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Cardinal, bishop decry New York condom giveaway

NEW YORK – With their decision to distribute 18 million free condoms to the public, New York City officials are failing “to protect the moral tone of our community,” two Catholic leaders charged. Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., said that city officials “encourage inappropriate sexual activity by blanketing our neighborhoods with condoms.”

Scalia: Constitution is not a living document

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that the Constitution is not a living document and should not be rewritten each year by the unelected justices of the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia delivered an address titled “On Interpreting the Constitution” at Iona College in New Rochelle, where he is the Jack Rudin and John G. Driscoll distinguished visiting professor for the spring semester.

CND, CCBC sign agreement

College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Baltimore, and the Community College of Baltimore County signed an articulation agreement during a ceremony Jan. 30 to permit students to transfer credits from CCBC to CND toward a bachelor’s degree in general education and business after earning an associate’s degree.

Oil-rich African nations no better off than neighbors

WASHINGTON – Despite the massive profits available to oil-rich African countries, which have had an estimated $1 trillion in export revenues over the past 40 years, they are no better off than African nations that do not have petroleum to export. The problem of persistent poverty in nations where multinational companies extract natural resources is unsettling to Rees Warne, a Catholic Relief Services adviser on extractive industries.

Collection of pope’s ‘essential writings’ to be published

SAN FRANCISCO – A new book to be published in March by HarperSanFrancisco brings together what its editors call “the central writings and speeches” of Pope Benedict XVI. “The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches” opens with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s sermon at the funeral of Pope John Paul II April 18, 2005, and closes with his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” (“God Is Love”), dated Dec. 25, 2005.

U.S. farm bill to impact international trade

WASHINGTON – Across the street from the Capitol Hill hotel where the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering was being conducted, a group of Koreans was protesting an impending free-trade deal with South Korea. The protest was complete with chanting and drums. Inside the hotel, Oblate Father Andrew Small, a policy adviser for the U.S. bishops who focuses on international economic development, shushed his audience at a Feb. 12 briefing on the 2007 U.S. farm bill. “Can you hear them?” he asked. People could.

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