The Vatican invited 150 bloggers from around the world to a first-ever blogging summit, increasingly aware of the important role faith-based blogging is playing in spreading Catholicism.

“We’re here for a dialogue, a dialogue that from our side means the conviction of the concrete, important and unique role of your presence in the world of communication,” Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican’s social communication’s office, told the bloggers.

The Vatican has been seeking to engage more with the online world: For the beatification of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican created a special Facebook page, Twitter account, ran clips of his 27-year pontificate on its YouTube channel and let the faithful send electronic postcards to one another about what they were experiencing via its youth-based news portal.

The blogging summit was another step in that direction.

The Rev. Roderick Vonhogen, a Dutch blogger, said blogging for Catholic priests is a great way to spread the faith to people who aren’t necessarily looking for it. He says it can be even more effective than sitting in his remote parish celebrating Mass for 200 because he can reach 40,000 people around the world.

“If we just do what we do in our churches, behind closed doors, we will have empty buildings by the end of the day,” he said.

The Vatican also unveiled at the meeting a state-of-the-art Vatican news Website. The new site will be found at www.news.va, currently you can submit your email to be informed when the site will be open.

more info

From LifeSiteNews:

Federal drug regulators are now reviewing studies that say some modern birth control pills may pose a serious risk of clots to women who take them.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Tuesday that they were conducting a safety review of birth control products containing drospirenone, a synthetic female sex hormone or progestin.

German pharmaceutical maker Bayer’s oral contraceptives Yaz, Yasmine, Safyral, Beyaz, and their generics are part of a chemical family of contraceptives containing drospirenone, and are among the oral contraceptives whose effects the FDA intends to review.

Bayer faces 7000 Yaz-related lawsuits from women who say the drug-manufacturer misrepresented the dangers associated with using the birth control pills – side effects including stroke, cardiac arrest, blood clots, and gallbladder problems.

Bayer has marketed heavily its Yaz oral contraceptive products to teenagers and young adult women, saying its products were not just for preventing pregnancy, but also could treat PMS symptoms and acne.

One wrongful death lawsuit involves an 18-year-old New Jersey college student, Michelle Pfleger, who died of cardiac arrest after taking Yaz for acne treatment. A blood clot had lodged in her lungs resulting in her sudden death on her way to classes on September 24, 2010. Her mother Joan Cummins filed suit against Bayer on May 10.

The FDA noted in its public announcement that “[a]ll birth control pills pose a risk of blood clots,” but two studies posed in the British Medical Journal contended that the contraceptives containing drospirenone posed two to three times a greater risk than other contraceptives containing the progestin levonorgestrel.

The FDA said it was going to conduct a study of 800,000 women in order to resolve the conclusions of conflicting studies on drospirenone-containing contraceptives. The results of the study are due sometime in the summer.

Rather than remain neutral in the culture war, The Home Depot has chosen to sponsor and participate in numerous gay pride parades and festivals. Most grievous is The Home Depot’s deliberately exposing small children to lascivious displays of sexual conduct by homosexuals and cross-dressers, which are a common occurrence at these events.
Home Depot is sponsoring “Southern Maine Pride” in Portland, Maine next weekend. Last year, Home Depot set up a Kid’s Workshop booth at the event. Children were exposed to “drag queens,” nudity, and other homosexual activities.

Take Action

1. Post this alert to your Facebook page and encourage others to do the same.
2. Call your local store manager and politely let him know you are boycotting Home Depot. You can find your local store number here (click “store finder”).
3. Forward this alert to all your family and friends.

More info at:

BoycottTheHomeDepot.com