|
|
|
|
News Briefs
|
NEWS BRIEFS Mar-24-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Don't let Schiavo die through lack of food, water, says cardinal
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Severely brain-damaged Terri Schindler Schiavo should not be allowed to die through denial of food and water, said Baltimore Cardinal William H. Keeler, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. "God will call Terri Schiavo to himself when it is her time to die. It is not for us to determine when that time is," he said in a March 24 statement. It was issued shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court declined a request by Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, to intervene in the case so that a feeding tube could be reinserted into the dying woman. The tube had been removed March 18 after a decision by a Florida state judge. Since the Florida woman's feeding tube was removed "her parents reportedly are not even allowed to wet her parched lips," said Cardinal Keeler in the statement released at the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
- - -
California ballot likely to include one parental notification measure
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- With one parental notification initiative likely to appear on the ballot in the fall, the backers of a second measure, which also requires that parents be told their daughter is seeking an abortion, have decided not to pursue their initiative. "We have made a decision to wait," said Mark Bucher, spokesman for the second parental notification initiative. Going forward "would guarantee defeat if two initiatives were on the ballot. We don't feel we should be putting ourselves in that position," he said. This clears the way for the other measure, called the Parents' Right To Know and Child Protection Initiative. Backers of this initiative say they have collected more than 600,000 signatures, enough to qualify for the ballot, but they are aiming for 900,000 signatures.
- - -
Laws change, problems become clearer and death penalty support dims
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Even before pollster John Zogby conducted a nationwide poll for the U.S. bishops that proved it, signs were accumulating that capital punishment was losing favor among Americans and among Catholics in particular. Zogby International's November poll of U.S. Catholics found that less than half now say they support the death penalty. That margin of support, 48 percent, is statistically indistinguishable from the 47 percent of Catholics who told pollsters they oppose capital punishment. As recently as 1994, 80 percent of all Americans supported the death penalty, with Catholics favoring it by about the same margin. The new data was released March 21 as part of the kickoff of a new Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty, being coordinated by the bishops' Department of Social Development and World Peace.
- - -
Assisted-suicide patients lack proper mental health care, say doctors
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- A doctors' group troubled by physician-assisted suicide said that only a small percentage of patients who received lethal prescriptions in Oregon received necessary mental health care. According to the group's annual report issued in March, the percentage of assisted-suicide patients referred for a psychological evaluation has declined, from 31 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2003 and 2004. "People who feel their continued living has no meaning deserve psychiatric evaluation and help," said a statement from the Portland-based Physicians for Compassionate Care. George Eighmey, director of the Portland chapter of Compassion and Choices, a group that supports the state's assisted-suicide law, disagreed, saying, "those who hasten their death under Oregon's aid-in-dying law are reasonable and rational and do not suffer from depression."
- - -
Catholic school students in Chicago get firsthand citizenship lesson
CHICAGO (CNS) -- Students at Cardinal Joseph Bernardin School in the Chicago suburb of Orland Hills got a firsthand look at the immigration and naturalization process March 11 when 99 people were sworn in as U.S. citizens at a ceremony at the school. Fourth-graders at the school studied immigration and naturalization before the ceremony, with projects including a visit from immigration officials who conducted a mock interview of the type they would have with someone seeking citizenship, said assistant principal Kathleen Gorman. The immigration officials also gave the students copies of questions that might appear on the citizenship test that immigrants must pass before they can be naturalized. Topics covered include U.S. history, government and the Constitution.
- - -
'March Music Madness' allows fans of Catholic music to pick favorites
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- While devotees of college basketball follow the brackets, fans of contemporary Catholic music have been bouncing through their own March madness. The youth-oriented Web site spiritandsong.com has placed the genre's latest hits in an online interactive tournament. Fans who visit the site can click on titles placed in the brackets, listen to the music and then vote for their favorites. Songs with the most votes advance week by week. "It raises traffic and increases listenership to the songs," said Tom Tomaszek, manager of youth services at Portland-based Oregon Catholic Press, which founded the Web site. "We're looking for ways to help more people listen to the various styles and get to like them," Tomaszek said.
- - -
Database of Pilot ads will help Irish-Americans trace roots
NEWTON, Mass. (CNS) -- The launch of an online database containing information from the "Missing Friends" section of the Boston Catholic newspaper dating back nearly 175 years will help Irish-Americans seeking to explore their roots. "Missing Friends" ran in The Pilot newspaper from October 1831 through October 1921. Irish immigrants who made the often arduous journey to the United States took out advertisements, looking for friends and relatives they had lost along the journey or who had preceded them. The more than 31,000 records are now available on the searchable database. The new Web site is called "Information Wanted," and the entire text of each record will be online within the coming months. The information could include the missing person's occupation, when they left Ireland and many personal details, said Ruth-Anne Harris, a Boston College professor of Irish history who took on the project of compiling The Pilot advertisements into the database. The Web address for the online database is: http://infowanted.bc.edu.
- - -
Teen athletes waking up to dangers of steroids
GENEVA, N.Y. (CNS) -- A few feet could mean the difference between a home run and a long fly ball. How far would you go to gain that extra distance? Often far enough to compromise your health and ethics, judging from the ongoing steroid flap in the major leagues, involving some of baseball's biggest stars. If these athletes aren't satisfied with their immense God-given talent, what's to keep young athletes from emulating Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others by taking steroids as well? Not much, apparently. An article late last year in Newsweek magazine claimed that 300,000 American students in grades eight through 12 use steroids. Bob Castor, 17, admits he was once tempted to go this route. But he had a change of heart after Ken Caminiti, the National League's most valuable player in 1996, died last October at age 41. In 2002 he became the first current or former major league player to admit to illegal steroid use. "I think (Caminiti's death) should have been a wake-up call," said Castor, a junior at DeSales High School in Geneva who plays in the Saints' renowned varsity baseball program.
- - -
Portrait of Christ created from thumbprints of Kansas City Catholics
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (CNS) -- The portrait of Christ that hangs in front of the choir loft of St. Patrick Parish in Kansas City is a familiar portrayal of the face of Our Lord. Familiar, that is, until you view it up close, and see the hundreds of thumbprints that combine to create it. A small sign in the portrait's lower-left-hand corner explains its history. A member of the St. Patrick liturgy committee, artist Julie Rice, believed that asking parishioners to join together in the creation of a spiritual artwork would get them more involved in the Mass. And she was right. A total of 250 people volunteered their thumbs to assist in this unusual process. For two weekends running, at each Mass, Rice sat at a table near the main entrance to the church and positioned parishioners' thumbprints onto the painting, following a faint pencil outline she had drawn on the white paper surface of the foam core.
- - -
WORLD
Pope sends written greetings to Vatican Holy Thursday liturgies
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For the first time in 26 years, Pope John Paul II did not preside over the Vatican's Holy Thursday liturgies, although he assured participants he was with them in spirit. The 84-year-old pope, still convalescing from a Feb. 24 tracheotomy to ease breathing difficulties, sent messages read at the March 24 morning chrism Mass and the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. Pope John Paul told those gathered in St. Peter's Basilica in the morning, "From my apartment, through the television, I am with you spiritually." To priests from the Diocese of Rome and from around the world he said, "With you I thank God for the gift and mystery of our priesthood; with you and the whole family of believers, I pray that the church will never lack numerous and holy priests."
- - -
Vatican says only priest can administer anointing of the sick
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has strongly reaffirmed that only priests can administer the anointing of the sick, and said this doctrine must be "definitively" accepted by Catholics. The statement came in a one-page note and three-page commentary from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The note was dated Feb. 11, and Catholic News Service obtained a copy in March. In recent years, church groups, deacons and some bishops have requested permission for nonpriests -- including permanent deacons and lay people -- to administer the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. They have said the priest shortage in some areas means that seriously ill Catholics cannot always receive the sacrament in a timely way. The doctrinal congregation, headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said it was issuing the note because it wanted to make it clear that the church's teaching would not change.
- - -
Too many Catholics continue to scorn Jesus, Cardinal Ratzinger says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Meditating on Christ's passion and on human actions that contributed to his suffering, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said too many Catholics continue to scorn and scourge Jesus in his church. "Christ suffers in his own church," the cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote in meditations for the March 25 Way of the Cross service at Rome's Colosseum. In describing Christ's falling under the weight of the cross, Cardinal Ratzinger said Jesus fell under the weight of human sin, and not just under the effects of the original sin of Adam and Eve. He described "the falling of many Christians away from Christ and into a godless secularism," but also the fall of those Catholics who abuse the sacraments or their positions in the church.
- - -
For ailing pope, a picture is worth a thousand words, Jesuit says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Although Pope John Paul II had not spoken publicly for 10 days, the Jesuit in charge of both the Vatican Television Center and Vatican Radio programming said the pope has not changed his primary way of communicating with people. While the pope's tendency toward silence after undergoing a tracheotomy Feb. 24 has been a blow to Vatican Radio, Pope John Paul has not hidden from the Vatican television cameras, said Father Federico Lombardi. Even when his masterly use of language and his actor's skill with his voice were on full display, Pope John Paul communicated most by seeing and being seen, Father Lombardi said March 22 at the presentation of a new 54-minute documentary on the pope. "John Paul II: The Untold Story" includes dozens of quick clips, most of them gleaned from Vatican television archives, and only the original sound of the pope, the crowds or local television journalists commenting as they watched the pope go by.
- - -
PEOPLE
Sister Rita Larivee named first woman publisher of NCR
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CNS) -- Sister Rita C. Larivee of the Sisters of St. Anne has been appointed publisher and chief executive officer of the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company. She becomes the first woman and the first religious to hold the top management job in the company that publishes the National Catholic Reporter, an independent Catholic weekly with headquarters in Kansas City, and several newsletters. Sister Larivee has been the organization's associate publisher since 1997 and has been interim publisher since January when Thomas C. Fox resigned. The announcement was made in an article posted on the newspaper's Web site March 18. She was appointed by the company's board of directors.
- - -
Father Luzbetak, pioneer in missionary anthropology, dies
TECHNY, Ill. (CNS) -- Divine Word Father Louis J. Luzbetak, a pioneer in the use of anthropology in mission work and the founding executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, died March 22 of a heart attack at the Divine Word residence in Techny. He was 86. The death was announced by the Chicago province of the Society of the Divine Word. Until recently he had continued writing articles for mission publications, said the Divine Word announcement. A Mass of Christian burial was scheduled for March 30 at the chapel in the Techny residence. Father Luzbetak advocated a missionary approach that was tied to the cultural context of the people being evangelized. "The evangelizer must deal with culture not as a heap of unrelated odds and ends but as a living organic system," he wrote in 1992.
- - -
Archbishop Romero remains inspiration for many, says U.S. bishop
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Slain Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador remains an inspiration some 25 years after his assassination for "people who thirst for peace and for justice in our war-torn and broken world," said the head of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee. "His memory and his message are as alive today as ever, not just in El Salvador but throughout much of the world," Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., said in a March 24 statement released in Washington. Bishop Ricard noted that the formal process of canonization for Archbishop Romero is moving forward. He said that the slain archbishop already is known by many as "St. Romero of the Americas."
END
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
