Let’s be friends

Barack Obama delivers a convincing speech to Muslims around the world

“WE AWAIT your arrival impatiently because we admire your noble principles and lofty virtues,” gushed an open letter from Sheikh Ali Yusuf, a Muslim cleric who, long ago, was Egypt’s most popular columnist. Printed in an Arabic daily, it went on to express hope that in his speech at Cairo University, the American president would show support for Egyptian aspirations to freedom and dignity.

Those words were penned 99 years ago in advance of a lecture by Theodore Roosevelt, an American president whose imperialist tone then sourly disappointed Egyptian hopes. But now the long-dead sheikh may rest reassured. In a rousing speech on Thursday June 4th Barack Obama used the magnifying force of the American presidency, his own charisma and a podium at the heart of the Arab world to address the concerns of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims. Speaking at Cairo University, he sought to project an openness to Islam, a sense of shared values, support for Muslim aspirations and a determination to use American power to help fix the problems that most trouble them. It won praise as a superb oratorical performance.

“The cycle of suspicion and discord must end,” Mr Obama declared, to enthusiastic applause. “I have come to seek a new beginning, based on co-operation and respect.” Punctuated with quotations from the Koran, the speech ranged from pressing issues such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear ambitions to principles such as democracy and women’s rights. It culminated in a vision of a more tolerant and peaceful world.

The American president did not shy away from chiding some Muslims for their reluctance to condemn violent extremism or the tendency to measure their own faith by rejection of another. He made a strong pitch for America’s own vision of religious freedom, and called for understanding of the historical suffering of Jews. Castigating the denial of the Nazi Holocaust as “baseless, ignorant and hateful”, he took an indirect swipe at Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But he also evoked Palestinians’ suffering, describing their situation as “intolerable”. He forthrightly repeated his demand for an end to Jewish colonisation of Palestinian territory.

Mr Obama has addressed Muslims before. He granted his first interview as president to an Arab satellite channel, beamed a warm message to Iranians for their spring festival, and spoke at a conference on religious tolerance in Istanbul. But this speech fulfilled his pre-inauguration promise to make a bold bid to restore American prestige with a direct public address in a Muslim capital.

Will Mr Obama’s rousing oratory bear fruit? Many Muslims are still embittered by the legacy of the Bush years, which accumulated injuries ranging from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to scandalous treatment of Muslim prisoners and a perceived deepening of American bias towards a belligerent Israel. Opinion polls, which showed a drastic slide in American prestige, have nudged upwards under Mr Obama, with his own popularity far higher than that of the nation he represents.

Yet the constant refrain, heard on Cairo’s streets as well as from media pundits, is that Arabs and Muslims would like to see Mr Obama’s words matched by deeds. “To win our hearts, you must win our minds first, and our minds are set on the protection of our interests,” declared one of the reams of editorials, columns and open letters from across the region before Mr Obama spoke.

Broadly speaking, and despite the latest internet tirades of Osama bin Laden, most Muslims recognise the sincerity of Mr Obama’s effort to extricate America from Iraq—and its complexity. More grudgingly, they also understand his quandary in Afghanistan. The one issue where Muslim opinion converges with a demand for a change in America’s approach is Palestine. Here, arguably, no American action can be expected fully to assuage Muslim and Arab grievances fast, partly because of what Mr Obama described as America’s “unbreakable bond” with Israel and partly because half of the Palestinians’ divided polity is run by Hamas, an Islamist group still seen as anathema to America. But Muslims are immensely cheered by the fact that Israelis are plainly rattled by Mr Obama’s pressure over the issue of Jewish settlement on occupied land.

Mr Obama’s determination to set America’s relations with Muslims on a new footing will bring hope across the Middle East and farther afield. The difficulty now lies in translating the new goodwill into action, not just by America, but by its Arab and Muslim allies.

The Economist

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Full article and photo: http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13788639&source=features_box_main

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Muslims Will Judge Obama by Actions More Than Words

Saudia Arabia. Obama’s next stop: Cairo.

It is too soon to tell whether President Obama’s 55-minute speech to the Muslim world from Cairo will be the balm to America’s broken relationship with Islam that White House officials hope.

Some early signs are promising — and not just that several times someone in Mr. Obama’s audience in the domed hall yelled out, “I love you!”

Mr. Obama drew applause by promising that America will never be at war with Islam. While maintaining that the United States will continue to fight terrorism and will not shy away from its alliance with Israel, he also invoked the name “Palestine” several times to refer to a Palestinian state. He called publicly for an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and drew parallels between Islam, Christianity and Judaism, embracing all the children of Abraham.

Students on the Cairo University campus.

But one thing is already clear. While Mr. Obama’s strong words may resonate today, on the Arab street and in the madrassas and the tea shops and dining tables where the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims congregate, the future actions of Mr. Obama will be far more important.

For all the talk right now about how much President Bush alienated the Muslim world, Bush administration officials, from the president on down, publicly said nice things about America and Islam as well. Remember Mr. Bush’s stirring speech, in the early days after September 11? Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2001, Mr. Bush sounded eerily similar to Mr. Obama today.

“I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world,” he said. “We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful. And those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying in effect to hijack Islam itself.”

“The enemy of America is not our many Muslims friends,” Mr. Bush said, to applause. “It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.”

In the seven more years that he would govern the United States, Mr. Bush would often repeat those words, or ones similar. So too would his advisers. And yet, America’s relationship with Muslims continued to deteriorate.

Ultimately, policies matter more than words, many Muslim scholars say. They point to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration’s decision to delay calling for a ceasefire back in the summer of 2006 when Israel was pounding Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, America’s refusal to support a Palestinian national unity government that included the militant Islamist organization, Hamas, despite the fact that the United States had initially pushed for those same elections, expecting Hamas to lose.

For Mr. Obama’s words to mean anything, they say, American policy will have to change. And as gifted an orator as the president is, changing the behemoth of United States foreign policy is no easy task, particularly since America’s interests, in many ways, remain the same no matter who is in the White House.

Mr. Obama, while calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq (a plus in the minds of many Muslims) has increased the number of American troops in Afghanistan (a minus for many Muslims). He was noticeably silent during the Israeli siege of Gaza earlier this year, which many Muslims revile as disproportionate. During the Cairo speech on Thursday, he repeated the Bush era ban against official American dealings with Hamas, reiterating that his government won’t engage Hamas until it meets conditions imposed by the Bush administration, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

Whether Mr. Obama can find a way to maneuver between America’s entrenched foreign policy and his own bold vision for trying to forge a peace between America and Islam—and Israel and Palestine, for that matter—may well end up becoming the benchmark against which his presidency will be judged in the Muslim world.

“ ‘Show me the money’ is the attitude of the Arab and the Muslim world,” said Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine. But, he added, that Mr. Obama has some credibility at the moment. He pointed to the brewing fight between the Obama administration and Israel on settlements. “This is going to be the litmus test.”

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Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/politics/05cooper.html?hp

Photos: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,628293,00.html

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Obama plaide pour un “nouveau départ entre les musulmans et les Etats-Unis”

Citant à plusieurs reprises le Coran et son expérience personnelle, le nouveau président a insisté sur “cette vérité que l’Amérique et l’Islam ne s’excluent pas”.

Dans un discours très attendu à l’université du Caire, jeudi 4 juin en Egypte, le président américain Barack Obama a déclaré qu’il était venu “chercher” un “nouveau départ entre les musulmans et les Etats-Unis”, estimant que le “cycle de la méfiance et de la discorde devait s’achever”. Il a également appelé Israël à cesser sa politique de colonisation dans les Territoires palestiniens et répété son engagement en faveur d’un Etat palestinien.

Respect mutuel. Après avoir salué en arabe les 3 000 personnes réunies sous le dôme de la salle d’honneur, le président américain a appelé à la réconciliation entre le monde musulman et l’Occident. “Aucun discours ne peut éliminer des années de méfiance”, mais “tant que nos relations seront définies par nos différences, cela renforcera ceux qui sèment la haine plutôt que la paix, ceux qui font la promotion du conflit plutôt que de la coopération”, a-t-il déclaré. Citant à plusieurs reprises le Coran et son expérience personnelle, le nouveau président a insisté sur “cette vérité que l’Amérique et l’islam ne s’excluent pas”.

Un nouveau départ. Décidé à tourner la page de l’ère Bush, Barack Obama a rappelé la volonté de son administration de rompre avec certaines pratiques instaurées après les attentats du 11-Septembre. “La peur et la colère [...] nous ont parfois conduit à agir contre nos principes”, a-t-il dit, précisant qu’il avait pris des mesures pour mettre fin à la torture et fermer le camp américain de Guantanamo.

Afghanistan. S’il a défendu clairement la politique de son pays et de ses alliés en Afghanistan, le président américain a précisé que les Etats-Unis ne souhaitaient pas rester en Afghanistan. “Ne vous y trompez pas : nous ne voulons pas maintenir nos troupes en Afghanistan. Nous cherchons à n’y avoir aucune base militaire”, a-t-il déclaré.

Irak. Promettant une Amérique ouverte à la diplomatie et l’approche multilatérale, Barack Obama s’est livré à une sorte d’autocritique de la guerre en Irak. L’Amérique “veut désormais remettre l’Irak aux mains des Irakiens”, a-t-il dit, ajoutant que les Etats-Unis n’avaient pas l’intention de maintenir des bases dans le pays.

Iran. Barack Obama a averti qu’une course aux armements nucléaires au Proche-Orient entraînerait la région dans “une voie extrêmement dangereuse”. Il a déclaré à l’adresse de l’Iran que tout pays avait droit au nucléaire civil “s’il assume ses reponsabilités dans le cadre du traité de non-prolifération nucléaire”. Selon lui, la confrontation sur le programme nucléaire controversé iranien est arrivée “à un tournant décisif”, et les Etats-Unis sont disposés à “aller de l’avant sans conditions préalables sur la base du respect mutuel” même s’il sera difficile de “surmonter des décennies de méfiance”.

Israël. Tout en fustigeant le négationnisme, le président américain a pressé jeudi l’Etat hébreu de cesser la colonisation dans les Territoires palestiniens. “Les liens forts de l’Amérique avec Israël sont bien connus. Ce lien est inébranlable”, a-t-il dit, mais “les Etats-Unis n’acceptent pas la légitimité de la poursuite de la colonisation israélienne” qui “viole les accord passés et nuit aux efforts de paix”. “Il est temps que la colonisation cesse”, a-t-il martelé, alors que les relations entre les Etats-Unis et Israël traversent une phase très délicate en raison du refus du gouvernement de Benjamin Netanyahou de geler l’expansion des implantations en Cisjordanie.

Palestine. Barack Obama a affirmé que les Etats-Unis soutenaient les aspirations “légitimes” des Palestiniens à un Etat. “La situation pour le peuple palestinien est intolérable”, a-t-il dit. “La seule résolution [du conflit] est que les aspirations des deux parties soient réalisées dans le cadre de deux Etats, où Israéliens et Palestiniens pourront vivre en paix”, mais, pour y parvenir, les “Palestiniens doivent abandonner la violence.” Il faut que le Hamas “assume ses responsabilités” et “joue un rôle dans la réalisation des aspirations palestiniennes, tout en reconnaissant “le droit d’Israël à exister”, a-t-il précisé.

Education et développement. Le président Barack Obama a promis que les Etats-Unis favoriseraient davantage de projets éducatifs au sein du monde musulman et investiraient dans le développement technologique. Les échanges sont susceptibles d’“apporter de nouvelles richesses et de nouvelles occasions, mais aussi d’énormes perturbations et changements”, a-t-il déclaré, en évoquant les questions épineuses des droits de l’Homme, du rôle de la femme et de leur “libre choix” dans les sociétés musulmanes.

Destiné à quelque 1,5 milliard de musulmans, le discours du président américain a été très largement retransmis par les télévisions en langue arabe du Moyen-Orient, dont Al-Manar, la station du Hezbollah chiite libanais, et la télévision iranienne Al-Alam. La Maison Blanche avait également déployé de très gros moyens pour diffuser les paroles du président sur les réseaux sociaux comme Facebook, Twitter et MySpace, de façon à multiplier son impact, tandis que le site Internet du département d’Etat offrait la possibilité de recevoir des extraits par SMS en arabe, persan, ourdou (la langue nationale du Pakistan) et anglais.

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Full article and photo: http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2009/06/04/obama-le-cycle-de-la-mefiance-avec-les-musulmans-doit-s-achever_1202223_3222.html#xtor=EPR-32280229-%5BNL_Titresdujour%5D-20090604-%5Bzonea%5D&ens_id=1200818

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Obama’s Speech in Cairo

English:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04obama.text.html

Spanish:

http://www.elpais.com/elpaismedia/ultimahora/media/200906/04/internacional/20090604elpepuint_2_Pes_PDF.pdf

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French Court Tries Church of Scientology

Church of Scientology’s Cross

The Church of Scientology’s French branch went on trial on Monday on charges of organised fraud, in a case that could lead to the group being dissolved in France.

Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France and has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult.

The French branch of the group said on Monday religious freedom was threatened.

Its Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in the case. If found guilty, they could be fined 5 million euros ($7 million) and ordered to halt their activities.

Since the two units account for most of the group’s activities in France, that would in practice mean its dissolution — although it is unclear whether it could still open new centres in the future.

Six leading French Scientology members are also in the dock. Some are charged with illegally practising as pharmacists and face up to 10 years in prison and hefty fines. A seventh defendant died before the case came to trial.

The case centres on a complaint made in 1998 by a woman who said she was enrolled into Scientology after members approached her in the street and persuaded her to do a personality test.

In the following months, she paid more than 21,000 euros ($30,000) for books, “purification packs” of vitamins, sauna sessions and an “e-meter” to measure her spiritual progress, she said.

Other people also complained. Five original plaintiffs — three of whom withdrew after reaching a financial settlement with the Church of Scientology — said they spent up to hundreds of thousands of euros on similar tests and cures.

They told investigators that Scientology members harassed them with phone calls and nightly visits to cajole them into paying their bills or taking out bank loans. The plaintiffs were described as “vulnerable” by psychological experts in the case.

A spokesman for Scientology in France, Eric Roux, said freedom of religion was at stake.

“There are 45,000 Scientologists in France and Scientology has been present in our country for 50 years. We have no intention of allowing our fundamental rights to be trampled,” he told Reuters just before the start of the trial.

Scientology, founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, describes the “e-meter” as a religious artefact that helps the user and supervisor locate spiritual distress.

Investigators have described the machine as useless and vitamin cures handed out by church members as medication that should not have been freely sold.

Judge Jean-Christophe Hullin ruled last year that the offices and members, including the group’s 60-year-old French head Alain Rosenberg, should be tried. The public prosecutor had recommended the case be shelved.

In a trial that has revived a debate about religious freedom in secular France, the defence is expected to argue the court should not intervene in religious affairs.

Scientology has faced numerous setbacks in France, with members convicted of fraud in Lyon in 1997 and Marseille in 1999. In 2002, a court fined it for violating privacy laws and said it could be dissolved if involved in further similar cases.

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Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/05/25/world/AP-EU-France-Scientology.html

Photo: http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/05/25/que-croient-les-scientologues_1197468_3224.html#ens_id=1197411

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See also:

Pour ses responsables, la scientologie n’est pas une petite entreprise

Elle est un peu à cran, Sabine Jacquart. Voilà un peu plus d’une semaine qu’elle est assise aux côtés de ses cinq coreligionnaires scientologues, renvoyés comme elle devant le tribunal correctionnel de Paris pour “escroquerie en bande organisée” et “exercice illégal de la pharmacie” et là, elle craque. Ce mercredi 3 juin vient son tour de répondre aux questions des juges et, quand elle se présente à la barre, elle la serre avec nervosité. “Je suis choquée. La seule chose que j’entends ici, c’est que les scientologues harcèlent des gens, qu’on les menace alors que moi-même, j’ai vécu des raids de la police dans l’Eglise et des descentes à mon domicile”, déplore-t-elle dans un sanglot.

Au sein de l’Eglise de scientologie fondée en 1954 par l’écrivain américain de science-fiction Ron Hubbard, Sabine Jacquart, 44 ans, est “membre active” depuis vingt ans. En 1998, au moment où Aude-Claire Malton, l’une des plaignantes, assure avoir été ruinée par les scientologues qui auraient abusé de son état de faiblesse, Sabine Jacquart était présidente de l’association spirituelle de l’Eglise de scientologie – Celibrity center (ASES-CC). Concernant l’affaire proprement dite, elle n’a pas “grand-chose à dire”. “Je représentais l’association de l’Eglise. C’est la trésorière qui s’occupait de la comptabilité”, lance-t-elle. Et d’ailleurs, comment pouvait-elle savoir ? “L’organigramme de la scientologie compte six divisions” et répertorie “environ 300 fonctions”, comment aurait-elle pu avoir un regard sur tout ? Et si les “paroissiens” s’endettent à des taux prohibitifs après avoir vidé tous leurs comptes, – comme ce fut le cas de Aude-Claire Malton – “c’est l’affaire de la personne”, relève l’ancienne présidente.

“C’est la personne qui choisit le cursus qui lui convient le mieux”, précise Sabine Jacquart. Pour sa part, la seule chose qui lui importe, ce “qu’elle ne veut pas perdre”, c’est la scientologie. Depuis vingt ans, elle a “donné beaucoup”, et elle donne encore : “Beaucoup plus que madame Malton qui en plus a été remboursée.”

Malgré cela, pour Sabine Jacquart, l’argent et la scientologie, cela n’a rien à voir. “Il faut être en accord avec ça, sinon ça ne marche pas”, martèle-t-elle avec une telle énergie dans le micro que la présidente, Sophie-Hèlène Château, l’enjoint de ne pas s’énerver. “Je ne suis pas énervée, je suis perturbée”, réplique la petite femme. En France, “l’Église de scientologie est diabolisée”, regrette-t-elle encore tout en exprimant sa perplexité : “Si les écrits de Ron Hubbard avaient présenté un danger, ça fait longtemps que ça aurait été interdit. Si c’est un charlatan, pourquoi le livre (de Ron Hubbard) est-il à la disposition des gens ?”

Le livre. En réalité une somme d’ouvrages écrits par Ron Hubbard qui décrivent la Dianétique, sorte de traité du comportement censé permettre à l’individu de s’élever vers la spiritualité, non sans se procurer, contre monnaie sonnante et trébuchante, les indispensables outils religieux, comme le fameux électromètre. Cet engin vendu plus de 4 800 euros, est apte à “mesurer certaines manifestations émotionnelles”, admet Philippe Ripoche, un expert commis par la défense des scientologues. Malgré cela, il n’est “rien d’autre qu’un leurre destiné à donner un aspect scientifique à une opération qui n’a rien de tel”, indique l’expert.

C’est au long des chapitres du livre que les scientologues puisent tout leur savoir, au fil de ses milliers de pages qu’ils obtiennent les réponses à leurs interrogations. Sur la vie, la quête religieuse, le programme de “purification” et son régime basé sur la sudation avec ses cinq heures de sauna quotidien, ses prises de vitamines et ses enseignements, sur l’organisation de l’Eglise, les tâches de ses membres…

Comme l’a affirmé avec force mardi 2 juin à la barre, Alain Rosenberg, le directeur général du Celibrity-Center de la rue Legendre, à Paris, chez les scientologues, on s’en tient “aux écrits de Ron Hubbard”. Ce haut hiérarque de l’Eglise de scientologie, figure parmi la vingtaine de disciples français à avoir atteint le grade d’OT7. Il ne veut pas être pris comme le représentant d’une société commerciale. “Je suis un homme d’église et pas un directeur général de société”, s’est-il indigné. Selon lui, toutes les sommes d’argent qui sont versées à l’Eglise sont des dons qu’il ne faut pas confondre avec des achats. “Les scientologues sont contents de contribuer à leur église”, a-t-il assuré. L’audience se poursuit jusqu’au 17 juin.

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Full article: http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/06/04/pour-ses-responsables-la-scientologie-n-est-pas-une-petite-entreprise_1202296_3224.html

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Vatican Reveals Letter That Split England From Roman Church

This letter (in Latin) requesting the annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon would anticipate the schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of England.

The Vatican has opened its Secret Archives, the repository of centuries worth of documents pertaining to the Holy See, to let the world get a closer look at a document presaging the schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of England. Dated July 13, 1530 and addressed to Pope Clement VII, the letter asks for the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and includes the seals of dozens of peers of England who concurred with the request. A facsimile of the document will go on sale next month for about $68,000 from Venice-based publisher Scrinium, which plans a limited run of 199 copies. A second, more damaged, copy of the document is in England’s National Archives in Kew. The facsimile and accompanying scholarly texts will allow for closer perusal of “the cause of Henry VIII,” Monsignor Sergio Pagano, the archive’s Prefect, told journalists on Tuesday. It will be officially presented in June, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Henry’s coronation, but the timing is a coincidence, Monsignor Pagano said. “We do not celebrate kings, only popes.”

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Full article and photo: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/vatican-reveals-letter-that-split-england-from-roman-church/?hp

Photo: http://asv.vatican.va/en/doc/1530.htm

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ADDRESS OF THE PEERS OF ENGLAND TO POPE CLEMENT VII
ASKING FOR THE ANNULMENT OF KING HENRY VIII’S MARRIAGE  [ex Anglia], 1530 July 13^th

Parchment, mm 950×458; open envelope on which (dark red) ribbons are sewn, bearing 85 seals of just as many signers of the document. The seals, in red wax, nearly all navette-shaped, are contained in tin caskets. 
   ASV, A. A., Arm. I‑XVIII, 4098 A (XC); detail of the seals (XCI)

Whatever the remote cause of the Anglican schism, there is no doubt that the most immediate and determining cause was Henry VIII’s (1509-1547) wish to get rid of his legitimate wife, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and aunt of the future emperor Charles V, in order to get married with Anne Boleyn, lady-in-waiting, who wanted to belong to him only as a wife. The sovereign did not hide his intentions and was ready to take any decision in order to achieve his aim. In fact, in 1527, Henry VIII undertook some initiatives with the local archbishops and with the papal legate, Cardinal Wolsey, so that the cause of nullity of the sovereign’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon (who had given birth to 6 children, of whom only Mary Tudor survived) was dealt with in England, where it was easy for the King to exercise his pressure. This was by no means allowed by the Pontiff, who moved the trial of the case to Rome.

Due to the delicate implications the case implied, both for its juridical nature and for the ecclesiastic policy, Clement VII took time before pronouncing a sentence. And during this difficult situation the King and his ministers never ceased to put pressure on Rome, so that the issue could be quickly resolved. Also the Peers of England, all together, acted in favour of the sovereign and with the present document – in an intentionally solemn form – in 1530 asked the Pope to put an end to their long wait and to that of the entire English Nation.

Their request has an urging nature, and is definitely not a plea for the annulment, which they take for granted, considering the favourable opinion already given by the English, French and Italian scholars, as well as the benevolence always shown by the King towards the Holy See (from line 5: Sufficere sane alioquin debuisset causae ipsius iusticia eruditissimorum virorum calculis passim probata celeberimarum academiarum suffragiis iudicata ab Anglis, a Gallis, ab Italis prout quisque apud eos ceteros eruditione antecellit pronunciata et diffinita ut Sanctitas Vestra, etiam nemine petente et reclamantibus quibuscumque, suo ore suaque auctoritate aliorum sentencias confirmaret, presertim cum causae diffinicio eum regem, illud regnum respiciat, quod de Sede illa Apostolica tam multis nominibus benemeritum sit). At the end of the text, the Peers declare their intention to agree with the Pontiff whatever his sentence may be (third last line: Interim vero Deum Optimum Maximum, quem ipsam esse veritatem certissimo testimonio cognoscimus, comprecabimur, ut Sanctitatis Vestre consilia ita informare atque dirigere dignetur, ut quod sanctum, iustum ac verum est a Vestre Sanctitatis auctoritate obtinentes, ab omni alia assequende veritatis molestia liberemur). It is well-know that the Pope then declared legitimate Henry VIII’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon, and therefore indissoluble, and how the sovereign, hindered from carrying out his plans, got married again and declared the separation of the Church of England from the Church of Rome (the Anglican schism).

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Full article: http://asv.vatican.va/en/doc/1530.htm

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See also:

Divorce papers ‘not Pope’s gift’ to Charles

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6135103.ece

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See also:

La demande de divorce d’Henri VIII vendue en fac-similé

Le préfet des archives secrètes du Vatican, Mgr Sergio Pagano, ne s’en cache pas : l’entretien des 85 km de linéaires qui abritent les documents relatifs à la vie et l’oeuvre des papes coûte cher. Le Saint-Siège a de nouveau sacrifié à la loi de l’événementiel en mettant en vente, à 50 000 euros pièce, 199 exemplaires d’un fac-similé de la lettre envoyée en 1530 par le roi d’Angleterre Henri VIII au pape Clément VII pour lui demander de dissoudre son mariage avec Catherine d’Aragon, qui ne lui donnait pas d’héritier mâle, afin d’épouser Anne Boleyn. La suite est connue : du refus du pape naîtra le schisme anglican. Et Anne Boleyn, accusée d’adultère, d’inceste et de haute trahison, mourra décapitée en 1536.

Une lettre ? Un parchemin d’un mètre de large, signé de 85 pairs du royaume, auquel sont suspendus autant de sceaux de cire reliés par 40 mètres de ruban. Poids total de la missive, répertoriée sous le nom de Causa anglicana : 2,5 kilos. “Une supplique pressante qui a fait souffrir l’Angleterre et l’Eglise”, a expliqué Mgr Paganao aux journalistes en leur présentant l’exemplaire numéro un qui sera offert à Benoit XVI.

Réalisé par l’atelier vénitien Scrinium, ce fac-similé a été réalisé à partir d’un des deux originaux en possession du Vatican. L’autre, en mauvais état, se trouve aux archives nationales d’Angleterre, à Kew. L’élaboration de ce travail de reproduction, confié à l’historien Marco Maiorino, a permis de déchiffrer une signature jusque-là illisible. C’est le seul “gain historique” de l’entreprise.

Retour à la communion

Mais l’intérêt est ailleurs. C’est une opération de marketing, à l’instar de celle qui, en octobre 2007, avait accompagné la publication d’un ouvrage exceptionnel sur les templiers intitulé Processus contra Templarios : 799 exemplaires au prix unitaire de 5 900 euros. Le succès de cette entreprise, qui surfe sur la vague des livres à “mystères historiques” devrait conduire le Saint-Siège à d’autres opérations. Interrogé, Mgr Pagano s’est toutefois refusé à dévoiler le montant des royalties reversé au Vatican.

Repoussée en raison du tremblement de terre de l’Aquila, la présentation de la Causa anglicana s’est heurtée cette fois à l’actualité du divorce de Silvio Berlusconi. La presse italienne n’a pas manqué de faire le rapprochement entre la Causa anglicana et la décision de Veronica Berlusconi de mettre fin à son mariage. Mais, cinq siècles plus tard, l’Eglise est moins sourcilleuse. Les émissaires du président du conseil envoyés au Vatican sont revenus rassurés : la Curie n’a pas l’intention de faire de ce divorce une Causa italiana. Mieux : cette séparation permettra au chef du gouvernement italien, déjà divorcé et remarié civilement, de recevoir à nouveau la communion.

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Full article: http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2009/05/20/la-demande-de-divorce-d-henri-viii-vendue-en-fac-simile_1195752_0.html

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See also:

La lettera che fece litigare Enrico VIII e il Papa

CITTÀ DEL VATICANO – possa suggerire improvvide imitazioni da parte di imperatori più recenti è solo una boutade da sala stampa. La parola “divorzio” echeggia discreta nello studio privato di monsignor Sergio Pagano, Prefetto dell’ Archivio Segreto Vaticano, che per la prima volta apre ai giornalisti le porte della sua stanza, tra splendide Madonne cinquecentesche, libri sacri, saggi, computer e megaschermo di sorveglianza. «Sono obbligato a ricevere la stampa nel mio ufficio», sorride il depositario dei molti segreti vaticani, alludendo all’ armadio che nasconde l’ importante documento dei Tudor, ora per la prima volta analizzato, studiato e riprodotto in facsimile dalla veneta Scrinium (la società fiduciaria del Vaticano che ha pubblicato tra l’ altro il Processus contra templarios). Su un tavolo è sistemata la copia di Causa Anglica ( il nome della pergamena), che sarà presentata il 24 giugno a Roma in occasione del quinto centenario dell’ incoronazione di Enrico VIII. Il primo esemplare è destinato a Benedetto XVI, mentre gli altri centonovantanove saranno messi in vendita al prezzo di 50 mila euro. Un capolavoro di filologico artigianato, che accompagnerà le celebrazioni già programmate dai National Archives di Kew, dove è custodito l’ altro originale. Da Shakespeare ai Simpson, da sempre la figura di Enrico VIII sollecita curiosità e fantasie popolari. Ci si interroga ora sulla ragione di questa nuova iniziativa vaticana: c’ è forse una relazione con il viaggio inglese del pontefice – per ora solo un invito – programmato entro la fine dell’ anno? «I documenti restano solo per gli studiosi», liquida monsignor Pagano, che ricorda il “sovrano distacco” con cui la principessa Margaret – ospite del suo studio privato ignorò il prezioso cimelio. La novità della ricerca investe soprattutto i sottoscrittori della lettera, duchi, marchesi, conti, visconti, baroni, vescovi, arcivescovi, abati e teologi, eterogenei per fazione politica e fede religiosa, uniti però dalla fedeltà al sovrano e in parte da un comune destino tragico (molti finiranno sul patibolo). All’ elenco già noto gli studiosi Marco Maiorino, Luca Becchetti e Bruno Becchetti aggiungono un nome nuovo, quello di John Bell, arcidiacono e consigliere giuridico del sovrano. Il suo sigillo è l’ ultimo, l’ ottantacinquesimo, e riproduce una campana (da qui il cognome). Forse una collocazione non casuale, suggeriscono i professori, alludendo ai tocchi minacciosi con cui si chiude la lettera. Quanti patimenti e quante vite spezzate dietro gli ottantacinque sigilli in ceralacca che chiudono uno dei documenti più impressionanti dell’ Inghilterra dei Tudor. Un’ abbagliante cascata di gemme rosse nelle quali è incisa una pagina fondamentale della storia inglese, ma anche delle coscienze religiose. È dalla lettera inviata nel 1530 da larga parte della Camera dei Lord a papa Clemente VII che prese avvio lo scisma anglicano, una pergamena che invoca con “accenti supplici e intimidatori” l’ annullamento del matrimonio tra Enrico VIII e Caterina d’ Aragona. Il pontefice non acconsentì e il sovrano andò per suo conto. Un “tribolato caso” di divorzio, quello tra il torreggiante Enricoe la coraggiosa Caterina, di cui un capitolo fondamentale è custodito in un armadio del Vaticano. Del “big matter” di Enrico VIII si torna a parlare nei giorni di un altro celebre “divorce”, ma è pura coincidenza: il timore che il prezioso suggello scarlatto.

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Full article: http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2009/05/13/la-lettera-che-fece-litigare-enrico-viii.html

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Lingua Franca

French pop stars are daring to sing in English

WHEN THE public television network France 3 chose electro-pop singer Sébastien Tellier to represent France at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, the response from politicians was swift—and angry. 

Simon Buret of AaRON.

François-Michel Gonnot, a parliamentarian from Nicolas Sarkozy’s center-right UMP party, demanded that the Ministry of Culture look into the matter, declaring in a letter that he was “shocked” by the selection and expressing his hope that the broadcaster rethink its choice.

Other members of parliament followed suit, suggesting that a performance by Mr. Tellier, a shaggy-haired, full-bearded singer with a penchant for big sunglasses, might even be unconstitutional. Infuriated bloggers soon joined the fight on the Internet, filling online discussion boards with acrimonious debate over Mr. Tellier’s selection.

What prompted all this outrage? The lyrics of Mr. Tellier’s song, “Divine,” are almost entirely in English.

“It was crazy,” says Marc Tessier du Cros, the head of Mr. Tellier’s label Record Maker, almost a year after the Eurovision controversy. “He was considered an anti-French guy.”

The uproar died down eventually and Mr. Tellier changed a few more words of the song into his mother tongue for the Eurovision performance. But he’s not the only French musician choosing to defy his country’s tradition of linguistic patriotism. A growing number of French pop artists are writing and performing in English—and reaching larger audiences.

Bands like AaRON, Cocoon and The Dø (pronounced “The Dough”) are rising to the top of the French charts with songs sung in English. More established artists, like singers Émilie Simon and Camille, who originally found success singing mainly in French, are also releasing new songs and albums in English.

But while an English song might help French artists sell their albums abroad, back at home, where the law requires that at least 40% of all songs played on radio or television are in French, singing in English can pose serious problems. Major music labels, which are all too aware of the quota system, often tell aspiring artists to stick to French if they want quick success.

“French radio [stations] are very closed,” says Mr. du Cros. “If you sing in English, you compete against Madonna and Beyoncé. If you sing in French, you compete against Johnny Hallyday.”

It was with this attitude in mind that Mr. du Cros, in 2000, founded his own label to promote artists who sing in a language other than French. “We target small audiences in many countries rather than a big audience in France,” he says. “Artists have to sing in the language they feel is right.”

The French debate over English lyrics is part of the country’s larger struggle with the forces of globalization—whether in the world of business or pop culture. There is the France that acknowledges English is now key to most successful business careers, and that introduces the language at ever-earlier stages in its educational system. And then there is the country that refuses to accept English as the language of international communication and forces companies and advertisers to translate every document and slogan into French.

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Camille

French pop: Ecoutez, et répétez

Some new albums by French artists recording in English.

• Sébastien Tellier, “Sexuality”

“Look away/They try to find the Milky Way/They love to drink it every day,” Sébastien Tellier sings in “Divine,” his Eurovision Song Contest entry. But Mr. Tellier’s third studio album “Sexuality” is less about obscure lyrics than about his sound, dominated by synthesizers, electronic melodies and Mr. Tellier’s soft voice. Think ’80s disco with a touch of Air, the French electronica duo.

• The Dø, “A Mouthful”

Not even a bite of French made it into “A Mouthful,” the first album from Franco-Finnish duo “The Dø.” But the album still made it to the top of France’s pop charts. The album also includes a song in Finnish, “Unissasi Laulelet” (“You sing when you sleep”).

• Camille, “Music Hole”

Camille’s “Music Hole” is filled with unusual sounds. On the album’s 12 tracks she switches effortlessly from English to French, from claps to snaps and stomps. The album includes a selection of 11 video clips in which the singer demonstrates the seemingly endless possibilities of extracting sounds from her own body.

• Émilie Simon, “Live à l’Olympia”

This live recording from a 2006 concert in Paris brings you the best of Émilie Simon’s earlier works. In “Fleur de Saison” (“Flower of the season”) she softly breathes her French lyrics into the microphone before changing into a fast-moving electro-pop song. “In the Lake” questions a lover’s commitment as moods and weather change; singing it in English, Ms. Simon sounds a little like Madonna with a French accent.

• AaRON, “Artificial Animals Riding On Neverland”

Philippe Lioret’s film about the loss of a twin brother, “Je vais bien, ne t’en fais pas” (“I’ll be fine, don’t worry”), uses Simon Buret and Olivier Coursier’s first single, “U-Turn (Lili),” as its title song. The same dreamy melancholy runs through AaRON’s self-titled album, from “Mr. King,” where Mr. Buret bemoans the death of his goldfish, to the band’s second single “Tunnel d’Or” (“Tunnel of Gold”), the only French song on the CD. Heavy piano chords and a symphony orchestra set the mood throughout the CD’s 11 tracks.

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In the middle of it all are a new generation of artists and their fans, mostly in their teens, 20s or early 30s, who have grown up in a world where English is the language of modern pop music. They spent their youth listening to global stars like Michael Jackson, Prince or Alanis Morissette. They no longer discover new music via radio or TV. For them, the favorite tune on their iPod playlist might have come from the band’s site on MySpace, a YouTube video or an MP3 from a friend’s memory stick.

With the feathery earrings, straight fringe and short summer dress Olivia Merilahti wears in the music video to the song “On My Shoulders,” the lead singer and song writer of the The Dø wouldn’t seem out of place in the trendy bars of Williamsburg, New York; Islington, London or Friedrichshain, Berlin. The band’s indie sound and hipster look play well with a generation that is used to buying the same periwinkle T-shirt at American Apparel and sipping the same vanilla latte at Starbucks in Los Angeles, London or Lyon.

As a teenager growing up in Paris, Ms. Merilahti, the daughter of a Finnish mother and French father, practiced her English by looking up the words she didn’t understand in the lyrics of Queen, Mariah Carey or The Offsping in a dictionary. “It’s my musical language,” says Ms. Merilahti. “It’s what I’ve been listening to all my life.”

Yet, when she met Dan Levy, her partner in The Dø, in 2004 and they started recording in his small studio, her expectations for commercial success weren’t high. “So many people said, ‘You’ll never hit number one, you’ll never even be in the charts if you sing in English’,” she remembers.

But then Oxford, the maker of school notebooks, chose one of the group’s songs for a commercial in the fall of 2007. Within days, the number of clicks on The Dø’s MySpace site began to soar and when they released their CD “A Mouthful” a few months later it was the first English-language album by a French band ever to top the charts in France.

The Internet has radically changed the way music is promoted, sold and distributed. With the help of YouTube, MySpace and other social networking Web sites, artists can promote their own sound and image, often bypassing large record labels and radio stations that are still regulated by the quota system.

At the same time, France itself has become more multicultural. An influx of immigrants and expats have changed the country over the past half-century, even as more French citizens spend extended periods of time in other countries.

Since the 1980s, the number of students going abroad through Erasmus, the European Union’s university-exchange program, has increased more than 20-fold. No other EU country, apart from Germany, sends as many of its students abroad as does France, most of them to English-speaking countries. And that doesn’t even count those who choose to spend a year or a semester at colleges and graduate schools in the U.S., Canada or Australia.

For many of them, being French and proud of it is no longer inextricably linked to the language of Voltaire and Hugo. “France is still hoping that it can be something special again,” Clément Barbier, a 22-year old student from St. Etienne in the east of France, says about his country’s language-protection and song-quota laws.

While he likes the idea of his government supporting a certain diversity in musical expression, “the way it works out in France now is rather stupid,” says Mr. Barbier, himself member of an English-singing amateur band. “It is silly support for nationalistic symbols that are outdated and no longer linked to reality.”

Sébastien Tellier

For many artists it’s not only the prospect of reaching larger audiences that makes English their language of choice. The music they play is no longer entirely French in its origin.

Rather it has soaked up influences from other styles and cultural experiences, especially from the U.K. and the U.S. When that happens, English seems native to the song, even if it’s not the artist’s mother tongue.

“Most of the time, I start with the music, you know, with the melody,” says Émilie Simon, who writes songs in French and English. “And I have these words coming. It’s very simple: If the words come in French, it’s because the song has to be in French. If the words come in English… I just follow the music of the words that come to me.”

Ms. Simon is currently recording her third studio album and also composed songs for the European soundtrack of the movie “The March of the Penguins.” Around a year ago, she moved from Paris to New York City—to find inspiration. And what she absorbs, she says, goes beyond the language. It’s part of a larger experience that will ultimately leave its mark on her new songs.

“I see everything as part of the same thing, like colors, you use them and you paint: You need some French, you need some English and you need some strings,” she says, explaining her songwriting process. “In the end, what counts is the big picture and what it says and how you feel when you listen to it.”

Olivia Merilahti of The Dø

Another artist who has mastered the skill of painting with sounds, words and instruments is Camille, a French singer who goes only by her first name. After releasing two successful albums in French, her new CD “Music Hole” is almost entirely in English.

At a recent concert in the famously multilingual city of Brussels, most of the audience was French-speaking. But when Camille took the stage—whether she was singing about “Canards Sauvages,” wild ducks, or the “Money Note,” in which she pokes fun at the allure of pop divas—words and languages soon lost their meaning.

They became sounds of their own, mixing with the voices, claps and stomps of Camille and her background singers.

(At the end of the set, the singer and her band gathered at the front of the stage and sang a melody around three English words that have become a kind of global catch-phrase: “Yes, we can.”)

“In my generation, you had to speak English,” says Mr. Tellier, who admits that his own, heavily accented English might have benefited from some extra studying at school. “For us, English was a good thing.”

Thinking back to the commotion before his Eurovision appearance, Mr. Tellier can’t help but be a little amused. He couldn’t have hoped for a better promotion for his song, which, despite a positive reception from critics, performed poorly in the actual contest.

Mr. Tellier doesn’t believe that singing in English makes him any less French. Rather, making his music accessible to a larger number of people is a way of communicating what he calls “the French spirit.”

“For me it’s impossible to make English music, because I’m French,” says Mr. Tellier. “My conclusion was: To be a good French guy, I have to sing in English.”

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Full article and photos: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123438222181274165.html

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