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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-17-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Eighty percent of New Orleans Catholic school students re-enrolled
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Within 40 days after Hurricane Katrina hit, 80 percent of the nearly 60,000 students previously enrolled in Catholic grade and high schools in the New Orleans Archdiocese were back in Catholic schools, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes said Oct. 14. "Forty-five percent of our schools are back in operation. Sixty percent of our students are in Catholic schools in the archdiocese. And we estimate that 20 percent more are in Catholic schools in other dioceses," the New Orleans archbishop told a national gathering of Catholic lay and church leaders in Philadelphia. He said the neighboring Diocese of Baton Rouge, La., alone had taken in nearly10 percent of the Catholic students from New Orleans. Archbishop Hughes spoke at a luncheon during the inaugural meeting of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, held Oct. 13-14 at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Publishers, Hispanic leaders work to improve educational tools
SAN ANTONIO (CNS) -- Greater cooperation is needed between Hispanic ministry leaders and Catholic publishers to better serve the growing Spanish-speaking Catholic population in the United States, said speakers at a three-day conference in San Antonio. People involved in Hispanic ministry emphasized the need for more and better Catholic materials in Spanish adapted to the cultural context by which Hispanic Catholics understand their religion. Publishers stressed the difficulty in finding qualified writers and creators of written and audiovisual materials in Spanish who are also attuned to Hispanic culture and the diversity among Hispanics, who come to the United States from many countries. The Oct. 12-14 conference brought together 140 publishers, creators and users of Catholic educational materials under the bilingual title "In our own tongues/En nuestras proprias lenguas."
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Bishop: Hold broadcasters accountable in any new telecom law
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Broadcasters should be held accountable for their public-interest obligations to the communities they serve in any new telecommunications bill, said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., chairman of the U.S. bishops' communications committee. The Senate Commerce Committee was scheduled to begin debate Oct. 19 on several bills that would update current U.S. telecommunications law. "We ask that, in exchange for the use of tens of billions of dollars worth of new spectrum rights, broadcasters be required to put forth a substantial effort to provide programming that better serves the public," Bishop Kicanas said in a letter to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. One of the bills would mandate that all broadcast signals now done in analog format convert to digital by 2009. Another would require cable systems to carry each of the new channels broadcasters would be able to create through digital broadcasting. The last wide-ranging rewrite of the nation's telecommunications laws took place in 1996.
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Vocations campaign hinges on power of inviting men to priesthood
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new vocations campaign is being launched by the U.S. bishops with the idea that more men simply need to be invited to become priests by priests who are happy with their lives. Announced in Washington Oct.14, the program, called Priestly Life and Vocation Summit: Fishers of Men, is based on having dioceses and religious orders convene priests to discuss their vocations, emphasizing the positive aspects, and then encouraging them to invite other men to consider following them. Father Edward Burns, director of the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cited a survey of the 2003 U.S. ordination class in which 78 percent of the men about to be ordained said a priest had invited them to consider the priesthood.
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Catholic Relief Services sells free-trade chocolate from Ghana cocoa
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Grown in Ghana and manufactured in England, a socially responsible brand of chocolate is now available through Catholic Relief Services. In October, the Baltimore-based CRS, the U.S. bishops' overseas aid agency, began selling cases of Divine chocolate bars online and over the phone. Touted as fair-trade chocolate, Divine is made with cocoa grown by the 47,000 members of a cocoa farmer's association in southern Ghana called Kuapa Kokoo. Members are paid a price that covers the cost of producing the cocoa, and they have the security of a long-term trading contract, according to Divine Chocolate's Web site at www.divinechocolate.com. In addition, farmers receive a $150 "social premium" for every ton of cocoa sold, which goes toward improving the farmers' living standards and farming productivity. Catholic Relief Services sells Divine chocolate online at www.crsfairtrade.org and by phone at (888) 294-9665. Cases of 30 snack-size milk chocolate or dark chocolate bars cost $23. Boxes of 10 larger bars range from $16 to $18.
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White Sox fever has Catholic school children dancing in the street
VALPARAISO, Ind. (CNS) -- This has been a memorable season for Chicago White Sox fans like Lynn MacLean. The second-grade teacher at St. Paul School has indoctrinated her class in the fun art of baseball as practiced on Chicago's South Side. On Oct. 14, two days before the White Sox baseball team won the American League Championship Series over the Los Angeles Angels, MacLean's class was decked out for the Sox. MacLean, a die-hard Sox fan whose love of the game and that team goes back to her grandmother, has a Sox teddy bear and a 1959 Sox World Series shirt on her chair. A display includes a box score and updated statistics on the Sox during the playoffs. When the Sox win, the teacher has promised, there's no homework the next day. MacLean also made the promise that her class could go dancing in the street if the Sox won in the playoffs. The Sox did, and so did the classroom. MacLean's class assembled in the street in front of school Oct. 14 and, with supervision, danced, yelled, got drivers to honk their horns and sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
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WORLD
Pope urges children to cultivate lifelong friendship with Jesus
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged children to cultivate a lifelong friendship with Jesus because he would guide them, help them make the right decisions in life and help them become better people. "We need this friendship with God, who helps us make the right decisions, to mature as human adults," he said Oct. 15 to a crowd of nearly 150,000 people, mostly young children who had celebrated their first Communion earlier this year. During a colorful, festive ceremony in St. Peter's Square featuring clowns, people on stilts, singers and dancers, the pope led eucharistic adoration as well as a warm and informal catechesis based on the questions posed to him by several children. One by one, seven children came up to the pope and asked him questions on the microphone about why it is important to go to Mass and to confession and what their teachers mean by the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
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Pope meets bishops from Ethiopia, Eritrea at seminary inside Vatican
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI met with the bishops of Ethiopia and Eritrea at the Ethiopian College, marking the 75th anniversary of the inauguration of the seminary inside the Vatican walls. Ethiopian candidates for the priesthood moved into the Vatican in 1919 at the invitation of Pope Benedict XV. The current building, with its Eastern-rite chapel and iconostasis, opened in 1930 under Pope Pius XI. "The location of the college here inside Vatican City is an eloquent sign of the close bonds of communion linking the church in your countries with the see of Rome," the pope told the bishops Oct. 17 in the college on the hill behind St. Peter's Basilica. The bishops were in Rome for their "ad limina" visits, which the heads of dioceses make every five years. Normally the pope meets with bishops in the Apostolic Palace. Pope Benedict praised the Eastern- and Latin-rite Catholics of Ethiopia and Eritrea for "the united witness that you give."
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Synod working groups draft suggestions to help priestless parishes
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Renewed efforts for increasing priestly vocations and a better distribution of the world's priests were the leading suggestions for how the church should respond to priestless parishes in the first drafts of propositions presented by the Synod of Bishops Oct.14. While the idea of ordaining "viri probati" or men -- including married men -- of "proven virtue" had been suggested by some at the synod, it failed to reach majority approval in order to be included in the first round of reports coming out of the synod's 12 working groups. Most reports, which were read in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI, reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy. One French-language working group report said its members were "unanimous in stating the priceless value of priestly celibacy for the Latin Church." The French report said "vocational pastoral care" should be "more energetic, positive and open to the gifts of God" and noted that better training for priests to help in the missions for a fixed period would "help to gradually overcome this shortage."
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Pope offers special prayers for poor, urges governments to act
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI offered special prayers for poor people "fighting courageously to live in dignity and care for their families." At his Oct. 16 Angelus address, the pope spoke about the Oct. 17 International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, asking Christians to increase their solidarity and calling on government leaders "to hear the cry of the poor." The pope also sent a letter to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, sponsor of the Oct. 16 World Food Day, praising the agency on its 60th anniversary. In his messages for both international observances, Pope Benedict said recognizing the value of human life requires efforts to defend human dignity from the threats of hunger and poverty. Pope Benedict, in a written message to the Food and Agriculture Organization, said hunger and malnutrition are among "the most serious scandals that still affect the life of the human family." In figures released for the 2005 observance, the FAO said some 850 million people in the world live with hunger and malnutrition.
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Chaldean patriarch says nations should not turn away fleeing Iraqis
ROME (CNS) -- Iraqis fleeing violence and terrorism in their country should not be turned away by other nations and sent back to face an unfolding tragedy, said the leader of Iraq's Chaldean Catholics. "I pray that Western governments, including the United States, take pity on these Iraqis and at least offer them a stay permit for those who are already there and, if possible, a visa" for those wishing to arrive legally, said Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly of Baghdad, Iraq. He told Catholic News Service Oct. 17 that it was extremely difficult for Iraqis wishing to leave the country to obtain visas. Many travel to Syria or Jordan with the hope of eventually joining relatives in the United States, Australia or Europe. But "the way out is blocked," he said, "with thousands of lies." Patriarch Delly, who was in Rome for the Oct 2-23 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, said officials at foreign embassies in charge of issuing visas tell applicants "that the war is over, that Saddam (Hussein), the dictator, is finished, now Iraq has a democracy." He asked, "What democracy, when I can't leave my home and I'm afraid to leave my house," because of the daily violence and bloodshed?
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PEOPLE
Mass marks Cardinal Keeler's 50 years as priest, 25 years as bishop
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- More than 1,200 cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians, religious and laity filled the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore Oct. 5 to help Cardinal William H. Keeler mark the 50th anniversary of his priestly ordination and his 25th anniversary as a bishop. Joining the Baltimore archbishop for the celebration filled with joy and pageantry were Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua, retired archbishop of Philadelphia; Cardinals Francis E. George of Chicago, Adam J. Maida of Detroit and Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington; retired Archbishop William D. Borders of Baltimore; retired Auxiliary Bishop William C. Newman; and Baltimore Auxiliary Bishops W. Francis Malooly, Mitchell T. Rozanski and Denis J. Madden. In his homily, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee said Cardinal Keeler has "moved us all by his kindness, courtesy, intellect and radiant goodness." Cardinal Keeler told the congregation after Communion, "I thank the Lord for my years of ministry, and I thank you for helping me celebrate the Lord's gift of the priesthood."
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In Polish TV interview, Pope Benedict talks of legacy of JPII
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said he does not plan to issue many new documents in his papacy, but instead will focus on assimilating the teachings of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. The pope also said he hopes to visit Poland, the late pontiff's homeland, sometime next June. He made the comments in an interview broadcast by Polish television Oct. 16, the 27th anniversary of Pope John Paul's election. Vatican Radio made a transcript of the interview available online. Pope Benedict spoke movingly of his continued affection for the late pope and said he was engaged in a "permanent dialogue" with him. "A man who goes to the Lord doesn't disappear. I believe that someone who goes to the Lord comes even closer to us," the pope said. "The pope is always close to me through his writings. I hear him and I see him speaking, so I can keep up a continuous dialogue with him," he said.
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Italian Cardinal Caprio, who helped guide Vatican finances, dies
ROME (CNS) -- Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Caprio, who helped guide Vatican financial and investment policies under Pope John Paul II, died at age 90 in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI, who was to preside over Cardinal Caprio's funeral Oct. 18, called him a "diligent collaborator of five popes." Cardinal Caprio's death Oct. 15 left the College of Cardinals with 180 members. A native of a small town in southern Italy, Cardinal Caprio began his Vatican career as a diplomat, serving first at the Vatican's nunciature in Nanjing, China. He was expelled from China along with other Vatican diplomats in 1951, two years after the Communist Party came to power. He later served in diplomatic postings in Vietnam, Taiwan and India. He spent 23 years in the Far East, where he learned Chinese and the use of the abacus, an ancient calculating instrument.
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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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