Huge Cross Erected at
Russian-Chinese Border
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL, Nov. 27 — A
19-foot-tall Orthodox cross has been placed at the junction of Russia’s border with China
and Mongolia in the Baikal
region of Eastern Siberia, reported UPI.
The metal structure, weighing more than a ton, carries the inscription “Save, O
God, Thy People,” the official Russian news agency Itar-Tass
reported.
The head of Russia’s
Federal Security Service’s border department said the cross is intended to be
an inspiration to guards patrolling the 1,800-mile border. It is also designed
to mark the revival of spirituality of the population on the Russian border,
said Maj.-Gen. Nikolai Volkov, head of the border department.
Border guards in the Baikal region face winter temperatures of 40 degrees below
zero and summer temperatures that rarely reach above 40 degrees.
China Appoints Bishop Without
Vatican Approval
ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov. 28 — China has appointed a new bishop without Vatican
approval and ordained him Nov. 30, in a move likely to
further set back efforts to forge better relations between Beijing and the Vatican, The Associated Press
reported.
China and the Vatican do not
have diplomatic relations. A major stumbling block to better ties has been China’s refusal
to recognize the sole authority of the Holy See to appoint bishops.
Liu Bainian,
deputy chairman of the government-backed Chinese Patriotic Catholic
Association, said that Wang Renlei had been appointed
as a bishop in Xuzhou,
Jiangsu province, in
eastern China.
Wang is currently vicar-general of the Xuzhou
Diocese.
“Because China and the Vatican
do not have diplomatic relations, China has elected its own bishops
over many years,” Liu said. “We cannot wait until China
and the Vatican
establish relations to select a bishop.”
Father Bernardo Cervellera, head of Asia News, a Vatican-affiliated news
agency, said the appointment was a “violent gesture against freedom of
religion.” He said in an e-mail, “It is a sign of the weakness of the Chinese
government and tension in the Chinese society.”
Couples in France Prefer
Love Without Marriage
THE WASHINGTON POST, Nov. 21 — In France, the country
that evokes more images of romance than perhaps any other, marriage has
increasingly fallen out of favor, The
Post reported.
Growing numbers of couples are
choosing to raise children, buy homes and build family lives without religious
or civil approval of their partnerships. In the past generation, the French
marriage rate has plunged more than 30%, even as population and birthrates have
been rising.
France’s two highest-profile female politicians live with
well-known partners they have not married. Ségolène
Royal, who last month won the Socialist Party nomination for president in next
year’s election, and Francois Hollande, the party’s
leader, have had four children during their 25 years of cohabitation. French
Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie,
another possible presidential contender, has spent nearly 22 unmarried years
living with Patrick Ollier, a member of the National
Assembly.
French marriage rates are 45%
below U.S.
figures. In 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available, the
marriage rate in France was
4.3 per 1,000 people, compared with 5.1 in the United
Kingdom and 7.8 in the United States. The only European
countries with rates lower than France’s
were Belgium, at 4.1, and Slovenia, with
3.3. Last year, 59% of all first-born French children were born to unwed
parents.