the Charity Commissioners, the charitable aims of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham precluded the return of the funds.

It is deeply regrettable that this generous benefaction is to be returned, but our sincere hope is that the conclusion of the legal process regarding this grant may now lay this issue to rest.

ENDS

Note: No further comment will be made regarding this statement. For specific enquiries or clarifications, please contact the Communications Officer.

South African Bank Notes, Nelson Mandela’s Image

Nelson Mandela’s face will feature on all South Africa’s bank notes to honour the former president’s role in fighting apartheid, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday.

The announcement coincides with the 22nd anniversary of Mandela’s release from prison after serving 27 years in jail for his opposition to white-only rule.

“It is a befitting tribute to a man who became a symbol of this country’s struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy,” Zuma said.

“With this humble gesture, we are expressing our deep gratitude as the South African people, to a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity worldwide.”

News on Friday that Zuma would make an announcement of “national importance”, along with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus, spooked the market and sent the rand tumbling as much as 2.6 percent on the day. Marcus apologised for the confusion.

The new notes featuring Mandela, who became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994, will be in circulation by the end of the year.

The frail 93-year-old has not been seen in public since the closing ceremony of the Soccer World Cup in Johannesburg in July 2010.

Source

 

A Record Number of Churches Face Foreclosure

World reports:

U.S. homes entering the foreclosure process hit a seven-month high in October. Some 77,733 properties received an initial default notice during the month, up 10 percent from September, according to foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc.

But homeowners aren’t the only ones being hit by foreclosure. Church foreclosures are at an all-time high. Since 2008 more than 200 churches and other religious organizations have faced foreclosure, according to real estate services firm CoStar Group. In the decade before 2008, church foreclosures were rare, averaging less than 10 per year.

Tim Trainor, a spokesman for CoStar, said 2011 is so far the worst yet, including the “highest dollar volume” ever in the second quarter of 2011, when 20 properties totaling more than $27 million went into foreclosure.

These foreclosures are likely just the tip of the iceberg. No one really knows how many churches not officially in foreclosure are on the brink. Take, for example, The Church at South Las Vegas. The church started in 2001 by Pastor Benny Perez now has more than 4,000 in regular Sunday morning attendance. But the church also has a $53,000 per month mortgage payment, and it can’t sell any of its real estate because that real estate is now worth at least $5 million less than what the church paid for it.

“Our back is against the wall,” Perez said in July. His answer: The church declared bankruptcy and stopped paying its mortgage. St. Louis-based First Bank has since sued the church. Mitch Fox, a spokesman for the church, would not answer WORLD’s questions except to say that the bank and the church were in “sensitive negotiations.”

The causes of these financial problems are not mysterious: Churches face many of the same economic realities as other property owners. Declining offerings from recession-plagued families, plunging property values, and less leeway from the banks when they get behind on their mortgages have contributed to the foreclosure crisis.

Of course, the number of foreclosures may seem small compared to the approximately 300,000 Christian churches in the United States, but they tend to take place with larger churches, larger sums of money, and greater attention by the media. California’s Crystal Cathedral made national headlines earlier this year when it declared bankruptcy with an estimated $50 million debt. “When a church doesn’t pay its bills, it’s a terrible witness,” said Dan Busby, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

The church foreclosure crisis also has an impact on financial institutions that specialize in church financing…

Read on here.

HT:  Kendall Harmon