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Lula and pope disagree over place of religion
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
May 11, 2007: The Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2007/0511/1178742785966.html
Lula and pope disagree over place of religion
by Tom Hennigan in São Paulo
BRAZIL: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Pope Benedict XVI that
he wanted to preserve Brazil's secular state, during their meeting
yesterday on the second day of the pope's visit to the world's most
populous Catholic country.
A Brazilian ambassador who participated in the half-hour meeting in São
Paulo told journalists afterwards that president Lula made clear to the
pope he wished "to preserve and consolidate the secular state, and to
have religion as an instrument to treat the spirit and social problems".
Such a stance would knock back Vatican attempts to have obligatory
religious instruction reintroduced to all of Brazil state- run junior
schools. According to the Folha de S Paulo newspaper this is one of the
main objectives the Vatican is pushing for in discussions over a new
concordat to be signed between the Vatican and Brazil.
In order to allow obligatory religious instruction in schools Brazil
would have to change its 1988 constitution, which enshrines freedom of
conscience.
The Vatican says the agreement, which it had hoped to sign during the
pope's trip and now expects to do so when President Lula visits Rome
later this year, will be similar to diplomatic agreements the Vatican
has with more than 100 countries about the status of the church.
The Catholic Church and the Brazilian state have clashed in recent
years, most prominently when the church lost its campaign to stop the
state handing out free condoms in a bid to halt the spread of Aids.
Brazil has one of the developing world's most successful programmes to
combat Aids, but the church says the free distribution of condoms
promotes promiscuity and undermines the family.
The pope and president were reported not to have discussed abortion
during their encounter - the other subject that has led to clashes
between Brazil's politicians and prelates. The pope arrived on Wednesday
amid a war of words between his local subordinates and Brazil's health
minister over the minister's proposal to hold a referendum on Brazil's
strict abortion laws.
Instead, the two men were said to have discussed ways of combating
poverty. President Lula hailed the success of his social programmes in
reducing poverty at home and outlined how he thought the development of
bio-fuels in Africa could reduce poverty there.
While her husband was defending Brazil's secular state, Brazil's first
lady, Marisa Letícia da Silva, took the opportunity to ask the pope to
bless the rosary beads she used at her wedding.
After his meeting, Pope Benedict returned to the monastery which is his
base in São Paulo, where he met leaders of other faiths in Brazil.
Among those present was Rabbi Henry Sobel, until recently head of São
Paulo's Jewish community and a leading light in the struggle for
democracy during Brazil's military dictatorship. Rabbi Sobel was forced
to resign in March when he was found disorientated and in possession of
stolen ties in Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he said: "I'm leaving light and
happy. After all, it is not every day that a rabbi receives a blessing
from a pope. With great humility I asked for a blessing from the pope
and was blessed. I also asked the pope's permission to bless him,
authorisation which was given."
Each of the 10 religious leaders present received a medal inscribed
"Benedictus XVI Pontifex Maximus".
Later the pope took part in a gathering of 35,000 Catholic youth
activists drawn from across Brazil and other Latin American countries in
a football stadium. All day, crowds gathered all along the routes
cleared for the pope's cavalcade as he crisscrossed South America's
biggest city. Several times he appeared unannounced at the balcony of
the city-centre monastery where he is staying to wave to crowds of
faithful and sightseers gathered in the square below.
Today he will celebrate Mass in front of an expected one million people
at an airbase, during which he will canonise the first Brazilian-born
saint, the Franciscan friar Beato Antônio de Sant'Ana Galvão, known as
Frei Galvão. Afterwards he will fly to Brazil's main shrine where on
Sunday he will open the fifth conference of Latin American and Caribbean
bishops, which will set the course for the church in the region in the
years ahead.
© 2007 The Irish Times
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Hash: SHA1
Lula and pope disagree over place of religion
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
May 11, 2007: The Irish Times
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/world/2007/0511/1178742785966.html
Lula and pope disagree over place of religion
by Tom Hennigan in São Paulo
BRAZIL: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Pope Benedict XVI that
he wanted to preserve Brazil's secular state, during their meeting
yesterday on the second day of the pope's visit to the world's most
populous Catholic country.
A Brazilian ambassador who participated in the half-hour meeting in São
Paulo told journalists afterwards that president Lula made clear to the
pope he wished "to preserve and consolidate the secular state, and to
have religion as an instrument to treat the spirit and social problems".
Such a stance would knock back Vatican attempts to have obligatory
religious instruction reintroduced to all of Brazil state- run junior
schools. According to the Folha de S Paulo newspaper this is one of the
main objectives the Vatican is pushing for in discussions over a new
concordat to be signed between the Vatican and Brazil.
In order to allow obligatory religious instruction in schools Brazil
would have to change its 1988 constitution, which enshrines freedom of
conscience.
The Vatican says the agreement, which it had hoped to sign during the
pope's trip and now expects to do so when President Lula visits Rome
later this year, will be similar to diplomatic agreements the Vatican
has with more than 100 countries about the status of the church.
The Catholic Church and the Brazilian state have clashed in recent
years, most prominently when the church lost its campaign to stop the
state handing out free condoms in a bid to halt the spread of Aids.
Brazil has one of the developing world's most successful programmes to
combat Aids, but the church says the free distribution of condoms
promotes promiscuity and undermines the family.
The pope and president were reported not to have discussed abortion
during their encounter - the other subject that has led to clashes
between Brazil's politicians and prelates. The pope arrived on Wednesday
amid a war of words between his local subordinates and Brazil's health
minister over the minister's proposal to hold a referendum on Brazil's
strict abortion laws.
Instead, the two men were said to have discussed ways of combating
poverty. President Lula hailed the success of his social programmes in
reducing poverty at home and outlined how he thought the development of
bio-fuels in Africa could reduce poverty there.
While her husband was defending Brazil's secular state, Brazil's first
lady, Marisa Letícia da Silva, took the opportunity to ask the pope to
bless the rosary beads she used at her wedding.
After his meeting, Pope Benedict returned to the monastery which is his
base in São Paulo, where he met leaders of other faiths in Brazil.
Among those present was Rabbi Henry Sobel, until recently head of São
Paulo's Jewish community and a leading light in the struggle for
democracy during Brazil's military dictatorship. Rabbi Sobel was forced
to resign in March when he was found disorientated and in possession of
stolen ties in Palm Beach, Florida.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he said: "I'm leaving light and
happy. After all, it is not every day that a rabbi receives a blessing
from a pope. With great humility I asked for a blessing from the pope
and was blessed. I also asked the pope's permission to bless him,
authorisation which was given."
Each of the 10 religious leaders present received a medal inscribed
"Benedictus XVI Pontifex Maximus".
Later the pope took part in a gathering of 35,000 Catholic youth
activists drawn from across Brazil and other Latin American countries in
a football stadium. All day, crowds gathered all along the routes
cleared for the pope's cavalcade as he crisscrossed South America's
biggest city. Several times he appeared unannounced at the balcony of
the city-centre monastery where he is staying to wave to crowds of
faithful and sightseers gathered in the square below.
Today he will celebrate Mass in front of an expected one million people
at an airbase, during which he will canonise the first Brazilian-born
saint, the Franciscan friar Beato Antônio de Sant'Ana Galvão, known as
Frei Galvão. Afterwards he will fly to Brazil's main shrine where on
Sunday he will open the fifth conference of Latin American and Caribbean
bishops, which will set the course for the church in the region in the
years ahead.
© 2007 The Irish Times
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
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