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The arrival of a USS Georgia submarine in the port of Gibraltar has sparked a diplomatic row between Spain and the US. The Spanish Foreign Ministry has confirmed that it has lodged an official protest with the US. The Spanish authorities wanted the submarine to anchor at the Rota naval base instead, where the US Georgia had already been based in August 2020. The reasons and the duration for the stopover of the submarine remain unknown.

The Rome official, an outspoken critic of the dubia, is teaching a US diocese about Amoris LaetitiaA curious course on matrimony and family is taking place at the moment in the diocese of Austin, Texas. Curious because the three-day event, which began yesterday, is being led by Mgr Pio Vito Pinto, Dean of the Roman Rota – while his office back in Rome appears to have had little or no involvement in the course’s preparation.Judging from its content, its speaker, and its somewhat low-profile nature, the course could set out to push a certain interpretation of Amoris Laetitia in the USA: one...

For years, the Obama Administration has stood behind two excuses (given under oath) for not sending a quick reaction force to assist in rescuing American citizens during the Sept. 11, 2012 al Qaeda-linked attacks on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four Americans. The first excuse being: There were no forces available that could have responded quickly. The second reason was: Even if they had scrambled more people, they couldn't have gotten there in time to make a difference. Now, an email, hidden for three years, has come to light and...

Spain, following the lead of Turkey, Poland and Romania, will participate in NATO's anti-missile shield, Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero, said in a surprise announcement on October 5, in Brussels. "Zapatero cedes Rota," runs a headline in left-leaning Spanish daily Público. Zapatero explained that the naval base at Rota, located in southern Spain, near Cadiz, which is already part of the NATO system, will host a further four US war ships, equipped with anti-missile batteries and as well as 1300 additional US troops. Spain will thus become "a key component of the European defence system," the paper says, adding that...

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe told administrators this week that schools will have to drop the word “American” from their official names. Also, any schools named after a person will have to be called by a moniker more reflective of its location. That means Ramstein American High School will simply be known as Ramstein High School. And David Glasgow Farragut High School in Rota, Spain, will take on the shorter name of Rota High School. The school in southern Spain is named for the U.S. Navy’s first admiral. School administrators were notified of the changes in a...

Coming upon the recent news that the US Navy is pulling the plug on Naval Station Rota, the US Navy has just announced the withdrawal of forces from La Maddalena as Part of "Transformation." In a move to adjust its forces to meet current and future readiness needs in the European theater, the United States and Italy have decided to remove U.S. Navy forces from La Maddalena, Sardinia. In a carefully worded announcement, the US claims that "the capabilities provided by the installation are no longer required due to the realities of the new century’s security environment." A cynic might...

ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- America’s Tall Ship, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Barque Eagle (WIX 327), brought a different kind of sailor to Naval Station Rota July 29 when she made a three-day port visit. “We’re the only commissioned tall ship in the United States that’s active and sailing,” said Capt. Eric J. Shaw, Eagle’s Commanding Officer. “So we’re Coast Guardsmen that sail. We’re sailors on a barque - not a ship, not a cutter. You can tell how confusing it can become.” Confusing terms or not, Eagle’s mission is clear, to serve as a training platform for the U.S. Coast...

Commander, Naval Forces Europe/Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet has announced that Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron TWO (VQ-2) will relocate from NAS Rota, Spain, to NAS Whidbey Island, WA, effective Sept. 1. The relocation of VQ-2's six aircraft and 450 Sailors to the United States "is in keeping with the Navy's ongoing transformation of forces in Europe, and will help reduce costs and eliminate redundancies throughout its force structure worldwide." The move will co-locate the squadron with VQ-1, already based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. The stated reasons are for increased efficiency of operation of the aging aircraft, economy of...

MADRID (Reuters) - An al Qaeda cell based in France planned a chemical attack on a U.S. naval base in Rota, Spain, newspaper ABC reported on Tuesday. Algerian Said Arif, extradited to France from Syria last year, has admitted his cell was plotting a chemical attack on the southern Spanish base controlled by the United States since 1953, the Spanish daily reported. The paper said Arif was considered a lieutenant of Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq. Zarqawi himself was accused of planning a chemical attack last year in his native Jordan, which authorities thwarted. Arif was...

POPE JOHN PAUL II'S HEAVIEST CROSS: THE DISOBEDIENT CLERICS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES

ADDRESS OF POPE JOHN PAUL II TO MEMBERS OF THE TRIBUNAL OF THE ROMAN ROTA Saturday, 29 January 2005 1. This annual appointment with you, dear Prelate Auditors of the Apostolic Tribunal of the Roman Rota, highlights the essential connection between your precious work and the judicial aspect of the Petrine ministry. The words of the Dean of your College have expressed your common commitment to full fidelity in your ecclesial service. It is in this perspective that I would like to place certain considerations concerning the moral dimension of the activity of all who work at the ecclesiastical tribunals,...

Vatican updates rules on marriage annulment VATICAN CITY - The Vatican today issued the first revised guidebook on marriage annulments in nearly 70 years, but a senior cardinal could not say whether it would stem the soaring number of annulments around the world. The 111-page guidebook, called Dignitas Connubii (The Dignity of Marriage) is a complex legal code for use by Roman Catholic diocesan tribunals which decide on marriage annulments. Catholic law bans divorce but allows believers to remarry in the Church if they get an annulment declaring a previous union void. More than 50,000 annulments are granted every year...

Pope Warns Church Courts About Marriage Rulings Tribunals Not Above Temptations in Annulment Cases, He Says VATICAN CITY, JAN. 30, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II warned against the temptation, which can also entice ecclesiastical judges, to consider failed marriages as automatically invalid. The Pope gave this warning Saturday when he received in audience the judges and lawyers of the Roman Rota, the Church's central appellate court. The greatest number of appeals are petitions for the declaration of nullity of the marriage. The Catholic Church, while holding that marriage is indissoluble and therefore excluding the possibility of divorce, recognizes that in...

WASHINGTON - Hoping to learn more about undersea volcanoes, scientists sent a camera-equipped submarine down to take a look. They got more than they bargained for, witnessing a deep-sea eruption. "At first we really didn't understand what was going on," said Bob Embley, chief scientist on the mission, which involved nearly three dozen researchers. "We were seeing billowing clouds coming up and turning yellow. There was sulfur and rocks were flying out," said Embley, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. "We realized we were the first to witness a deep-sea volcano during...

Sixth Fleet may move to Spain John Hooper in Rome and Giles Tremlett in Madrid Saturday February 7, 2004 The Guardian (UK) The American navy said last night that it was considering moving its key, troubleshooting Sixth Fleet away from its base in Italy to Spain. The move would deal a huge blow to the local economy in the area between Rome and Naples, but is likely to be greeted by Italians with as much bafflement as dismay. They had for some time been braced for a decision by Washington to shift the fleet's base port further eastwards, perhaps to...

Wald Says Changed World Drives EUCOM Transformation By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2003 – In 1987 more than 300,000 U.S. troops were stationed throughout Europe primarily to prevent a Soviet invasion, U.S. European Command's deputy commander noted here Aug. 5. Yet, today, just 106,000 American troops serve within EUCOM's area of operations, Air Force Gen. Chuck F. Wald pointed out during a Pentagon roundtable meeting with DoD military and civilian reporters. Although the Cold War became a relic of history with the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet...

ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- Spanish authorities recently thwarted an attempt by the environmental activist organization Greenpeace to block the entrance to Naval Station Rota's port, when the group's members used small inflatable boats and their mother ship, Rainbow Warrior II, to try to impede ship traffic in and out of the port. The Rainbow Warrior II and crew arrived in Cadiz March 8 after demonstrating in the Netherlands in late February. Their demonstration against war in Iraq continued here when they attempted to stop the Coast Guard Cutter Dallas from leaving port March 13 and by threatening entry into the...