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News Bytes for Your Parish Bulletin
- Cardinal: Value of Life Eroding Further in UK
- Bishop: Freedom of Choice Act Unjustifiable
- Religious Freedom Struggling, says Holy See
- Holy See Calls for Shift in Understanding Rights
Privacy Amok
The fabricating of a "right to privacy" in American constitutional law built a foundation for the culture of death to thrive in the United States, says a leading Catholic scholar. Janet E. Smith, professor of moral theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, outlines her ideas in a new book, "The Right to Privacy" (Ignatius Press). What originally referred to the right to have such things as one's journal or conversations kept private, was later expanded by courts to mean the "right" to things such as contraceptives and abortion. Smith adds that the 1995 encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" would identify the deeper philosophical assumptions that underline the "right to privacy," including relativism and hedonism.
Church of God
The Church is not a mere human association born from common interests, but rather an assembly gathered together by God, says Pope Benedict XVI. The Pontiff made this point in one of his ongoing catecheses on the life and teaching of St. Paul. The apostle nearly always used the word "Church" with the added descriptor "of God," the Holy Father noted. The unity of God creates the unity of the Church in all of the places where it is found. In his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul presents the only Church of God as "spouse of Christ" in love.