Thursday, March 21, 2024

Vatican Power Over Governments


By Stephen D. Mumford, DrPH | 18 March 2024




(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

Excerpt from Chapter 5 of our Chairman Dr. Stephen D. Mumford’s book, American Democracy and the Vatican: Population Growth and National Security (1984). The book is available at Kindle here and to read for free here.

Vatican Power Over Governments


It is also true that the Vatican controls governments whenever possi­ble—either completely or partially. Until this strong hold on Catholic countries or those with substantial Catholic leadership is greatly reduced, we can expect very little improvement in world efforts to control population growth. The Vatican’s strong influence on international donor agencies must be eliminated as well.

Jean-Guy Vaillancourt, professor of sociology at the University of Montreal, a Catholic, and author of Papal Power: A Study of Vatican Control Over Lay Catholic Elites,[9] has studied extensively Vatican efforts to achieve this dominance:

[The] Vatican is, above all, an organizational weapon in the hands of the papacy and other top ecclesiastical officials. Religious ideology has increasingly become subordinated to organizational imperatives. Among these internal and external organizational imperatives, organizational control of lay elites seems to have become a major preoccupation and necessity for Church authorities.[10]

No matter who the pope is, there are structural and institutional influences that operate because the Vatican is not only a religious institution and a center of political power but also an economic institution with vast financial and real estate holdings, a “fiscal paradise” which ranks alongside Monaco and Hong Kong as a haven for tax evasion.[11]

In spite of the purely religious image that it endeavors to put for­ward, the Vatican is deeply involved in Italian and international politics and finance, promoting conservatism and capitalism while professing a Christian approach to democratic reforms. The Vatican is constantly intervening in Italian politics to protect its interests, including its economic interests. The Vatican is not only a political and a religious entity, it is also an important financial enterprise…. Church authorities have let themselves be used by political and economic elites as ideological legitimators of capitalism and conservatism, in return for economic advantage and political favors.[12]

Papal Power: A Study of Vatican Control over Lay Catholic Elites by Jean-Guy Vaillancourt. https://t.co/zCZ9VJWyxw

— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) March 18, 2024

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Monday, March 18, 2024

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Controversial 'Civil War' Movie Prompts Debate Over US Schism

Story by AFP



'Civil War' director Alex Garland deliberately leaves the specific origins and politics of the conflict vague in his film
© LISA O'CONNOR


A major film that imagines a second civil war in the near-future United States has highlighted fears about the divided state of the nation ahead of November's presidential election.

"Civil War," which premiered at the SXSW Festival this week and hits theaters April 12, pictures a three-term US president in Washington DC battling secessionist forces from California and Texas.

The movie stars Kirsten Dunst as a journalist travelling through a broken, dystopian nation. The FBI has been disbanded, and military drone strikes launched on US citizens.

In early reviews, The Atlantic noted an "uncomfortable resonance in these politically polarized times." Rolling Stone said "you might accidentally mistake" the film's futuristic premise for the present.

So, just how plausible is the film's scenario?

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, was recently criticized for seemingly joking he would be a "dictator" on "day one" if he wins a second term as president. He faces charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Biden has accused his predecessor of embracing "political violence."

A survey by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) last year showed 23 percent of Americans agree "true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

Related video: Civil War Movie Trailer (Dailymotion)


But William Howell, a University of Chicago political science professor, said while there is cause for concern about rising political violence, "talk about 21st-century muskets being fired at one another isn't very helpful."

Political elites and Congress are more divided than ever, but polarization among the public is "overstated," said Howell.

Survey responses to vaguely worded questions do not necessarily speak to on-the-ground realities about how people will actually behave, he added.

"I don't think we're on the brink of a civil war," said Howell.

"It's more diffuse than that... a hollowing out of the state, a sabotage of administrative agencies, the disaffection of the larger public."

"All that can be true, and it also not be the case that we're about to line up as we did in 1861, and en masse begin slaughtering one another."

On the other hand, author Stephen Marche believes "the United States is a textbook case of a country headed for civil war" -- just not in the way depicted by the movie.

Marche's book, "The Next Civil War: Dispatches from the American Future," uses political science models to suggest five scenarios that could plausibly trigger widespread internecine conflict.

These include anti-government militias clashing with federal forces, or a president being assassinated.

Political violence "becomes acceptable, and in a certain sense, inevitable, because people don't feel that their government is legitimate, and that therefore violence is the only response," said Marche.

"I would say that to a certain extent, that has already happened in America."

Cautioning that he has not yet seen the movie, Marche says a conflict fought along geographical lines like the North-South civil war of the 1860s is unlikely.

More likely than state-on-state violence would be a "massive, splintering chaos," reminiscent of the late 20th-century "Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

In Marche's book, retired US Army colonel Peter Mansoor says a new conflict "would not be like the first civil war, with armies maneuvering on the battlefield."

"I think it would very much be a free-for-all, neighbor-on-neighbor, based on beliefs and skin colors and religion. And it would be horrific."

- 'Fault lines' -

In the film, director Alex Garland deliberately leaves the specific origins and politics of the conflict vague. He has said the movie is intended to be "a conversation" about polarization and populism.

It offers little exposition, and focuses on the horrific daily reality for American citizens and journalists.

"We don't need it explained -- we know exactly why it might happen, we know exactly what the fault lines and the pressures are," Garland told the audience at Thursday's premiere in Texas.

The movie's "three-term president" appears to invoke the fears held by many Americans that Trump -- if re-elected -- could ignore the US Constitution's two-term maximum, and refuse to step down after four years.

"It's hard to think otherwise, if you just take him at his word -- and I think we would be mistaken not to," said Howell.

If that scenario was reached, said Marche, talk of a civil war may already be redundant.

"If there's a three-term president, America has already ended," he said. "There's no United States anymore."

amz/hg/st



Civil War | Official Trailer HD | A24

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Sunday, March 17, 2024

March 3: European Day for a Work-free Sunday





On this year's annual European Day for a Work-free Sunday the European Sunday Alliances launches its manifesto for the upcoming EU elections

On the occasion of this year’s annual European Day for a Work-free Sunday on March 3, the European Sunday Alliance reminds that synchronised resting time is an effective tool to counter loneliness and highlights its importance for the mental health of workers.

In the view of upcoming EU elections in June 2024, the European Sunday Alliance calls on Members of the European Parliament and candidates to the upcoming European Elections to support the Elections Manifesto of its Steering Committee to recognise the value of the establishment of a weekly common day of rest, by tradition on Sunday, at the EU level for all citizens.

On the occasion of the European Day for a Work-free Sunday, the European Sunday Alliance is glad about support for a work-free Sunday as expressed by a series of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different political groups, among them Brando Benifei (S&D, Italy), Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany), Katrin Langensiepen (Greens/EFA, Germany), Dragos Pislaru (Renew, Romania), Dennis Radtke (EPP, Germany), Evelyn Regner (S&D, Austria), Michaela Sojdrova (EPP, Czech Republic) and Tomas Zdechovsky (EPP, Czech Republic) – and, as sponsor of the European Sunday Alliance, Miriam Lexmann (EPP, Slovakia):




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Saturday, March 16, 2024

US Senate Committee Hearings on a 32-hour Work Week Argued that People Cannot Attend Church on Sundays if They Work 70 Hours


ADVENT MESSENGER

US Senate Committee Hearings on a 32-hour Work Week Argued that People Cannot Attend Church on Sundays if They Work 70 Hours


March 14, 2024 by Andy Roman 


The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions heard a speech by Connecticut Democrat Senator Chris Murphy on Thursday, March 14, 2024. [1] The committee hearings addressed the need for a 32-hour work week that would give Americans more time for leisure activities such as family socials and Sunday church services. Speaking to Mr. Shawn Fain, International President of the United Auto Workers Union, Senator Murphy said that the reason for the drop in religious attendance is that individuals are simply too exhausted after their week of work. In response, the head of the union reaffirmed that those who work too much don’t have time for worship on Sundays.



The following exchange occurred in our US Congress between Senator Murphy and Union President Fain:

Senator Chris Murphy: “There’s a pretty wild thing happening in America today: in 2000, 70 percent of Americans belonged to a religious institution, but today that number is 50 percent. There has been a pretty precipitous decline in the ability or willingness of Americans to go to church or to a religious institution on a regular basis. And I think that has lots of broad impacts in our society. There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of them is that Americans just have less free time. When you have to work 70 hours to get the same standard of living for your family that 40 hours would have gotten you a few decades ago, you don’t have time to go to Wednesday night Bible study; you might not have the ability to even attend church services on a Sunday. You can talk about church if you want or if you don’t want, but it is just true that some of the leisure time activities, some of the institutions that Americans found value and meaning in, are less accessible when you have to work these long hours. I’d love to just hear your thoughts on that.”

Shawn Fain, UAW President: “One of the biggest, one of the things we talked about was the 32-hour work week when we put that in our contract talks was the fact that we wanted to create work life balance … And as I say when you’re working multiple jobs to live paycheck to paycheck or you’re working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, something else is sacrificed in that, and that’s what ends up happening. You have to sacrifice, you know, the ability to go to church. If it’s something else to do on a Sunday, maybe you get a Sunday off and you haven’t slept all weekend, and you spend the whole day sleeping. I mean that that is a reality a lot of workers face on some of the schedules they work … I do believe Congress has an obligation here, spending priorities and regulations. And that may be an ugly word to some people that represent business.”

Senator Chris Murphy: “Well, listen, I agree with you. I think we should have an interest in leisure time. We should have an interest in making sure that people are able to find value outside of work. A lot of people find value in work, and I’m glad that they do, but a lot of people find more value by the institutions and the social clubs and the churches that they affiliate and spend time with outside of work. But that is just less accessible for people today and that should be a public policy interest of the United States Congress. I appreciate this hearing allowing us to talk about that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

A sitting US senator is urging policymakers to get involved in ensuring that people have more time for church and recreation. According to Senator Murphy, the desire for more leisure ought to be considered a “public policy interest of the United States Congress.” This is a call being made in a Senate committee to reduce the work week, and one of the justifications is so that people can get back to church on Sundays. It’s not simply a call, though. A bill to cut the workweek down to only 32 hours has already been introduced. [2]

“The dignitaries of church and State will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: ‘The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ’.” (Great Controversy, p. 592).

Sources

[1] https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/workers-should-benefit-from-new-technology-and-increased-productivity-the-need-for-a-32-hour-work-week-with-no-loss-in-pay

[2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/1332


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Monday, March 11, 2024

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Nation’s intelligence chiefs to tell Congress world remains a dangerous place



By Jamie McIntyre

March 11, 2024 7:03 am


WORLD AS DANGEROUS AS EVER: Led by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, the nation’s top spymasters and law enforcement officials will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee today and the House Intelligence Committee tomorrow about the growing threats from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, among others.

Also appearing before the committees to testify about the “Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment” will be CIA Director William Burns, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Brett Holmgren, National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse.

China, which is building up its military at a “breathtaking” pace and making increasingly ominous statements about forcing unification with Taiwan, is once again expected to be identified as posing the greatest long-term challenge to U.S. national security. “Countries around the world see a unipolar order, and they seek to challenge it,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS yesterday. “In China’s case, they want, if not to replace, at least to be an alternative to the American-led system.”

“One of the things that Sen. Rubio and I have done on a bipartisan basis is try to go industry by industry in America and warn them of the potential theft of intellectual property, $500 billion a year,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Intelligence Committee chairman, said sitting alongside Rubio on CBS’s Face the Nation. “China is investing in quantum computing, in bioengineering. … I think we need to compete against that.”

“The vast majority of innovation is still taking place in this country,” Warner added.