Scaraffia - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Thu, 10 May 2012 04:46:35 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg Scaraffia - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 Nazi eugenics arguments still in use https://cathnews.co.nz/2012/05/11/nazi-eugenics-arguments-still-in-use/ Thu, 10 May 2012 19:31:06 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=25111 Binding Hoche

Italian historian Lucetta Scaraffia, writing in the L'Osservatore Romano, claims that the same arguments that were once used by the Nazis to promote their eugenics program of mass extermination are now being used by proponents of euthanasia and abortion of the chronically ill unborn. Scaraffia's article comes in the wake of the Italian translation of Read more

Nazi eugenics arguments still in use... Read more]]> Italian historian Lucetta Scaraffia, writing in the L'Osservatore Romano, claims that the same arguments that were once used by the Nazis to promote their eugenics program of mass extermination are now being used by proponents of euthanasia and abortion of the chronically ill unborn.

Scaraffia's article comes in the wake of the Italian translation of a 1920 book by two German scholars, Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche, that set the ideological foundations for the Nazi program of extermination of disabled and incurably sick people.

The authors of the 1920 book (Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living) proposed that the lives of the chronically ill or of the mentally and physically disabled were "unworthy of being lived" and should be given a "charitable death."

Scaraffia argues this mentality can still be seen in the "writings of many contemporary bioethicists, and of many politicians who support legislative proposals of a euthanasic type."

"Contempt for imperfect human life, over estimation of the abilities of science" are "still firmly present in our time," she concludes, and this shows that "eugenics is still alive and has not been wiped out together with the Nazi past." Read More - NCR

Nazi eugenics arguments still in use]]> 25111 L'Osservatore Romano slams BBC decision on BC and AD https://cathnews.co.nz/2011/10/07/losservatore-romano-slams-bbc-decision-on-bc-and-ad/ Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:30:19 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=12896

In an editorial written by Lucetta Scaraffia in L'Osservatore Romano, the author rips into the BBC decision to change BC (Before Christ) to BCE (Before the Common Era) and AD (Anno Domini - the Year of the Lord) to CE (Common Era). She claims that non-Christians have generally expressed little concern about use of the Read more

L'Osservatore Romano slams BBC decision on BC and AD... Read more]]> In an editorial written by Lucetta Scaraffia in L'Osservatore Romano, the author rips into the BBC decision to change BC (Before Christ) to BCE (Before the Common Era) and AD (Anno Domini - the Year of the Lord) to CE (Common Era). She claims that non-Christians have generally expressed little concern about use of the traditional terminology. She states, "In reality, it is by now very clear that respect for other religions is only an excuse, because those who wish to erase every trace of Christianity from Western culture are only a few secular westerners."

Scaraffia draws parallel attempts from history such as the imposition of the French Calendar dating history to the day of the French Revolution and similar attempts by Lenin and Mussolini.

The editorial concludes, "In sum, the idea of removing the Christian calendar has very bad precedent, leaving numerous failures in its wake. It should be noted that this time, the BBC has limited itself to changing only the description, rather than the computation of time, but in doing so, it cannot be denied that it has made a hypocritical gesture: the hypocrisy of those who pretend not to know why years began to be counted precisely from that moment."

Scaraffia argues that the terms BC and AD are not just a statement of religious importance, but that they mark a significant cultural and historical moment in time. She states, "...from that moment was the idea affirmed that all human beings are equal because they are children of God? A principle upon which human rights are founded, and on the basis of which people and leaders are judged. A principle which, until that moment, no one had supported and upon which the Christian tradition is based.

"Why should it not be recognized that from that moment the world was changed? That taboos and material impurity disappeared and that nature was liberated from the presence of the supernatural precisely because God is transcendent? Out of this was born the possibility for European peoples to discover the world and for scientists to begin the experimental study of nature which led to the birth of modern science"

Full Article: L'Osservatore Romano

L'Osservatore Romano slams BBC decision on BC and AD]]> 12896