Spain Awaits Proof Of Inflation Downtrend In Wed. Data, By Robert S. Duncan, Capital Markets Report, 14 noviembre 1995. The Spanish financial markets are awaiting key economic data that it's hoped will confirm inflation's downward trend. On Wednesday, the National Statistics Institute (INE) is scheduled to release October's consumer price ...

Spain's Opposition Parties Quarrel Over Pension Reform, By Robert S. Duncan, Capital Markets Report, 23 May 1995. Spain's pension system is the focus of a row between the nation's opposition political parties ahead of next weekend's regional elections. In interviews with Dow Jones Capital Markets Report, economic spokesmen for the ...

Spain Govt's '97 Draft Budget Optimistic, By Terin Miller and Robert S. Duncan, Dow Jones International News, 27 September 1996. The draft 1997 budget passed by Spain's cabinet of ministers Friday is probably optimistic in its macroeconomic assumptions, analysts say.

Capital Markets Report, 19 July 1996. As the steely guillotine of Europe's economic and monetary union (EMU) comes threateningly closer, the need to meet convergence criteria could force some European Union (E.U.) countries to find creative ways to ensure ...

Iberian Mkts Lulled By Summer Doldrums Ahead Of EMU Focus, By Robert S. Duncan, Capital Markets Report, 13 June 1996. Iberian markets are being lulled by summer doldrums, but the need for both Spain and Portugal to meet European economic and monetary union (EMU) convergence criteria threatens to give them a wake-up call by autumn ...

Spain Mkts Ignore Indicators For Politics, By Robert S. Duncan, Capital Markets Report, 14 May 1996. Politics and European economic and monetary union (EMU) convergence quibbles are once again coming to the forefront in Spain as the new Partido Popular government's honeymoon with the financial markets is swiftly coming ...

EUROPE FOCUS Spain Cuts Rate Eyes On Other Central Banks

FEATURE General Dynamics Acquisition Of Santa Barbara In Doubt

Ono/Cableuropa Surprises Madrid Market By Pulling Float, By Robert S. Duncan, Dow Jones International News, 17 October 2000 Ono/Cableuropa SA caught Spanish investors with their pants down late Tuesday with its decision to shelve flotation plans - just hours after insisting the listing would go ahead. ...

FEATURE Spain Outruns EU Average In Growth League Spain continues to outstrip the European Union average for economic growth despite the downturn after Sept. 11, data Wednesday are expected to show.

COLUMN Is Sol Melia Running Out Of Excuses? The Spanish hotel and resort company is just the latest in an already long list to find its bottom line hurt by a downturn in the global economy since September 11.

COLUMN Repsol Confusion No Help To Investors This was a big quarter for Repsol-YPF (REP): as investors were waiting to see how the company was weathering economic troubles in Argentina.

COLUMN Spanish Companies Dodge Lat Am Jabs For Now Spanish stocks have looked punch-drunk since the start of the year, reeling from a one-two blow: the combination of struggling economies in Latin America plus global equity pessimism.

EU SUMMIT Leaders Stress Stability Growth Pact Commitment European leaders reiterated Saturday their commitment to the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact and at the same time, voiced their conviction that the region's economy is on the upswing.

EURONOMICS COLUMN Spain CPI Oil Price Cast Doubt On ECB Target Spanish inflationary pressures, coupled with the threat of rising oil prices, suggest the European Central Bank may have to acknowledge its 2% headline inflation target for the euro zone is unattainable.

FEATURE EU Balancing Blood Quality And Supply A Difficult Act The European Union is caught in a balancing act of squaring the guarantee of vital blood supplies within a traditionally altruistic framework of volunteer donorship.

Madrid's PC Christmas: Words With No Meaning It is ironic that while we have city governments paying for politically-correct decorations - that say nothing lest they offend somebody - at the same time these decorations are needed to create a Pavlovian spending spree so shoppers will help the local economy.

At Acerinox's annual meeting in the spring, Mr. Munoz told shareholders that heightened demand is resulting from Europe-wide economic growth and should mean an annual rise in consumption of between 6% and 7% through 2000.

Now as to the adulterous woman: if she never intended to honor the vows and the sacramental nature of marriage, then there was no marriage, period. If one doesn't even believe or intend to keep a vow as they are saying it, how can it have any binding force? This is as sinful as (and not essentially morally distinguishable from) an immoral affair, and cannot sensibly be acknowledged as a valid marriage in either of our views, it seems to me. Don't Eastern Orthodox recognize that there is such a thing as a sham "marriage" which was never seriously undertaken by one or both parties in the first place? This is self-evident. I don't see how it could be denied.

So what other sins are allowed as cases of "economia?" The lesser of two evils . . . ?

Obviously. We continue to follow through on the notion that it is sinful and thus we won't allow a second "marriage." But if an ostensible "marriage" was in actuality never valid in the first place, the couple can be released to enter into a valid sacramental marriage. That is mercy and economia exercised in harmony with the upholding of right and wrong - not a compromise with what is inherently immoral. The concept is fundamentally different.

Orthodoxy, on the other hand (if you are representing it properly - and I sure hope you are mistaken) is asserting that what is truly sinful and wrong can be relaxed and allowed, as an exercise of pastoral mercy or prudence. Such a principle is never found in the Bible. Jesus didn't tell the woman caught in adultery that she was free to engage in sin because she couldn't help it. No, He said, "go and sin no more." By your reasoning, the early martyrs could have exercised "economia" and bowed down in idolatry to Caesar to spare their lives. They could have reasoned, "it is too difficult to be burned alive or eaten by lions, so God and the Church will understand if I renounce Christ in order to get out of this mess."

But later prophets encouraged monogamy (Mal 2:14 ff.) and the ideal woman of Proverbs 31 lived in a monogamous society. Later, of course, Jesus taught that monogamy (with no divorce) was God's ideal from the beginning (Mt 19:1-12; cf. Gen 2:24). Divorce - so Jesus said - was permitted to the Jews only because of "hardness of heart." But the "except for fornication" clause of Matthew 19:9 is interpreted by us (and, I believe, the Fathers) as a case of non-matrimonial ongoing fornication as opposed to real marriage, and as such is a biblical basis for annulments, along with the Pauline privilege (1 Cor 7:15), which has always been accepted by the Church.

The economic and political upheaval in South America, along with a common language, have sent the numbers coming to Spain from that continent soaring into the hundreds of thousands, up from tens of thousands only five years ago. This wave of immigration has helped prop Spain's economy, both by contributing to its welfare system and by supplying unpopular work to crucial sectors, such as construction and services. Included in the services sector is tourism, which contributes 12% to Spain's gross domestic product.

But the needs of the Spanish economy don't mesh perfectly with the needs of the arrivals. Many immigrants run the risk of being trapped in marginalized jobs, experts warn, preventing them from fully integrating into Spain's economy and society even while their numbers grow.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the immigrants face "precarious conditions" because they aren't legal, work on temporary contracts and tend to work long hours, "sometimes paid below the contractual rate." As immigrants are channeled into temporary jobs, experts fear they will become a permanent underclass.

Latin American immigrants complain that speaking Spanish hasn't given them a lift up the economic ladder nor helped them integrate into society.

Spain has been unwilling to cut benefits that some economists say would force Spaniards into jobs and instead has come to rely on foreign workers to pay for the cost of unemployment, according to an OECD report.

Even GDP growth of 2% last year -- Spain's slowest growth since 1993 -- outpaced the euro zone's paltry 0.8%. But despite strong economic growth the country's unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, at 11.5%, one of Europe's highest rates.

The immigrants don't just take unwanted jobs. As of March, 890,000 of them paid social-welfare contributions. Although data is scarce, economists say immigrants are net contributors. At €100 per month -- the amount a low-paid cleaner might contribute -- those immigrants would pay almost €1 billion into the social-welfare system this year.

The European Union is caught in a balancing act of squaring the guarantee of vital blood supplies within a traditionally altruistic framework of volunteer donorship.

And perhaps with U.S. practices in mind, the current draft has this paragraph: "Modern blood-transfusion practice has been founded on the principles of voluntary donor services, anonymity of both donor and recipient, benevolence of the donor, and absence of profit on the part of the establishments involved in blood transfusion."

"If remunerated donors are excluded across Europe, then people are going to die. There is no alternative to having plasma," David Watters, Chief Executive of Primary Immunodeficiency Association, or Pi A, told Dow Jones Newswires.

"I do think it's too shortsighted of Mr. Lund to be so focused on this. It's not a safety issue...interestingly enough in Denmark they pay sperm donors" and some clinical trials, said Hutt.

Or for that matter, the treatment of anti-D antibodies related to Rh incompatibility in births. Anti-D is a derivative coming almost exclusively from compensated plasma donors and saves around 300 fetal births in the U.K. per year, according to Hutt.

Besides, Watters argued, there is a fine line between what is actually considered remuneration and what isn't, noting that in Italy one day of compensation is granted, while in Greece donors receive two days off from work.

And there are more blatant examples, such as in Austria and in Germany, which also accept compensated donations. With more than 400,000 volunteers and around 175 collection-teams, the German Red Cross is only able to meet 80% of the country's blood supply needs - the remaining 20% of Germany's blood supply comes from remunerated donors.

Spanish markets were closed Thursday for a Madrid holiday in honor of its patron saint, San Isidro.

• Government of the Church: Congregational- Democratic. Autonomy of the local Church.

• Government of the Church: Congregational-Democratic. Autonomy of the local Church.

• Government of the Church: Semi-presbyterial. Local church is autonomous.

• Autonomy of the local church

Autonomy of the local church (Congregationalism)

Congregationalist church governance gives autonomy to individual local churches in areas of policy, polity and doctrine. Baptist churches are not under the direct administrative control of any other body, such as a national council, or a leader such as a bishop or pope. Administration, leadership and doctrine are usually decided democratically by the lay members of each individual church, which accounts for the variation of beliefs from one Baptist church to another.

• King James Version Only

The local church which I attend and have membership is autonomous and there is no history of it having burned any one at the stake in its almost 100 year autonomy as a local church founded upon the principles of the Word of God, the final authority of faith and practice.

The label denomination is rejected by some because of the local autonomous governance system used by Baptist churches. Being a denomination is viewed as having a hierarchy that substitutes for the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Another reason for the rejection of the label is the influence of the Restoration period on Baptist churches, which emphasized a tearing down of denominational barriers. Other Baptists accept the label, feeling that it does not carry a negative connotation but rather is merely a synonym for a Christian or religious group.

BBVA chairman Emilio Ybarra told the bank's annual general shareholders meeting that the bank was pursuing projects in these two areas to exploit growth opportunities in both the "old" and "new" economies.

"With this capital we are going to grow simultaneously in the traditional and the so-called new economy," he said.

In Europe, there has been a lot of chatter about Brazil and Spanish banks' exposure to Latin America's largest economy.

South of the Pyrenees, the chatter has risen to a crescendo. That's because Spanish stocks have been particularly hard hit by the latest rumblings out of Latin America. First it was the global economic downturn, then it was Argentina, then a rash of corporate scandals in the U.S. making stomachs churn. Lately, it's been all Brazil.

Finbar Murray, Latin American strategist at EBN Bank, says investors shouldn't equate the situation of Brazil to that of Argentina. "Brazil is doing its utmost to meet all its fiscal and economic targets . . . this is a confidence crisis, spilling over from the post-Enron, World Com days," he says .

"The IMF's message is clear -- stick to the current economic policy and the money tap will remain open," says Pedro Costa, a Latibex market maker at Benito & Monjardin. The Latibex is Madrid's euro-denominated stock exchange for Latin American companies.

Eph 6:2 - "Honor your father and mother." This is the first commandment with a promise,

5. A third characteristic is the inclusion of some artistic images which mark the elaboration of the Compendium. These are drawn from the rich patrimony of Christian iconography. The centuries-old conciliar tradition teaches us that images are also a preaching of the Gospel. Artists in every age have offered the principal facts of the mystery of salvation to the contemplation and wonder of believers by presenting them in the splendour of colour and in the perfection of beauty. It is an indication of how today more than ever, in a culture of images, a sacred image can express much more than what can be said in words, and be an extremely effective and dynamic way of communicating the Gospel message.

"There is no link between the month-on-month figures and the year-on-year change," a London economist said, calling into question the effectiveness of the data.

Economists have already answered the question. Some who used to follow the Spanish data have either stopped making estimates or significantly trimmed them down.

JP Morgan in Madrid, for instance, now only releases quarterly inflation forecasts, while the Instituto de Estudios Economicos think tank only looks at the yearly figure.

"Focus will be all the more on the (European Union) harmonized figures and ignoring the national one, because that's what economists are focusing on," said Klaus Baader, an economist at Lehman Brothers in London.

It is, therefore, worth recording banks' forecasts for the INE series. According to an average of four economists - who still cover the data - March CPI is seen rising 0.7% on the month and 3.2% on the year. The range was 0.1% to 1.9% and 3% to 3.5%.

Antonio Garre, economist at Grupo Analysis said the relatively good weather in March will have helped to slow growth in energy prices, which he sees coming in around at up 2% on the year.

Israel Munoz, a Caja Madrid economist, sees energy prices at around 1.9%, primarily due to dearer gasoline.

"As far as components, the rise in energy prices should be offset by the positive performance of food prices," said Julian Cubero, economist at BBVA in Madrid.

The only valid legislation, social theory, spiritual beliefs, economic theory are those derived from the Bible.

In every aspect of life, there are only two options, God-centered or man-centered; Theonomy or autonomy. Their political goal is to ban the latter, everywhere. Each individual, family, church, government and society must be reconstructed to eliminate sin. Each Christian has the responsibility to contribute to this conversion.

• Coalition On Revival

• Gary North of the Institute For Christian Economics. He is a prolific author.

Supported by positive economic fundamentals, as well as by the Bundesbank's decision Thursday to slash both its discount and Lombard rates by half a percentage point each, another Bank of Spain rate cut "is a given," analysts say.

• Belief that God should be honored in a way that the individual believes is best and most appropriate for them. Individuals must determine for themselves how best to honor God and only they can develop how to accomplish this. For many, it is a multi-faceted and an individualized process.

Echo had said that she was always thinking too much. He said thinking led to criminal maliciousness. Delores for the life of her never could figure out what Echo meant when he said criminal maliciousness, for that matter Delores couldn't even pronounce the word.

On the evening of September 25, 2008, while Democrats and Republicans were discussing a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, Washington Mutual bank was taken over by the Federal Government. Democratic activists on Dailykos.com, where presidential candidate Barack Obama once had an account, scurried to pin blame on Republicans without understanding how the economy works in their premature efforts to declare the end of capitalism.

We the taxpayers were going to own those assets bought, and then be able to sell them later. This was to free up credit markets to prevent the economy to churn to a halt and jobs to be lost. -- Beach Mom

No matter what this bill does or doesn't do--times are going to get tougher. House values must drop. The economy must slow. The money that's fallen out of the sky over the past 20 years will dry up and people will go back to tried and true methods of earning capital.

Expect that to reverse itself AND for today's very bad economic news to send the market down fast.

I think the markets will tank on Friday with WAMU and no bailout, which will make the Republicans and Mc Cain look like rubes who are ruining the economy. Trap doesn't work then.

Dems just need to let the economy go in the crapper for a bit and then forge a real solution. --- Mich Ree

See also: Dominionism, Christian Reconstructionism, Theocratic Dominionism, and Theonomy

Be salvation, honor blessing,

Giorgio Radaelli, senior economist at Lehman Brothers International in London, reckons that the drought-induced rise in food prices will add 0.5% to July's consumer-price index. In any case, he notes that food prices are usually higher in July because of demand from tourists.

1. Economist/YouGov (10/25-27)

href="http://www.bentonoil.com/">Benton Oil &amp; Gas Company.</A><BR><A

(CGG).</A><BR><A href="http://www.conoco.com/">CONOCO (US) (incl. Gulf

href="http://www.conocophillips.com/">ConocoPhillips.</A><BR><A

Exploration Israel</A><BR><A href="http://www.conoco.com/">Gulf Canada (now:

Conoco)</A><BR><A href="http://www.halliburton.com/">Halliburton

Luxemburg</A><BR><A href="http://copenhageneconomics.com/" target=new>Copenhagen

Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.coqueststructuredproducts.com/"

href="http://www.econone.com/" target=new>Econ One Research, Inc.</A><BR><A

href="http://www.econoclast.com/" target=new>Econoclast, Inc.</A><BR><A

href="http://www.eca-uk.com/" target=new>Economic Consulting

Associates</A><BR><A href="http://www.eca-llp.com/" target=new>Economic

Consulting Associates LLP</A><BR><A href="http://www.economists.com/"

target=new>Economists.com</A><BR><A href="http://www.econw.com/"

target=new>ECONorthwest</A><BR><A href="http://www.econpolicy.com/"

(EUCI)</A><BR><A href="http://www.ewe.ch/" target=new>Electrowatt-Ekono

Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.energyandsecurity.com/" target=new>Energy

href="http://www.frontier-economics.com/" target=new>Frontier

Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.gaffney-cline.com/" target=new>Gaffney,

Consulting</A><BR><A href="http://www.indecon.ie/" target=new>Indecon Economics

target=new>Integer Research Ltd</A><BR><A href="http://www.interconoil.com/"

target=new>LogicaCMG</A><BR><A href="http://www.londoneconomics.com/"

target=new>London Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.londecon.co.uk/"

target=new>London Economics Ltd</A><BR><A

href="http://www.londoneconomicspress.com/" target=new>London Economics Press:

Ltd</A><BR><A href="http://www.economy.com/" target=new>Moody's

Economy.com</A><BR><A href="http://www.moyesco.com/" target=new>Moyes &amp; Co.,

Engineers</A><BR><A href="http://www.nera.com/" target=new>National Economic

Inc.</A><BR><A href="http://www.pacificeconomicsgroup.com/" target=new>Pacific

Economics Group</A><BR><A href="http://www.palantirsolutions.com/"

target=new>Palantir Economic Solutions</A><BR><A href="http://www.petral.com/"

href="http://www.petroleum-economics.com/" target=new>Petroleum Economics

& Competition Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.redpointenergy.com/"

target=new>Stratetic Energy &amp; Economic Resources, Inc.</A><BR><A

Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.futurefuels.net/" target=new>TEIR -

Bruxelles - Centre for Economic and Social Studies on the Environment

target=new>Centre for Energy Policy and Economics, ETH Zurich</A><BR><A

target=new>ECON Center for economic analysis</A><BR><A

href="http://www.cenertec.pt/ecemei" target=new>European Congress on Economics

href="http://www.cenertec.pt/ecemei" target=new>European Congress on Economics

Australia</A><BR><A href="http://www.gws-os.de/" target=new>GWS - Economic

href="http://www.ou.edu/sec" target=new>Institute for Energy Economics &amp;

Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.iit.upcomillas.es/" target=new>Instituto de

& Economic Development (ICEED)</A><BR><A href="http://www.kkiec.com/"

target=new>Non-Military threats-Energy and Economic Security Cluster</A><BR><A

Economics Centre (SEEC)</A><BR><A href="http://www.asi-conferences.com/"

target=new>Australia, Office of Economic and Statistical Research</A><BR><A

target=new>Middle East Economic Survey</A><BR><A href="http://www.nymex.com/"

Argus</A><BR><A href="http://www.petroleum-economist.com/" target=new>Petroleum

Economist</A><BR><A href="http://www.petronoticias.com/"

target=new>Petronoticias</A><BR><A href="http://www.heren.com/" target=new>PH

Association for Energy Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.energia.org.mx/"

Publishers in Energy, Climate, Business, Economics and Sustainable Development

href="http://www.geocities.com/vanderboon/Economiclinks.html" target=new>Energy

Economy</A><BR><A href="http://www.asce.org/" target=new>American Society of

target=new>International Association For Energy Economics</A><BR><A

Association of Energy Economists</A><BR><A href="http://www.serd.ait.ac.th/ep/"

Economics</A><BR><A href="http://www.terry.uga.edu/bonbright"

Economics - Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at

Petroleum Economics and Management</A><BR><A

target=new>Environmental Economics Unit, Gothenburg University</A><BR><A

target=new>Postgrado en Economía de Minerales</A><BR><A

Economics Centre (SEEC) M Sc &amp; Phd in Energy Economics</A><BR><A

Dome C is generally considered the best resolved record of atmospheric CO2 over the early Holocene period (Monnin et al., 2004). However, it indicates maximum amplitude of variation of only 56 ppmv over this time period (i.e. similar to the modern annual variation). This limited variability is likely to partly reflect the relatively large age distribution per air sample (ca. 200 yr) for this ice core, and the difficulties in resolving changes on centennial or sub-centennial timescales create a need for other complementary methods. Less direct, proxy reconstructions may therefore be the more sensitive archives when short-term, rapid changes are of interest. The relatively new method of stomatal frequency analysis applies the physiological response of certain C3 plants to changing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere (Woodward, 1987). Rapidly accumulating lake sediments, if supplied with sufficient numbers of leaves from the surrounding vegetation, allow the reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 changes on centennial to decadal timescales by applying its inverse relationship to stomatal frequency. This paper presents a stomatal frequency reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 at decadal resolution over the time period 11,230 to 10,330 cal. yr BP, supported by a highly resolved AMS radiocarbon chronology from lake sediments of the Faroe Islands (situated in the North Atlantic between south west Norway and Iceland). As our atmospheric CO2 estimates should reflect the global net effect of carbon transfers between reservoirs responsive on sub-millennial to decadal timescales, we also discuss possible causes for the changes in reconstructed CO2 in relation to evidence of climate variation and solar activity during the early Holocene.

Department of Physics and Astronomy,

The scheme was dreamt up by three geophysicists at the Bandung Institute of Technology: Bagus Nurhandoko, Satria Bijaksana and Umar Fauzi. According to Basuki Hadimuljono, head of the national team managing the disaster, the project will have a budget of 4 billion rupiah (US$440,000) paid for by PT Lapindo Brantas, the oil drilling company that some locals blame for the disaster.

The European Union is caught in a balancing act of squaring the guarantee of vital blood supplies within a traditionally altruistic framework of volunteer donorship.

And perhaps with U.S. practices in mind, the current draft has this paragraph: "Modern blood-transfusion practice has been founded on the principles of voluntary donor services, anonymity of both donor and recipient, benevolence of the donor, and absence of profit on the part of the establishments involved in blood transfusion."

"If remunerated donors are excluded across Europe, then people are going to die. There is no alternative to having plasma," David Watters, Chief Executive of Primary Immunodeficiency Association, or Pi A, told Dow Jones Newswires.

"I do think it's too shortsighted of Mr. Lund to be so focused on this. It's not a safety issue...interestingly enough in Denmark they pay sperm donors" and some clinical trials, said Hutt.

Or for that matter, the treatment of anti-D antibodies related to Rh incompatibility in births. Anti-D is a derivative coming almost exclusively from compensated plasma donors and saves around 300 fetal births in the U.K. per year, according to Hutt.

Besides, Watters argued, there is a fine line between what is actually considered remuneration and what isn't, noting that in Italy one day of compensation is granted, while in Greece donors receive two days off from work.

And there are more blatant examples, such as in Austria and in Germany, which also accept compensated donations. With more than 400,000 volunteers and around 175 collection-teams, the German Red Cross is only able to meet 80% of the country's blood supply needs - the remaining 20% of Germany's blood supply comes from remunerated donors.

"I don't think of this as a default, but more of a delay in making the payment," an economist at Caja Madrid said. "There is going to be an agreement, and it will include an agreement to increase tariffs.

"This (the default) is a negotiation tactic," the economist added.

While Nicolas Kamp, an economist with Latin Focus in Barcelona, sees an agreement being reached soon, he's less confident it will include any tariff increases. Kamp notes the Argentine congress has already "technically approved" delaying those tariff increases until 2004. In other words, there will be increases, but not right away.

"In our co-operation with Macquarie we will concentrate on developing our tollroads business in OECD countries. We prefer to concentrate on OECD countries because they have more stable economies," said Del Pino, adding "and we decided to concentrate on tollroads."

To vote for a nomination, post your Wiki Signature next to the nomination along with the date. Please note that while the Wiki provides a higher level of freedom and anonymity, there are ways to find out who made a post. This is built on the honor system.

• Theonomy

First, both BBVA and Iberdrola also hold stakes in Repsol, 5% and 3%, respectively. And second, Repsol controls 86% of the northern oil company Petronor, which is 14%-owned by BBK.

• Chronology. Lists the sequence of known events to give you an objective view of unfolding actions. Helps you identify information gaps and inconsistencies and plan how to monitor events further.

• Indicators. Used for periodic reassessment, trend analysis, warning, and comparative analysis on a broad range of issues, such as political change, economic reform, and instability.

Statistically analyze real-time data Especially useful for economic and military analysis. Applica tions include:

• Impact of economic sanctions.

• Economic-sector performance and competitiveness in world markets.

For the euro to be a success, there must be strong economic growth within the euro-zone countries, coupled with stable markets and foreign-exchange rates. However, while there has been some pressure in peripheral foreign-exchange markets, most notably in Italy and Spain, analysts said more attention should be paid to widening yield spreads within the Euro zone.

Until last month it was "pretty clear-cut throughout 1998 that the euro was going to take off without a hiccup," said David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns International in London. But, now it appears the hiccup is happening at this very moment and "does cast a dark shadow over" the euro's launch as Europe's central banks have been forced to intervene to "smooth things over," he said.

European economic and monetary union isn't out of the woods yet with Russia in the backdrop, said Mr. Brown, adding that caution must be taken lest central bankers are seen "as hitting the panic button," which would send the wrong signal to the markets.

Despite the perception that Spain's central bank has been quietly intervening the past few months, as of Aug. 31, the central bank had reserves of about $71.77 billion -- among the highest in Europe. And, the central bank's reserves are expected to grow on the back of strong tourist revenues, said Antonio Villarroya, an economist at Merrill Lynch in Madrid.

236 The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the theologia is revealed to us; but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole oikonomia. God's works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons. A person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the better we understand his actions.

To his Logos, his chief messenger, highest in age and honor, the Father of all has given the special prerogative to stand on the border and separate the creature from the Creator. This same Logos both pleads with the Immortal as suppliant for afflicted mortality and acts as ambassador of the ruler to the subject. He glories in the prerogative and proudly describes it in these words: "I stood between the Lord and you." (Phil, quis rerum divinarum heres 42.205)

The particular genius of cultural Hellenism lay in its ability to translate the mythical into the philosophical, to take the divinities of all cultures and, through allegory, translate them into the larger syncretistic religious system of Hellenistic philosophy. Such a highly evolved and ecumenical intellectual vision held enormous appeal: one need not renounce one's heritage, merely see through it. Indeed in the fourth century B.C., the Greeks had done the same thing with their own heritage, allegorizing the ancient poetry of Hesiod and Homer, those singers of incest, rape, murder, cannibalism (and that was divine behavior!). Myth demanded allegory: the stories' surface meanings were too clearly an affront to common decency to take them literally. So, for example, Chronos' devouring his children is really an allegory for the division of time into subunits; Zeus' rape of Ganymede really an expression of the soul's rapture when seized by the power of the divine, and so on. So, too, through allegory, could the mythology of other cultures be sublimated, their various gods made into particular manifestations of general philosophical truths. The physical representation of the luminous unity of the True Being, the divine One. Hellenistic reinterpretation, by thus "modernizing" ancient religious texts, reconciled them intellectually to a new age, and so created from previous heterogeny a cultural unity.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Hail Mary (sometimes called the "Angelical salutation", sometimes, from the first words in its Latin form, the "Ave Maria") is the most familiar of all the prayers used by the Universal Church in honour of our Blessed Lady. It is commonly described as consisting of three parts. The first, "Hail (Mary) full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women", embodies the words used by the Angel Gabriel in saluting the Blessed Virgin (Luke, I, 28). The second, "and blessed is the fruit of thy womb (Jesus)", is borrowed from the Divinely inspired greeting of St. Elizabeth (Luke 1:42), which attaches itself the more naturally to the first part, because the words "benedicta tu in mulieribus" (I, 28) or "inter mulieres" (I, 42) are common to both salutations. Finally, the petition "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." is stated by the official "Catechism of the Council of Trent" to have been framed by the Church itself. "Most rightly", says the Catechism, "has the Holy Church of God added to this thanksgiving, petition also and the invocation of the most holy Mother of God, thereby implying that we should piously and suppliantly have recourse to her in order that by her intercession she may reconcile God with us sinners and obtainfor us the blessing we need both for this present life and for the life which has no end."

2674 Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties."28 Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she "shows the way" (hodigitria), and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of East and West.

The Palestinian canon of the Old Testament (followed by modern Protestants) which was fixed and decided by the Pharisees at the end of the first century in the Council of Janveh, was in part to suppress the growing heresy called Christianity. With the virtual disappearance of the priestly class with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the Pharisees became champions of Judaism. In order to combat the spreading Christian cult, the Pharisee rabbis met at the city of Jamnia or Javneh in A.D. 90 to determine which books were truly the Word of God. They pronounced many books, including the Gospels and the New Testament Letters, to be heretical. Thus, the Palestinian Jews have 39 books in the Old Testament, while the Alexandrian Jews and the Jews of Dispersion hold that 46 books are inspired, following the canon stated in the Greek Septuagint.

How did man living in the material world relate to such a god? The imagined architecture of the cosmos, the mental picture of the universe inherited from Aristotle and the Hellenistic astronomers, both set the question and suggested various answers. For ancient man placed himself on a continuum of being prejudiced in favor of what was higher. Reality, be it material, moral, or metaphysical, was ordered on a vertical axis: the better something was, the higher it stood, ontologically and even spatially, in the order of things.

But the nature of life beneath the moon put a fundamental challenge to philosophical monotheism, with its definition of a god that was both all-good and all-powerful. If God were such, then why was there evil in the world? The Stoics argued that evil was only apparent, a question of perspective. The divine Logos had organized the best of all possible worlds. If man could perceive the whole, he would see that what seems to him to be evil actually expressed divine providence. The Platonists also maintained that evil was only apparent, but in a different way. What truly exists is the Good; therefore evil, its opposite, does not truly exist: it lacks ontological status, since it is really the absence of Good. Only God, absolutely without change, is completely good. Accordingly, anything other that God – and the further from him, the more "other" it was – is contingent upon God for its existence. Correspondingly less real and more mutable, it is also less good.

Analysts note that much of the company's business is with Latin America. That's good and bad. Good in the sense that it helped the company recover quickly post-Sept. 11, but bad as there could be risk related to the ongoing macroeconomic situation in Latin America.

Iberia (E.ILA) is one of the few European airlines that for the most part has avoided the sector turmoil following September 11, as well as the ongoing economic turndown.

Unless things turn around in Latin America's troubled economies, Iberia could see revenues slumping off.

The Catholic Church condemns idolatry; that is worshipping an idol. (Exodus Chapter 20, Deuteronomy Chapter 5) He doesn't condemn the making of statues, though, he condemns worshipping them.

• In Deuteronomy, five chapters after condemning idol worship, he has the Jews create statues.

In Deuteronomy Ch. 34, Moses went up to Mohab and Christ communicates with him. We can do what Luke tells us in 9:31-32. What Christ discussed on the Mount was heavy communication. Because of that, we can say that Moses and Elijah are involved in our redemption.

It is this ability to represent Christ that St.Paul considered as characteristic of his apostolic function (2 Cor. 5:20; Gal. 4:14). The supreme expression of this representation is found in the altogether special form it assumes in the celebration of the Eucharist, which is the source and centre of the Church's unity, the sacrificial meal in which the People of God are associated in the sacrifice of Christ: the priest, who alone has the power to perform it, then acts not only through the effective power conferred on him by Christ, but in persona Christi, taking the role of Christ, to the point of being his very image, when he pronounces the words of consecration.

The Spanish hotel and resort company is just the latest in an already long list to find its bottom line hurt by a downturn in the global economy since September 11.

"It's a situation in which some of the people who said they heard the comments don't want to make public their statements," said Shorr, adding, "I'd like to wait two or three days to see what happens in this war (of accusations)," and specifically what will be the response from the Spanish magazine Epoca Intereconomia.

As first reported in the March 4 edition of Epoca Intereconomia, Agut allegedly made comments at the dinner such as, "It's totally forbidden to do business with Jews...I've done business with Jews all my life and they've always tried to cheat me...If anyone has any problem with Jews tell me: I have cousins in Sicily that will take care of them."

Jesus Cacho, the Epoca Intereconomia reporter, told Dow Jones Newswires Monday he's standing by his story.

Reverence for life. No society can live in peace with itself or with the world without a full awareness of the worth and dignity of every human person and of the sacredness of all human life (James 4:1-2). Violence has many faces: oppression of the poor, deprivation of basic human rights, economic exploitation, sexual exploitation and pornography, neglect or abuse of the aged and the helpless, and innumerable other acts of inhumanity. Abortion in particular blunts a sense of the sacredness of human life. In a society where the innocent unborn are killed wantonly, how can we expect people to feel righteous revulsion at the act or threat of killing noncombatants in war?

In a democracy the responsibility of the nation and that of its citizens coincide. Nuclear weapons pose especially acute questions of conscience for American Catholics. The virtue of patriotism means that as citizens we respect and honor our country, but our very love and loyalty make us examine carefully and regularly its role in world affairs, asking that it live up to its full potential as an agent of peace with justice for all people.

This, and more to this purpose, His Majesty that now reigneth (and long, and long may he reign, and his offspring forever, "Himself and children, and children's always) knew full well, according to the singular wisdom given unto him by God, and the rare learning and experience that he hath attained unto; namely that whosoever attempteth anything for the public (especially if it pertain to Religion, and to the opening and clearing of the word of God) the same setteth himself upon a stage to be gloated upon by every evil eye, yea, he casteth himself headlong upon pikes, to be gored by every sharp tongue. For he that medleth with men's Religion in any part, medleth with their custom, nay, with their freehold; and though they find no content in that which they have, yet they cannot abide to hear of altering. Notwithstanding his Royal heart was not daunted or discouraged for this that colour, but stood resolute, "as a statue immovable, and an anvil not easy to be beaten into plates," as one Suidas saith; he knew who had chosen him to be a Soldier, or rather a Captain, and being assured that the course which he intended made for the glory of God, and the building up of his Church, he would not suffer it to be broken off for whatsoever speeches or practices. It doth certainly belong unto Kings, yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to have care of Religion, yea, it doth specially belong unto them, to have care of Religion, yea, to know it aright, yea, to profess it zealously, yea to promote it to the uttermost of their power. This is their glory before all nations which mean well, and this will bring unto them a far most excellent weight of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus. For the Scripture saith not in vain, "Them that honor me, I will honor," [1 Sam 2:30] neither was it a vain word that Eusebius delivered long ago, that piety towards God was the weapon and the only weapon, that both preserved Constantine's person, and avenged him of his enemies Eusebius lib 10 cap 8.

And to the same effect say we, that we are so far off from condemning any of their labors that travailed before us in this kind, either in this land or beyond sea, either in King Henry's time, or King Edward's (if there were any translation, or correction of a translation in his time) or Queen Elizabeth's of ever renowned memory, that we acknowledge them to have been raised up of God, for the building and furnishing of his Church, and that they deserve to be had of us and of posterity in everlasting remembrance. The judgment of Aristotle is worthy and well known: "If Timotheus had not been, we had not had much sweet music; but if Phrynis Timotheus his master had not been, we had not had Timotheus." Therefore blessed be they, and most honoured be their name, that break the ice, and giveth onset upon that which helpeth forward to the saving of souls. Now what can be more available thereto, than to deliver God's book unto God's people in a tongue which they understand? Since of a hidden treasure, and of a fountain that is sealed, there is no profit, as Ptolemy Philadelph wrote to the Rabbins or masters of the Jews, as witnesseth Epiphanius: [S. Epiphan. loco ante citato.] and as S. Augustine saith; "A man had rather be with his dog than with a stranger (whose tongue is strange unto him)." [S. Augustin. lib. 19. de civil. Dei. c. 7.] Yet for all that, as nothing is begun and perfected at the same time, and the later thoughts are thought to be the wiser: so, if we building upon their foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, do endeavor to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we persuade ourselves, if they were alive, would thank us. The vintage of Abienzer, that strake the stroke: yet the gleaning of grapes of Ephraim was not to be despised. See Judges 8:2. Joash the king of Israel did not satisfy himself, till he had smitten the ground three times; and yet he offended the Prophet, for giving over then. [2 Kings 13:18-19] Aquila, of whom we spake before, translated the Bible as carefully, and as skilfully as he could; and yet he thought good to go over it again, and then it got the credit with the Jews, to be called accurately done, as Saint Jerome witnesseth. [S. Jerome. in Ezech. cap. 3.] How many books of profane learning have been gone over again and again, by the same translators, by others? Of one and the same book of Aristotle's Ethics, there are extant not so few as six or seven several translations. Now if this cost may be bestowed upon the gourd, which affordeth us a little shade, and which today flourisheth, but tomorrow is cut down; what may we bestow, nay what ought we not to bestow upon the Vine, the fruit whereof maketh glad the conscience of man, and the stem whereof abideth forever? And this is the word of God, which we translate. "What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?" [Jer 23:28] Tanti vitreum, quanti verum margaritum (saith Tertullian,) [Tertul. ad Martyr.] if a toy of glass be of that reckoning with us, how ought we to value the true pearl? [Jerome. ad Salvin.] Therefore let no man's eye be evil, because his Majesty's is good; neither let any be grieved, that we have a Prince that seeketh the increase of the spiritual wealth of Israel (let Sanballats and Tobiahs do so, which therefore do bear their just reproof) but let us rather bless God from the ground of our heart, for working this religious care in him, to have the translations of the Bible maturely considered of and examined. For by this means it cometh to pass, that whatsoever is sound already (and all is sound for substance, in one or other of our editions, and the worst of ours far better than their authentic vulgar) the same will shine as gold more brightly, being rubbed and polished; also, if anything be halting, or superfluous, or not so agreeable to the original, the same may be corrected, and the truth set in place. And what can the King command to be done, that will bring him more true honour than this? and wherein could they that have been set a work, approve their duty to the King, yea their obedience to God, and love to his Saints more, than by yielding their service, and all that is within them, for the furnishing of the work? But besides all this, they were the principal motives of it, and therefore ought least toquarrel it: for the very Historical truth is, that upon the importunate petitions of the Puritans, at his Majesty's coming to this Crown, the Conference at Hampton Court having been appointed for hearing their complaints: when by force of reason they were put from other grounds, they had recourse at the last, to this shift, that they could not with good conscience subscribe to the Communion book, since it maintained the Bible as it was there translated, which was as they said, a most corrupted translation. And although this was judged to be but a very poor and empty shift; yet even hereupon did his Majesty begin to bethink himself of the good that might ensue by a new translation, and presently after gave order for this Translation which is now presented unto thee. Thus much to satisfy our scrupulous Brethren.

SEVILLE, Spain (Dow Jones) European leaders reiterated Saturday their commitment to the European Union's Stability and Growth Pact and at the same time, voiced their conviction that the region's economy is on the upswing.

They also called on member states to follow budgetary policies in line with Broad Economic Policy Guidelines recommendations.

Elsewhere in Saturday's statement, the 15 E.U leaders said member states are encouraged to use any growth dividend related to the economic recovery to consolidate public finances further.

"The recent downturn in economic activity has ended. The European economy is set to reap the benefits of sound macroeconomic policies and ambitious economic reform, which will underpin the ongoing recovery of growth and job creation and enable economic uncertainty to be faced more effectively," the leaders said.

No actual economic forecasts were released in the statement.

* [[ConocoPhillips]], [[United States]]

In what could likely be his only appearance before the press this year, Carlos March Delgado, 57, and a member of the French Legion of Honor, took a few minutes to speak to journalists at a round-table in the same hotel where his grandfather years ago had a room permanently reserved. The occasion was the annual shareholders meeting for Corporacion Financiera Alba SA (E.CFA), a holding company that Carlos co-chairs with brother Juan, 63, who has a doctorate in engineering.

Born in 1880, Juan March Ordinas made some of his money in the Moroccan tobacco trade in which he had a monopoly. Many of those tobacco assets, including a factory in Tetuan, were later nationalized by the Moroccan government in 1960 as part of Regie des Tabacs Marocains, a company that just this week the Spanish-French tobacco company Altadis SA (E.ATD) paid EUR1.29 billion for an 80% stake.

Investors in the company, who have seen it transformed from a staid monopoly into a global telecom, with a share price performance to match. Should Villalonga go, the choice of replacement looks far less flamboyant, but also far less dynamic. Under Telefonica's current statutes only members with more than three years on the board can serve as chairman. That leaves Cesar Alierta, chairman of Altadis (E.ATD), and Alberto Cortina co-chairman from Banco Zaragozano (E.BZA).

• Preparation Or What Preparation?
Lack of marriage prep an indicator to failed marriage? Originally posted on Santificarnos blog.
7/21/2005 4:00:13 AM - -195.53.125.134

Another issue is the English word "worship." Again, in earlier times (and currently in very formal settings), those of upper levels in English society are referred to as "Your Worship." It is because this term has been one of honor, not just of the adoration we offer God alone.

Catholicism is an old Church, and in its earliest centuries, it actually condemned the heresy that Mary is God. In working out its formulae about the right way to approach Mary and the saints, it struck on three levels of honor, based on Greek terms:

• Dulia: Honor of the saints

• Hyperdulia: A higher level of this honor, offered to Mary

When a Catholic has a statue of Mary, or another Saint, or a Crucifix, they do not worship any of these items as a god in and of itself (unlike the golden calf or the bronze serpent). They, like pictures, remind us of those whom they represent. When we pray in front of one, either in honor of a saint or in asking their intercession, or when we pray in front of a Crucifix, it is the person represented to whom we pray. St. John of Damascus, in defense of the Church against the iconoclasts (who were, by the way, influenced by Islam's encroachment in the East) made this very clear in his defense of sacred images.

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1. A check to Rampant Capitalism, globalism, and Limited Open Borders: The acceptance that persons who live in an economically-deprived society have the right to move to another country to follow the equivalent of the American Dream - in a search to better oneself, and provide economic sustenance for family - where ever they go countered by realistic Border Controls to prevent the migration of people who seek to inflict damage upon the State or other countries via the propagation of criminal behaviours and activities.

• Autonomy of the Local Church (1700s)

Endesa President Martin Villa has said he expects the sale to raise between 800 billion pesetas and 1.125 trillion pesetas, and that it "marks the most important stage in Spain's economic life." But the sheer volume of shares on offer has many market watchers taking a cautious stance.

But leadership isn't the only problem facing Botin. Considering the current fragility in Argentina and the economic slowdown in the U.S. and E.U., it will be quite a trick if Botin's souffle doesn't deflate.

Other weblogs owned by Ono Ekeh

• Author John Allen On Opus Dei
Not surprisingly, the majority of the interview dealt with questions relating to Opus Dei, which according to Allen shouldn’t necessarily be qualified as a “conservative” group.
5/23/2006 5:24:44 AM - -195.53.125.135

• Testimonies Of Normal People On Opus Dei
Want more proof that Opus Dei isn't the secret cult that some people want you to believe?
9/1/2007 3:43:31 PM - -76.30.20.161

All corporations, as well as their material patrimony, possess a series of intangible values which are shown in the way they treat their employees justly, the quality of their products, their attention to their clients, their care of the environment, and other similar actions. These characteristics express the social responsibility that businesses have, and do not spring from self-interest, but rather conviction; and it is certain also that these intangible values contribute to the measure in which these corporations are appreciated by those around them, and even contribute to their economic value in the stock market as they guarantee stability. One of these important immaterial values is respect towards the beliefs of citizens: in our free society, responsibility implies respect. This obligation affects large corporations in a special way, moving as they do in multinational and multi-cultural spheres, which demand particular attention.

• Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

        The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)</a></li>

As European economic and monetary union (EMU) looks increasingly like a foregone conclusion, analysts are in agreement that the Spanish peseta will drift toward its central parity of ESP85.07 to the Deutsche mark in the exchange rate mechanism (ERM).

Positive inflation targets, strong economic growth, and the Bank of Spain's need to continue to lower its benchmark interest rate to meet EMU convergence criteria will all have limited play on the peseta's strength against the mark, they say.

'The peseta has to weaken to around ESP85.00,' said Cesar Molinas, economist for Merrill Lynch in Madrid. Molinas notes that money market futures are 'totally discounting,' the peseta's convergence.

Given those market dynamics, the peseta may continue to strengthen as long as investors foresee further cuts in Spanish interest rates, said Marco Pianelli, an economist at Nomura Research Institute. Analysts generally agree there is room for further cuts.

"The peseta is really firm. There just isn't that much that has been happening with the peseta. It's been at the same levels for the last few months," said a trader at a large Spanish bank in Madrid. "It's going to get even more quiet the closer that we get to" European economic and monetary union.

However, the ability to lower that rate has been limited by the threat of an overheated economy, or at least the perception that the Spanish economy could be growing already at rate that any further central bank cuts could induce inflationary pressures.

The Spanish economy grew 3.1% in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier, up 0.9% from the first quarter, and is expected to end the year at around 3.2%.

The Opus Dei Prelature is a jurisdictional structure belonging to the pastoral and hierarchical organisation of the Church. Like dioceses, territorial prelatures, vicariates and military ordinariates, it has its own autonomy and ordinary jurisdiction to carry out its mission in the service of the whole Church. For that reason it is dependent immediately and directly on the Roman Pontiff, through the Congregation for Bishops.

The budget itself, meanwhile, is being prepared by politically independent Finance Minister Antonio Sousa Franco, who has promised belt-tightening and austerity to help Portugal reduce its deficit and meet the European Union's criteria for economic and monetary union.

He's not alone. Lisbon traders across the board agree that while other peripheral markets, such as Italy and Spain, may influence the escudo, the franc is seen as one of the principal hinges that European economic and monetary union hangs upon.

Economize on words.

http://www.operationoutcry.org/index.html">Operation

'I didn't think they were going to make it, but even more so now,' said Giorgio Raedaelli, senior economist at Lehman Brothers International in London.

• Economic and Social Research Foundation Tanzania

• Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research Ghana

• Europe Center for Social and Economic Research Poland

• Institute for Urban Economics Russia

• Institute of World Economy and International Relations Russia

• Egyptian Center for Economic Studies Egypt

However, observers said that Repsol's exposure to economic meltdown in Argentina makes the sale all the more timely. Argentina's devaluation of the peso and the government's mooted tax on either oil exports or exporters has seen the company's share price fall sharply in recent weeks and drawn attention to its heavy debt burden.

This was a big quarter for Repsol-YPF (REP): as investors were waiting to see how the company was weathering economic troubles in Argentina.

Spanish-Argentine oil and energy company Repsol YPF SA (REP) stands to gain around EUR2.5 billion by releasing its monopolistic grip on Spain's oil and natural gas markets.

It's not just the Latin American country's most recent troubles - devaluation of the peso and subsequent macroeconomic quagmire - that have hurt Repsol's bottom line.

Robert has served various associations related to communication and press. He is an honorary vice-executive president for the Organizacion de Periodismo y Comunicacion Ibero-Americana, as well as vice-president for APCSE, the press and communication association of Spain's telecommunication and energy sectors.

Rushdoony was one of the first members of the secretive Council For National Policy, which the Rev. Tim La Haye and others started to bring right-wing Christians, other conservative activists, and John Birchers together with wealthy patrons willing to fund them. He also served on the board of Dr Jay Grimstead's Coalition On Revival (COR).

The Catholic Catechism states "Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath."

It is imperative to give suitable and timely instruction to young people, above all in the heart of their own families, about the dignity of married love, its role and its exercise, so that, having learned the value of chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to engage in honorable courtship and enter upon a marriage of their own.[134]

It´s what I was afraid of...that Hudson´s resignation was somehow related to Ono being ousted. Basically, a case of politics taking a front seat, and our faith meaning nothing. Shame on all parties involved.

In his National Review Online article, Hudson revealed that he began to receive questions from a liberal Catholic publication shortly after he criticized an adviser to the Kerry campaign, who was then employed by the US bishops' conference. Ono Ekeh, who directed a "Catholic for Kerry" internet site, was later ousted from his job at the bishops' conference-- a move that Hudson applauded. The publication has continued to probe Hudson's past, but to date has not published a story about him.

I don´t want to make anybody irate, but I have to admit I didn´t know that Hudson was so involved in politics...which makes me wonder if there was more to his dealing with Ono i.e. could a factor have been behind seeking Ono´s resignation also have been politics, and not just the fact that Ono was using the Bishop office computers? Again, I´m not passing judgement...just wondering out-loud... and yes, I also think it´s horrible that some people (a liberal Catholic organization) are possibly behind Hudson´s decision...which also seems to be tainted by politics, rather than by questions of faith (i.e. forgiveness, etc.).

Silly fools? I guess I can wear the badge with honor

He revealed the figure at a press conference held to mark the ending of the five-day Exhibition of Bible Ministry, staged in Hong Kong by mainland churches. A banquet will also be hosted this evening by Bishop Ding Guangxun, head of China's Protestant community, in honor of the event.

Most Iraqi Christians are Chaldeans, Eastern-rite Catholics who are autonomous from Rome but who recognise the Pope's authority.

Ono is still in the news

Also, I see that Ono got his book published, and here´s review (via Catholic Sensibility)

Earlier this week I posted on the Bishop in Santiago Compostela at Mass last Sunday, and on the occassion of a Mass in honor of Spain´s patron saint, St James, launching a very strong message against the government´s anti-family, anti-life plans. At the Mass was not only King Juan Carlos, but also the Prime Minister.

Liberation theology was born in Peru, with the book “A Theology of Liberation,” published in 1971 by Gustavo Guttierez, and since then it has split the Peruvian Church down the middle. Guttierez, who lives in Lima, became a Dominican friar in 1999, a few months after Cipriani’s nomination as archbishop of the city, and spends part of the year teaching in the United States. His being a Dominican gives him more autonomy than he would have had as a diocesan priest. Cipriani makes no mystery of considering him as “faking” Dominican, with the sole purpose of evading his control.

That said, it was only later that I realized that the word in the response was "honor" instead of "olor."

This year, the King besides making special mention of the 191 people that died in the March 11 terrorist attacks in Madrid, also asked for special protections for young people, the handicapped, those who are victims of violence, the marginalized, victims of drugs, risks involved with driving, emmigration/immigration, Spain´s military who are on missions of peace, for those who are seeking honorable jobs, to help Spaniards to conserve their patrimony, etc.

The military Order of Santiago or caballeros santiaguistas was founded to fight the Moors and later membership became a precious honour. People like Diego Velázquez longed for the royal favour that allowed to put on their clothes the red cross of St. James (similar to an obelus, †).

Welcome to Xacobeo, the festival honoring the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, which finishes here in the rolling green hills of northwestern Spain. Once the domain of devout Catholics, the 420-mile trek across the country to honor the Apostle James has been transformed into a pop-culture spectacle.

Great news! The United States release of THÉRÈSE is confirmed for October 1st, 2004, in honor of the feast day of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Last Friday evening we went to the 8pm Mass in our parish in honor of the Virgen del Carmen. The church was packed, there was no sitting room - and barely standing room - and it was hot. And our three young children were uncomfortable. An auxiliary bishop was officiating. In his homily, he linked a passage about rain, to that of the Virgin, saying that we should all pray for her rain (i.e. love) to fall on us. Now, I admit, I was thinking, "okay, this is a bit farfetched."

But it´s not just here in Madrid, obviously, where the Virgen del Carmen is honored...This site has plenty of information (in Spanish) about other places throughout Spain.

At that time, Pius IX ordered his slaves to leave Europe and take over our beloved country in order to use it's great economic and military power to recover his lost States. Thus began a massive Roman Catholic invasion of the United States with millions of immigrants coming through Ellis Island, New York.

He explained that in the last year, in an adverse international economic situation, the Holy See applied an austerity plan to contain the deficit as much as possible.

The promotion of monotheistic Yahwism (Judaism).

The Archdiocese of Toronto, Oregon Catholic Press and EWTN have been exposed for promoting artwork filled with satanic pornography. Michael A. Calace (pronounced Ca-LAH-Chay), film producer of motion picture company Silver Sword International, uncovered the scandals, which are distributed via the Internet and in the hymnals, missals and calendars utilized in a multitude of Catholic Churches.

Father John Fang Ping from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China visited Gongshan in August 2002 after a Xinjiang parishioner working in Yunnan told him about the Catholics. Father Fang says it is one of China's poorest counties. "The villagers seldom see a priest. Occasionally, priests from other places pay short visits. So the Catholics usually gather by themselves to pray."

I´m in my 40s, and with three wee ones. I would have liked to have had my children at a younger age - and I certainly think I would have had more energy for them. Sometimes it even depresses me to think that if they are anything like me, I just might never get to meet my grandchildren. On the upside, we are probably more financially sound than if I would have had children when I was in my 20s (but I don´t think economics should ever come into play - after all, my parents were able to get us kids all raised.)

Well, she went to a wake last weekend for a friend's grandfather, also black. He turned out to be Catholic and a Knight of Columbus, and there was some sort of honorary Knights thing during the wake. A priest came, talked about the late man's goodness and faith, led some prayers, and the Knights did a ceremonial salute, bowing to a crucifix and to the casket in pairs.

"The United States honors this son of Poland who became the Bishop of Rome, and a hero of our time," the President concluded.

Receiving the honor, the Pope thanked Bush "for this thoughtful gesture."

Last November, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bipartisan resolution encouraging Bush to award the honor to the Pope.

Pulling them to the left are economic concerns that have long bound blue-collar, ethnic, big-city Catholics to the Democratic Party. Pulling them to the right are concerns over such social issues as abortion and same-sex marriage that draw culturally conservative Catholics to Republicans.

The Pentecostal prelate said during the reign of president Charles Taylor, many people cried about the monopoly on cement; no pay for civil servants; Lebanese business men taking over the country's economy and the increase in foreign travels amongst others, yet since the departure of Mr. Taylor, corruption in the country has become more than the falling dew.

Nope, what we are talking about here is, our civil wedding. And why might Spain not recognize that marriage? Well, because we got married in Gibraltar - You know, the same place John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married? Sean Connery too was married there.

Either I can't pronounce them reliably or I can't retain their meaning. An article below (darned if I can find it again) made me assemble a short list of Troublesome Words:

But China's officially atheistic Communist government also may have created a brief surge in spirituality in Hong Kong, which has seen its confidence shattered through several years of sluggish economic growth.

Poor Cuban families will suffer most under new U.S. measures to tighten an economic embargo and price increases imposed by the Cuban government, Cuba's Roman Catholic bishops said Wednesday.

But he told Today: "I don't think religion has a monopoly on morality.

Following the unveiling of plans to build an iconoclastic glass structure for a chapel, and a town that is effectively an automobile-dependent "Catholic suburb," three architecture students from Notre Dame came up with an alternative.

The overall site plan proposed by the students, breaks up the suburban monotony into neighborhoods scaled more to people than to cars. Access from residential to commercial to educational usage is more apparent, and more typical of how towns -- specifically college towns -- develop.

Remember Dr Carlo Urbani? He was the 47-year-old World Health Organization doctor and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for his work with Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), who discovered the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus in January 2003, only to die just three months later from the disease. His widow, Giuliana Chiorrini, speaks to Inside the Vatican about her husband and his work and the honor of being chosen by the Pope to carry the cross in the Via Crucis on Good Friday in Rome last year

The Catholic Diocese of One Spirit is part of a group of ecumenical Catholic faith communities across the nation that celebrate the richness of Catholic spirituality and its traditions. As a generic (i.e., not "Roman," "Coptic," "Orthodox" or other rite) Catholic faith community, One Spirit honors the Pope and other religious leaders, but is not under their jurisdiction nor subject to their canon law nor the guidelines of the Roman or any other individual portion of the Catholic Church. Although One Spirit shares a common Catholic theology and liturgical tradition, it differs significantly in many of the disciplines and rules that govern the Roman rite of the Catholic Church.

Yet, there do appear to be exceptions, such as the new Minister of Defense, Jose Bono who attended Jesuit schools, and is decribed as being a "fiel" Catholic. In fact, many Spanish Catholics thought Bono - the former president of the Castilla-La Mancha province - should have been the Socialist Prime Minister candidate. Wagging tongues suggest he was knocked out of that possiblity by more hardline Socialists who were led by old-time party officials, such as the legendary Alfonso Guerra, whose relations with Bono were chilled in recent years.

She did. She went back to Confession after decades, went to Communion (she'd recently come back to Mass but honored the Sacrament by not receiving until she'd been absolved) and has developed a keen interest in reading Scripture and in prayer.

Catholics who vote for politicians in favour of abortion rights, stem-cell research, euthanasia or gay marriage may not receive Communion until they recant and repent in the confessional, the Roman Catholic bishop of Colorado Springs said. Bishop Michael Sheridan's pronouncement was the strongest from a U.S. bishop on how faith should influence Catholics in this election year.

Yet a new poll by U.S. News and PBS's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly reveals that evangelicals--their distinctive faith aside--are acting more and more like the rest of us. They are both influencing and being influenced by the society around them. While they harbor deep concerns about the moral health of the nation, they are more tolerant than they're often given credit for, pay far more attention to family matters than to politics, and worry about jobs and the economy just about as much as everyone else. And while it comes as no surprise that white evangelicals are overwhelmingly Republican and back President Bush by a wide margin, nearly a quarter say they might vote for Democrat John Kerry. (The small portion of African-American evangelicals mostly support Kerry, but their views often diverge strongly from the white majority.) "This is a group that is integrated into the mainstream," says Anna Greenberg, vice president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, which conducted the survey in late March. "Evangelicals are just not that much different from the rest of America."

This is not to say that the performance, which goes by the vulgar Spanish phrase of "Me cago en Dios" (a literal translation would be "I shit on God," and is pronounced by some enlightened, street types as an expression of "surprise") doesn´t indeed deserve the president´s attention. No her, attention is justified, as is that of many other politicians and citizens.

NCR Link via Catholic Sensibility on Ono Ekeh losing his job ...

While this can be positive, it can also be a sharp double-edged sword with which uneducated readers impale themselves on pseudo-truths that are bathed in an economic system that further ignites the seeds of hysteria.

Not being in Brazil, I can´t say how true the article is, but it does mention some points for pondering. According to the author, Matt Moffett, Brazilians are more-and-more considering St. Expeditus as the patron saint of urgent causes. The author says that St. Expeditus has only really gained popularity after Brazil opened its doors to the world economy, with the following "flurry of financial shocks."

With that backdrop, Mr. Moffet says Church officials expect around 200,000 people to attend ceremonies in San Paulo next week on St. Expeditus´s April 19 feast day - a figure, which the author says, is more than 10 times the turnout just eight years ago. Mr. Moffet says St. Expeditus influence has grown in direct proportion to economic stress.

With this new Swedish method, the cadaver is submerged in liquid nitrogen, derived from water through separation. The dead tissue becomes brittle as it quickly loses water and turnes to dust through vibration. Any metal parts (mercury fillings, titanium bolts) are separated magnetically - not chemically. The result is pure, white dust which can be either stored in an urn or buried in soil where it turns into humus. When a tree is planted above, the nutriens are taken up by the roots. The dead are then, literally, "pushing-up the dasies", rather then poisoning our lungs as carbon monoxide from crematorium furnaces?

There´s a "special report" (like they just discovered them?) in the April 10 edition of The Economist on Christians and Jews.

For me, the question hinges on two questions: Can you promise us American Catholics that once you are in the White House you will oppose a redefining of the traditional definition of marriage? Can you promise that you will honor the “sanctity of human life” in all its forms, or at least not rewrite legislation to make Abortions more accessible?

We know what that means, we (should) describe our Catholic selves as such, and we (should) fervently mean it, politically, economically, socially and spiritually. A mature pro-life vision embraces not only protection of others' lives, but nurturance and celebration of them, too.

But Our Lady didn´t do anything else but the vulgar and normal, something that millions of people do every day: She went to the house of a relative, to greet them, to smile, to help them out in little household chores... Really, what more could she do? It is very likely that the Lord doesn´t expect anymore of us than similar things. He doesn´t expect us do incredible or extraordinary actions, but to do the little, common everyday items, that are apparently monotonous, and which could include a greeting or a visit. But we, just as the Virgin Mary, are bearers of Christ, and therefore as instruments we have the quality that the Lord expects of us ...

[This is my first post for Santificarnos (if it works). I want to thank Robert, Therese, and the rest of the team for extending to me the great honor of an invitation to join this excellent blog. I pray that I may, by the grace of God, add to its quality and not diminish it.]

We've heard this, and pondered this as a Joyful Mystery, a gazillion times. But what hit ME this morning, so hard I think I swayed a little in my pew, is that after Mary asked her Technical Question about the conception within her, she didn't immediately follow it up with a flurry of "What? Me holy? Pshaw! Oh, I couldn't possibly be the one He was thinking of! I couldn't be THAT special, am I? Well, maybe I am, I'm always studying and praying... oh, no, couldn't be me, I don't know what I'd do with that honor, I'm pretty busy right now, you must mean her next door....."

So you have to understand the above to understand the elections, and why the sudden turnaround. Up until the Thursday bombings, I think most people were more or less willing to let things continue as they have more from an economic sense, although there was a growing grassroots movement that was always present. When it was perceived (I personally think irrationally) that the PP government was lying about ETA and Al-Qaida, the old "arrogant" claim was enough to push many of the undecided voters into the Socialist camp.

The best definition I´ve heard relates to what I somebody told me a while back: That in the States the Americans only have half the picture. They have got the Statue of Liberty, and there certainly is talk of "the pursuit of happiness." But, this person asked, where is the other statue in honor of "respect and responsibility?"

- And with respect to this "reported" message from Al-Qaida to the London al-Quds newspaper, Tony Alony says the translation of the message wasn´t done correctly. Who is Tony Alony? Alony is a Spanish economist, with Syrian parents and who works as a journalist for Al-Jazeera. He just also happens to be the journalist who in interviewed Osama Bin Laden after the 9-11 attacks, and has received other messages from Al-Qaida as well to be relayed to press. What does Alony say the London message said: It was a letter saying that they were happy for the bombings...and it didn´t claim responsibility. Alony is very clear in saying the authors of the note never actually claimed to be responsible for the Madrid bombings.

Fidelity does not have, of course, the general implantation enjoyed today in the greater public that ideas and objectives such as peace and democracy have or, in the socioeconomic sphere, the world market has.

The mass was held in honor of the 40th year in existence of Fomento Centros de Educacion, which is a series of schools, and educational centers, throughout the world that has close ties to Opus Dei. Many of the parents are OD, but not all, but the religious education of the children is taken care of by OD priests.

Leeway to not honor Ash Wednesday?

5) I am also planning to take a chapter out of Sunday's reading and honour Christ's command to give to everyone who asks of me. This is a bit nettlesome for me. My wife said it could leave us broke! But I don't believe it will, and will force me to consider that every time someone asks, they are in a worse position than I am myself. I'm not setting any bounds on this. I suspect I get 5-10 requests per day that I am in the general habit of refusing for fear of being branded an "easy mark" on the streets of the city where I live. For Lent, for once, I propose to become an easy mark.

On the other hand, the archbishop of Valencia, Augustin Garcia-Gasco, indicated that "it is not possible to be engaged in dialogue with terrorists while they continue to act as terrorists," adding that "those that look for negotiations with these criminals to obtain particular advantages are at the same time being treasonous and accomplices."

According to Garcia-Gasco, "in the case of terrorism there is no place for ambiguities: it is a dirty and treasonous war that replaces peace."

Such as this comment from Jose Bono, the president of the Castilla-La Mancha region: "The Bishops should be especially prudent, because they are by definition, those who know the least about sex." Bono also said the document doesn?t reflect the "modern" face of the Catholic Church. I should mention here that Bono, despite being a member of the Socialist, PSOE party, in the past has been described as being a "practising" Catholic.

I can't make any huge scholarly pronouncements about the movie, although commentators I trust insist that it is not anti-Semitic any more than Scripture is anti-Semitic. The Church clearly teaches that Jesus' blood is on all OUR heads.

These terrible acts of violence cannot be excused on political grounds. There have always been political disputes and there always will be but the solution is not terrorism. As for ‘‘socio-economic’’ causes we need to remember that none of the hijackers of 9/11 were poor, illiterate or underprivileged.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, has commented on the Parmalat business scandal in Italy. The debacle, he said, exposed "an unexpected vulnerability in our economic and financial system," caused largely by the absence of a sound moral and ethical basis for business dealings.

JUMILLAH, a native of Jakarta and a devout Catholic, doesn't like catching the bus anymore because it's "full of Muslims, and they're dangerous". Nyoman, a taxi driver in Bali, has broadened his hatred of the Bali bombers who wrecked the island's economy to encompass Islam as a whole.

And yes, most of the priests live in the neighborhood, so it´s often quite common to be walking down the street and see one, and then have a small conversation with one of the fathers. The 12 am priest always scares me when I see him on the street...the last time I bumped into him, he stopped me and gave me a lecture on how I need to get married soon and stop living such a "disorderly" life. I keep reminding him that´s what I´m doing, but it still makes me feel bad. On the other hand, the senior priest (he must be well into his 70s) is a bit kinder, and always gives me a welcoming handshake, and tells me that God will honor us (my wife and I), and then reminds me of the sacrament of marriage, etc...He´s also the same priest that once in confession began to have a conversation with me about travelling to California.

In fact, this region's transformation from nature-based spiritual practices to the monotheistic predominance of today can be traced to a couple of Catholic missionaries, French Canadians, who caught the same boat to the fur-trapping hub that was Fort Vancouver in the late 1830s.

When it's an especially important day in our earthly families, baptisms, graduations, weddings, birthdays, we join together to celebrate, even when we're rolling our eyes so hard in the car on the way over we hurt ourselves. It's more important to be part of the family and give honor to each of us when it's our turn. Same thing in Catholicism. We celebrate the important days of the family.

Maybe in some ways, but interestingly enough, the accusation comes as a result of the Italian Senate overwhelmingly approving "a law which bans the use of donor sperm, eggs or surrogate mothers.

-- Jesus Ortiz Lopez "Conocer A Dios" (To Know God) Ch. 4 Quien es Dios (Who is God)

While most of the world celebrated the Basílica de Letrán, today in Madrid we celebrated Nuestra Senora de Almudena with processions through town, etc. in honor of our patron saint, and for which our cathedral is named (yes, the same cathedral where Prince Felipe will be married next year).

What we get instead of freedom is a kind of anarchy of pressure groups and personal agendas held together by just one thing: the economy we all share ... and that's not the basis of a community or even a good conversation. In fact our economy, more than anything else in modern life, teaches us to see almost everything as an object to be bought or sold. This is what Jeremy Rifkin means when he describes American culture as more and more a "paid-for experience" based on the commodification of passion, ideals, relationships and even time. If we want freedom, we buy it by purchasing this car or that computer. If we want romance, we buy it by purchasing this cruise or that hotel package.

This church, built in the 12th century and consecrated as a Parish in honour of the Saints Justus and Pastor martyred near Madrid, during Roman Emperor Dioclecianus' prosecution was demolished in the late 17th century and replaced by a larger one and better adapted for the cult. The first stone was laid on September 20th 1739, under the auspices of the Cardinal-Infant of Toledo, Luis Antonio de Borbón and Farnesio, who was King Carlos III's brother.

I´d be interested to hear if you´re doing anything special today in honor of Pope John Paul II´s 25 years heading the Church?

Today, thanks to global communication, the cardinals know a lot more than before. And they know very well, from their meetings, consistories, synods, etc., what are the orientations and the manner of each of the cardinals. And that is what will be decisive, not the nationality, the language or the culture. Christ is above national, economic and political interests, which in the past counted more, above all when power was linked to the civil world. But now, thank God, it´s not like that.

A recent study by the Heritage Foundation put a figure on just how much marriage is worth in economic terms. Single mothers who married would see an increase of $10,199 to $11,599 in their median family incomes, said Heritage Foundation analyst Patrick Fagan. He wrote a report on the subject with other Heritage researchers. The Washington Times reported on the study May 28.

For example, given the prevalence of postpartum depression, which experts think occurs in at least 10% of pregnancies, it might be assumed that suicide would be more common among parents and especially mothers, Dr. Clark said. Also, "people think having a lot of kids is economically stressful" and could lead to mental distress or even suicidal thoughts, he said. On the contrary, the study illustrated the strength of the biological and psychological bonds that occur between parent and child.

"Be pastors who, by their example more than by their words, honor the Gospel and inspire in those around them the desire to know it better and to put it into practice," he concluded. On Oct. 16 John Paul II plans to publish a postsynodal apostolic exhortation on the role of bishops.

The central Jewish concept in the area of divorce is shalom bayit. Though the words are foreign, this essential teaching may seem familiar to Catholics. Shalom bayit (literally, "peace in the home") means going to extremes to effect a reconciliation. The Talmud, listing deeds for which we are rewarded in the next life, includes honoring parents and "bringing peace between a man and his wife."

• Do pronouns match antecedents?

concerns that Spain might not meet European economic and

What's rattled the Ci U is the government's plan to reduce the budget deficit to 4.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the end of 1996 and to 3.0% by the end of 1997, from an expected 5.9% in 1995. The proposed budget deficit reductions are tied to European Economic and Monetary Union, which requires that deficits don't exceed 3% of GDP. EMU is planned for 1999. Jan. 1, 1998 is the final deadline for eligibility, which will be decided by economic performance in 1996 and estimated performance in 1997.

Ken Wattret, economist at HSBC Markets in London, isn't alone in thinking Spain's deficit targets are unlikely to be met.

But Georgio Raedaelli, senior economist at Lehman Brothers International in London, said not too much stock should be given to the fact that short-term rates are dropping. He said this is merely a sign that the markets are discounting rate cuts in the next three-to-12 months, rather than in the immediate term. "This is not unique to Spain," he said, but can be seen in Germany as well.

EURONOMICS Spain CPI, Oil Price Cast Doubt On ECB Target

"The (ECB) 2% target is probably going to be missed again this year," said Kelly Tonkin, European economist at Lehman Bros. International in London. "In the first three months of the year there weren't any countries that were immune to inflationary pressures."

David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns International in London, said the ECB would have to look at the systematic spreads between different countries. "They're going to be very concerned about the high inflation in countries like Spain, Ireland and Holland," that will cause their 2% target to be overshot, he said.

Gwyn Hacche, senior European economist at HSBC in London, said while he does see inflation coming down in the higher-inflation countries, prices in the core economies will also have to drop before the euro-zone measure falls below the 2% target.

Spain's higher inflation rate is related to growth, according to Hacche. "In terms of GDP (gross domestic product) per head, Spain is still behind that of Germany and France. In a catch-up economy you'd expect inflation to be higher," he said.

   Economic Growth To Pick Up

That's in reference to concerns over rising oil prices. This effect could also be compounded by ongoing labor disputes throughout Europe, as various trade unions seek higher wages - all at a time when the euro-zone economy is showing signs of picking up speed.

Euro-zone GDP is seen growing 1% during the first three months of the year on an annualized basis, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires. GDP is seen growing 2.4% during the second quarter, roughly the region's non-inflationary growth potential.

Even recent comments by ECB President Wim Duisenberg - and reiterated Thursday in the ECB's monthly bulletin - are being construed by economists to mean the 2% inflation target may not be attainable. The ECB has said interest rates in the euro zone are still appropriate to ensure price stability in the medium term, even though the recent rise in oil prices may pose some upward risk to inflation.

Market consensus sees the U.S. Federal Reserve tightening its monetary policy around June 26, said Brown, meaning that a like move by the ECB could happen in the fourth quarter, since there is about a five- to six-month time lag between the European and U.S. economies.

Hacche noted the different approaches taken by central banks, with oil price hikes seen in the U.S. and U.K. as dis-inflationary, causing real economies to slow. "The ECB, however, they seem to have a greater concern for headline inflation," he said.

But some economists see Spain's willingness to heavily finance its debt via short-term instruments as a cause for concern.

"The Treasury's disproportionate financing on the short end of the yield curve, could cause problems if there are rate hikes or the peseta weakens," cautions David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns International (London).

"I don't see how they cannot have an amnesty," said Juan Francisco Jimeno-Serrano, a researcher at Madrid think tank Fundacion de Estudios de Economia Aplicada. "When a country has so many illegal immigrants, for so long, it's inevitable that there will be an amnesty."

The Instituto de Estudios Economicos - Institute of Economic Studies - told a meeting of businessmen and economists in Madrid that Spain should aim to provide work opportunities through liberalizing markets rather than protecting the unemployed.

The think-tank's former director of studies, Cristobal Montoro, is now the Partido Popular's chief economic spokesman and is tipped as finance minister in any future Partido Popular government.

For the same political reasons, however, Henrik Lumholdt, chief economist at Bank of America in Madrid, expects a rate cut today.

Those who expect a rate cut cited comments by Spain's secretary of state for the economy, Cristobal Montoro, who said the country's participation in the euro should translate into lower interest rates.

Interest-rate convergence isn't going to be a problem, Mr Rojo said. "We aren't going to force the situation," he said. "The Spanish economy is strong enough that a rate cut isn't needed."

"We need to say, once and for all, that there isn't going to be a 1996 budget," states Francesc Homs, Catalonian Nationalist (Ci U) Parliament deputy and economic and finance spokesman. "We're going to propose a motion to extend the 1995 budget, and we expect the other parties to support us." Since the Socialists lost their Parliamentary majority in the 1993 general elections they have depended upon the Ci U's backing.

"If infrastructures, or public companies, don't work, then we need to restructure or privatize. We have to do this in three years, or Spain won't be able to enter the (European Union) economic and monetary union," Homs says.

Spain continues to outstrip the European Union average for economic growth despite the downturn after Sept. 11, data Wednesday are expected to show.

The nation's gross domestic product grew an annual 2.2% in the fourth quarter and by 2.7% for the whole of 2001, according to a survey of five economists.

For 2001, the government has been forecasting 3.0% growth, revised down from 3.2% in July because of the economic slowdown. The figure had originally been set at 3.6%.

Finance Minister Rodrigro Rato recently said despite the current economic slump Spain is now the second most visited country in the world: 2001 was a record year for tourists at 49.5 million, up 3.4% from 2000.

Caja Madrid economist Israel Munoz said one of the keys is private consumption - can it stay strong?

The Bank of Spain said family and government spending continued to support the economy in the fourth quarter, but it noted the deterioration of exports and investment in capital goods as a result of the global slowdown.

And despite a slowdown in the construction sector, it still remains one of the most buoyant parts of the economy, said Beta Capital economist Felix Gonzalez.

Looking ahead, economists continue to downplay any damage from the Argentine crisis, despite Spanish companies' heavy investment in the region.

Spain's economic cycle isn't closely tied to that of Latin America, they argue, but rather to Europe and the U.S. Less than 1% of Spain's exports go to Argentina.

Spain's Partido Popular (PP), the conservative opposition party, is mooting the idea of using the targets set in the 1995 budget for 1996, the party's economic spokesman told the Dow Jones Capital Markets Report in an exclusive interview.

"I see the passage of the 1996 budget as being very difficult," said Cristobal Montoro, economic spokesman for the PP, in an interview with Dow Jones. "It wouldn't be a disaster if the 1996 budget wasn't passed, because the existing budget (1995) would be extended for 1996."

"There is a risk involved in this plan," explained Enrique Jimenez, who covers the company for Ibersecurities. Jimenez, who holds a sell recommendation with a EUR2.13 target, says his valuation is based on four of the five exclusive products passing final clinical trials. If economic growth is strong, with heightened consumer demand, Jimenez sees a price target of EUR2.50.

"It's 50-50," said Felix Gonzalez, chief economist at C.M. Capital Markets in Madrid. "It all depends upon the French franc and how it performs today."

He added that rate-cut speculation has also faded after recent comments by Bank of Spain Gov. Luis Angel Rojo and Finance Minister Pedro Solbes indicating that monetary policy would have to be tight to bring Spain's economy close to meeting Maastricht criteria for European economic and monetary union.

Banco Popular got into the business in 1960s, serving the many Spaniards who emigrated for economic or political reasons during the Franco regime. Now, the bank thinks it can grab business from those who make Spain their destination.

"The problem is that we can't tell the difference between normal operations from those that are subject to tax withholdings," said Alberto Esteves at the Spanish Ministry of Finance and Economy.

Measuring debt in non-resident hands is often viewed as an important means of gauging the attractiveness or credibility of a particular economy. This is so especially in times of political instability when all eyes focus on the reactions of foreign investors.

Esteves confirms that the Ministry of Finance and Economy is currently working on several proposals to control coupon-washing, but at this time there is nothing concrete.

That view was reinforced Monday when Grupo Banco Bilbao Vizcaya said it has asked Brazil's central bank to reconsider its $450 million offer for a 55% stake in Brazil's Banco Excel Economico SA, that country's fifth-largest bank.

The Bank of Spain has told Dow Jones Capital Markets Report that the report was culled from one of their econometric models and isn't suitable for reviewing local government accounts.

IBCA officials claim the report was misunderstood. Maybe that isn't too surprising if, as a Bank of Spain spokesman claims, the IBCA release was drawn from an econometric model drawn up by the Bank of Spain "that studied the evolution of the regional governments' accounts."

Ahorro Corporacion in Madrid said they don't think the political crisis in Venezuela will have the same impact on Spanish companies as Argentina has had. For the past several months, Argentina has been experiencing an economic upheaval.

"The banking system in Argentina is almost bankrupt," said Leopoldo Torralva, an economist at Ahorro, whereas the Venezuela economy is much healthier and there is reason to believe a change of government could result in better economic policy, especially relating to oil prices.

While the political situation must be watched, Ibersecurities noted the economic growth in that country continues to be positive. Oil represents 33% of Venezuela's gross domestic product, with 80% of those revenues coming from exports, according to Ibersecurities.

CANTV (VNT), or CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela is that country's telecommunications incumbent.

Spanish stocks have looked punch-drunk since the start of the year, reeling from a one-two blow: the combination of struggling economies in Latin America plus global equity pessimism.

Will those figures reflect Latin America's macroeconomic woes? Undoubtedly.

A Dow Jones Newswires survey of four economists had put the outcome at 0.7% and 3.2% respectively.

The monthly headline figure is under particular suspicion from the opposition, as well as independent economists who say there are signs that inflation is actually still on the rise.

Jordi Sevilla, the economic spokesman for the opposition Socialist party, said the figures were "grotesque...an unacceptable manipulation in a democracy" that the government is trying to make Spaniards believe prices didn't rise in either January or February.

"There is still a lot of uncertainty," said Manuel Balmaseda, economist at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBV) in Madrid.

Economists are a bit more cautious, saying there are signs that inflationary pressures could be more resilient than had been first thought.

Spanish CPI rose 1.4% on the month and 3.6% on the year in April, the National Institute of Statistics said Tuesday. That was above forecasts in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of six economists, which predicted a rise of between 3% and 3.5% on the year, with the mean forecast at 3.2%. The poll had put the monthly rise between 0.3% and 1.2%.

"The government's (inflation) target won't be met. We're looking at inflation to be around 3.5% to 4% at the end of the year," a Madrid economist said. "The figures are bad...they show a clear disparity between Spain and the rest of the euro zone."

The economist also noted that Spanish inflation could have a much larger impact, dashing previous European Central Bank forecasts that euro-zone CPI would fall to 2% in the first half of the year and playing a hand in any rate decision.

All of this suggests that the euro-zone April CPI figure - due out Thursday - may only drop to around 2.4% from 2.5%, said Gwyn Hacche, senior European economist at HSBC in London.

"The risk of higher rates in Europe have increased," Hacche said, adding that while most economists were expecting rates to rise in September, this latest bout of inflation data suggests a rate move could come sooner.

Meanwhile, energy prices fell 0.4% on the year but were up 2.5% on the month. Economists correctly identified gasoline as a key mover within this, with prices rising 3.4% on the month.

The latest European Union's harmonised CPI showed the E.U. CPI up 2.2% from a year earlier, with only Spain, Greece and Portugal not having yet met Maastricht Treaty criteria for European economic and monetary union convergence of inflation rates. Meeting the criteria would allow them to be among the first countries forming Europe's planned single currency Jan. 1, 1999.

'They were exceptionally good figures,' agreed David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns International in London. 'It just highlights the sort of disinflation going on in Spain.' Both Brown and Collins-Thompson see Spanish inflation continuing to drop, possibly bottoming out in the range of 2.00%-2.25% by mid-1997.

The offshoot will be the Bank of Spain's need to fight inflation, while simultaneously jump-starting the economy

While analysts differ over whether Spain will indeed meet the European economic and monetary union criteria, an autumn 1996 report from the European Commission lends further credence to those Euro-bull participants who are already banking on Spain making the first round of EMU.

Regarding Spain's chances of entering in the first wave of Europe's single currency plan and the optimism seen supporting the bono market, Lumholdt argued that at the end of the day this remains a political question.

"The perception in the market place is that their (the PP's) economic policy could be favorable with tight spending controls" which would help bring Spain into line with Maastricht Treaty guidelines, says Michael Pratten, senior bond analyst at Paine Webber in London.

Ono's Thoughts - Ono Ekeh

Catholic Apologetics of America - Kevin D. Dello Iacono

To Love, Honor, and Blog - Dale and Heather Price

Salus, honor, virtus quoque

More specifically, these Bible studies often have background reading materials, such as John Allen's book on Opus Dei. This has lead to curious circumstances in my own life, where my little brother -- who is an Assemblies of God pastor -- has actually defended me and Opus Dei to others. In fact, in one particular case the pastor of his church -- mind you an evangelical -- said that in his opinion members of Opus Dei were Christians, and were living the Catholic faith and should be honored for it.

Think tanks are organizations that conduct research and engage in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies, or military advice. Following is a growing list of think tanks.

• Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) Russia

• Kiel Institute for World Economy Germany

• Economic Policy Institute

• Institute for International Economics

• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

• National Bureau of Economic Research

What the IPCC report won't be able to do, however, is to come up with any consensus on what to do about climate change. The economics of climate change and climate policy remain - as ever - the most contentious problem.

Some countries, including the United States and Australia, have been in denial about global warming. They cast doubt on the science that set alarm bells ringing. Other countries, such as the UK, are in panic, and want to make drastic cuts in greenhouse emissions. Both stances are irrelevant, because the fight is a hopeless one anyway. In spite of the recent hike in the price of oil, the stuff is still cheap enough to burn. Human nature being what it is, people will go on burning it until it starts running out and simple economics puts the brakes on. Meanwhile the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will just go on rising. Even if developed countries rein in their profligate use of fossil fuels, the emerging Asian giants of China and India will more than make up the difference. Rich countries, whose own wealth derives from decades of cheap energy, can hardly preach restraint to developing nations trying to climb the wealth ladder. And without the obvious solution - massive investment in nuclear energy - continued warming looks unstoppable.

• Center for Economic and Policy Research

• Economic Policy Institute

• Committee for Economic Development

• Atlas Economic Research Foundation

• Foundation for Economic Education

Matthew and Luke explain that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin, but historians believe these two authors understand the significance of the virgin birth differently. In Matthew, Jesus' birth is said to fulfill the prediction of the Hebrew prophet Isaiah, who foretold that "a virgin shall conceive and bear a son" (1:23). Luke, though, does not quote this Isaiah, nor indicates that Jesus' birth fulfills Scripture. Luke's account is told in the Annunciation (1:28-38, a passage found only in Luke), where the angel Gabriel assures Mary that her son "will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David." Mary is disturbed by this pronouncement because she never experienced sexual relations (1:34). The angel replies: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God" (1:35).

And this often leads to a secondary effect: A person that does a job well-done tends to rise in the business world. It's not the reason, nor the drive, but it's the effect of doing a job well-done. And mind you, if that doesn't happen (the social or economic recognition) that is fine - after all this is about offering your work as a means of Sanctification, and this is where an Opus Dei "work ethic" differs from Calvinism and predestination-economic theories.

Members of Opus Dei are present in all social strata of society and some of them are directors of important companies and groups. Could it be affirmed that Opus Dei tries to coordinate their activities following a particular political or economic line?

No. Opus Dei has nothing whatever to do with politics. It is absolutely foreign to any political, economic, ideological or cultural tendency or group. Let me repeat that its aims are exclusively spiritual and apostolic.

The only thing it demands of its members is that they lead a Christian life, trying to live up to the ideal of the Gospel. Therefore it never becomes involved in any temporal affairs. If someone does not understand this, it may well be because he does not understand personal freedom, or because he is incapable of distinguishing between the purely spiritual ends for which the members of the Work are associated and the vast field of human activities (economics, politics, culture, art, philosophy etc.) in which they enjoy complete freedom and act on their own responsibility.

• Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Germany

• German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) Germany

• Kiel Institute for World Economy Germany

• Center for Social and Economic Research Poland

• Institute for Market Economics Bulgaria

• Institute of Urban Economics Russia

• Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) Russia

• New Economic School-Georgia Georgia

• Centre for Economic Research Uzbekistan

• Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) India

• Korean Institute for International Economic Policy South Korea

• National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) India

• Economic Policy Institute USA

• Institute for International Economics USA

• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies USA

• National Bureau of Economic Research USA

• Latin American Economic Research Foundation (FIEL) Argentina

• Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) Tanzania

• Inter Region Economic Network (IREN) Kenya

• Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER) Ghana

• Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress Israel