Apple hit with record EU tax bill

Yahoo – AFP, Danny Kemp, August 30, 2016

The European Union has ordered Apple to pay a record 13 billion euros in
back taxes in Ireland (AFP Photo/Philippe Huguen)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU ordered tech giant Apple on Tuesday to pay a record 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland, a move Washington warned could damage hugely important transatlantic economic ties.

Brussels said Apple, the world's most valuable company, avoided virtually all tax on its business in the bloc by illegal arrangements with Dublin which gave the company an unfair advantage over competitors.

Apple and the Irish government immediately said they would appeal against the European Commission ruling, with the iPhone maker warning it could cost European jobs.

The White House meanwhile cautioned against "unilateral" measures by the EU.

The company's shares lost some of their shine after the ruling, down 0.7 percent in early afternoon trading, making for a more than 3 percent loss over the past two weeks ahead of the highly anticipated ruling.

"This decision sends a clear message. Member states cannot give unfair tax benefits to selected companies, no matter if European or foreign, large or small," EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

"The Commission's investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, which enabled it to pay substantially less tax than other businesses over many years," she added.

Ireland has attracted multinationals over many years by offering extremely favourable sweetheart tax deals to generate much-needed jobs and investment.

But after a three-year investigation Brussels said the arrangement with Apple broke EU laws on state aid.

The findings come amid growing tensions between Washington and Brussels over a series of EU anti-trust investigations targeting other giant US companies such as Google, Amazon, McDonald's, Starbucks and Fiat Chrysler.

The European Commission launched an inquiry three years ago into tax breaks

that Ireland offered iPhone-maker Apple (AFP Photo/Siska Gremmelprez)

'Devastating blow'

Apple has had a base in the southern city of Cork since 1980 and employs nearly 6,000 people in Ireland, through which it routes its international sales totalling billions.

Apple chief Tim Cook said he was "confident" the EU ruling would be overturned, adding that the Silicon Valley giant was the biggest taxpayer in Ireland, the United States and the world.

"The most profound and harmful effect of this ruling will be on investment and job creation in Europe," he said.

Cook also warned that the ruling was a "devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters", echoing the concerns of Dublin over the decision.

Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan described the ruling as "bizarre" and "an exercise in politics by the Competition Commission".

Dublin, which suffered from harsh austerity measures after it was bailed out during the eurozone debt crisis, has vigorously defended its low tax rates as a way of boosting the economy.

"If you look at the small print on an Apple iPhone, it says designed in California and manufactured in China and that means any profits that accrued didn't accrue in Ireland and so I can't see why the tax liability is in Ireland," he said.

But Vestager said Apple's Irish operation was a sham -- Apple's "so-called head office in Ireland only existed on paper. It had no employees, no premises and no real activities."

Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005 per cent on its European profits in 2014 -- equivalent to just 50 euros for every million, Vestager said.

The Apple tax bill dwarfs the previous EU record for a state aid case -- 1.3 billion euros for the Nurburgring race track in Germany.

While the 13-billion-euro ($14.5-billion) sum itself is unlikely to trouble Apple with its massive $600 billion of market capitalisation and $234 billion in revenue last year, the political ramifications are huge.

US anger

Washington has made increasingly angry comments over the case in recent weeks, and on Tuesday it echoed Apple's warnings that the tax bill could hurt the European economy.

"We are concerned about a unilateral approach," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest, adding that the move "threatens to undermine progress that we have made collaboratively with the Europeans to make the international taxation system fair."

The US Treasury said the ruling "could threaten to undermine foreign investment, the business climate in Europe, and the important spirit of economic partnership between the US and the EU."

The Apple decision may also complicate struggling EU-US talks on what would be the world's biggest free trade deal, meant to be completed before US President Barack Obama steps down in January.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday said he doubted agreement could be reached by then.

Tax avoidance has moved sharply up the political agenda since EU governments adopted tough austerity policies to balance the public finances, driving public resentment that the rich paid relatively little tax.

The issue was highlighted close to home by the LuxLeaks scandal which revealed that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's native Luxembourg gave companies huge tax breaks while he was prime minister.

In October Brussels ordered US coffee giant Starbucks and Italian automaker Fiat to each repay up to 30 million euros ($34 million) in back taxes to the Netherlands and Luxembourg respectively.

#UPDATE Apple ordered to pay record 13 billion-euro Irish tax bill https://t.co/ycty2yXNoz pic.twitter.com/uxyGZ01qPt

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 30, 2016

EU nations must not to refuse Muslim migrants: Merkel

Yahoo – AFP, August 28, 2016

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives her summer interview with journalists of
German public TV chain ARD on August 28, 2016 in Berlin (AFP Photo/Rainer Jensen)

Berlin (AFP) - The refusal of some EU countries to accept Muslim refugees is "unacceptable", Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday as Germany called for quotas to divide the influx throughout the bloc.

"That's not right at all that some countries say: 'generally speaking, we don't want to have Muslims in our countries'," Merkel told German public television channel ARD.

Backing the idea of a quota system for taking in migrants, the German leader stressed that "everyone must do their part," and that "a common solution must be found."

A common European migration policy is a highly controversial issue, which will be on the agenda of an EU summit next month, with eastern members the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia refusing to take in refugees under an EU-wide quota system championed by Berlin.

Slovak President Robert Fico has vowed he would "never bring even a single Muslim" into his country.

In 2015, Germany took in around a million asylum seekers, most from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and this year it expects up to 300,000 more to arrive, the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF) said Sunday.

"We can ensure optimal services for up to 300,000. Should more people arrive, it would put us under pressure, then we would go into so-called crisis mode. But even then we would not have conditions like last year," BAMF chief Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper

Merkel's decision last September to open the doors to asylum seekers was seen in many European nations, notably those in the east, as an invitation for further mass migration.

Some, like the Slovak leader, voiced fears of the emergence of a significant Muslim community in their countries.

On Tuesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said he does not want a "large Muslim community... given the problems we are seeing" and that each EU member should be able to choose how many migrants to accept.

German public sentiment is sharply divided when it comes to Merkel, who has not yet said whether she will stand for a fourth term in a general election expected in September or October next year.

Related Articles:

Pope Francis tells EU to tear down migrant walls

Obama calls for strong, united Europe

"New Systems" - Feb 27, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The New Human P1" - Sep 19-20, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)
"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

France's top court suspends burkini ban

Yahoo – AFP, Aurelia END, August 26, 2016

People hold a banner reading "No to the ban on burkinis" in front of Port-Leucate city
hall in Leucate, southern France, on August 25, 2016 (AFP Photo/Raymond Roig)

Paris (AFP) - France's highest administrative court on Friday suspended a controversial ban on the burkini by a French Riviera town after it was challenged by rights groups.

In a judgement expected to lead to bans being overturned in around 30 towns, the State Council ruled the measure was a "serious and clearly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms".

The court said local authorities could only introduce measures restricting individual freedoms if wearing the Islamic swimsuit on beaches represented a "proven risk" to public order.

The judges said there was no such risk in the case before the court concerning Villeneuve-Loubet, a resort on the Cote d'Azur between Nice and Cannes.

The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) hailed the ruling as a "victory for common sense".

Police have fined Muslim women for wearing burkinis on beaches in several towns, including in the popular tourist resorts of Nice and Cannes, sparking controversy in France and abroad.

The mayor of one town in Corsica said he would keep his ban in place in defiance of the ruling.

The bans have triggered a fierce debate about women's rights and the French state's strictly-guarded secularism.

The French beach ban on Islamic garb has caused controversy over women's 

rights and secularism and confusion over what constitutes a burkini (AFP Photo/

Iris Royer de Vericourt)

'Line in the sand'

Amnesty International said the decision had "drawn an important line in the sand".

"French authorities must now drop the pretence that these measures do anything to protect the rights of women," Amnesty's Europe director John Dalhuisen said.

"These bans do nothing to increase public safety but do a lot to promote public humiliation."

CFCM secretary general Abdallah Zekri said: "This victory for common sense will help to take the tension out of a situation which has become very tense for our Muslim compatriots, especially women."

The State Council heard arguments from the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia group (CCIF).

A court in Nice had upheld the Villeneuve-Loubet ban this week.

Anger over the issue was further inflamed this week when photographs in the British media showed police surrounding a woman in a headscarf on a beach in Nice.

The mayor's office denied the woman had been forced to remove clothing, telling AFP she was showing police the swimsuit she was wearing under her top, over a pair of leggings, when the picture was taken.

Tunisian women, one (R) wearing a "burkini", a full-body 

swimsuit designed for Muslim women, pictured at Ghar El 

Melh beach near Bizerte, northeast of the capital Tunis, 

on August 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Fethi Belaid)

'We are protecting them'

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Thursday condemned any "stigmatisation" of Muslims, but maintained that the burkini was "a political sign of religious proselytising".

"We are not at war with Islam... the French republic is welcoming (to Muslims), we are protecting them against discrimination," he told BFMTV.

But in a sign of the divisions within the Socialist government on the issue, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the "proliferation" of burkini bans "was not a welcome development".

Vallaud-Belkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice which linked the measure to last month's jihadist truck attack in the resort that killed 86 people.

"In my opinion, there is nothing to prove that there is a link between the terrorism of Daesh and what a woman wears on a beach," she said, using another term for the Islamic State (IS) group.

Lawyer for the French Human Rights League (LDH), Patrick Spinosi, speaks to

 journalists on August 26, 2016 in Paris, after France's highest administrative 

court suspended a ban on the Islamic burkini swimsuit (AFP Photo/Dominique Faget)

'No legal justification'

The administrative court in Nice on Monday said the Villeneuve-Loubet ban was "necessary" to prevent "public disorder" after the Nice attack and the murder 12 days later of a Catholic priest by two jihadists in northern France.

But in its ruling, the State Council said: "In the absence of such risks, the emotion and the concerns arising from terrorist attacks, especially the attack in Nice on July 14, are not sufficient to legally justify a ban."

Ange-Pierre Vivoni, the mayor of the small Corsican town of Sisco, said he would keep the ban in place because the issue had sparked a violent beachfront brawl earlier this month.

"I introduced the ban for the safety of property and people in the town because I risked having deaths on my hands," he told AFP.

The vague wording of the prohibitions, which never mention the word burkini, has caused confusion.

Apart from the photographed incident in Nice, a 34-year-old mother of two told AFP on Tuesday she had been fined on the beach in Cannes for wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.

France was the first European country to ban the wearing of the Islamic face veil in public in 2010.

Related Articles:

Canada's Justin Trudeau defends the burkini

'Burkini' bans good for sales, says Australian designer

German state lifts headscarf ban for public school teachers

Dutch cabinet backs partial Islamic burqa ban

Police Change Rules on Female Recruits Wearing Headscarves

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

Finland to test out basic income scheme

Yahoo – AFP, August 25, 2016

Finland's government will test an unconditional basic income amid a growing
debate on the subject in Europe (AFP Photo/Miguel Medina)

Helsinki (AFP) - Switzerland may have voted against the controversial idea of paying all its citizens a guaranteed income, but Finland indicated Thursday it plans to try out a monthly basic payment of 560 euros ($600).

The government said it had chosen the figure for an unconditional basic income in line with a manifesto pledge by centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila, who took office 15 months ago.

Former businessman Sipila wants to see if the measure can boost employment and simplify the welfare benefits system, and plans to test the idea on a 2,000-strong sample of randomly selected working-age residents.

"The primary goal of the basic income experiment is related to promoting employment," said the health and social affairs ministry, adding that it also aimed to simplify the complicated benefits system in a sustainable way regarding public finances.

Amid a growing debate on the subject, Finland now wants to be the first European country to test the idea nationwide.

In June, voters in Switzerland decisively rejected a far more generous proposal to pay a monthly 2,500 Swiss francs (2,300 euros/$2,500) to each adult and 625 francs for each child.

The idea has support on the political left and right with the former wanting a guaranteed safety net while some liberal voices feel that money for nothing can dissuade some jobless people from seeking work.

Related Article:

Swiss say 'no thanks' to basic income for all

Bras, tanks and guns: Norway's women join the draft

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry Deshayes, August 25, 2016

Norwegian women have been able to volunteer for military service for almost 40 years

They sweat together, they sleep together: in the name of gender equality, Norway has introduced compulsory military service for women, even bunking them in mixed dorms with their brothers-in-arms.

The military's gender balance is not entirely equal yet, but almost a third of the Norwegian army conscripts born in 1997 were women this summer.

At the Setermoen army base just above the Arctic Circle, new recruits in an armoured battalion are learning to handle assault rifles for use on combat missions. Here and there, long ponytails stick out behind the recruits' caps.

"It gives me a bigger recruitment pool to choose from," the battalion's chief, Lieutenant Colonel Pal Berglund, says of the new gender equal draft.

"I'm still looking for the same competence I always have. And for me it's obvious that this competence is also present within a large part of the female population of Norway."

Norwegian women have been able to volunteer for military service for almost 40 years now, helping to gradually feminise the armed forces. The military welcomed its first female helicopter pilot, female jet fighter pilot and female submarine commander already in the early 1990s.

Norway's military bunks women in mixed dorms with their male counterparts

Unisex dorms

But in 2013, at a time when the prime minister was none other than current NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a virtually unanimous parliament passed a law applying military conscription to both sexes.

The Scandinavian country -- where four of the last five defence ministers have been women -- has thus become the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization member and European country to draft both men and women, joining a tiny group of countries around the world, including Israel.

"In operations, it's an advantage having females. They have access to parts of the population that men don't have, for instance for intelligence gathering," says Berglund.

The army needs less than 10,000 new recruits each year, far fewer than the 60,000 who are liable to be called up. That means that only the most motivated will actually be asked to serve, in a country where military service is often seen as a personal accomplishment highly valued on the job market.

"It enables you to cut the umbilical cord. It's good that girls and boys get the same opportunities," says new conscript Marianne Westum.

"I'm aiming to become much more independent, to learn to work as a team member, to make friends from other walks of life. Basically to become more grown-up."

The 18-year-old shares living quarters with another woman and four men. Camouflage gear and a military-issued flask are neatly organised in a metal cupboard, only a bra and handbag indicating the presence of a woman.

Is it not tempting fate to throw young men and women together in unisex bunks?

"We see that exposure to each other increases tolerance, acceptance and understanding toward each other," insists Nina Hellum, a researcher at the Norwegian Research Defence Establishment.

A 2014 study showed that unisex dormitories helped combat sexual harassment 

because of "de-genderisation"

'De-genderisation'

"You don't shit in your own nest. You don't want to have sex and fraternise with anyone in your room for example or in your small unit because that makes it quite awkward."

A 2014 study showed that unisex dormitories helped combat sexual harassment thanks to a phenomenom of "de-genderisation". Sharing living quarters makes both the men and women pay more attention to their behaviour, and thus they're able to develop a camaraderie, an almost sibling-like relationship, the study's authors claimed.

"In the beginning we were a little shy. We didn't really know how to behave around the girls. But once the initial awkwardness had passed, we relaxed and the girls were soon just like us," says a young male recruit, Kasper Sjavag.

Being mixed together with the guys "means that when it comes to performance, I really push my limits and can get used to working harder to keep up," says Kasper's female roommate, Gine Grimsbu.

"From a social aspect, the guys treat us well and they're respectful. There are a few who aren't used to being with girls but I think it'll be fine."

A recent survey conducted by the Norwegian army showed that an overwhelming majority of female soldiers are in favour of unisex dorms. But 18 percent still said they had been subjected to inappropriate comments or behaviour.

Related Articles:

Women allowed to join Dutch marine corps after 350 years
Dutch to extend military service to girls, even though it stopped in 1997

Female defence ministers pledge to break Europe's old boys' network

Ine Eriksen Søreide (Norway), Karin Enström (Sweden), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert

(Netherlands) and Ursula von der Leyen (Germany). Photograph: Twitter

Government hits target on women in top jobs
Pay gap between men and women is getting smaller: research
Seven in 10 Dutch support abortion rights: survey


"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

"The Energy of the Future" (2) - Dec 7, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The New 'Message' from Space

Let me tell you what the message is that is being communicated: Unlock to 44 percent! This is the message: The Human race has passed the marker and is ready for the next step in evolution. I am talking about the old soul. You are the ones who will be first to get this message. It is you, and some of your "old soul" children, who are starting to feel and accept this!

Let me tell you in this lesson today that the first thing that this unlocking will begin to create is what we're going to call Akashic acuity. You're going to start remembering, and it's about time. Can you celebrate this? It's about time that when you're born you don't start from scratch, in the dark, and doing everything all over again. Instead, you remember!

I want to talk to some individuals who are listening to this and are in this room. Have your grandchildren had the audacity to tell you who they used to be? Don't raise your hand; I know you're here. They feel it, and they know it, and out of the mouths of these babes come the most profound information that this planet has ever heard! They knew who they were! Some will point their fingers at you and say, “Don't you remember? I was your mum in another life.” That's a bit disconcerting, isn't it?  …”

Merkel wants migrant return deals with N.African states

Yahoo – AFP, August 23, 2016

Merkel also urged EU partners to step up to their responsibilities in taking in
refugees who had arrived in Greece (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday on the EU and North African countries to do deals modelled on a controversial agreement with Turkey to stem migrant flows to Europe.

Under the EU-Turkey agreement, Ankara agreed to take back one Syrian who made it to Greece in return for being allowed to send one from its massive refugee camps to the bloc in a more orderly redistribution programme.

The deal also pledges billions of euros in EU aid for Turkey, visa-free European travel for Turkish citizens and accelerated EU membership talks.

"We must agree on similar deals with other countries, such as in North Africa, in order to get better control over the Mediterranean sea refugee routes," Merkel told regional daily Neue Passauer Zeitung.

"Such agreements are also in the interest of the refugees themselves," she said, pointing to the huge risks migrants take in crossing the Mediterranean in rickety vessels, as well as the large sums they have to pay smugglers for the perilous sea passage.

"It is safer for them and there are good reasons for them to remain in Turkey, close to their homeland, where the cultural and language barriers are lower," she said, defending the deal with Turkey as "correct, as before".

"We should work to ensure that it lasts," she said.

Before the EU-Turkey deal took effect, some 45,000 refugees had already 

arrived in Greece as Macedonia closed its borders to the migrants (AFP Photo/

Armin Weigel)

But fears are mounting in the EU that the pact with Turkey to curb migrant flows could collapse as a rift deepens over Ankara's crackdown following a failed coup.

Turkey angrily rejects EU criticism that its post-putsch purges might violate rights norms Ankara must meet under the agreement in return for visa-free travel for Turks and accelerated negotiations for bloc membership.

Meanwhile, Merkel also urged EU partners to step up to their responsibilities in taking in refugees who had arrived in Greece.

Before the EU-Turkey deal took effect, some 45,000 refugees had already arrived in Greece as Macedonia closed its borders to the migrants.

"That is, if one compares it to the number of residents, as if 360,000 refugees were to arrive in Germany over the course of a few weeks," she said.

"That shows what Greece has had to deal with," she said, noting that the 3,000 refugees distributed so far to other EU states falls below the expectations of what the member states should take on.

Pope 'opens door' to female deacons with new panel

Yahoo – AFP, Angus Mackinnon, August 2, 2016

Pope Francis greets a group of nuns at St Peter's Square in the Vatican, on
June 30, 2016 (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed a commission to study the issue of female Church deacons in a move seen as a potential first step towards women entering the Catholic clergy.

The 13-member commission, made up of seven men and six women, will examine the question with a particular focus on the history of women having played this role in the early years of the Church, the Vatican said in a statement revealing the commission members.

The panel will be chaired by Spanish Archbishop Luis Ladaria, the secretary of the Vatican's theological watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis says gays - and all 

the other people the church has 

marginalized, such as the poor and 

the exploited - deserve an apology.

A Jesuit, Ladaria is seen as a neutral figure without strong ties to either the progressive or conservative wings of the Vatican hierarchy.

The establishment of the commission follows a pledge made by Francis in May during a question-and-answer session with members of female religious orders.

That was warmly welcomed by Catholic feminist groups such as the US-based Women's Ordination Conference (WOC).

But Francis subsequently complained that the media had blown his comments out of proportion, saying he had not raised the possibility of women serving as deacons.

Advocates of such a move have long argued that women are pitifully under-represented in the Church's hierarchy and decision-making processes, despite the number of women in religious orders far outweighing the total of priests and monks combined.

'A good sign'

Allowing women to enter the clergy at a rank just below a priest would represent a first step towards correcting this imbalance, they argue.

They also insist there is no theological obstacle to the move because of the precedent established by women performing the role in the early centuries of Christianity.

Francis said in May that he was unclear about the history and that it "would do good for the Church to clarify this point."

He made it clear that he did not see women becoming priests. That option was examined and categorically rejected by one of his predecessors, Pope John Paul II, in 1994.

In 2001, a commission charged with looking into the term "deaconess" concluded there was no basis for ordaining women to the role.

Lucetta Scaraffia, an editorialist for the Vatican daily Osservatore Romano, said studying the history of female deacons was tantamount to re-examining the issue of whether the Church should allow them again.

"I cannot say if it could happen soon, but it is encouraging. The fact that the pope acted quickly on what he said in May is a good sign," she told AFP.

The Vatican did not set a deadline for the commission to reach conclusions on what is a vexed issue.

After Francis's comments in May, one of his closest allies, the liberal German Cardinal Walter Kasper, predicted a fierce debate.

Pope Francis greets deacons at the end of a mass for the Jubilee of Deacons,

in May 2016 at the Vatican (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

"On this issue the Church is split down the middle," the leading progressive theologian said, while cautioning that all previous attempts to open the clergy's door to women had been rejected.

More open Church

Although deacons cannot celebrate mass on their own or hear confessions, they are ordained and can carry out many tasks in place of a priest, while remaining free to marry and have a family.

Their tasks can include presiding over baptisms, weddings, funerals and prayer services. They often help with parish management and offer pastoral guidance to believers.

Francis has often championed the special qualities of the female sex, saying in December 2014: "Women are like strawberries on a cake -- you always need more of them."

He has also repeatedly said since becoming pope in 2013 that he does not represent all Church teaching as being set in stone.

He has tried to make the global institution more understanding, less judgemental in its approach to divorced, cohabiting and gay believers.

Some critics say he has delivered little concrete change but his supporters have hailed the new mood music as hugely significant.

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after the vote to allow female bishops. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty

Pope Francis' No. 2: Clerical celibacy is open to discussion
Pope Francis visits John Paul II's shrine - New

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God/Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There is a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness.  …”

"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”