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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-19-2005
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Federal disaster aid may help some Catholic facilities
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency can help Catholic and other faith-based service agencies rebuild facilities damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, U.S. official Jim Towey said Oct. 18. Towey, director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, discussed administration policy with reporters in a telephone conference call. He said religiously run schools, nursing homes and similar institutions affected by hurricanes, floods or other disasters are eligible to apply for FEMA public assistance grants. "President Bush believes that hurricanes, floods and earthquakes don't discriminate on the basis of religion, and the government's response to them should not either," Towey said. Houses of worship and other buildings used primarily for religious purposes are not eligible for FEMA aid even if they are also used for other purposes, he said, but buildings whose primary purpose is education or social services may be eligible even if they are also used partly for religious purposes.
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Consultations shape future of New Orleans church after Katrina
BATON ROUGE, La. (CNS) -- As everyone in or from south Louisiana understands, Hurricane Katrina changed everything. Just as individuals and businesses are facing epic challenges and difficult decisions -- Should we go or should we stay? Where should we live? Can we rebuild in the same place? -- the Archdiocese of New Orleans faces those same questions about its future church ministry. How many residents will be allowed to return to their neighborhoods and rebuild? How many will even want to return? How many low-income persons will return to their rental homes or apartments? Will that housing even exist? How many churches will be needed to serve the Catholic population, which before Hurricane Katrina numbered 491,000? How many Catholics will live in the archdiocese five or 10 years from now? No one appreciates a challenge more than Edmundite Father Michael Jacques, the head of the New Orleans archdiocesan Council of Deans and pastor of St. Peter Claver Church, a powerhouse inner-city parish with a thriving, cross-city congregation named recently as one of the most outstanding in the country. As head of the deans' council, Father Jacques is driving an accelerated pastoral planning process that will define the Archdiocese of New Orleans over the next century. In the post-Katrina world, the planning process now under way in the archdiocese's 12 deaneries -- or regional grouping of parishes -- is critical and almost impossibly challenging.
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Cardinal Rigali urges local Catholics to pray for reparation, renewal
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Two weeks after a grand jury report was released in Philadelphia that accused the archdiocese's previous leaders of covering up sexual abuse of minors by priests, Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali issued a pastoral letter urging archdiocesan Catholics to pray for reparation and renewal. "Our archdiocese has been humbled by sins and failings which have scarred the lives of many young people and have deeply pained and scandalized the faithful," the cardinal wrote Oct. 4. He wrote the pastoral letter while attending the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in Rome and noted that "it is only in the power of the Eucharist that we will have the strength to make reparation for our sins and failings and to move forward in renewal as followers of Jesus Christ." The cardinal, who celebrated his second anniversary as archbishop of Philadelphia Oct. 7, did not directly mention the Sept. 21 grand jury report in his letter. But the cardinal directly referred to clergy sexual abuse, saying, "this is certainly a time of purification for the Catholic Church in Philadelphia" and a time of reparation for sins and renewal.
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Spokane bankruptcy plan would separately incorporate each parish
SPOKANE, Wash. (CNS) -- The Spokane Diocese proposes to have each of its parishes separately incorporated under a reorganization plan it submitted Oct. 10 to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Spokane. As an alternative, it proposes trust agreements declaring that while legal title to parish properties belongs to the diocese "beneficial interest" in those properties belongs to the parishes. In August Judge Patricia Williams ruled that under the current legal structure of the diocese parish properties belong to the diocese itself, for its own beneficial interest, and they are part of the assets subject to the bankruptcy proceedings. The diocese has appealed that ruling and some legal observers believe the case is likely to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court because the stakes -- constitutional and financial -- are so high. The Spokane Diocese, facing millions of dollars in claims from childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse, filed for bankruptcy protection last December.
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Balance4Success project seeks to keep Sundays for family, not sports
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Seeking to restore balance to family life, a parents' group in Minnesota hopes to recapture Sunday as a day for families, not organized sports. "Coaches are interested in scheduling as much play time as they possibly can," said Andrea Grazzini Walstrom, founder of the group called Balance4Success. "Sunday is just another day they can use to get kids out playing." The Balance4Success initiative "Taking Back Sunday" seeks a boycott of sports practices, games and tournaments scheduled on Sundays, starting June 1. "We're just trying to force the athletic system to think a little differently," said Terrie Pearson, a parishioner at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville and the mother of three children. "It has gotten out of hand. They're just kids." Sunday sports steal valuable time from the family, said Grazzini Walstrom, mother of two children. Although sports can bring "great benefits" for children, such as social skills and lessons in responsibility and leadership, "those aren't the only skills we want them to have. We want them to understand family connectivity," she said.
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Notre Dame gets $1 million grant for religion in public life project
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a $1 million grant to the University of Notre Dame for a new program dedicated to examining the role of religion in American public life. The grant will be administered over a three-year period and must be matched by an additional $3 million from other sources. Chosen from 36 applicants, Notre Dame was the only Catholic institution to receive the challenge grant. Michael Zuckert, a Notre Dame professor of political science, will direct the new "Religion in American Life" project, designed to elevate the level of public discourse on the role of religion in American democracy through scholarly activities and outreach programs.
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WORLD
Pope says people should love God, who is always forgiving
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People should not fear God, thinking he is always ready to punish, but rather they should love him because he is always ready to forgive, Pope Benedict XVI said. "God is not a relentless sovereign who condemns the guilty, but a loving father whom we must love not out of fear of punishment, but because of his goodness," the pope said Oct. 19 during his weekly general audience. The pope's audience talk focused on Psalm 130, often called the "De Profundis" from the Latin version of the initial words of its first line: "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice!" Pope Benedict told an estimated 40,000 people gathered under a light drizzle in St. Peter's Square that the psalm is "a hymn to divine mercy and reconciliation between the sinner and the Lord, a God who is just but always ready to reveal himself as merciful and compassionate."
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Synod concerned that Catholics misunderstand real presence of Christ
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A major concern of the October Synod of Bishops was that many Catholics do not seem to understand how Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. Yet after nearly three weeks of discussion, the bishops did not find an easy way to explain this fundamental concept of the faith. Instead, they spent considerable time debating the theological fine points of the church's teaching on the real presence of Christ. That led to discussions of such complex topics as transubstantiation versus transignification, or "sacramental presence" as distinct from other forms of Christ's presence in the world. Some participants, like German Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne, worried that the real presence is largely seen as symbolic. He cited the influence of a secular society that does not easily accept transcendent realities and said Catholics need to be taught that Christ is "truly, really and substantially contained in holy Communion." Several bishops wanted the synod to clarify the "moment of transubstantiation," in view of liturgical differences in Latin and Eastern Catholic church communities. Others said the church should clarify to the faithful that the consecration of the bread and wine in the Eucharist brings a change in substance, but not a change in physical matter. They called for a new way of teaching transubstantiation.
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Cardinal says he hopes African issues make final list of propositions
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As members of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist amended and refined their final list of propositions to present to Pope Benedict XVI, one African cardinal said he hoped some issues important for the church in Africa would make the final cut. The synod fathers have already distilled and pared down the working groups' original 287 propositions to a list of 50. But of the 256 official voting members, only 50 are from Africa. Whether issues such as polygamy and the appropriateness of African instruments and dance in dignified worship would survive the final revisions was anyone's guess. "Nobody knows what the final draft is going to look like," said Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana. One proposition on the Eucharist and polygamy did appear in a revised draft. It said the church's teaching on marriage requires that those entering the church break off polygamous relationships before receiving the sacraments. It said the church recognizes that this process may take time and requires a combination of "tenderness and firmness" on the part of pastors.
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Workers struggle to get aid to Pakistani victims of earthquake
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (CNS) -- Relief workers, local residents and international troops worked to get aid to earthquake victims stranded for more than 10 days while aftershocks as strong as magnitude 5.8 rocked the area, causing more mudslides and more blocked roads. Regional officials said Oct. 19 the death toll in the Oct. 8 quake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan had climbed to more than 79,000, with more than 77,000 of those deaths in Pakistan. Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, was working closely with Caritas Pakistan, the church's charitable agency. Shannon Oliver, a CRS camp manager, said that in the town of Balakot there was so much structural damage "that it is safe to say the town has no buildings left standing. Even more devastating is the smell of death that hangs heavily in the air," Oliver said in a statement on the CRS Web site. "Psychologically, when thinking about these human beings who have yet to be found or buried by their family, it's traumatizing."
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PEOPLE
Priest's love of baseball translates into scholarship funds
DETROIT (CNS) -- Father Don Worthy loves many things about baseball: its simplicity, its link to a simpler time and its camaraderie. The senior priest at St. Philomena Parish in Detroit, a self-described baseball nut, has turned that love for the game into more than $1 million raised for local scholarship programs by arranging for celebrity guests and donations to events like the recent Father Vincent Welsh Memorial Dinner. Father Worthy has attended 175 World Series games over the years and has made some great friends through the sport -- players, managers and people like himself who share a love for the game. Growing up in Imlay City, Father Worthy, 72, spent all his free time as many other youngsters did in those days -- playing baseball or listening to the ballgame on the radio. "It was the thing a boy did," he said. "You packed your lunch bag and took it with you, and stayed out playing ball until it was dark."
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Officials: Boston deacon's cure could be miracle for Cardinal Newman
LONDON (CNS) -- Catholic officials said the cure of a Boston deacon could be the miracle that paves the way for the beatification of a 19th-century English cardinal. The unnamed deacon from Boston is said to have made a complete recovery from a crippling spinal condition after praying to Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Anglican vicar who shocked Victorian England with his conversion to the Catholic faith. The cardinal's cause was opened in 1958 in Birmingham, England, where he spent much of his life, and he was declared venerable in 1991. Claims of the miracle were announced Oct. 17 at Rome's English College. Father Paul Chavasse, the postulator of Cardinal Newman's cause, said that a couple of years ago officials received a report of the cure of the Boston deacon. "I am not at liberty to give the name of this man, who had been suffering from severe spinal problems and who has now recovered as a result of the intercession of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman," Father Chavasse said. "This man has now returned to full health and mobility. I have spoken with him and the doctors who treated him, and they have no explanation for his cure."
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Blessed Marianne Cope inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame
SENECA FALLS, N.Y. (CNS) -- When Blessed Marianne Cope pursued a life of service more than 100 years ago, she wasn't aiming for fame or recognition, but simply to serve people because of her love for God. Little did she know that 143 years after her death, she would join an elite list of women pioneers with a posthumous induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Mother Marianne, the first person to be beatified in the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, joined a diverse group of women "whose contributions to the arts, athletics, business, education, government, the humanities, philanthropy and science have been the greatest value for the development of their country." She and nine other "great women" joined 217 existing Hall of Fame members, including St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Catholic Worker movement co-founder Dorothy Day. Mother Marianne was selected for the honor for work that changed the face of medicine by "establishing two of the first 50 hospitals in New York state, developing rules for sanitation and hygiene and patients' rights, and transforming health care in Hawaii," and for treating people diagnosed with leprosy with compassion, dignity and care, said television journalist Karen Stone at the Oct. 8 induction ceremony.
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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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