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Category: Vatican
Vatican

Slavery: Hidden Crime of the 21st Century

In 2003, Ms. A paid a job broker to smuggle her from Myanmar into Thailand where she was promised work as a maid in Bangkok. She did not know that the broker had sold her to her Thai employer for five years during which she would be paid no salary, and be effectively a slave in a strange country where she did not speak the language. It would be comfortable to think that Ms. A’s was an isolated case but it is not. Every year, an estimated 2.4 million people are sold into slavery, although today we call the crime trafficking.

Augustinian Father John Murray
Vatican

Don’t Pass the Buck on Climate Issue

Benedict XVI says that neither the poor nor future generations should pay the price for current waste of shared resources, and he urged governments to take responsibility for the environment. The Pope gave this exhortation in a video message taken from a general audience by which he addressed the U.N. summit on climate change. The meeting was a lead-up to this December’s event in Copenhagen.

www.zenit.org
Vatican

There is No Easy Solution to Human Trafficking

Though trafficking in human beings is a “tremendous offense to dignity,” there is no easy solution to this multifaceted and international problem, says a Vatican official. Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, considered the gravity of human trafficking during an address at a conference organized by the Association of the Pope John XXIII Community.

www.zenit.org

Human Rights Should be Universally Sustained

“The basis of human rights has been the message of Christ that the Church has interpreted with various notions that have arisen in the Christian world, like the idea of the person, the idea of freedom as the essential component of man.” This is what Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, affirmed in presenting the conclusions from the 15th Plenary Assembly of the Academy, whose theme was: “Catholic Social Doctrine and Human Rights.” In the press conference held in the Holy See Press Office, Mary Ann Glendon, President of the Academy, and Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli, Professore of Canon Law at the University of Milan, were also present. Glendon highlighted the fact that, in today’s world, there are still many problems with the protection of human rights, and mentioned that next year, the workshops will be centered on the economic crisis and its social consequences.

www.fides.org
Vatican

Recovering Paradise by Caring for Nature

Vatican officials are urging tourists to use ethics and intelligence and engage in pastimes that respect man and creation, as the planet faces the challenge of climate change. In a letter sent to participants in a congress on international tourism, Cardinal Renato Martino and Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Travelers, said that everyone is responsible for climate change.

www.zenit.org
Vatican

Change the System, Asks the Pope

Pope Benedict has called for a “deep revision” of the world’s “dominant development model,” saying “the state of the planet’s environment and above all the cultural and moral crisis” are even more urgent than the financial crisis.

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Vatican

St. Paul was a “Migrant by Vocation”

The example of St. Paul is one Benedict XVI hopes the Church will follow to build solidarity and promote peaceful coexistence among all races, cultures and creeds. The Pope said this in the message released for the 95th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, to be held January 18.

www.zenit.org
Vatican

Make Malaria Treatment Available to the Poor

The Holy See says malaria is still a major threat to human security – someone dies of it every 30 seconds – but the solution is helping the poverty-stricken prevent and treat the disease. This was the observation made by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, at the 63rd U.N. General Assembly.

www.zenit.org
Vatican

Catholics, Not Fundamentalists

The Pontifical Biblical Commission has published a new document entitled “The Bible and Morality” ahead of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God. It states, according to a Catholic News Service report: even when it comes to morality, Catholics are not biblical fundamentalists, although they view the Bible as an important source of moral guidance; the various books of the Bible were written in different epochs, in different cultures and by different authors, the scholars said, so when looking for moral precepts, a Christian cannot focus on just one line.

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Vatican

Water Is A Universal And Inalienable Right

There is a “right to water,” based on the dignity of the human person, and it is not simply an “economic good,” the Pope affirmed in a message to the international exposition on “Water and Sustainable Development” under way in Zaragoza, Spain. The Holy Father, who sent his message through Cardinal Renato Martino, the Holy See’s representative at the expo, stated: “Because of the […] pressure of multiple social and economic factors, we must be conscious of the fact that today water must be considered a good that must be especially protected through clear national and international policies, and used according to sensible criteria of solidarity and responsibility.”

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