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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Sep-26-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Texas-Louisiana border areas hit hardest by Hurricane Rita
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Information about damage from the parts of Texas and Louisiana that were hit hardest by Hurricane Rita Sept. 24 was still difficult to obtain two days later. The second hurricane to sweep into the Gulf Coast region in a month veered east of the most heavily populated parts of Texas, rather than hitting the Galveston-Houston area head-on as had earlier been feared. The storm's path brought it ashore closer to Louisiana at the Texas coastal town of Sabine Pass, near Port Arthur. Karen Gilman, editor of the East Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Beaumont, told Catholic News Service Sept. 26 that she had seen photos showing damage to the dome of the recently renovated St. Anthony Cathedral, but had no idea yet what the extent of that damage was or what problems there might be for other church property. There is one Catholic parish in Sabine Pass, much of which was under 5 feet of water the day after the hurricane, Gilman said.
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Summit sidestepped nuclear disarmament, says Vatican's U.N. nuncio
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The Vatican nuncio at the United Nations criticized world leaders for sidestepping the issues of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation at their mid-September summit. The final document on U.N. reform measures and efforts to alleviate world poverty was silent regarding disarmament and nonproliferation, said Archbishop Celestino Migliore. "Nuclear armament is simply devastating for peoples and the environment," he said Sept. 23 in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Such weapons also drain economic resources that could be better used for peaceful purposes, he added. "We must insist on complete nuclear disarmament" and a stronger system to verify it, he said. The day before, in a talk at a U.N. conference promoting compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the archbishop, without naming them, criticized governments whose failure to sign the treaty is keeping the ban on nuclear testing from taking effect. So far, 175 countries have signed the treaty and 123 countries have ratified it. But the treaty cannot take effect until it is ratified by all 44 countries that possessed nuclear testing capabilities at the time the meeting that drafted the treaty was held in 1996. The United States is one of 11 such countries yet to take action.
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March said to signal more unified faith-based voice in opposing war
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With all major faith groups represented, the Sept. 24 protest march in Washington against the war in Iraq marked a new step in the effort to bring a more unified religious voice to the anti-war movement, according to a representative of Pax Christi USA. Michael Jones, director of communications for the Catholic peace movement based in Erie, Pa., said at least 500 Pax Christi members and thousands of other Catholics participated in the demonstration, which drew an estimated 100,000 people for a march past the White House to the National Mall. Other Catholic participants included members of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Catholic Worker movement, as well as individual Catholics such as 1976 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, whose vigil outside President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, drew national attention during the summer. "We believe our presence was required," Jones said, adding that his organization's opposition to the war in Iraq is built upon the late Pope John Paul II's statement that war is "always a defeat for humanity."
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Listening is key to helping survivors heal after Katrina, pastor says
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CNS) -- "Traumatized" is not adequate to describe what happened to the millions who survived Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. And it is not just about coping with the storm itself, but also the chaos that followed.Since the storm hit the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, thousands of people -- from trained rescue workers to ordinary volunteers -- have been working with victims to bring relief. In the process they have been the first to hear the survivors' heart-rending stories. Though it may be human nature to want to erase their pain, a Pine Bluff pastor and certified crisis counselor said the most important thing a person can do is listen. "Part of what they're doing is they're getting straight in their own mind exactly what happened," Msgr. Jack Harris told the Arkansas Catholic, newspaper of the Little Rock Diocese. "When they share the story with one another they're getting information they didn't have, and they're putting together the whole narrative in their own minds, which is a critically important step" toward healing.
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Interfaith group seeks 'ethical commission' to direct recovery effort
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- An interfaith group of religious leaders said they would ask the White House and Congress to set up an "ethical reconstruction commission" to direct recovery of Gulf Coast areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The proposal, advanced at a Sept. 23 press conference held by Interfaith Worker Justice, would put former Gulf-area residents to work and assist displaced workers; protect workers' safety and health; ensure adequate family supports for such federal programs as Medicaid and food stamps; expand the network of worker centers for immigrant and other low-wage workers; and restore all aspects of federal contract compliance -- including prevailing wage and affirmative-action requirements. "The underside of a city whose primary business is tourism is that the jobs of so many of its people are minimum-wage jobs washing dishes, making beds, cleaning hotel rooms and waiting tables," said Jesuit Father Fred Kammer, former head of Catholic Charities USA until he left three years ago to become the Jesuits' New Orleans provincial superior. "When you mix poverty with hurricanes, the combination is deadly."
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WORLD
Synod of Bishops to review liturgical issues, emphasize Sunday Mass
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI presides in October over the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, an assembly that will review liturgical issues, emphasize the importance of Sunday Mass and mark the close of the "Year of the Eucharist." More than 250 bishops from every continent will attend the Oct. 2-23 synod to discuss the theme "The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church." Earlier this year, Pope Benedict shortened the assembly and changed the format to include more group discussion and less speech-giving in response to long-standing criticism of the synod process. The synod will take an in-depth look at many pastoral aspects of the Eucharist, then formulate conclusions that are passed on to the pope for possible use in a later document. The synod's function has always been advisory, and many observers will be watching the October session to see if the new pope expands that role or gives the synod additional responsibilities.
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Pope says Eucharist should be impetus for love, charity
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- The Eucharist should be an impetus for the faithful to love others and attend to their needs through charity, Pope Benedict XVI said at his Sept. 25 noontime Angelus. Jesus transformed his death into "a gift of himself, an act of love which he gives completely," said the pope. "In the Eucharist, the Lord, with his body, gives himself, his soul and his divinity to us, and we become one with him and among ourselves," he said to the people gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. The faithful's response to God's great act of love and sacrifice "should then be concrete," he said. "One must express an authentic conversion to love, in forgiveness, in mutual welcoming and attention to the needs of all people," said the pope. He said there were myriad ways one could serve others every day and that the faithful could look to the Eucharist as a source of energy and inspiration for performing good works.
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Pope appeals for prayers for people affected by natural disasters
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI appealed for prayers for all those hit by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. He said his thoughts were with those who were "affected by the natural disasters in the United States and other parts of the world" when he addressed English-speaking visitors present at his Sept. 25 Angelus blessing at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. "I invite you to join me in prayer to the Lord for all those who suffer, for the victims and their loved ones, and for the rescue workers," he said. He asked that "God grant them consolation and strength in their trials." Initial reports had only two dead from Hurricane Rita, and Texas and Louisiana officials credited the evacuation of 3 million people with helping prevent widespread fatalities. Two dozen evacuees were killed in a bus fire near Dallas before the storm hit. Rita made landfall on the Gulf Coast along the Louisiana-Texas line Sept. 24, reducing fishing communities and coastal resorts to rubble.
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Cardinal says Sudan must guarantee rights or face peace deal collapse
LONDON (CNS) -- The fragile peace process in Sudan is in danger of collapsing into civil war unless the Islamic government guarantees the rights of non-Muslims, said a Sudanese cardinal. Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum told a press conference in London Sept. 23 that the success of the peace settlement depended "very much on the good will of those who are in power." "I think there is hope of peace, but I don't think it's going to be a quick job," the cardinal told Catholic News Service after the meeting. "We are going to have to work at it and build it slowly and carefully. It depends on whether the government is committed to building peace or to things that would make people start the war again," he added. During the press conference, the cardinal said people hoped the "new Sudan" would include "more justice, more respect for people" and that marginalized people would "be taken care of and ... enjoy the same citizenship as everyone else."
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PEOPLE
Lay leader Donna M. Hanson dies of cancer
SPOKANE, Wash. (CNS) -- Donna M. Hanson, 65, a nationally known lay leader, died Sept. 23 of cancer. Until her recent retirement she had been Spokane diocesan director of social ministries and Catholic Charities for more than a quarter-century. Spokane Bishop William S. Skylstad, who was to celebrate Hanson's funeral Mass Sept. 28 at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral in Spokane, called her "a tremendous leader, not only here in our own diocese, but around the country as well." "If we look at the growth of Catholic Charities, all the way from ... farmworker housing to institutions like the House of Charity and St. Margaret Shelter, to the more recent building of the new St. Anne Children and Family Center, it's just a remarkable, remarkable legacy," said the bishop. In 1987 Hanson addressed Pope John Paul II on behalf of the laity during his visit to San Francisco. The chairwoman of the U.S. bishops' National Advisory Council at the time, she described U.S. Catholic laity as "among the best educated and most highly theologically trained in the world" and asked the pope to help make the church more inclusive and collaborative.
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Letters from 'Curious Catholic' to his son become popular book
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (CNS) -- Pay attention to your next-door neighbor and the cashier at the grocery store. They, and many others, may offer lessons your heart needs to learn. That's the kind of attitude that San Francisco attorney Jerry Hurtubise has taken to his own heart through the years, and it's evident in his new book, "The Spiritual Apprenticeship of a Curious Catholic." Hurtubise spoke with Today's Catholic, newspaper of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, from San Francisco, where he provides legal assistance to severely injured people. He said he initially intended the recollections from his childhood to be letters to his son, Peter, now 15, so he would know something of his father's growing-up years. His own father died unexpectedly when he was 13, and it was the absence of personal knowledge about his dad's childhood that motivated him to write.
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Pope, Father Hans Kung have 'friendly' meeting, Vatican says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI and German theologian Father Hans Kung, who have known each other for almost 50 years, met Sept. 24 in Castel Gandolfo in what the Vatican described as a "friendly" encounter. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, Vatican spokesman, said Sept. 26 that the pope and Father Kung "agreed that in the space of this meeting it made no sense to enter into an argument about the doctrinal questions remaining between Hans Kung and the magisterium of the church." Father Kung served as a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council, but in 1979 the Vatican withdrew permission for him to teach as a Catholic theologian, although not restricting his ministry as a Catholic priest. The German priest has challenged official church positions on papal infallibility, birth control, priestly celibacy and the all-male priesthood. Navarro-Valls said the meeting focused on two topics of Father Kung's recent work: the possibility of developing a "global ethic" drawing from all religious traditions and the dialogue between Christian faith and science.
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Screenwriter's task: Sell her script using hints from her how-to book
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Catholic screenwriter Kate Wright is on the horns of a dilemma. Last year, a book she wrote about successfully selling screenplays was published. This year, Wright's task is to successfully sell a movie script she has written about St. Katharine Drexel. The first step -- which wasn't in her book -- is to show it to the leaders of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the order St. Katharine Drexel founded, and do whatever required touch-ups are needed so it meets with their approval. The ultimate step -- which is included in "Screenwriting Is Storytelling: Creating an A-List Screenplay That Sells" -- is "getting money, which is equal to getting your stars," Wright said. It's akin to the chicken-and-egg question. Finding stars willing to commit to a film gives potential investors "the reason they have to believe there's a return on their investment," she said. Wright teaches classes in screenwriting and "script doctoring" for the writers program at the University of California-Los Angeles. The idea for "Katharine: The Conspirator Saint," as she has titled her script, came after she got a grant to write the script for a St. Katharine Drexel documentary.
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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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