Ireland’s David Biggest McConnell Trinity professor has low view of Alive! human life FREE PAGE 7 The newspaper for all the family Paper Pius XII No.110: February 2006 • Free to 320,000 homes nationwide Scholars demolish Huge role of Catholic Church in attack on Pope’s Western civilisation recognised reputation SEE PAGE 9 PAGE 16 Benedict XVI publishes his first encyclical letter ‘Let love light up our lives’ THE Church’s teaching on sex and love is the real path to freedom, human dignity and happiness, according to Pope Benedict XVI, in his first encyclical letter. “Today the word ‘love’ has become so The letter is divided into two parts. The tarnished, so spoilt and so abused, that first offers a challenging reflection on one is almost afraid to pronounce it with human love while the second sets out the one’s lips,” he told a recent gathering. principles which must guide the But there was no question of abandon- Church’s involvement in society. ing the word. “We must take it up again, Commodity purify it and give it back its original splendour so that it may illuminate our Benedict rejected today’s abusive inter- lives,” he said. est in the human body. “Eros, reduced to This was exactly the task he set himself mere ‘sex’, has become a commodity, a in his letter, Deus Caritas Est (God is ‘thing’ to be bought and sold; or rather, Love). man himself becomes a commodity,” he wrote. Above all, he wanted people to see once more that God’s love is the driving force He singled out marriage as revealing of all creation, and that the greatness of most fully the true nature of human the human person lies in his capacity for and divine love. “Part of love’s growth true love. To Page 2 ➤ ANTI-CATHOLICISM: LAST ACCEPTABLE PREJUDICE?...PAGE 8 2 Alive! February 2006 Arab nations finance the spread of Islam in Sudan ‘Let love light up our lives’ ARAB nations have set aside $30 million in a drive to ■ From page 1 plined and purified.” often made, for example, raised recently by islamise the Nuba Mountains region of Sudan, according to a local Catholic bishop. towards higher levels and Then it will provide “not against the work of Mother Archbishop Paul Cordes, “One year after the peace agreement, Muslim fundamen- inward purification is that just fleeting pleasure, but a Teresa of Calcutta. president of Cor Unum, the talists are concentrating their efforts on schools and hospi- it seeks to become defini- foretaste of the pinnacle of “What we have here is Church’s central agency for tals,” Bishop Macram Gassis said during a visit to AId to the tive,” he wrote. our existence, of that hap- really an inhuman philoso- aid to the poor. piness for which our whole Church in Need, in Germany. In other words, love phy,” wrote the Holy According to the being yearns.” Thanking the missionary sisters working in his diocese, he wants to be “exclusive (this Father. “People of the pre- Archbishop, some large said that priority must be given to training the laity so they person alone) and ‘for Charity sent are sacrificed to the Catholic aid agencies have can withstand the advances of the Islamists. false god of the future—a been “tempted to drift ever’.” In part 2 of his letter he Bishop Gassis, 67, was exiled from his diocese for a future whose effective real- away from the Church and Benedict recognised that noted the view of those decade, returning after the January 2005 peace agreement. isation is at best doubtful. the bishops.” They identify “love is indeed ‘ecstasy’,” who argue that charity to themselves simply as “One does not make the but not in the popular sense the poor and suffering NGOs “and not as part of world more human by of a moment of intoxication. should be halted as it the Church’s mission to refusing to act humanely Rather it is an on-going reduces the demand for bring the love of Christ to social change and justice. here and now,” he said. First Holy journey “out of the closed, the world.” inward-looking self This was a complaint He also took up an issue To counter this “activism towards liberation through and growing secularism” self-giving, and thus ‘Being Christian is not the result Benedict stressed the Communion towards authentic self-dis- of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, importance of prayer for all Parents, as your children prepare for this great covery and, indeed, the dis- those working in Christian covery of God.” day, take the opportunity yourself to learn more but the encounter with an event, a charities. ● about the Eucharist in a simple, easy way. He was emphatic that the Person, which gives life a new Deus Caritas Est is love between a man and available in English at Parish teams, you can help parents to deepen woman “needs to be disci- horizon and a decisive direction.’ www.vatican.va/ their faith in the Eucharist. A Pocket Catechism on The Eucharist Evolution: bogus science Gives the Church’s teaching in a balanced and complete way. Simply written, it is suitable for adults and used to attack religion teenagers. THE real driving power behind the theory of evolution challenge to all religious • 150 questions is not science but hatred for religion, a leading US claims.” • Brief answers sociologist of religion has claimed. That the theory has sur- • 48 pages Professor Rodney Stark In other words, “species vived is due in no small part has argued that Darwin’s do not arise gradually by to the intimidation of theory of evolution is bad the steady transformation of experts who disagree with Cost (postfree) : 1 copy: science, with virtually no ancestors; they appear fully it, according to Stark. €2 • 6 copies: €10 fossil evidence to back it up. formed.” “An appeal for a united 36+ copies: 25% discount “Rather, from the very Darwinist Stephen Jay front on the part of scientists start,” he said, evolution Gould described this fact as to oppose religious opposi- Also available: was primarily “an attack on a “trade secret of palaeon- tion has had the conse- No More Tears in My Eyes religion by militant atheists tology,” and admitted that quence of silencing dissent The deeply moving story of Kathleen Kilbane. who wrap themselves in the the diagrams in textbooks within the scientific com- Cost €5 (6 for €25) mantle of science.” are based on “inference... munity,” he wrote. not the evidence of fossils.” The Dumbag Letters Darwin argued that Professor of the Social species like dogs, apes, and Sciences at Baylor Central ● Letters from a Master to a Trainee Tempter. Cost €10 human beings came into Thomas Henry Huxley, University, Rodney Stark is 1824-1895, doctored dia- existence by the gradual According to Stark, from a religious agnostic. A well- ORDERS TO: early on “atheism was cen- grams to make evolution change of one species into look more plausible. known author, he was Alive!, St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, Dublin 24 another. tral to the agenda of the Professor of Sociology at Darwinians.” He was disturbed that the of species is still not under- Washington University for Please send me: Number Amount fossil evidence did not back It was the use of bogus sci- stood, he was amazed that 30 years. enclosed his theory but hoped fur- ence against religion which “Darwin is treated as a secu- His article, “Fact, Fable ther research would pro- eventually provoked reli- lar saint in the media, and and Darwin” appeared in gious opposition to the the- Catechism on the Eucharist......... duce the fossils to show the the theory of evolution is The American Enterprise, gradual transitions between ory. “For the heirs of the regarded as the invincible and can be read at alive.ie. No More Tears in My Eyes.......... species. Enlightenment, evolution “Today, the fossil record is seemed finally to supply the The Dumbag Letters..................... enormous compared to weapon needed to destroy Baby’s right to privacy! Darwin’s day, but,” said religion,” said Stark. Donation for Alive!...................... Stark, “the facts are Thomas Huxley set the ■ A hospital in Halifax, England, has banned visitors unchanged. The links are pattern by claiming the only from looking at newborn babies in cots, on the grounds Total enclosed: ............................... still missing; species appear choice was between Darwin that the babies have a right to privacy. suddenly and then remain or Bible literalism. Rejecting In one ward staff have placed a doll in a cot with a Name.......................................................................................... relatively unchanged” until this view Stark commented, card asking, “What makes you think I want to be BLOCK CAPS PLEASE they disappear. “one may note the serious looked at?” Address...................................................................................... shortcomings of neo- He quoted evolutionist Not all mothers, however, agree with the change. Steven Stanley that “the Darwinism without opting “This ludicrous idea is taking patient confidentiality to .................................................................................................... known fossil record... offers for any rival theory.” the extreme. If people did not ask me about my baby I no evidence that the gradu- As leading biological sci- would be offended,” said one young woman. ..................................................................................................... alistic model can be valid.” entists hold that the origin Alive! February 2006 3 Journalist wants more JUST A THOUGHT action on absent dads 500 years since work on St Peter’s began AS the Irish government, n 18 April 1506 Pope over from Raphael he told the pope that a ton of step by step, follows an Julius II laid the money was being wasted agenda that is undermin- Ofoundation stone of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.