Has Europe Gone Crazy?

[cmotherofpirl]

Has Europe Gone Crazy?

Feature/Commentary by AFA Journal
July 31, 2006

(AgapePress) - As the culture war in North America grows ever more intense, it might give pause to those in that part of the western hemisphere to note what sort of inanities are occurring on the continent of Europe, where secularists have already won.

In the Netherlands
Pedophiles are in the process of registering their own political party in order to more efficiently push their agenda there. According to WorldNetDaily, that agenda includes legalized child porn, bestiality and, initially at least, lowering the legal age of consent from 16 to 12. Later, say leaders of the group, they want to remove age-of-consent laws altogether.

The good news, according to the article, is that a survey of Dutch public opinion found that 82 percent believe that the government should do something to prevent the party from forming.

In Spain
The ruling socialist faction has proposed a law which would give fundamental legal right to "great apes." The socialists got the idea from the Great Ape Project, which demands "the extension of the community of equals to include all great apes: human beings, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans."

What would those rights entail? The website defines them as: the right not to be killed unless an ape threatens someone's life; the right not to be tortured or used in medical tests; and the right "not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty."

The latter "right" means that apes cannot be kept in zoos, unless moving those currently dwelling there might cause more harm than good. Apes should not be "imprisoned" if they "have not been convicted of any crime, or ... are not criminally liable." For apes who are incarcerated, they "have the right to appeal" through a human legal advocate.

An article in the London Telegraph said the law, if passed, would make Spain the first nation in the world -- and, no doubt, in history -- to grant such rights to apes.

In Germany
Women who are unemployed must be willing to work as a prostitute or risk losing unemployment benefits. Prostitution is legal in German and, according to the Catholic news outlet Zenit, brothel owners have access to official databases of those who have registered for unemployment benefits.

"Germany's welfare laws oblige women under 55 who have been out of work for more than a year to take an available job -- including the sex industry -- or lose benefits," Zenit said. "The government had considered making brothels an exception, but eventually ruled this out."

[MissScripture]

Remind me never to go to Germany and lose my job...

And I plan on NEVER going to the Netherlands...at least not for a long period of time. Why would you want to stay in a place with legalized abortion, infanticide and euthanasia?

*shudders*

[Resurrexi]

Um, the USA has infanticide (under which category abortion falls) and euthanasia, too.

[Lahecil]

I'm surprised Greece didn't make the list. My mom's friend is visiting for a few weeks from just outside of Athens, and said she can no longer let her 2 children play alone in the park right across the street from their home. Black market doctors are kidnapping children from parks and performing surgeries on them, removing things such as kidneys, eyes, etc. and then putting them back where they picked the children up with an envelope of about $3000 so the doctor's conscience is clear. Of course, who knows how many children don't survive the surgery?

[brandelynmarie]

ummmmmm....... ....This is really scary...the whole world has gone mad....

Edited August 12, 2006 by brandelynmarie

[avemaria40]

Many prayers for Europe, I can't believe this!

[BC4Life]

geez... youve got to be kidding me..

[Guest Rick777]

Dude this is disgusting.

[Pontifite 7 of 10]

This is not good.
This is bad.
But then again, lets not look at the splinters in their eyes, we shold look at the beam sticking out of the US too? Sadly, we are just as bad everywhere else in the world.

[Proud2BCatholic139]

Well, I know someone who is there right now and let him be silly and crazy and live there to skip school.

[brandelynmarie]

[quote name='Pontifite 7 of 10' post='1042248' date='Aug 12 2006, 08:50 PM']
This is not good.
This is bad.
But then again, lets not look at the splinters in their eyes, we shold look at the beam sticking out of the US too? Sadly, we are just as bad everywhere else in the world.
[/quote]


You're right......

[curtins]

Europe is as good as gone. They have a negative population growth, meanwhile the muslims who they let in are having 8 or 9 kids. Europe is straying from the one force that has kept it alive- Christianity. It will soon become a muslim territory.

[puellapaschalis]

All the 'bad' things about Europe, as well as being 'bad', are - more importantly than the simple and easy label - incredible opportunities for grace. Yes, some of us do live in Europe. Yes, at least two people on Phatmass live in the Netherlands. We are under no illusions about the faults of our continent and believe me, are doing our best to reclaim it for Christ. Nor are we alone - the world is bigger than Phatmass, and just because you might not see it on EWTN, hear about it from your homilist, or read about it from your Catholic news sources does [i]not[/i] mean that it's not happening.

I would ask the non-Europeans here who are moved to comment on such things to practise charity when doing so. Europe is not a lost cause. The Old World is a very, very different place than the New, with its particular set of problems. I for one try not to condemn all the faults I 'see' in North America, through the distorted lens of the press; instead I entrust it to God in my prayers, and trust that people like yourselves by your lives of prayer and good example can spread the Gospel there in a way that I, with my paltry words, will never be able to. In a similar fashion I ask non-Europeans to do the same with us. We need prayer and intercession, not easy-to-apply labels and off-hand condemnations.

Love and prayers,

PP

Edited August 15, 2006 by puellapaschalis

[VeniteAdoremus]

My name is VA and I'm Dutch. (Hi, VA!).

In this meeting of Europeans Anonymous I'd like to say something about my country.

In the Netherlands, as well as in every other country in the world, babies are being aborted. And, as well as in every other country in the world, people decide that their life isn't worth living anymore because of physical illness, and end it with or without help from a physician.

The difference is that we've decided that criminalising this will not make it stop, and legalizing it will give the government more control over it. To an extent, this has worked. The abortion law has gone over the top, though, and I think it should be banned.

As a Catholic, and I'd like to stress this, I firmly oppose both abortion and euthanasia. It makes me sad, and angry. You might have read something about the all-night anti-abortion vigil the Catholic youth group in my city organised. I would never, ever, partake in any of this - and neither will any of my friends, two of which are Catholic.

The law on euthanasia is very different from the law on abortion. In the latter case, the woman decides, although she's required to go through counselling. In the first case, the patient can only make a request, which will be weighed by two physicians, namely the doctor in charge of treatment and another one from a different region. They both have to examine the patient both physically and mentally, and consult with the family. They also have the obligation to try to "talk the patient out of it". If euthanasia is performed, they have to report themselves to the district attorney, who will review the process and - if everything is done according to the law - dismiss the case. Unorderly processes result in a murder charge.

The result of this law has been a drop in the number of euthanasias. (Before the law, doctors could report anonymously.) It turned out, strangely enough, that having a 'way out' often gave terminal patients the will to go on. They'd discusseuthanasia with their doctors, but as the illness progressed, decide time and time again that they'd wait until it got 'really bad'.

For this reason, I am in favour of this law. It doesn't mean I agree with euthanasia. And the existance of the law doesn't mean my country is full of granny-murdering lunatics with no respect for life. (I don't think anyone on PM would think that, but there are people that do.)

Then on to the paedophile party. Now there's something fun! A dozen or so gentlemen decided that children should be "allowed" to have a sex life and tried to add a few other ideas and form a political party. The problem is, if a party wants to run for government they have to get thirty signatures in every district, and so far they have, I believe the count is, mmm, two. The chairman of the party called that 'undemocratic'. I call it 'democracy'. But I believe our definitions of the word might vary.

So, these gentlemen are shouting around a bit. They'll never, ever, get a voice in government, and they should get a spanking for making the Netherlands look bad. Although they might just like that.

Yes, there are huge issues in my country. No, we're not a yota worse than any other Western democracy (although as a Cloggy [i]I'm[/i] allowed to say we are!). I hope we will continue to try and understand each other better.

We Nederlanders can be plain weird - and often are. We may be too liberal. But we're not morally depraved, thank you ever so much.

(Oh, and I've chatted with more than one Muslim - give me a Dutch Muslim over an atheist any day!)

[Franimus]

Thanks for the good posts from the dutchies. All the dutchies, estonians, romanians, etc. that i talk to elsewhere on the net don't seem to be that bad, either. Although, the estonian frequently tells us (in between frequent drinking sessions) humourous stories of how he lights a cigarette while at knifepoint because he's pissed at how unskilled the muggers are there.. he got a fancy knife from that would-be mugger. But still, Europe isn't much worse than America. I'd say they're about equally bad.