|
|
|
|
News Briefs
|
NEWS BRIEFS Oct-7-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Orange Diocese makes progress in retiring debt after sex-abuse cases
ORANGE, Calif. (CNS) -- Less than a year after the Diocese of Orange settled clergy sex-abuse lawsuits with 90 plaintiffs for $100 million, the diocese has repaid 70 percent of its half of the debt without affecting the funds of Catholic schools and parishes. The other half of the settlement total was paid out by eight liability insurers. The diocese retired $35 million in debt this summer with funds drawn from the diocesan general fund and reductions in the diocesan investment portfolio. Diocesan officials said the remaining $15 million is expected to be repaid by next June. "Instead of 20 years of crippling and demoralizing debt, our lay advisers have mapped out a financial plan that is as progressive as our diocese," said Bishop Tod D. Brown of Orange. The bishop was referring to the 10-member Task Force on Debt Reduction, made up largely of lay business executives, working as volunteers.
- - -
Protect human rights of allies, enemies, bishop tells senators
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Efforts to combat terrorism, while a top priority for the government, must not undermine respect for human dignity, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy said in a letter to U.S. senators. "We believe that a respect for the dignity of every human person, ally or enemy, must serve as the foundation of the pursuit of security, justice and peace," said Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., in the letter. "There can be no compromise on the moral imperative to protect the basic human rights of any individual incarcerated for any reason," he added. In the letter, Bishop Ricard urged senators to approve amendments to the 2006 Defense Authorization Act proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and backed by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The text of the bishop's letter was released Oct. 5 by the U.S. bishops' conference.
- - -
Denver gathering opens yearlong celebration of EWTN's 25th year
DENVER (CNS) -- When Mother Angelica started her work to establish the Eternal Word Television Network, "she knew the Holy Father was calling us to evangelize," said Deacon Bill Steltemeier, chairman of the Alabama-based network. "Every challenge has been met head-on. We are who we are, we tell the truth, and we're in union with the Holy Father. We love the Blessed Mother and the Eucharist and that's it," he said. The deacon made the comments during a two-day family celebration at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver marking the beginning of a yearlong celebration of EWTN's 25th year. The Oct. 1-2 conference, one of several being held in cities around the country, featured prayers, opportunities for eucharistic adoration and seminars with some of the network's hosts, including Marcus Grodi, host of "Journey Home," and Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa, host of "Threshold of Hope" and "EWTN Live."
- - -
Thousands gather at Marian shrine to pray, dedicate statue for life
WASHINGTON, N.J. (CNS) -- More than 3,000 people united in prayer at the National Blue Army Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the New Jersey town of Washington Oct. 2, a day celebrated as both Respect Life Sunday and Worldwide Fatima Sanctity of Life Day. Thousands more at other U.S. sites and in Switzerland, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia and other countries observed the day of prayer for respect toward life. Gathered at the shrine under a clear blue sky, people prayed the rosary, celebrated Mass and witnessed the dedication of the shrine's new statue, Mary Mother of the Life Within. An identical statue was dedicated the same day at the Marian shrine in Fatima, Portugal. The statue, which shows Mary lovingly cradling the infant Jesus in her arms, features pro-life symbolism, such as the placement of the infant in a position similar to that of a fetus inside the womb.
- - -
Like other evacuees, Louisiana priests who fled Rita face unknowns
TYLER, Texas (CNS) -- Five LaSalette priests from Sulphur, La., who fled to east Texas in advance of Hurricane Rita said they were happy to find refuge in the Tyler Diocese but now face the same uncertainties as other storm evacuees. "We're getting bits and pieces of information," said Father Donald Jeffrey. "What we know is that Sulphur won't be habitable for about a month. There are a few priests we don't have any word on, so we're hoping to find out that they're all right." His parish of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in Carlyss, just outside Sulphur, and Father John Blumm's parish, Our Lady of LaSalette in Sulphur, are in the Diocese of Lake Charles, La., an area hit hard by Rita, which made landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border Sept. 24. The diocese's Web site lists four churches in Cameron Parish, a civil entity, along with four mission chapels, that were destroyed by wind and water. Severe water damage has left the chancery building in Lake Charles unusable, according to the site, and the Catholic Service Center, which offers social services, was destroyed.
- - -
WORLD
Newspaper: Vatican to bar active gays, allow celibate gays as priests
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An Italian newspaper said a long-awaited Vatican document would bar active homosexuals from priestly ordination but allow celibate gay men into the priesthood. Under the new guidelines, seminarians who have not lived chastely for at least three years would not be ordained, the newspaper, Corriere della Sera, said Oct. 7. It said the three-year period referred to the last phase of seminary formation. Also excluded from ordination would be candidates publicly declaring themselves homosexual or those with an uncontrollable attraction to gay "culture" -- including lectures, films and Internet sites, the newspaper said. The newspaper did not claim to have seen the Vatican document, but said it had received information about content through "verbal indiscretions." No sources were named. The Vatican had no comment on the report, but sources said the document would probably be released sometime soon. Speculation over the document has increased in recent weeks after reports that Pope Benedict XVI had approved the text.
- - -
Some bishops say church must reconsider role for married priests
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A lack of priests coupled with people's great need for spiritual nourishment must prompt the church to be open to considering a role for married priests in the life of the church, said some members of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. Coadjutor Bishop Arnold Orowae of Wabag, Papua New Guinea, told synod participants that Catholics who live in remote villages did not have "the opportunity for frequent celebration and reception of the Eucharist." In his speech Oct. 6, he asked how these communities would then be able to make the Eucharist the source and summit of their lives as the church asks, according to information released by the Vatican. He said the church needs to reflect on "what kind of priest" they need in their situation, and he asked the church to consider allowing the ordination of "mature Christian men who are strong in faith, very committed, and have the respect of the people." Often times these so-called "viri probati," or "men of proven virtue," are older, married men. He said these men could "be easily trained to preside at the eucharistic celebration" which would then "make it easy for the people to participate in the Eucharist, so that the importance and centrality of the Eucharist" would "become true for the people."
- - -
Deja vu: First week of synod follows patterns from past
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The first week of this fall's Synod of Bishops followed a long-standing tradition: Bishops from all over the world gave speeches all over the map, while the media focused on a few hot-button issues. The press tended to view the Oct. 2-23 assembly as a showdown debate on married priests, eucharistic sharing, Catholic politicians and Communion for divorced Catholics. The actual content of the first 30 hours and 250,000 words of synod discussion included those topics, but was less dramatic than the headlines. The bishops, in fact, ranged far and wide in choosing subjects for their six-minute speeches on "The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church." The topics included the quality of televised Masses, the shortage of priests, Communion in the hand versus Communion on the tongue, ministry to the sick, the Eucharist's connection to social justice and environmental issues, liturgical translations, Mass prayers with a missionary theme, the dehumanization of secular culture, priestly celibacy, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the proper place of eucharistic adoration. And all that came in the synod's first two days.
- - -
Cardinals say Communion for Catholic politicians not a private matter
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The reception of Communion by a Catholic politician who does not follow church teaching is not a private matter, but a decision involving the church and its unity in truth, said Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo. "Politicians and legislators must understand that by promoting or defending unjust legal proposals they have a serious responsibility, and they must remedy the evil committed and spread in order to approach Communion with the Lord who is the way, the truth and the life," the cardinal said Oct. 7 during the world Synod of Bishops. The concerns of the cardinal, who is president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, were echoed minutes later by Cardinal Juan Cipriani Thorne of Lima, Peru. According to information released by the Vatican, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo told the bishops that the problem of politicians and Communion was a "burning problem" in several countries, particularly where marriage, the family and the sanctity of human life were in "grave danger."
- - -
PEOPLE
Bishop says Communion distribution at huge Masses must be dignified
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Synod of Bishops heard a suggestion that the church avoid general distribution of Communion during huge Masses unless it can be done in a dignified way. Spanish Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, head of Opus Dei, made the proposal Oct. 6 to more than 200 bishops gathered to discuss the Eucharist as the center of church life. Bishop Echevarria also questioned the practice of concelebrating Mass with a large number of priests, saying that sometimes the concelebrants "can't even see the altar." Mega-Masses involving hundreds of thousands of people and many concelebrants were not unusual during the papacy of Pope John Paul II, both on his foreign travels and in liturgies in Rome. Typically, hundreds of priests would be sent into the crowd to give out Communion. One of the biggest Masses ever celebrated in Rome was for the canonization of Opus Dei's founder, St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer.
- - -
Eucharist gives hope to those in war, says Iraqi patriarch
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Eucharist is a source of needed strength and hope to those in the midst of war, conflict or personal difficulties, said several participants in the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of war-torn Baghdad, Iraq, said Jesus "is our strength and our consolation" during times of "difficulty and persecution." Jesus in the Eucharist "is the light that illuminates the path that leads us to eternal life" and is "the living manna that gives us life and sustains us," he told the Synod of Bishops Oct. 6. According to information released by the Vatican, his remarks were met with applause.
- - -
Weakened Brazilian bishop ends hunger strike after negotiations
SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS) -- Brazilian Bishop Luis Cappio, weakened and suffering from memory lapses and dizziness, ended his 11-day hunger strike to protest government plans to divert some of the water from the Sao Francisco River to irrigate the arid northeastern region of the country. The announcement of the end of the hunger strike came after five hours of negotiations between Brazil's Institutional Relations Minister Jacques Wagner and Bishop Cappio, 59. The government agreed to further discuss the project with Brazilians before starting the operation; continue and intensify efforts to revitalize the Sao Francisco River by trying to approve legislation that would assure annual investments of approximately $133 million in the revitalization of the river; and set up a meeting between Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Bishop Cappio as soon as the bishop has fully recovered his health.
- - -
German newspaper says Pope Benedict was spied on when he was cardinal
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- A German newspaper has published details of how East Germany's communist secret police, or Stasi, spied on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger three decades before he became Pope Benedict XVI. "Long before his nomination as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, state security ministry agents kept watch on him," the Bild am Sonntag weekly reported Oct. 2. The newspaper also noted that one agent "wrote with concern that, as congregation prefect, he would have an influence on the growth of anti-communist attitudes in the Catholic Church, especially in Latin America." The tabloid, which was given exclusive access to archives covering two decades, said a Stasi agent codenamed "Birke" (Birch) had begun regular surveillance of the future pontiff when, as a priest and professor at the University of Regensburg, he visited East Germany in April 1974 to lecture on "problems of modern theology" at the University of Erfurt.
- - -
Historian outlines steps to save Catholic identity of universities
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- Church authorities are acting to keep Catholic universities from suffering the secularization that obliterated the religious identity of Protestant colleges a century ago, historian Philip Gleason told a University of Notre Dame audience Sept. 29. "Tensions are bound to arise. It will be a continuing challenge," said Gleason, who titled his talk "Through Dangers, Toils and Snares" to hint at the hope that "grace has brought us safe so far and grace will lead us home." Gleason, a professor emeritus of history at Notre Dame and author of "Contending With Modernity: Catholic Higher Education in the Twentieth Century," gave the keynote address at the Center for Ethics and Culture's conference, "Joy in the Truth: The Catholic University in the New Millennium."
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
|
|
|
|
