Bishops Take US Marriage Debate to YouTube

Says Traditional Definition Benefits All

WASHINGTON, D.C., OCT. 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Days before several states will vote on legislation to define marriage as being valid only between a man and a woman, two U.S. bishops are taking the debate to the video-sharing Web site YouTube.

The videos, appearing in both English and Spanish, were posted Wednesday by the U.S. episcopal conference's Defense of Marriage Ad Hoc Committee.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, chairman of the committee, narrates the English-language video. Archbishop José Gomez of San Antonio, chair of the bishops' Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church, narrates in Spanish.

Proposed marriage protection amendments in Florida, California and Arizona would define a valid marriage in the state constitution as between a man and a woman. The latest polls in Florida show that nearly 60% of likely voters are in favor of the amendment. Polls coming out of California and Arizona show the amendment carrying only a slight lead.

Earlier this month, Connecticut's Supreme Court made that state the third one to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, joining Massachusetts and California. In all three cases the courts overturned laws that banned same-sex marriages.

In their videos, the bishops state that the Church defends, promotes and protects marriage "for the gift that it is, and for the blessings that only it can bring to the world."

"Certain groups and individuals are trying to make same-sex unions the equivalent of marriage," they continue. "This is a false idea being proposed and, in some cases, imposed by a minority. This is nothing less than the radical redefinition marriage -- denying the truth that it is exclusively the union of a man and a woman."

Confusion

The bishops warn that if successful, "this effort of redefining marriage to include same-sex unions will bring confusion to what marriage actually means. This confusion could spread and have enormous legal consequences for the rearing of children, public education, employment, and religious freedom. Children would be forced to learn that marriage is merely one kind of loving relationship among many.

"Churches would be prevented from witnessing to and teaching about the necessary and singular role of love between a man and a woman."

"Same-sex unions and marriage are completely different realities," the bishops say. "Reaffirming the traditional understanding of marriage is neither discrimination nor the denial of rights. Like all people, homosexual persons have the right to be treated with respect and to live in peace with the support of their loved ones.

"But it is to the benefit of all members of society that the institution of marriage be preserved as the relationship of a man and a woman that serves the common good in a distinct way. Society needs marriage in order to establish and sustain that basic unit of society in which men and women love each other and transmit life to their children who are the fruit of that love."

Joined To The Sacrifice Of Jesus

Love must be reciprocal. If Jesus tasted the fullness of bitterness for me, then I, His bride, will accept all bitterness as proof of my love for Him (Diary, 389).

O Jesus! I sense keenly how Your divine Blood is circulating in my heart; I have not the least doubt that Your most pure love has entered my heart with Your most sacred Blood (Diary, 478).

My sacrifice is nothing in itself, but when I join it to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it becomes all-powerful and has the power to appease divine wrath. God loves
us in His Son; the painful Passion of the Son of God constantly turns aside the wrath of God (Diary, 482)..

Holy See on Economic Crisis

"The Real Crisis Does Not Appear to Be Merely Financial"

NEW YORK, OCT. 31, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the message Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, delivered Thursday before the interactive panel of the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly on the global financial crisis.

* * *

Mr President,

Many economists and analysts are agreed that the crisis can be attributed to a lack of a complete and effective regulatory system, but even more to a widespread disregard for regulatory and supervisory structures, to say nothing of the rules of accountability and transparency.

My delegation endorses this view and would go one step further: the real crisis does not appear to be merely financial, economic and technical. Rather, it extends to the broader realm of ethical codes and moral conduct. Unbridled profiteering and the unscrupulous pursuit of gain at any cost have made people forget basic rules of business ethics.

Our reaction should not be limited to deploring the crisis and offering formal expressions of sympathy to the poorer countries and social strata which have been affected. We need to come up with the ways and means to avoid similar crises in the future.

In some cases, governments and institutions which rigorously implemented rules at the lower customer level were lax in maintaining that same rigor at the higher level. The same could also be said with regard to the economic systems of poorer countries. International financial institutions which strictly implemented conditionalities and oversight in developing countries neglected to do so when overseeing developed economies. Now that the latter have collapsed, the former also have to bear the consequences.

Government is the exercise of the virtue of prudence in the enactment of legislative and executive measures capable of directing social activity towards the common good. The principle of subsidiarity requires that governments and large international agencies ensure solidarity on the national and global levels and between generations.

A second observation pertains to the responsibility of those who work in the financial sector. Lending is a necessary social activity. Nonetheless, financial institutions and agents are responsible for ensuring that lending fulfils its proper function in society, connecting savings to production. If lending is seen merely in terms of trading off financial resources without regard for their reasonable use, it fails to be a service to society. When attempts are made to conceal the real risk that loans will not be repaid, savers are cheated and lenders become actual accomplices in theft.

It must not be forgotten that at the edges of the financial system there are retired persons, small family businesses, cottage industries and countless employees for whom savings are an essential means of support. Financial activity needs to be sufficiently transparent so that individual savers, especially the poor and those least protected, understand what will become of their savings. This calls not only for effective measures of oversight by governments, but also for a high standard of ethical conduct on the part of financial leaders themselves.

A third, and perhaps even more basic, observation has to do with the general public and its choice of values and lifestyles. A lifestyle, and even more an economic model, solely based on increased and uncontrolled consumption and not on savings and the creation of productive capital, is economically unsustainable. It also becomes unsustainable from the standpoint of concern for the environment and, above all, of human dignity itself, since the irresponsible consumer renounces his own dignity as a rational creature and also offends the dignity of others.

Looking towards the future, there is a need to restore credibility and authenticity to lending, which always needs to be a part of the product chain of goods and services, and not an independent activity.

Above all, however, there is a need to invest in people. Once the inevitable financial salvage operations are over, governments and the international community should invest their money in aid to the poorest populations.

The relatively recent and positive experience of microcredit shows that, paradoxically, those who, from the standpoint of cold hard financial calculation, seem least suitable to receive credit, are by and large the most serious and reliable borrowers.

The history of developed countries also demonstrates that grants for health, education, housing and other basic services benefiting the weakest socio-economic levels of society, families and small communities, ultimately prove to be the most profitable investments, since they alone ensure the harmonious functioning of society as a whole.

Thank you Mr President.

Bishops Take US Marriage Debate to YouTube

Dairy from St. Faustina

On Cross, Wounds, Passion

Joined To The Sacrifice Of Jesus

Holy See on Economic Crisis