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Pope Benedict XVI confirmed plans for his visit to Great Britain in September– and offered some unusually blunt reflections on the situation facing the Church there– in a February 1 address to a group of visiting British bishops.

The Pope told the bishops, who were in Rome for their ad limina visit, that he looked forward to his trip to their country. Although he did not mention specific dates, informed Catholic sources in London have confirmed that the trip will take place in September.

The Pontiff went on to say that the Church leadership in England and Wales “needs to speak with a united voice.” His words appeared to be a reference to the friction within the episcopal conference, and the willingness of some British prelates to countenance open dissent from Catholic teaching. In an even more evident reference to that problem, the Pope went on to say:

In a social milieu that encourages the expression of a variety of opinions on every question that arises, it is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate.

Later in his address the Pope prodded the English bishops to be prepared to receive Anglicans entering the Catholic Church under the terms of the new apostolic constitution. In the past many English bishops have resisted pleas from Anglicans looking for corporate reunion with the Holy See. The Holy Father tacitly acknowledged that resistance, saying: “I would ask you to be generous in implementing the provisions of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, so as to assist those groups of Anglicans who wish to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. I am convinced that, if given a warm and open-hearted welcome, such groups will be a blessing for the entire Church.”

Pope Benedict voiced his strong support for the bishops of England and Wales in their stand against an “Equality Bill” that would have threatened sanctions against the Church for failing to ordain women as priests and for resisting same-sex marriage. ” In some respects,” the Pontiff said, the legislation– which encountered defeat in the House of Lords– “actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed.” A headline in the Guardian reported that the Pope “condemns gay equality laws.” The Times, with the flagrant bias that characterizes that paper’s treatment of Catholic affairs, made the sensationalistic claim that the Pope had “attacked Britain’s move towards equal rights in its secular democracy.”

The Vatican traditionally does not formally announce plans for a papal trip until a few weeks before it occurs. But Pope Benedict has now, on several occasions, spoken openly about plans for foreign travel before the “official” announcement is made.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

Pope Speaks of Forthcoming Apostolic Trip to Great Britain (VIS)

Pope Confirms Great Britain Trip (Vatican Radio)

Pope Benedict confirms first papal UK visit since 1982 (BBC)

Pope Benedict XVI confirms first state visit to UK (Times)

Pope condemns gay equality laws ahead of first UK visit (Guardian)

Pope tells English and Welsh bishops to get their act together (Telegraph)

Pope to Visit UK; Urges Church to Accept Anglicans (AP)

This is a strange one and I’m not entirely sure what to make of this, but it does appear as though the church group has at least made a miscalculation. I can certainly understand their drive and motivation however, and bureaucracy is not high on the list in a massive disaster. Save lives first, fill out forms later!

Fox News:-

Haiti Kids Taken by Americans Reportedly Have Families

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti —  Ten U.S. Baptists detained trying to take 33 children out of earthquake-shattered Haiti without government permission say they were just trying to do the right thing, applying Christian principles to save Haitian children.

But their “Orphan Rescue Mission” is striking nerves in a country that has long suffered from child trafficking and foreign interventions, and where much of the aid is delivered in ways that challenge Haiti’s own rich religious traditions.

Prime Minister Max Bellerive on Sunday told The Associated Press that the group was arrested and is under judicial investigation “because it is illegal trafficking of children and we won’t accept that.”

Social Affairs Minister Yves Cristallin told The Associated Press that the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.

The orphanage where the children were later taken said some of the kids have living parents, who were apparently told the children were going on a holiday from the post-quake misery.

The Americans are the first people to be arrested since the Jan 12 quake on such suspicions. No charges have been filed.

Read More

Telegraph

Haiti: Let’s cut these US Christian ‘child smugglers’ some slack, shall we?

Ten U.S. Christians have been jailed in Haiti – after trying to take 33 young children from the disaster stricken country into the Dominican Republic. The Church group, from Idaho, allegedly lacked the “official documents” when they were arrested with a bus load of children aged from 2 months to twelve years. Along with the children, they’re now being held in appalling conditions in a police station in Port-au-Prince.

Predictably,  the Guardian takes a hard line. “Haiti holds church child smugglers,” screams their website, before informing readers that “the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.” Haiti’s social affairs minister joins in: “This is totally illegal,” she told Reuters. “No children can leave Haiti without proper authorisation and these people did not have that.” Finally, a BBC report I’ve just seen speaks in serious tones about “the huge problem of child trafficking in Haiti.”

But before we get carried away, let’s examine the facts. Tens of thousands of Haitian parents were among those killed in the earthquake and, as the Telegraph’s Nick Allen reported yesterday, we know that up to one million orphaned children face an uncertain future in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. And this isn’t only about the immediate future: many children injured in the earthquake will grow up with severe disabilities in a country where healthcare of this kind is scarce, to say the least.

So, bearing this in mind, why don’t we listen to the version of events from the Christian group? Laura Sillsby, one of those being held in Port-au-Prince, said: “We had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage that we have there.” And where did the children come from? “We have a Baptist minister here (in Port-au-Prince) whose orphanage totally collapsed and he asked us to take the children to the orphanage in the Dominican Republic,” she replied. “They accuse us of children trafficking. This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong.”

The situation in Haiti remains desperate, particularly for young children. This is not the time for the reconstruction of bureaucracy – it’s a time to save lives and heal trauma. The US Christians should be freed immediately and allowed to continue with their important journey.

Christian Post

Haiti Officials Arrest 10 U.S. Baptists for ‘Orphan Rescue’ Attempt

A ten-member team of Baptist church members from the United States was arrested in Haiti Saturday after trying to take dozens of children out of the quake-devastated country and into the Dominican Republic.

The group, which mostly includes church members from Idaho, was arrested for reportedly lacking the proper documents as they were taking children aged 2 months to 12 years to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic as part of a “Haitian orphan rescue mission.”

The team had traveled to Haiti to help rescue children from one or more orphanages that had been devastated in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12, according to an announcement featured in the websites of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, and Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho.

“The children were being taken to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic where they could be cared for and have their medical and emotional needs attended to,” the churches announced Saturday.

“Our team was falsely arrested today and we are doing everything we can from this end to clear up the misunderstanding that has occurred in Port au Prince,” they added.

Though the spokesman for the group, Laura Silsby, told The Associated Press that they received the children from Haitian pastor Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries, the ministry spearheading the operation had reported prior to the arrests that its plan was to drive a bus from Santo Domingo, Haiti, into Port au Prince “and gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the DR.”

“NLCR is in the process of buying land and building an orphanage, school and church in Magante on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic,” reported New Life Children’s Refuge, which Silsby founded and serves as executive director for.

“Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now vs. waiting until the permanent facility is built,” it added.

Furthermore, while the group listed as a prayer request “favor with the Dominican Government in allowing us to bring as many orphans as we can into the DR,” there was no mention of the Haitian government, which has suspended adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking following this month’s quake.

To date, Haiti’s 7.0-magnititude quake has left an estimated 200,000 dead throughout the country. An estimated 1 million people, meanwhile, are said to be homeless.

According to NLCR, the team in Haiti was planning to bring the children they picked up to a 45-room hotel in Cabarete that they are converting into an orphanage until the one they are building is complete.

Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.