Rich-Poor Gap Widening, Korean Bishop Warns

UCANEWS, Dec. 11, — Bishop Boniface Choi Ki-san said the gulf between the rich and the poor is widening in Korea, the Asian news service reported.

Bishop Choi, who heads the Committee for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea, highlighted the issue of socioeconomic polarization in his message for Human Rights Sunday.

“Despite the situation, neo-liberalism has been pursued blindly, putting stress on the labor market’s flexibility, and it has resulted in six or seven out of 10 workers in the country becoming non-regular contract workers,” he said.

Bishop Choi reiterated in his message that the Church has a preferential option for the poor and asks Christians to pray more earnestly for and do their best to help people in need. The bishop warned that economic disparity and a community’s reluctance to aid its underprivileged members could result in social disharmony. He called on the government to ensure that none of its policies require the sacrifice of people’s basic rights.

Cardinal: Non-Christians Have Different View of God

REUTERS, Dec. 11 — German Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne forbade Catholics from praying with their Muslim classmates because it would be confusing to the children, reported Reuters.

The cardinal and his aides spent the days leading up to Christmas explaining they have nothing against children of all faiths getting together to sing carols around a tree or act out the Nativity story. But they should not say any prayer together.

Catholic children will be confused if they also say a prayer with Muslims, who have a different view of God, Cardinal Meisner said. On his recent visit to Turkey, Pope Benedict prayed silently alongside a Muslim but not aloud with him, a distinction adults can understand but children cannot.

“The image of God in non-Christian religions is not identical with the God who is Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” the cardinal said in a statement. “So each community can only pray alone to its God. If this happens in a mixed setting, one group has to stand by silently while the other prays.”

Catholic Clergy Attack Telethon Over Stem-Cell Aid

THE NEW YORK TIMES, Dec. 8 — Church officials in France denounced the country’s annual muscular dystrophy telethon for the fundraiser’s promotion of embryonic stem cell research, The Times reported.

The 34-hour telethon, shown on national television, raised more than $138 million in donations last year. And one of the projects it funds is research on embryonic stem cells, which received $2 million.

“For us, these embryos are not things, but human beings,” Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon, told journalists. “And from the depths of our faith, we cannot accept that they are selected, destroyed, the objects of experiments.” The cardinal, one of France’s most senior Roman Catholic clerics, praised the telethon as a worthy project overall.

“French bishops who have spoken about the telethon have all praised this work of generosity and solidarity,” the bishops’ conference said in a statement. “None of them has called for a boycott of the telethon. Quite the contrary.”

Cardinal Barbarin also made that point, saying , “Kids must continue to break their piggy banks for the disabled.”