The World Cup was occupying many royals and monarchists last week. The Prince and Princess of Orange and the Prince and Princess of the Asturias as well as Queen Sofia of Spain were on hand in South Africa to cheer on their teams in the final round. Of course it was Spain that emerged victorious, their first such win, and the team was welcomed home by a meeting with King Juan Carlos who complemented their ability, team work and congratulated them on their accomplishment and bringing all Spaniards together. In the Netherlands the second-place Dutch team met with Queen Beatrix who was just as pleased with their performance. The head coach was decorated with the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Dutch Prime Minister.
On July 14 Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden celebrated her 33rd birthday in absentia. Still on honeymoon with beloved Prince Daniel the festivities were presided over by the King and Queen who welcomed crowds of well-wishing Swedes on the happy occasion. On the other side of the world HM Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei celebrated his 64th birthday. The day was marked by parades, a military review and a flyover by the Brunei air force. In the Middle East the Dowager Queen Noor of Jordan opened the Arab Children’s Congress which seeks ways to address the issues facing young people around the world. The King of the Gulf state of Bahrain, HM Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifah, traveled to the UK and met with PM David Cameron at #10 to discuss relations and economic cooperation between the two monarchies.
The future Princess of Monaco, Charlene Wittstock, gave an interview with the newspaper Nice-Matin of France. Charlene spoke of her love for Monaco, how impressed she is with their generosity as a country as well as the diversity, traditions and history of Monaco. She talked about how supportive the Sovereign Prince has been and mentioned her work giving swimming lessons to under privileged children in South Africa as an indication of where her charity work might lead her as Princess of Monaco. Also, on Friday evening, HSH Princess Stephanie of Monaco welcomed her brother and future sister-in-law to the annual gala dinner of her foundation Fight AIDS Monaco. For the full interview and coverage of the gala check Mad for Monaco.
In Lhasa, Tibet the reincarnation of the 5th Living Buddha Dezhub was chosen by the state approved ‘lottery’ method early this month. The choice fell on Losang Doje, a 4-year-old, in a ceremony at the Jokhang Temple supervised by the State Administration for Religious Affairs. Drawing the lots were the Vice-President of the Buddhist Association of China and the Communist Party supported “Panchen Lama” who is not the legitimate candidate recognized by the XIV Dalai Lama. The choice was later approved by the “people’s government of Tibet”. The previous Living Buddha Dezhub had been a loyal supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.
I also cannot help but mention a meeting held in Nevada, mostly involving Jewish and Hindu leaders, calling on international organizations to put pressure on the island nation of Malta to repeal the laws there supportive of the Catholic Church. Catholicism is the official religion of Malta and it is one of the most conservative countries in Europe, the only one in which abortion is totally banned for any reason at any time. Laws remain on the books which make it illegal to publicly insult the Catholic Church which, this group says, discriminate against Jews, Hindus, Muslims, pagans, Wiccans and atheists. Once again, I can only be baffled as to why any Hindus feel they should be moving to Malta just as I would be rather confused by any Catholics wishing to move to Nepal. In any event, none of that should matter. They can invoke the EU all they like but I doubt they will ever be able to convince me that it is somehow necessary for them to have the “right” to insult the Catholic Church, the religion of the vast majority of the Maltese people and one that has been woven into their history and traditions for many hundreds of years.
On July 14 Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden celebrated her 33rd birthday in absentia. Still on honeymoon with beloved Prince Daniel the festivities were presided over by the King and Queen who welcomed crowds of well-wishing Swedes on the happy occasion. On the other side of the world HM Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei celebrated his 64th birthday. The day was marked by parades, a military review and a flyover by the Brunei air force. In the Middle East the Dowager Queen Noor of Jordan opened the Arab Children’s Congress which seeks ways to address the issues facing young people around the world. The King of the Gulf state of Bahrain, HM Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifah, traveled to the UK and met with PM David Cameron at #10 to discuss relations and economic cooperation between the two monarchies.
The future Princess of Monaco, Charlene Wittstock, gave an interview with the newspaper Nice-Matin of France. Charlene spoke of her love for Monaco, how impressed she is with their generosity as a country as well as the diversity, traditions and history of Monaco. She talked about how supportive the Sovereign Prince has been and mentioned her work giving swimming lessons to under privileged children in South Africa as an indication of where her charity work might lead her as Princess of Monaco. Also, on Friday evening, HSH Princess Stephanie of Monaco welcomed her brother and future sister-in-law to the annual gala dinner of her foundation Fight AIDS Monaco. For the full interview and coverage of the gala check Mad for Monaco.
In Lhasa, Tibet the reincarnation of the 5th Living Buddha Dezhub was chosen by the state approved ‘lottery’ method early this month. The choice fell on Losang Doje, a 4-year-old, in a ceremony at the Jokhang Temple supervised by the State Administration for Religious Affairs. Drawing the lots were the Vice-President of the Buddhist Association of China and the Communist Party supported “Panchen Lama” who is not the legitimate candidate recognized by the XIV Dalai Lama. The choice was later approved by the “people’s government of Tibet”. The previous Living Buddha Dezhub had been a loyal supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.
I also cannot help but mention a meeting held in Nevada, mostly involving Jewish and Hindu leaders, calling on international organizations to put pressure on the island nation of Malta to repeal the laws there supportive of the Catholic Church. Catholicism is the official religion of Malta and it is one of the most conservative countries in Europe, the only one in which abortion is totally banned for any reason at any time. Laws remain on the books which make it illegal to publicly insult the Catholic Church which, this group says, discriminate against Jews, Hindus, Muslims, pagans, Wiccans and atheists. Once again, I can only be baffled as to why any Hindus feel they should be moving to Malta just as I would be rather confused by any Catholics wishing to move to Nepal. In any event, none of that should matter. They can invoke the EU all they like but I doubt they will ever be able to convince me that it is somehow necessary for them to have the “right” to insult the Catholic Church, the religion of the vast majority of the Maltese people and one that has been woven into their history and traditions for many hundreds of years.
The real Irony is their Hypocracy. Becase we live in an age when CHristianity has been routinely attacked for 200 years, its become an acceptable prejudice, and popels htinkign has been scewed agaisnt it, even in some Christians Minds.
ReplyDeleteSomehow, Jews think its perfeclty reasonable to ask for a Jewish Homeland, which flies a FLag that is distinctly Jewish and in which the Laws of the State are tied to Judaism, and Hindu's think having a Nation that is based upon Hindu Culture in which it'd be illegal to Insult Hinduism is a right for their people, but they can't Fathom that Christians of all peopel should have that right. We tend to have a Rather Schitzophrinic View of things in Secular CUltures too. While Israel is Routinely attacked, no oen things the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, or Lebanon shoudl be forced to give up their ISamic Charecter, nor a Buddhist naiton its Buddhist Charecter.
Yet Christianity beign given a Promenant Role, much less being a State Religion, is looked down on as not only Archaic, but flatly wrong! Why, we shoudl never mix Churhc and STate! How dare hey! They are DIscriminatign agaisnt others who aren't Chridtains!
And we all know how horrible CHristainity is. The Crusades, Inquisition, and Witch Trials prove CHristainiy is terible, as does Fred Phelps. why, Wiccans can remember the Burnign Times when the Goddess worshipping Wiccans were killed en masse...
The truth is, we accept these Critisisms agaisnt Christainity were we'd never accept them agaisnt anyone else. Its unthinkable to allow Christianity any role in Open Society, much less Law and Government.
No one else need worry though, they have Fundamental Human Rights to protect them.
True, it has become so accepted and routine that it is considered outrageous when it is not allowed. I've already said (a caused a slight stir doing so) that I see no reason why it should be thought necessary to ridicule or insult any religion, be it Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism. Nowhere in all I read from this group did they ever state why it was so essential that they have the 'freedom' to insult the Catholic Church. And, the sad fact is, if they suffer from some freak illness which compells them to insult Catholicism there is no shortage of countries, within the EU and not far from Malta, where they would be perfectly free to do so.
ReplyDeleteIf you insult Judaism, you commit a Hat Crime, and are Anti-Semtic. The European Union will see you in COurt. If you insult Islam, you may not lie to see your Court Date, but tis stilla Hate Crime.
ReplyDeleteInsltin Christianity is simply givjg your opinion of it, and thus is protected as Individual Free Speech and oens right.
Defending it, in some cases, though, is Intolerance.