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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jul-27-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Company devises winning way to install Catholic agency's giant mural
CHICAGO (CNS) -- A Chicago design company received a national award for creating a way for Catholic Charities in the Chicago Archdiocese to install a giant mural on the agency's headquarters that illustrates its mandate for providing social services. In the process, the company, Farrodyne USA, introduced a new art form to the United States. The artwork, titled "The Mandatum," is "a shadow mural" and, according to the company, is the only one of its kind outside of France. It was installed on an exterior wall of the Catholic Charities building, which overlooks the downtown Chicago expressway. The mural measures 153 feet across and 33 feet high and is composed of 202 aluminum strips, or "fins," that cast shadows on the wall, giving the effect of 3-D images. Earlier this year Farrodyne received the 2005 Construction Technology Award for the technique it developed to assemble the thousands of metal components making up the 80,000-pound mural. The artwork was unveiled in September 2003.
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Minnesota Catholic paper launches 'blog' on Web
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis's newspaper, The Catholic Spirit, has launched a Web log that highlights local, national and international news from a variety of Catholic sources. The Web log, called The Robinson Report, is run by the newspaper's web coordinator, Adam Robinson. A Web log, or "blog" for short, is a Web site consisting of a series of postings on a particular subject, according to the community-edited Web encyclopedia Wikipedia. Blog formats can vary widely from an individual's diary to a list of hyperlinks to article summaries. Many blogs, including The Robinson Report, allow visitors to leave public comments. The Robinson Report is accessible at www.thecatholicspirit.com/robinsonreport. Robinson said he created the blog to be a "one-stop shop" for Catholic news. He gets his information by combing through dozens of Catholic newspapers, magazines, Web sites and other blogs, culling out what he finds especially newsworthy or interesting. If the articles are online, he creates a hyperlink.
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CRS moves Baltimore headquarters to new site in city
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Citing a longstanding need for more office space, leaders of Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore announced July 25 that the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency will relocate its world headquarters to a new site in the city. CRS will lease the Stewarts Building from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, allowing it to increase its number of employees from 320 to 400 by 2008. "I can't tell you how delighted we are that Catholic Relief Services is staying in the city," said Mayor Martin J. O'Malley during a press conference at City Hall. "It's going to be terrific for the west side." In an interview with The Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan newspaper, Kenneth Hackett, CRS president, said his organization needed to find a bigger facility because its AIDS, tsunami and other outreach programs have expanded in recent years. The Stewarts Building, which opened in 1899 as a department store, will provide 180,000 square feet of space. CRS is currently squeezed into 86,000 square feet of space between its two locations.
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Drought in Midwest leaves many farmers praying for rain
KNOX, Ind. (CNS) -- Mike and Katie Yankauskas have owned their farm for 27 years. They raise pigs, and since 2000 they have operated a meat shop. They also raise feed corn, beans and some wheat. The Yankauskases, like other farmers in the region, need more rain. The rain helps the corn grow, and that provides food for the pigs. "There's no other occupation where you have to rely on what God is going to give you," said Mike Yankauskas, who with his wife is an active member of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in rural Knox. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, unusually dry conditions in June stretched from Texas to the Midwest and Northeast. June marked the fourth consecutive drier than normal month for parts of the southern Plains and Midwest, with large areas of worsening drought from eastern Texas to northern Illinois and Indiana.
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U.S. bishops' official urges aid for Cuba in wake of Hurricane Dennis
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- U.S. restrictions on travel and sending cash to family members in Cuba should be eased in the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee. Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., offered support to U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., for the congressman's resolution to scale back restrictions on family travel and financial remittances to Cuba. Hurricane Dennis slammed into the island nation July 8, causing about 16 deaths and $1.5 billion in property damage. Bishop Ricard said the resolution, "expressing the sense of the Congress that the president should temporarily suspend restrictions on remittances, gift parcels and family travel to Cuba, is a laudable example of the humanitarian spirit that ought to be a constant element of our Cuba policy."
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CRS increases aid to Niger to help stave off famine
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic Relief Services is increasing its aid to Niger, the West African nation plagued by drought and locusts. CRS is increasing its annual $8 million budget for Niger by $3 million and sending additional staff to the country as it tries to stave off famine, said Christopher Daniel, CRS regional representative for West Africa. "The food security issue is the biggest problem. Faminelike conditions are being reported in pockets of the country, mostly in the areas where CRS is operating," Daniel told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from the agency's Baltimore headquarters. CRS is the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. Daniel said Niger's population is suffering due to a combination of drought and locust invasion that affected crops during this year's planting season. The United Nations said July 27 that some 1.2 million people were at risk of starvation and that food stocks in Niger were dwindling.
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Semester in Uganda prompts Notre Dame students to launch campaign
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A semester abroad in Uganda prompted two Notre Dame students to launch a national campaign to raise awareness about the war in Uganda and to advocate on behalf of its victims. Michael Poffenberger and Peter Quaranto are the founders and directors of the Uganda Conflict Action Network, based out of the offices of the Africa Faith and Justice Network in Washington. The organization was launched June 1. For the first month, Poffenberger went back to Uganda to work with groups there, while Quaranto worked on awareness and building an infrastructure for the group in the United States. The group is using its Web site, www.ugandacan.org, as a "uniting force, tying together the efforts of people in the U.S. and abroad," Quaranto told Catholic News Service in a mid-July interview. The Web site provides information on Uganda, policy suggestions and advocacy plans.
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WORLD
Papal foundation approves $1.9 million for projects in Latin America
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- The "Populorum Progressio" Foundation has approved $1.9 million in grants to fund about 200 projects ranging from beekeeping to teacher training. "These are small projects that give people a chance to get out of extreme poverty and help themselves," said Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara, Mexico, who celebrated Mass at the close of the foundation's administrative committee meeting in Lima July 20-22. The projects, presented by parishes, missionaries and Catholic organizations from around Latin America, with the support of their local bishops, included assistance for building housing, latrines and systems for supplying clean drinking water, as well as support for starting small community businesses. The foundation puts a cap of $10,000 on the grants. More than half the projects were related to education.
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South African aid to Zimbabwe gets 'no' vote from Cardinal Napier
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- South Africa would be "most reckless" to send aid to Zimbabwe, which is "in absolute chaos," said the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference. "Giving money to (Zimbabwe President Robert) Mugabe can be compared to giving money to an alcoholic beggar who tells you he has given up drink and will spend the money on food," Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban said in a mid-July telephone interview from Durban. The cardinal had returned from a two-day trip to Zimbabwe as part of a delegation with the ecumenical South African Council of Churches. Mugabe is reportedly seeking a loan from South Africa to pay for electricity, fuel and food to offset chronic shortages.
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PEOPLE
Divorced Catholics must be welcomed in parishes, pope tells priests
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Divorced and civilly remarried Catholics who suffer because they cannot receive Communion must be welcomed in parishes as Catholics who witness to the importance of the Eucharist, Pope Benedict XVI said. At the same time, he said, if a priest, acting out of compassion for their suffering, gives them the Eucharist, he risks undermining the dignity and indissolubility of the sacrament of marriage. "We all know that this is a particularly painful situation," the pope said July 25 during a meeting with about 140 priests, religious and deacons from the Valle d'Aosta region where he was vacationing. The pope added that he knew the issue could get complicated and said, "Given these people's situation of suffering it must be studied." The meeting, which was closed to the press, lasted about two hours. The pope's opening remarks and responses to questions from the priests were transcribed and published July 27 in the Vatican newspaper.
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Congress honors 'American Michelangelo' on his 200th birthday
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Lawmakers gathered in the Capitol Rotunda July 26 to pay homage to Constantino Brumidi, the Italian and Greek immigrant who painted much of the work in the Capitol building. His last work was the frieze on the Capitol dome that depicts the history of the nation, and he signed all his art, "Constantino Brumidi, artist, citizen of the United States." "We live in a nation of immigrants, and Constantino Brumidi is among the greatest we have ever welcomed," said Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. "So many times, we move from one vote to another, from one meeting to the next, but today, we celebrate his work and dedication. He set the standard for all immigrants to aspire to achieve." Brumidi was born in Rome, but left after the 1849 revolution, when Pope Pius IX pardoned him for stealing church artwork on the condition that he leave for good, according to an article in The New York Times. Ten years ago, restoration was begun on much of his work in the Capitol. It had been overlooked or painted over because earlier critics considered it to be too foreign.
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Chinese Bishop Zhang dies after multiple illnesses
HONG KONG (CNS) -- Chinese Bishop Paul Francis Zhang Mingqian of Yichang, a medical doctor who used his earnings to train seminarians, died July 24 at the age of 87. The bishop had suffered from multiple illnesses since 2001. Father Lu Shouwang, diocesan vicar general, said the bishop had been hospitalized since May 1 with diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. After the bishop's 40-day stay in the hospital, doctors advised church officials to take him home, Father Lu said. Bishop Zhang died at the St. Francis Cathedral compound with priests by his side. Yichang, in Hubei province in central China, is about 920 miles southwest of Beijing.
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Young Phillies draft pick relies on his Catholic faith
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- After Michael A. Costanzo Jr. was born, his parents dressed him in a signature-red Philadelphia Phillies jacket for his trip home from Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in Darby. As a toddler, he used to hit the Christmas ornaments off the family tree with a toy bat. As a teenage third baseman, he helped Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor capture more than one Catholic League baseball championship. This past June, the Phillies selected Costanzo, 21, as their first-year player draft pick. "I just always dreamt of being a Phillie," Costanzo said in a telephone interview with The Catholic Standard & Times, newspaper of the Philadelphia Archdiocese. "I've been watching them since I can remember. I'm a die-hard Phillies fan." No other career has ever crossed his mind: "Never. This is what I've wanted since day one." He said he plans to take to the field confidence, a winning attitude, a stalwart work ethic, and dedication to the game and to the city of Philadelphia. And his Catholic faith.
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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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