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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Mar-7-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Florida bishop, other leaders in state urge passage of AgJOBS bill
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CNS) -- Florida has hundreds of laws to protect undocumented farmworkers, but none of them will free the laborers from exploitation as long as their immigration status forces them to remain in the shadows. That was the message of a Tallahassee news conference called to urge support of the federal Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2005. The bill, more commonly known as AgJOBS, would allow farm laborers who are now in the country, whether legally or illegally, to become legal residents and eventually U.S. citizens. If the bill is passed, immigrant farmworkers will be able to register for temporary legal residency. They could then earn permanent residency by working in agriculture for a specified amount of time. "It is not an amnesty program," said Orlando Bishop Thomas G. Wenski, who is the leading spokesman in the church on immigration matters and former chairman of the U.S. bishops' migration committee. "These are workers who have invested sweat equity and they deserve legal immigration status."
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Bells for Dallas cathedral's new bell tower arrive from Netherlands
DALLAS (CNS) -- The 49 cast-iron bells spread across the plaza in front of the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in Dallas made for an unusual sight. They are the jewels of the cathedral's new bell tower, which will be dedicated June 5. In celebration of the Feb. 28 arrival of the bells, Dallas Bishop Charles V. Grahmann blessed them in a special ceremony March 1. In a brief speech to the crowd, he mentioned the importance he hopes the bell tower will play in the community. Bells "alert us to important events, both happy and sad," he said, adding that he hopes the cathedral's bells will also call people to worship God and heal divisions in the community. Father Ramon Alvarez, cathedral rector, echoed the bishop about how bells have a special place in the life of the church.
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Immigration network to train Knights in aiding citizenship applicants
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, known as CLINIC, will recruit and train members of the Knights of Columbus to help immigrants become U.S. citizens. The program will include training in completing applications for citizenship, offering classes in English and on preparing for the citizenship test, and assisting at citizenship ceremonies. An estimated 8 million people in the United States are eligible to apply for citizenship, but have not done so, according to CLINIC. "Although they are contributing members of their communities and U.S. society as a whole, they do not enjoy many of the rights afforded to U.S. citizens, including the right to vote," said a statement released by CLINIC, which is based in Washington.
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Catholics fight push by states for embryonic stem-cell research
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Like many other states, Massachusetts is considering legislation that would promote embryonic stem-cell research, prohibit human reproductive cloning, and set rules for informed consent and ethical review of any such research. "Our research community stands on the threshold of great advances in the fight against disabling childhood and degenerative diseases, but has been held back by cloudy legal policy on stem-cell research," said Senate President Robert E. Travaglini in introducing the legislation. "Massachusetts must act now to maintain its prominence in the industry." Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a neuroscientist who is director of education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, sees the rush to get in on embryonic stem-cell research as part of a "modern secular fairy tale." People want to believe that science can "push back the frontiers of death itself," the priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., said in an interview in his Philadelphia office. But the hopes of those promoting embryonic stem-cell research are "much bigger than what's supported by science," he added.
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WORLD
Official says Catholic-Muslim committee prayed for hospitalized pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic and Muslim members of a joint interreligious committee opened their one-day meeting in Cairo, Egypt, with a silent prayer for Pope John Paul II who was hospitalized that same day. The Feb. 24 meeting of the joint committee of the Permanent Committee of al-Azhar for Dialogue with Monotheistic Religions and the Vatican's Council for Interreligious Dialogue "began with a silent prayer with special intentions going for the Holy Father," a Vatican official told Catholic News Service March 7. Pope John Paul was rushed to Rome's Gemelli hospital the morning of Feb. 24 after suffering a recurrence of respiratory problems. He was hospitalized Feb. 1-10 for treatment of a flu-related inflammation of the throat. The joint committee meets once each year to discuss issues important to Islamic-Catholic relations. Cairo's al-Azhar University is the center of Sunni Muslim learning.
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Maronite bishops urge quick formation of transitional government
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Lebanon's Maronite bishops urged that the nation quickly form a transitional government and commended the Lebanese people for the peaceful demonstrations that toppled the nation's pro-Syrian officials. In a statement following their monthly meeting March 2, the bishops noted that the "peaceful, civilized, day-and-night" protests "show a praiseworthy awakening of the Lebanese, especially young people." They said the protesters "carried only the Lebanese flag" and were united in their protest, "despite the disparity of communities and the difference of (religious) denominations." The bishops said, "Hope is great that this sound national feeling ... will continue to gather the ranks and unite the hearts until it crystallizes a national thought that all Lebanese will adopt. Thus the picture of a Lebanon -- democratic, with its Muslims and Christians united -- will emerge."
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Cuban bishops say cardinal treated poorly by U.S. officials
HAVANA (CNS) -- Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino was held for three hours and treated disrespectfully by U.S. immigration officials at the Miami airport when he tried to enter the United States on a Vatican diplomatic passport at the end of February, said the Cuban bishops. An official wanted to open a file on the cardinal as a possible dangerous person and began asking him questions, which he refused to answer, said the bishops in a March 3 statement. The cardinal said he told the U.S. officials he was a well-known figure and complained that they were arbitrary in deciding which Cubans needed a file, according to the bishops' statement. Cardinal Ortega is president of the Cuban bishops' conference and head of the Havana Archdiocese. He is a frequent traveler to Miami, where there is a large Cuban-American community. The incident occurred Feb. 25 and was first reported Feb. 28 by El Nuevo Heraldo, a Miami Spanish-language daily newspaper, citing unnamed sources.
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Bishop urges Austrians to support 'new beginning' after scandal
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- The bishop of an Austrian diocese forced to close its seminary after a sex scandal has appealed to Catholics who left the church over the incidents to rejoin and support a "new beginning" in the diocese. In an open letter posted in early March on his diocese's Web site, Bishop Klaus Kung of Sankt Polten, Austria, said he was aware that "sad events" in the diocese had caused many Catholics "to doubt the church's credibility." "It grieves me very much that responsible people in the church caused this annoyance, and I apologize for it," the bishop wrote. "But I can assure you we are working to clear up this disagreeable situation and make possible a new beginning for our diocese. I ask you to look on our efforts with good will."
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PEOPLE
Pope waves from window; Vatican hopes he returns home by Easter
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II spent several minutes at the window of his hospital room March 6 waving to and blessing enthusiastic crowds at Rome's Gemelli hospital and in St. Peter's Square, and the Vatican later indicated he might be home by Easter. The large screens in the Vatican square showed the 84-year-old pope, somewhat slumped in his wheeled throne, watching television as his delegate, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, led the Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican. The pope's posture was more erect when the blinds on his hospital window were opened and he made the sign of the cross, blessing the hundreds of faithful who waited in the rain for a glimpse of him. The Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, said March 7, "We hope the pope will be in the Vatican for Holy Week," which begins with Palm Sunday, March 20. "I think the pope will be here for Holy Week; it is still 13 days away."
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Archbishop: Italian agent killed in Iraq showed lifestyle of heroism
ROME (CNS) -- An Italian secret service agent killed in Iraq demonstrated a lifestyle of heroism, Italy's military archbishop said at the man's funeral. Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco said the generosity Nicola Calipari demonstrated throughout his life, personally and professionally, reached its peak when "he gave his life to save another." Calipari was killed by U.S. soldiers March 4 at a roadblock near the Baghdad airport as he was driving to freedom a female Italian journalist kidnapped a month earlier in Iraq. "His heroism was a lifestyle, not a gesture," the archbishop said. Archbishop Bagnasco, Italy's military ordinary, presided over Calipari's March 7 state funeral at Rome's Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. The funeral Mass was concelebrated by the agent's brother, Msgr. Maurizio Calipari, an official at the Pontifical Academy for Life, and Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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Nun ordered to halt gay ministry speaks at 'Queer Film Festival'
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- Loretto Sister Jeannine Gramick was a featured speaker at the "Queer Film Festival" at the University of Notre Dame in February, despite the fact that she was censured by the Vatican in 1999 and ordered to cease all ministry to homosexuals. Additionally, a 2004 documentary film about Sister Gramick's encounters with the Vatican was shown at the festival, even though she also has been told not to write or speak about the church's disciplining of her. In the film, "In Good Conscience," Sister Gramick contends that homosexuality is an "innate instinct," and that a "be, but don't do" theology is unacceptable. The church teaches that homosexual orientation is a disorder but not sinful, but that homosexual acts are always sinful.
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Lennon Sisters still singing after 50 years
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Larry Welk, the teenage son of Lawrence Welk, the "champagne music maker," kept pestering his dad to listen to a classmate of his, Dee Dee Lennon, from St. Monica High School in Santa Monica, Calif. She and her sisters had a vocal group, and they all were teenagers. Dad relented and put the girls on the Christmas episode of his ABC-TV show in 1955. That began a musical career for the Lennon Sisters that has lasted a half-century, including a dozen seasons as regulars on Welk's program. The Lennon Sisters, acutely aware that people regarded Welk and everyone associated with him as squares, left his show in 1968 to forge a different musical direction for themselves. However, their best-selling album, after all these years, remains "Best-Loved Catholic Hymns," which has just been reissued on compact disc. The sisters, now a trio following the retirement of sisters Dee Dee and Peggy and the addition of another sister, Mimi, reunited with members of the Welk ensemble for the PBS special "Lawrence Welk Precious Memories," a concert featuring sacred and inspirational songs, to be seen on PBS affiliates during their March pledge drive.
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Stem-cell debate has personal ramifications for Catholic family
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After 14 years with Parkinson's, Patricia Payne would give almost anything to be free of the debilitating tremors that are characteristic of the disease and the constant pain caused by bone disintegration around her lower spine. But as a Catholic and the mother of five, she will not consider any treatment that would involve the destruction of human embryos. "I don't want to see cures, even a cure for my terrible disease, to be obtained by destroying a fellow human being at the earliest and most vulnerable stage of their existence," Payne recently told a joint committee of the Massachusetts Legislature in emotional and exhausting testimony. "To kill one human being for the benefit of another is never morally justifiable," she added. "To kill the weak in order to benefit the strong is even more objectionable." Still feeling the effects the next day of her appearance before the committee and the more than four-hour round trip to Boston, Payne spoke with Catholic News Service by telephone from her home in Winsted, Conn. She was joined by her husband of 40 years, Richard, whom she met when both were working for separate offices of the Canadian bishops' conference.
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Cardinal Ratzinger to write meditations for Way of the Cross
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- German-born Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger will write the meditations for the Way of the Cross service at Rome's Colosseum for Good Friday. Each year, Pope John Paul II asks a different person or group of people to write the meditations for the nighttime Holy Week event. Cardinal Ratzinger told Vatican Radio March 6 that he was to be the author for this year's meditations. This year, Good Friday falls March 25. The 77-year old cardinal is prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is president of the International Theological Commission and the Pontifical Biblical Commission, posts he has held since 1981. He is also dean of the College of the Cardinals. Once a professor of fundamental and dogmatic theology in Germany, the cardinal is still a prolific theological and spiritual writer.
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Julia Quinlan looks back on her family's role in landmark legal case
NEWTON, N.J. (CNS) -- Julia Quinlan learned firsthand about hospice care for the terminally ill when, with the help of hospice professionals, she was able to care for her husband, Joe, at home for nine weeks before he died of cancer in 1996. "I had my meals with him every day, slept on the couch next to his bed, I prayed the 'Memorare' with him every day. He was at peace and so were all of us who loved him, and we were all there with him when the end came, quietly," she recalled. Twenty-five years ago, Joe and Julia Quinlan founded the Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice Center of Hope in Newton. It is named for the daughter who five years before that became the focus of a celebrated "death with dignity" case. The couple eventually won a landmark legal decision that allowed them to remove the respirator that was believed to be keeping their daughter alive. In 1976, she was taken off the machine and continued to breathe on her own; she died nine years later.
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