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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Sep-12-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Pope creates North American eparchy for Armenian Catholics
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI Sept. 12 raised the Armenian Catholic Exarchate of the U.S.A. and Canada to an eparchy. Bishop Manuel Batakian, head of the exarchate since 2001, becomes the first eparch. The changes were announced by Msgr. Leopoldo Girelli, charge d'affaires at the apostolic nunciature in Washington. Dioceses in Eastern Catholic churches are called eparchies. An exarchate is a church jurisdiction formed in areas where there are enough Catholics of that rite to establish a hierarchy but the church is not sufficiently developed yet to form an eparchy, or full diocesan structure. There are about 25,000 Armenian Catholics in the United States and about 10,000 in Canada. The church has two parishes in Canada, in Toronto and Montreal, and seven in the United States -- two in California and one each in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. The new eparchy, which has its headquarters in New York, will be called Our Lady of Nareg in New York for Armenian Catholics. The village of Nareg in Armenia was the site of a famous monastery and home to one of Armenia's most noted theologians and saints, St. Gregory of Nareg.
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Bush declares Sept. 16 as national prayer day for hurricane victims
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President George W. Bush declared Sept. 16 as a "national day of prayer and remembrance" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "A vast coastline of towns and communities has been decimated. Many lives have been lost, and hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans are suffering great hardship," Bush said in a Sept. 8 proclamation announcing the prayer day. "To honor the memory of those who lost their lives, to provide comfort and strength to the families of the victims, and to help ease the burden of the survivors, I call upon all Americans to pray to almighty God and to perform acts of service," he said. "Our nation is united in compassion for the victims, and in resolve to overcome the tremendous loss that has come to America. We will strive together in this effort, and we will prevail through perseverance and prayer," he said.
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Catholic Charities USA brings relief to the streets in Biloxi, Miss.
BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) -- More than anything else, people wanted bleach. That's what the Catholic Charities USA disaster relief team found as it drove its caravan of vehicles through Biloxi and the surrounding area hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina. Victims of the hurricane were happy to get food and water, but above all they wanted bleach and other cleaning supplies such as mops and paper towels to begin the long, arduous process of cleaning up. One woman literally broke down in tears when she was handed a bottle of bleach. Others simply glanced at other giveaway items in the back of the pickup truck, not interested in bread, power bars, fruit and water, just hoping for a big bottle of Clorox. Catholic Charities USA set up a disaster relief center Sept. 8 in the parish hall at St. Mary's Church in Woolmarket, just outside Biloxi, to provide immediate relief to the thousands of people with damaged homes. The parish center was also a base of operations for World Outreach Ministries International, a nondenominational aid group.
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Mississippi parishioners hit by hurricane help those in more need
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (CNS) -- After Hurricane Katrina swept through the southern Mississippi town of Hattiesburg, its residents knew life was not going to be the same, but they also knew it could be a lot worse. Stories broadcast on television and told by friends and relatives of the wreckage that occurred in distant towns made many of the parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Hattiesburg grateful for what they had even with the inconvenience of felled trees and downed power lines. Even 11-year-old Kelsea Lewis from St. Thomas got the idea. Kelsea, who had been in school for two weeks before the school closed because of the hurricane, spent most of her day volunteering at the parish Sept. 8, handing out items to families in need. "We got really lucky," she told Catholic News Service, pointing out that the 24 trees that fell in her yard all landed parallel to the house. She also had a keen sense, for a middle-school student, that she might not always be so lucky. She saw her volunteering as "helping in a circular kind of way," hoping that someone would do the same for her if she needed it.
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Katrina's impact changes everyday parish life in Biloxi parish
BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) -- Although Hurricane Katrina did not cause severe damage to Our Lady of Fatima Church in Biloxi, its impact was being felt in every aspect of parish life. During a morning Mass Sept. 10 in a side chapel of the church, the hurricane was mentioned in the opening prayer, the homily, the petitions and the closing announcements. Even the Gospel reading from Luke was about raging floodwaters. Deacon Charles Nutter, a seminarian in the Biloxi Diocese, said in his homily that he knew everyone was "tired, exhausted and had been through a lot," but he also emphasized that the recovery period needed to be "a time of prayer where we can draw our strength." The petitions focused on those hurt or suffering from Hurricane Katrina and also for those involved in restoring order, but when parishioners were asked to state their petitions aloud, they only offered prayers of thanks either for those who helped them or for their own safety. At the end of Mass, Father Patrick Mockler, pastor, told his parishioners that he would need some extra help. His choir director, who lost everything in the hurricane, had moved to the Carolinas, and he was also looking for an organist. A more immediate need was to unload the 18-wheeler loaded with powdered milk and bananas that pulled into the parking lot just before Mass.
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Maryknoll Sisters award $250,000 challenge grant to Lay Missioners
MARYKNOLL, N.Y. (CNS) -- The Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic have announced a $250,000 challenge grant to the Maryknoll Lay Missioners to support their mission efforts and spark major donor initiatives. As the Lay Missioners raise money, the congregation will match the sums up to a total of $250,000, according to a Maryknoll press release. The congregation's "family" gift will help the Lay Missioners develop an expanded and sustainable financial base, it said. Maryknoll Sister Suzanne Moore, president of the congregation, said the sisters' gift affirms the growing role of the laity in the church's mission movement. It is also part of the Maryknoll Sisters' 50th anniversary commemoration of the life of their foundress, Mother Mary Joseph, who died Oct. 9, 1955. The challenge grant is focused on current and first-time donors who contribute $1,000 or more to the Lay Missioners. Donations must be received by Dec. 31, 2006, to qualify for matching funds.
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WORLD
Pope urges Catholics to rediscover cross as sign of faith
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In the Year of the Eucharist, Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics to rediscover a simple but profound symbol of their faith: the sign of the cross. The Eucharist and the cross of Christ's crucifixion have a deep connection that deserves contemplation by the faithful, the pope said at a Sunday blessing Sept. 11. A perfect occasion for reflection, he said, was the Sept. 14 feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The pope said that just as every celebration of the Eucharist is a remembrance of Christ's passion, death and resurrection the cross is the manifestation of the "act of infinite love with which the Son of God saved man and the world from sin and death." The pope said, "For this reason, the sign of the cross is the fundamental gesture of prayer for the Christian."
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Pope challenges nations to keep commitments to U.N. goals for poor
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI challenged participants at the U.N. World Summit to fulfill their previous commitments to help the poor, sick and hungry. The pope, speaking at his Sunday blessing Sept. 11, said he was sending Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, to attend the summit in New York Sept. 14-16. The summit's agenda includes world peace, human rights, development aid and U.N. internal reforms. "I express my fervent hope that the governments united there may find appropriate solutions to reach the great goals that have been set previously, in the spirit of harmony and generous solidarity," the pope told pilgrims at his summer villa outside Rome. The Vatican has been a strong supporter of the Millennium Development Goals of 2000, in which world leaders laid out a timetable to cut global poverty in half by 2015. To meet the goal, richer countries would increase development aid to 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product.
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Pope tells peace meeting violence cannot solve world's conflicts
LYON, France (CNS) -- Violence cannot solve the world's conflicts, and it harms people and limits the future of humanity, Pope Benedict XVI said in a message to participants of an interreligious peace meeting. In his written message, the pope urged all people, but especially the young, "to have the courage to more actively dedicate themselves toward peace and dialogue, which are the only things that can allow one to look with hope toward the future of the planet." The pope's appeal was read Sept. 11 by Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon during a liturgy marking the start of a three-day international gathering dedicated to peace. Sponsored by the Rome-based lay Community of Sant'Egidio and hosted by the Archdiocese of Lyon, the 19th International Meeting for Peace brought religious, cultural and political leaders from all over the world to discuss the theme "The Courage to Forge a Spiritual Humanism of Peace."
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Accused Belgian priest's case moved to Rwandan criminal court
KIGALI, Rwanda (CNS) -- The case of a Belgian priest arrested on charges of helping incite genocide has been transferred to a criminal court, where he could face the death penalty. The Gacaca tribunal -- one of the traditional courts set up to prosecute the majority of genocide suspects -- determined that Father Guy Theunis, a member of the Missionaries of Africa, was a category-one defendant and must face a full criminal trial. Category one is reserved for defendants who were in positions of power, "especially those who planned the genocide and were responsible," said Innocent Musafiri, a spokesman for the Gacaca authority. He said Father Theunis' position within the Missionaries of Africa and the Catholic Church put him into the class of higher-level defendants. Sentences are far stiffer for category-one defendants than for people convicted in Gacaca courts. Category-one defendants can face penalties ranging from jail time -- up to life in prison -- to the death penalty. It was not clear Sept. 12 whether Father Theunis would face the death penalty; that will be up to the prosecutors, Musafiri said.
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Pope names Tunis archbishop as coadjutor in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Fouad Twal of Tunis, Tunisia, as the coadjutor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The pope also named Father Maroun Lahham, head of the Beit Jalla seminary, as bishop of Tunis Sept. 8. As coadjutor, Archbishop Twal will succeed Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem when he retires or dies. Although Patriarch Sabbah is 72 and has three years before he is required by canon law to submit his resignation to the pope, it has become a trend within the Vatican to bring in a successor earlier than in the past in order to familiarize him with the work involved, said Wadie Abunasser, press adviser to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The patriarchate includes Latin-rite Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Cyprus. Archbishop Twal, currently president of the regional bishops' conference of North Africa, will arrive in Jerusalem in late September, Abunasser said.
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PEOPLE
On Sept. 11, pope pays homage to all victims of terrorism
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- On the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Pope Benedict XVI paid homage to all victims of terrorism around the world and appealed for an end to hatred and renewed dedication to peace. "Today, 11 Sept., we remember the victims of terrorist violence throughout the world," he said at the end of his noontime Angelus prayer at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. "May God inspire men and women of good will everywhere to renounce hatred and to build a world of justice, solidarity and peace," he said. The Vatican press office released a written copy of the pope's remarks the same day. In Rome, U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley said the unpredictable attacks by terrorists and the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster in the United States remind people that "we are dependent every moment of our lives upon the Lord." While human beings are autonomous, they are not self-sufficient, he said in his Sept. 11 homily at Rome's American parish, Santa Susanna.
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Family members cling to keepsakes found in their destroyed homes
BILOXI, Miss. (CNS) -- The two-story Lopez family home in Biloxi is literally in pieces. Its remnants are flattened to the ground. There are no walls, doorways or furniture, only scattered appliances, bricks, broken plates, some glasses, wires, a sink and lots of sand and debris, oyster shells and rocks. A slab of cement marked where the shed once stood and a browned shrub marked the edge of the former yard, but nothing else in the completely flattened debris-strewn area that was once their neighborhood was recognizable after the winds and water surge of Hurricane Katrina swept through the coastal town. And yet, amid the rubble, Curtis and Ann Lopez found some prized possessions -- a DVD of family videos, a safe and a porcelain knickknack from a family member. Just a few blocks away, their son, Justin Lopez, and his wife, Bridgett, and their 3-year-old daughter, Olivia, also lost almost everything in the house they shared with Bridgett's parents. The house literally broke in half and collapsed and was full of mud, mildew and a strong stench, but the couple was able to somehow salvage a few personal items from the wreckage.
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Pellegrino named to head president's bioethics council
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, a physician and longtime leader in developing bioethical standards based on Catholic values, has been named chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics. Pellegrino, 85, said that among the topics he plans to address in his new post are greater access to health care and issues involved in end-of-life care. Pellegrino, retired professor of medicine and medical ethics at Georgetown University's Medical Center and a former president of The Catholic University of America, will replace Dr. Leon Kass, bioethics professor at the University of Chicago, on Oct. 1. Kass, chairman since 2001, will continue as a member of the council. The announcement was made Sept. 8 by the White House. The council was created in 2001 by President George W. Bush to advise him on bioethical issues. Previous presidents have had similar advisory boards.
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