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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jul-21-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Christian agency starts to accept Catholics as adoptive parents
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After a flap over its exclusion of Catholics as adoptive parents, Bethany Christian Services of Mississippi announced July 20 that from now on it will "include Catholic families in all adoption programs." The old policy made national news after The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson's daily newspaper, reported in mid-July that the statewide family services and adoption agency had turned away at least two Catholic couples who were seeking to adopt a child simply because the couples were Catholic. The story got picked up by The Associated Press and received wide distribution in print, broadcast and electronic media across the country. In a statement e-mailed July 20 to Catholic News Service and other media who inquired, the Mississippi agency said its board July 19 "voted unanimously to change the practice. ... In accepting applications for adoption, all Christians who are in agreement with our agency statement of faith are welcome applicants to the adoption process."
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Supreme Court nominee product of Catholic education
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (CNS) -- While media attention July 19 focused on President George W. Bush's nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, that attention migrated the following day to northwest Indiana and the Diocese of Gary, where Roberts attended classes and excelled academically in Catholic schools. Reporters and news vans could be seen July 20 at Notre Dame School in Michigan City and La Lumiere School outside LaPorte, where Roberts had studied after his steel-working family moved to Indiana in the 1960s. For staff members at both sites it was a day to be proud -- especially knowing Roberts as they did. They all praised the former student-athlete. Joan Langley, the current parish secretary at Notre Dame whose son John attended La Lumiere with Roberts, a judge of the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia, recalled from a speech Roberts made that he "had the ability to take all the facts, hold onto them and tell them in a language you could understand."
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Head of bereavement ministry says loss a 'universal experience'
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- For almost three decades, Sister Mary Ann Wachtel has been reaching out to people who have experienced some form of loss. She believes bereavement ministry applies to everybody. "There is no one in this universe who hasn't experienced loss," said Sister Mary Ann, a member of the Sisters for Christian Community. Loss is "a universal experience," she added. Her work has included ministering to those involved in hospice as well as teaching others who are in bereavement ministry. Today, she is the executive director of the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved, which offers pastoral and spiritual support to the bereaved, caregivers, agencies, congregations, dioceses and others through education and resources. The ministry moved its headquarters to St. Louis from Cleveland a year ago.
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New Catholic-run low-income housing for elderly opens in New York
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus opened the doors of their new low-income residence for the elderly July 15 in New York. The 19th Street apartments were built with an $11.9 million Housing and Urban Development grant, part of which required that the sisters provide a service coordinator to address the social and medical concerns of the residents. "The fact that you saved this land for housing speaks highly of your religious values," said U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., during opening ceremonies for the facility. She noted that the 70-unit building is in "one of the most celebrated areas in one of the most expensive cities in the nation." Residents of the new complex were chosen by lottery from among 700 applicants.
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WORLD
Pope says terrorist acts are work of small groups of fanatics
LES COMBES, Italy (CNS) -- Recent terrorist attacks in London, Iraq and Turkey are not signs of a "clash of civilizations," but are the work "only of small groups of fanatics," said Pope Benedict XVI. People must ask God to strengthen the longing for peace that exists among most people in the world, the pope told reporters gathered July 20 near the chalet where he was vacationing. Returning from a two-hour excursion into the Alps, the pope had his driver stop where a group of about 100 townspeople, reporters and a southern Italian parish youth group were waiting to see him pass by. The pope got out of the car and greeted members of the crowd one by one, kissing babies and giving his blessing.
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Fox's promises for changes in Mexican laws have not materialized
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- When Mexico's President Vicente Fox took office five years ago, many Catholics thought his election represented more than an end to decades of single-party rule. They also hoped he would live up to his election pledge to roll back some of the anti-clerical laws on the books since the 19th century. Fox, the first modern Mexican president to declare himself a Catholic, held a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint, during at least one stop on his campaign trail. A self-proclaimed pro-life candidate, he included a Mass in his inauguration festivities. But as with much of the rest of the president's agenda that requires constitutional amendments -- including plans to overhaul tax, labor and energy laws -- many of Fox's promises have proven unrealistic because so much of the country's political machinery is still dominated by the party that ruled the country for 71 years. "A constitutional change can't happen just by the will of one person or leader; there must be a national consensus on this," Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City told reporters July 12.
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Chaldean patriarch, visiting New Zealand, urges prayers for peace
AUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNS) -- Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, Iraq, urged Catholics to pray for peace, especially in Middle East countries. About 600 Chaldean Catholic families, friends and invited guests joined the patriarch at the opening of the first Chaldean church in New Zealand, St. Addai the Apostle Church in the Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe. Almost all of New Zealand's Chaldean Catholics emigrated from Iraq, and during the July 15 Mass, the patriarch urged those in attendance to be loyal subjects, law-abiding citizens and commit to the law and morals of New Zealand. "You must feel proud to contribute to a country that provided you a home when your own country neglected you and caused you to leave it," he said. The patriarch called the consecration of the new church "an occasion where everyone is called to be a temple of God."
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Peace workers say involving local communities key to ending conflict
DAVAO, Philippines (CNS) -- Catholic peace workers at an international conference in the southern Philippines said the church must act to end conflicts in their countries by involving local communities. "We're convinced that to build peace, we have to involve people at all levels," said Gerard Powers, director of policy studies in the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Powers chairs the steering committee of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, which sponsored its annual conference July 13-15 in Davao. The conference drew 71 peace workers from trouble spots in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Participants discussed presentations by local peace groups after network members visited diocesan, parish and community peace projects in Mindanao, the Philippines' second-largest island. Davao is in eastern Mindanao. "We are looking at the institutional church and its leaders, while we also listen and tap the expertise of those working in the communities," Powers told UCA News.
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Church with chapel for Korean saint attracts pilgrims to Shanghai
SHANGHAI, China (CNS) -- Despite being relocated to a new site and given a modern appearance, one of the oldest churches in the Shanghai Diocese continues to attract Catholics, particularly Korean pilgrims. Immaculate Conception Church has become the "holy land" for Korean Catholics, because the first Korean priest, St. Andrew Kim, was ordained there in 1845, Father Gong Tiande, parish priest, told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. As part of urban development in the Pudong section of Shanghai, the church -- popularly known as Jinjiaxiang Church -- was torn down in March 2001 and relocated about a mile southwest of its original site. Construction on the new church was completed in June 2004, said Father Gong. Pudong, a coastal area about 680 miles southeast of Beijing, has been a Catholic stronghold for several centuries. It emerged as a financial and trade zone in Shanghai in the early 1990s. Surrounded by high-rise residential buildings, the new Jinjiaxiang Church can hold about 1,000 people.
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PEOPLE
Holy Cross priest in Alaska wins 2005 Lumen Christi Award
CHICAGO (CNS) -- The Catholic Church Extension Society announced July 14 that Holy Cross Father Leroy Clementich is the 2005 recipient of its annual Lumen Christi Award, presented for outstanding missionary work in America. Day in and day out, the priest, known as "Father Clem," is either working at one of his "desk jobs" -- as director of pastoral education and coordinator of rural ministry for the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, -- or he is flying, often piloting himself, to one of a number of rural parishes around Alaska to minister to Catholics who do not have a resident pastor. Catholic Extension's president, Bishop William R. Houck, will present the award to Father Clementich in Chicago Sept. 24. With the award comes a gift of $10,000 for the priest and $25,000 for the Anchorage Archdiocese. "It's exciting to bring the word of Christ to people who don't have the opportunity to attend Mass every week," the priest said in a statement. "Sure, it's more demanding -- the towns are scattered and often inaccessible, the congregations small, the resources limited -- but it has been a very, very rewarding ministry."
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Catholics, though few in number, have lengthy history on high court
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If Judge John G. Roberts is confirmed for a seat on the Supreme Court, he will become one of the historically small number of Catholic justices -- the first of whom joined the court as its chief justice in 1836, more than 50 years after the court was established. Roberts, a federal appeals judge for the District of Columbia, was nominated July 19 to fill the vacancy created by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement. Roberts graduated from Catholic elementary and high schools in Indiana, and he and his family are members of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Md. Should he be confirmed to the court, Roberts will be the 10th Catholic justice in history and the fourth among current members, the most ever at one time.
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Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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