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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-11-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Bishop decries contradiction in policy on Cubans trying to enter U.S.
MIAMI (CNS) -- Calling it "inhumane, unjust and ineffective," retired Auxiliary Bishop Agustin A. Roman of Miami has called for the abolishment of the so-called "wet foot/dry foot" policy that applies to Cubans trying to enter the United States. According to the policy, Cubans who touch land in the United States can stay, while those caught at sea are sent back to the island. The Cuban Adjustment Act, passed in the early 1960s and revised in 1996, allows Cubans to apply for residency a year and one day after arriving in the United States. The U.S. government has no repatriation agreement with Cuba's communist government. The bishop's comments were prompted by the Sept. 23 interdiction, carried live on local television stations, of 10 Cuban refugees as they neared the shores of Haulover Beach in a homemade boat. Those "painful images," Bishop Roman wrote in a statement issued Sept. 27, "were a living demonstration of how the cold interpretation of the letter of the law threatens to dehumanize us, when that interpretation is placed above the spirit of a nation whose fundamental law recognizes each person's right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'"
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Racial, ethnic groups build bridges at Chicago rally
CHICAGO (CNS) -- Native Americans danced with African-Americans, Filipino children played instruments and Polish children sang, and Chicagoans from different neighborhoods sat together and enjoyed it all. The Oct. 1 Racial Justice Unity Rally offered Catholics from across the Chicago area a chance to celebrate the racial and ethnic diversity in the Archdiocese of Chicago with a variety of art forms, from drawings done by children at Catholic schools to various styles of music and dance. The rally, with the theme "Building Bridges and Uniting People," included an opening prayer by Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, a presentation by comedian and human rights activist Dick Gregory, and a closing prayer by Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry. "The sin, the crime, the tragedy, the horror of racism is not a good thing to rally around," Cardinal George said. "But it is a good thing to challenge us to take notice."
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Web site aims to inform Gulf Coast Catholics, tell region's story
RONKONKOMA, N.Y. (CNS) -- In an ongoing effort to assist Gulf Coast colleagues affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Catholic media professionals have launched a new Web site to help reconnect hurricane evacuees with news about their dioceses and to help tell the story of the storm-ravaged region. Catholicsrespond.org is a joint effort by the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada and the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals. Developed by John Feister of St. Anthony Messenger Press, the site says it has two purposes-- "to help reconnect hurricane evacuees with their diocesan communications" and "to help get the story out, from those affected by the recent hurricanes."
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Catholic cemeteries could not escape Katrina's wrath, says speaker
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (CNS) -- Even the dead could not rest in peace during Hurricane Katrina. Speaking to Catholic cemetery directors from across the nation gathered in Hollywood for their annual convention Oct. 4-7, George Cooke spoke of floating caskets, flooded vaults, overturned oak trees and bodies stacking up in funeral homes. "The biggest problem in Louisiana right now is public cemeteries are not taking responsibility for caskets that are floating," said Cooke, director of cemeteries for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in southwestern Louisiana. Cooke reported that the easternmost cemetery in his diocese was under 6 feet of water after Katrina hit and reflooded after Hurricane Rita. He said his counterpart in the Archdiocese of New Orleans has only been able to visit two of the five Catholic cemeteries in the most affected areas, and the archdiocese has not conducted a funeral in five weeks. "Bodies are stacking up in funeral homes," Cooke said.
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Homeboy Industries offers jobs, caring to those who want out of gangs
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Master chef Alvaro Oceguedo remembers being approached by his trusted business partner Pedro Gonzalez with an unusual and risky idea: Could the family bakery business Oceguedo had carefully built train six former gang members from rival gangs in the skills of baking? As a youth minister to young men and women at St. Albert the Great Church in Compton, Oceguedo understood something about reaching out to those at risk. "You can't know someone if you don't give them an opportunity," he said. So began Mi Vida/My Life Bakery's alliance with Homeboy Industries last June, when six "homies" -- several with long track records of being in and out of juvenile facilities or prison -- traded in the late-night gang lifestyle for the early-morning tasks of mixing fresh ingredients, kneading dough and monitoring ovens to pull out fresh-baked raisin bread, Mexican conchas, tortillas and cookies. The story of Homeboy Industries and its founder, Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, will be part of a documentary called "Faith Works: Across the U.S.A. 2005," produced by the U.S. bishops' Catholic Communication Campaign. Beginning Oct. 23, the show will be offered to ABC affiliates; stations will air the program at their discretion.
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WORLD
Chance rescue: Villagers get help after blocking church workers' van
URI, India (CNS) -- The Catholic relief workers from St. Joseph Hospital reached the distraught families in Jabala village by sheer chance. The half dozen workers from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and Caritas were shocked when their van was blocked by a group of irate villagers on the earthquake-damaged road between Uri and Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Oct. 10. "If you are genuinely serious about relief work, why don't you visit our village?" Mohammed Habibullah asked angrily as the church relief workers got out of their van amid baton-wielding villagers. An hour later, after hiking rocky pathways on a steep mountain slope in pitch darkness, villager Mohammed Bain was thanking the relief workers. "We had lost all hope and never thought anyone would come reach us. God will bless you," he said. Jabala, elevation 8,200 feet, was one of scores of villages badly damaged in the magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Oct. 8. By Oct. 11, officials said more than 1,300 people had died in India, and the death toll in Pakistan was expected to surpass 35,000.
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Atlanta archbishop tells synod church needs inspiring preachers
ROME (CNS) -- The church needs vibrant, inspiring preachers and new ways to communicate faith traditions in its response to current challenges, said Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta. While the Oct. 2-23 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist grapples with concerns such as how to attract more priestly vocations or how to reach out to young people or lapsed Catholics, "we cannot change the faith of the church to accommodate one group or another," he told Catholic News Service Oct. 10 in Rome. "But what we can do is communicate the faith of the church in such a way so that it is heard by people in a variety of backgrounds." Archbishop Gregory said the church across the world has to speak to a variety of audiences, including Catholics who regularly attend Mass, young Catholics who have not yet been "properly evangelized and catechized," people who "have yet to be evangelized," and Catholics who have become "disenfranchised for whatever reason" from the church. All these people "belong to the heart and soul of the church," he said, and bishops, priests and religious have a responsibility to "develop strategies that address the different life situations" of all of them.
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Caribbean bishop says his people want bear hug, not handshake at Mass
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Several members of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist agreed that the sign of peace just before Communion is disruptive, but none of them thought it should be eliminated. In fact, Bishop Gabriel Malzaire of Roseau on the West Indies island of Dominica said a quick handshake is not enough for his people. "Many of the faithful resist the short handshake for the sign of peace. They want a more feeling expression of fraternity, such as a bear hug or an embrace," the bishop told the synod Oct. 10. The Vatican provided summaries of the bishops' talks at the synod, as well as briefings of the full contents of the speeches. Colombian Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz of Bogota, who also spoke Oct. 10, echoed a call made by several bishops at the synod, asking the Vatican to consider moving the sign of peace to the beginning of the offertory from its current position just before the distribution of Communion.
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Vatican releases Pope Benedict's first book, 'God's Revolution'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican joined with other publishers in an 18-nation release of Pope Benedict XVI's first book as pope -- a collection of his speeches from August events in Cologne, Germany. In his newest book, titled "God's Revolution," the pope "outlines the project for his pontificate," according to a press release by the Italian publishers, San Paolo. The Italian edition hit bookstores in Italy Oct. 11, while the English edition published by Ignatius Press was expected to be ready for release in the United States and Canada by the end of October. The 129-page volume "deals with the questions of Christian faith and the destiny of humanity, of the state of Israel, Islam, the legacy and the future of the church and society," said the press release. But instead of any new pronouncements, the book is a collection of talks the pope gave during the Aug. 18-21 events in Cologne, including World Youth Day and meetings with representatives of Germany's Jewish and Muslim communities. The texts include the pope's complete remarks, not just his original written addresses.
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Top church law expert says Catholics have right to receive Eucharist
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While no one has a right to claim God's gifts, Catholics do have a right to receive the Eucharist from the Catholic Church, said the Vatican's top expert on church law. Cardinal Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, spoke Oct. 10 to the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist. Whether the faithful have a right to receive the Eucharist and, if they do, what the church must do to ensure there are enough priests to celebrate Mass was a recurring topic of discussion at the Oct. 2-23 synod. Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice, the synod's recording secretary, had opened the synod saying the Eucharist was a gift, not a right, implying that a lack of priests was a motive for prayer, not for changing the church's discipline on priestly celibacy to ensure greater access to the Eucharist. The Vatican released summaries of the bishops' talks and provided briefings on their full content.
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Synod members offer local snapshots of Eucharist in church life
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Amid theological and spiritual reflections, several members of the Synod of Bishops offered snapshots of the Eucharist in the life of their local churches. Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem told the synod Oct. 11 that in the Cenacle, the upper room where Jesus instituted the sacrament of Communion, the Eucharist is not reserved in a tabernacle and liturgies are not celebrated regularly. Patriarch Sabbah said Christians in the Holy Land, most of whom are Palestinians, need to realize that "adoration, the Mass and Communion are not exercises in piety," but a push for unity "in the parish and beyond the parish with the whole city or village and the whole country." The day before, Cuban Auxiliary Bishop Alfredo Petit Vergel of Havana told the synod of the great love the Cuban people have for the Eucharist. "In the face of the difficulty and virtual impossibility of building new churches, we have so-called 'prayer houses' or 'mission houses' in outlying neighborhoods and small towns and villages where every week, or whenever possible, small groups of faithful -- no more than 40 people -- gather under the leadership of a committed layperson, sister or deacon," he said.
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PEOPLE
Wisconsin bishop named to board of visitors for Army training school
MADISON, Wis. (CNS) -- Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison has been named to serve on the board of visitors of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Ga. He was appointed by the U.S. secretary of defense and the U.S. secretary of the Army. The institute, established in 2001 as a successor to the 55-year-old School of the Americas, instructs civilian, military and law enforcement leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere. In commenting on his appointment, Bishop Morlino said, "I was somewhat surprised when I was approached about this opportunity to serve our country, but I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to support our military and our brothers and sisters, neighbors in the Western Hemisphere, by standing up for the truth about morality and justice." The board of visitors is a body of the Department of Defense, not part of the institute itself, Bishop Morlino said.
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Siegfried, business leader and member of National Review Board, dies
TULSA, Okla. (CNS) -- Ray H. Siegfried II, a Catholic business leader and philanthropist who was one of the first members of the U.S. bishops' National Review Board on clergy sexual abuse, died in Tulsa Oct. 6 following a four-year struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 62. His funeral Mass was celebrated Oct. 10 at Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa. His body was then flown to the University of Notre Dame in Indiana for a final Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart Oct. 11 and burial in the university's Cedar Grove Cemetery. Siegfried graduated from Notre Dame in 1965 and was one of the university's biggest benefactors. Notre Dame's president, Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, called him "a man whose wisdom, leadership and generosity will be felt on this campus for all time."
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Bishops to draft proposals; Pennsylvania prelates elected to help
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Members of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist were to begin drafting proposals Oct. 13, working in small groups to come up with suggestions to present to Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia was elected Oct. 5 to moderate the discussions of "English Group A," and "English Group B" elected Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh to be its recording secretary. The more than 250 synod participants have been divided into 12 small groups. English, French and Spanish speakers have three groups each, while Italian speakers have two groups and there is one German-language group. The recording secretaries from each group are scheduled to report on the preliminary discussions late Oct. 14.
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Father Smolich named next president of Jesuit Conference
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jesuit Father Thomas H. Smolich, who is completing a six-year term as provincial of the Jesuits of the California province, has been named the next president of the Jesuit Conference. The conference, based in Washington, is the national liaison office coordinating the work of 10 Jesuit provinces in the United States. Its president is appointed by the Jesuit superior general in Rome. Father Smolich, who is expected to take office next June, is replacing Jesuit Father Bradley M. Schaeffer, president since 1998.
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