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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-10-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Beaumont Diocese reopens chancery; schools to reopen Oct. 17
BEAUMONT, Texas (CNS) -- The Beaumont Diocese announced it was moving back into its chancery offices Oct. 10 and that Catholic schools in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange were to reopen Oct. 17. After Hurricane Rita tore its way up the Texas-Louisiana border, administrative staff members of the diocese had been operating out of temporary offices in Houston with space and telephone lines provided by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The diocese planned to be back to its regular business hours of 8 a.m.-5 p.m. In announcing the reopening of schools, George Pressey, superintendent of schools for the diocese, also said that students will have a regular day of classes Oct. 17.
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Three St. Louis Cardinals reflect on their Catholic faith
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- St. Louis Cardinals players David Eckstein, John Rodriguez and Jeff Suppan recently stepped up to the plate to talk about their Catholic faith. In interviews with the St. Louis Review, archdiocesan newspaper, the Redbirds' shortstop, outfielder and pitcher, respectively, said their faith is very important to them. While they do not often tout their religion in public, they believe their actions on and off the field define them as Catholics. All three professional athletes were born into the faith. Each goes to Mass regularly and has made prayer a key part of his daily life. On Oct. 8 the Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres 7-4, to win a best-of-five series in the first round of the National League playoffs. They were to face the Houston Astros Oct. 12 in St. Louis for Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
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Catholic-Polish National Catholic churches dialogue on unity
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Church unity was the major theme of the latest session of the Polish National Catholic-Roman Catholic dialogue, held Sept. 19-20 in Buffalo, N.Y. Most of the session was devoted to reflection on "The Polish National Catholic Church: Commitment to Work for Church Unity," a paper first presented to the dialogue group last spring. Its full text has been published in God's Field, the Polish National Catholic Church's official newspaper. Details of the meeting were released in Washington Oct. 5 in a news release from the headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Polish National Catholic Church, established in Scranton, Pa., in 1897, has its origins in a series of pastoral and administrative conflicts between Polish immigrant Catholic parishes and their bishops in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to its Web site, the Polish church now has about 25,000 members in the United States and Canada.
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Church official urges hurricane school aid be distributed efficiently
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Getting federal aid to schools affected by the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region should not be hindered by the way the funds could be dispersed, said the education secretary for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In an Oct. 5 letter to the House Education and the Work Force Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, Dominican Sister Glenn Anne McPhee expressed "significant reservations" about recent discussions by members of Congress stipulating that any aid given to private schools be distributed through public school districts following the model of how federal funds are distributed in the No Child Left Behind legislation. "The hurricanes did not distinguish between public, private or religious schools at any level: preschool, elementary, secondary or postsecondary," said Sister McPhee. "Therefore assistance should be equitably provided to all those affected in a way that will be the most effective, flexible and quickest way of accomplishing the goal of restoring some degree of normality to the lives of all those impacted and displaced."
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Bishop Tobin holds listening sessions for lay parish leaders
WARREN, R.I. (CNS) -- "If you were in my chair, what do you see as the needs of the diocese?" Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence asked lay parish leaders gathered at St. Mary of the Bay Church in Warren. "This is a time when the Spirit is moving in the church. ... We have to understand what the Holy Spirit is asking us to do," he said. Bishop Tobin hosted the first of five listening sessions he planned as a way to get to know his new diocese. Since he was installed May 31, he said, he had been meeting with various diocesan boards but had not yet had a chance to hear what the laity thinks about ministry in the Providence Diocese. At the Warren gathering, about 55 representatives from dozens of parishes, selected by their pastors, were asked to identify three strengths and three needs of the diocese and one or two strategies for addressing those needs.
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WORLD
Pope urges swift, generous response to South Asian earthquake
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI called on the world community to be "swift and generous" in its help to South Asian countries overwhelmed by an earthquake that left tens of thousands of people dead and tens of thousands more injured. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Oct. 8, and officials said the death toll could top 40,000. Pope Benedict said "it was with deep sadness" that he learned of the earthquake that caused "great damage and loss of life." After praying his Oct. 9 noonday Angelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, he commended "to God's loving mercy all those who have died" and expressed his "deepest sympathy to the many thousands who are injured or bereaved."
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Romanians' faith survived persecution, archbishop tells synod
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An emotional account of how Catholics in communist Romania held fast to their faith despite persecution and humiliation drew resounding applause from some 240 participants at the world Synod of Bishops. Romanian-rite Archbishop Lucian Muresan of Fagaras-Alba Iulia underlined the great hopes of the Catholic community despite past hardships and present challenges. According to information released by the Vatican, his Oct. 6 talk, four days into the synod sessions, was the first to draw applause from the bishops who were gathered at the Vatican for three weeks to discuss the role of the Eucharist in the life of the church. People's hunger for the bread of God could not be quashed, not even when the church was brutally repressed from 1948 to 1990 by the communists, Archbishop Muresan said. "The communists tried to give man material bread alone and wanted to chase the 'bread of God' from society and the heart of the human person," he said.
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Vatican official calls for better care of mentally ill
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More needs to be done to help the mentally ill and to support programs of early diagnosis and prevention of mental illness, said a top Vatican official. Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, appealed to public health officials worldwide "to find urgently needed help" for those with mental disorders. Many of these people are "on the streets or with their families where they cannot receive the (proper medical) help they need," he said in his message for World Day of Mental Health celebrated Oct. 10. He asked that health and government officials make mental health care more accessible and equitable and that treatment be "in full respect for the integrity and dignity of the sick." According to the World Health Organization, some 450 million people worldwide suffer from a mental disorder and 873,000 people commit suicide each year, the cardinal said in his text.
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Nigerian archbishop wants respect for African culture during Mass
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Nigerian archbishop was not beating war drums, but his call for greater respect for African music, dance and instruments in the Mass could be seen as fighting words next to calls for more Gregorian chant and organ music. Several members of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist echoed the call in the synod's working document for greater use of traditional Catholic music and Latin prayers, especially at Masses with an international congregation, according to information released by the Vatican. But Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, said Oct. 10 that the church "should rejoice at the wonderful things" the Holy Spirit has brought to the liturgy since the Second Vatican Council. "The Eucharist deserves and is receiving the best of our cultures," he said. The Vatican made portions of his and other texts available to journalists. Africa "may not have much to offer in terms of the glorious architecture of European cathedrals or the fabulous paintings of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. But what we have we are happy to give: our songs and lyrics, our drumming and rhythmic body movements, all to the glory of God," he said.
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Death count from Hurricane Stan rises in Mexico, Central America
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The death count from Hurricane Stan continued to rise in Mexico and Central America as rescue workers reached towns cut off by massive floods and mudslides. The storm, which churned into Mexico's Gulf Coast Oct. 4 before unleashing heavy rains onto much of Central America, left more than 600 confirmed dead and more than 1,000 more missing in the region, though relief workers said the number could be much higher and warned that residents could be dogged by disease and food shortages for months. The storm slammed into the Mexican state of Veracruz as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph, although it caused relatively little damage on the coast and quickly dissipated into a tropical storm. But as the storm moved south through Mexico and hovered over Guatemala and El Salvador for several days, rivers overflowed to swallow neighborhoods and destroy roads, and mountainsides soaked with torrential downpours collapsed onto towns.
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British religious leaders unite to stop proposed euthanasia law
LONDON (CNS) -- Catholic and Anglican leaders in Britain have united to condemn a new attempt to legalize euthanasia for the terminally ill. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, spoke out against euthanasia on the eve of a debate in the House of Lords. The debate focuses on a House of Lords select committee report on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which 73-year-old Lord Joffe plans to reintroduce at the end of October or beginning of November, according to reports in the British press Oct. 10. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, speaking on a British Broadcasting Corp. program Oct. 9, said he hoped politicians would argue against the bill. "If this law is passed, it seems to me that the duty of the law to act on behalf of the people would be broken, because the law is there to protect life, and a right to die can become a duty to die," he said.
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Synod members seek balance: Eucharist as sacrifice, communal meal
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When people think of the Eucharist mainly as Christ's sacrifice for their sins, they take seriously their obligation to go to Mass and they are reverent, said some members of the Synod of Bishops. When they see the Eucharist mainly as a communal celebration of the Lord's Supper, they take seriously the sacrament's unifying power and its call to transform the world, other members said. Traditional Catholic theology emphasizes both aspects of the Eucharist, although some people felt the Second Vatican Council tipped the balance toward the "communal meal" and opened the way for an irreverent, undisciplined and superficial understanding of the Mass. Forty years after the council, members of the Oct. 2-23 synod on the Eucharist said there is a need to find balance in understanding the liturgy as sharing in Christ's banquet and as making present his sacrifice for the sins of the world. During the synod's Oct. 6 "free-discussion" period, Pope Benedict XVI took the microphone and offered a theological reflection on the Eucharist as the Lord's Supper and as Christ's sacrifice, said Legionaries of Christ Father John Bartunek, the English-language briefing officer.
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Bishop says synod on Eucharist focuses too much on priests
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Priests obviously play a central role in celebrating the Eucharist and educating the faithful about the sacrament, but an Indonesian bishop told the world Synod of Bishops he thought their discussion was "too priest-centered." Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar of Jayapura told the synod on the Eucharist Oct. 7 that "to be relevant and meaningful for the secular society, our discourse on the Eucharist has to deal more with building community. The Eucharist is not a private devotion." The priest and the congregation together must make the Mass a celebration that builds community among those present and strengthens them to foster unity with the wider world, said the published summary of his talk. If the Eucharist is to build communion, Bishop Ladjar said, the church must ask itself if it makes any sense to allow priests to celebrate Mass alone. He also questioned whether the church puts so much emphasis on the priest celebrating Mass that it diminishes his ministry to teach the faith, govern the community and promote the spiritual development of believers.
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Pakistani prelate: Christians should give day's wages to quake relief
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNS) -- The president of the Pakistani bishops' conference expressed his grief following the country's worst-ever earthquake and urged all Pakistani Christians to contribute one day's wages for relief aid. Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, conference president, expressed his "profound shock and grief at the large-scale destruction of life and property caused by the great earthquake" that struck Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Oct. 8. He said prayers were offered in all Pakistani Catholic churches the next day for the eternal peace of the deceased and for the recovery of thousands of injured survivors, according to an Oct. 10 statement issued by his office. "This was the greatest natural disaster in our country's history," he wrote, calling upon all Christians "to do their part" in relief efforts. He urged them to contribute one day's salary to the President's Relief Fund and announced a donation of 500,000 rupees (US$8,357) from the Pakistani Catholic Church, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The earthquake along the Pakistan-India border was magnitude 7.6. Its epicenter was near the town of Muzaffarabad, almost 60 miles northeast of Islamabad in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
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Synod looks at eucharistic sharing with other Christians
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With representatives of 12 Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches present, members of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist examined Catholic guidelines on sharing Communion with members of other churches. One participant suggested a joint Catholic-Orthodox synod to address eucharistic sharing among those churches. Questions about sharing the Eucharist were raised frequently during the first week of the Oct. 2-23 synod but received special attention Oct. 8 and 10. The Vatican's chief ecumenist, the theologian of the pontifical household, the president of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences and two Eastern Catholic bishops from Ukraine focused their speeches on the question, according to published summaries and a Vatican briefing.
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PEOPLE
Beatified German cardinal 'feared God more than man,' pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- German Cardinal Clemens von Galen of Munster, an outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler's regime, "feared God more than man," Pope Benedict XVI said moments after the cardinal was beatified. "All of us, but especially we Germans, are grateful that God gave us this great witness of faith who shined the light of the truth in dark times and demonstrated the courage to resist tyranny," the pope told German pilgrims Oct. 9. Cardinal von Galen, who served as bishop of Munster from 1933 until his death in 1946, was beatified in St. Peter's Basilica during a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes. At the end of the Mass, Pope Benedict entered the basilica, praying before the cardinal's relics and greeting the thousands of pilgrims who participated in the beatification of the cardinal, known as the "Lion of Munster" for his defense of the church under Nazism and his denunciations of Hitler's racial policies and of the regime's program of medical experimentation on the sick and handicapped.
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Senate confirms businessman as U.S. ambassador to Vatican
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Francis Rooney, a businessman with ties in Oklahoma and Florida, was confirmed by the Senate Oct. 7 to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. In a voice vote, the Senate agreed to confirm Rooney's appointment along with the nominations of dozens of other people to posts ranging from assistant secretaries of various federal agencies to judges for the District of Columbia. Rooney is chief executive officer of Rooney Holdings, which includes insurance and construction companies. He also has been active in Oklahoma and Florida in charitable and community organizations including the Knights of Malta, an Oklahoma Catholic hospital's strategic planning committee, the American Red Cross and the United Way. The post of Vatican ambassador has been vacant since Jim Nicholson became secretary of Veterans Affairs in January.
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Brett McLaughlin resigns in Michigan to take on new challenge
SAGINAW, Mich. (CNS) -- Brett McLaughlin, executive editor of The Catholic Weekly and The Catholic Times publications in Michigan since 2001, has resigned to take a new post as an editor in South Carolina. McLaughlin, 55, is now editor of The Daily Journal in Seneca, S.C., and the Messenger in nearby Clemson, S.C. Each newspaper is published five days a week. Mark Myczkowiak, general manager of The Catholic Weekly and The Catholic Times, publications of the Michigan dioceses of Gaylord, Lansing and Saginaw, said that although McLaughlin "will be difficult to replace ..., his influence will remain with us for a long time through the many initiatives he has put in place."
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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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