| Philippines bishops denounce family-planning bill
A RIFT has opened between Roman Catholic bishops and the Philippines legislature over a family planning bill. The Reproductive Health Bill extends state-funded contraception and initiates contraceptive education in state schools, while rewarding couples who restrict their families to two children. It is due a second reading in the Philippines Congress on 28 July. The population — growing at 2.5 million each year — will be 90 million by 2010, and 100 million by 2015, in what is already one of the 12 most heavily populated countries in the world.
The Bishops have denounced the measure as “paving the way for the introduction of legalised, liberal abortion within the next five years”. An estimated 83 per cent of Filipinos are Roman Catholics, and a substantial number of legislators have said they will to back the Bishops’ campaign. The RC Archbishop of Osamiz, the Most Revd Jesus Dosado, is refusing communion to legislators and journalists backing the Bill. He told a news conference: “Those supporting this evil bill have become accessories towards encouraging people to commit sin.”
Africa’s ‘hidden famine’ continues
ABOUT 14 million people in the Horn of Africa are reported to be in desperate need of aid, because of a food crisis caused by a severe drought in the region and rising world food prices. People in Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and parts of Kenya and Uganda are being affected by the crisis described as Africa’s “hidden famine”. The situation in Somalia is made worse by the ongoing civil war: 20 aid workers have been killed there this year, and some aid agencies are ending operations in the country.
Orthodox rebuked for RC service
METROPOLITAN Nicolae Corneanu, an archbishop in the Romanian Orthodox Church, was reprimanded by his church authorities after
taking communion during a Roman Catholic service in the city of Timisoara, in May. His behaviour is said to have caused turmoil in the Church, along with the actions of Bishop Sofronie of Oradea, who concelebrated at an Epiphany service in January with his Greek Catholic counterpart.
Buddhist monks attack church
A GROUP of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka attacked a pastor and destroyed a church in the town of Thalahena, north-east of Colombo, Release International has reported. About 100 people were attending a service in Calvary Church when five Buddhist monks entered and called for the service to be stopped. Villagers then descended on the church and surrounded it, before entering the church, destroying everything in it, and beating the pastor and five church workers with clubs and rods.
Cuban bishop dies
THE Rt Revd José A. Gonzalez, Bishop of Cuba from 1967 to 1982, died on Sunday, aged 94. Bishop Gonzales settled in Union City, New Jersey, in the United States, on his retirement from the Havana-based diocese. His wife, Graciela, died in March this year.
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