NY Mayor Bloomberg's 2014 plans

(Reuters) - A golfing holiday and learning to speak Spanish "like a native" are at the top of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's list of activities he will pursue when his term ends in December, he said in an interview published on Wednesday.

"Look, I will stay involved in the cases I care about. I will try to tighten gun-control laws, combat climate change and improve public health, he told Forbes magazine. Exactly how, I don't know," Michael Bloomberg, 71, said in the interview with Forbes.

Bloomberg made his $ 31 billion fortune with Bloomberg LP, the financial data and news company, but will not return to running the company.

"I can tell you what I won't do. I won't become a professional investor.  I won't teach. I won't become a consultant.. I won't go back to Bloomberg LP and I won't  start a new company. Am I clear?"

He plans to give his entire fortune away through his foundation, citing both Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and former U.S. president Bill Clinton as models, and will continue to fund political candidates who support his beliefs on tightening gun-control and reforming education.

Bloomberg will become the chairman of the Serpentine Gallery in London, a city where he will spend more time after leaving office and where he owns at least one home. Bloomberg Place, the largest building development underway in the city's financial district, will become the European outpost of his company and foundation.

The mayor will attend the inauguration of his successor on January 1. The next day, Bloomberg, who frequently flies to his home in Bermuda at weekends, said he will take his "first vacation in 12 years" with friend Diana Taylor to play golf in Hawaii and New Zealand. 

adapted from Reuters

Vatican Asks Catholics for Input on Family

The Vatican is asking bishops around the world to find out what Roman Catholics think about church teachings in some controversial areas, including birth control, divorce, and same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the Vatican's Synod of Bishops, sent out the survey October 18 and asked bishops to have the results by the end of January.

The Vatican document said there are "many new situations requiring the Church's attention," including same-sex union adoptions, polygamy, mixed or inter-religious marriage, an increase in the practice of surrogate motherhood, and "forms of feminism hostile to the Church."

It is not clear how Catholic bishops will respond to the directive.

A spokeswoman for the U.S.bishops conference, Helen Osman, said in an email Thursday "Each U.S. bishop will determine what will be the most useful way of gathering information to provide to Rome."

The Bishops Conference of England and Wales has posted a survey online that Catholics in their countries can use to answer the questions.

Included among the questions are "How is God's mercy proclaimed to separated, divorced and remarried couples?" and "How can churches respond when gays seek a religious education or Holy communion for their children?"

The results of the worldwide survey will be discussed at a Vatican synod on the family in October 2014, presided over by Pope Francis. A second meeting will be held in 2015.


adapted from Reuters and VOA

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