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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Mar-28-2006
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
As advocates pray, Senate committee passes bill they may support
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With Korean drums and cymbals keeping rhythm, a thousand or more people chanted in Spanish, "Si, se puede," or "Yes, we can," as several hundred clergy participated in an interfaith prayer service March 27, asking for God's guidance on Senate deliberations on immigration legislation. The Senate Judiciary Committee answered most of the prayers, for the time being, anyway. The committee voted 12-6 to send the full Senate a bill that would give the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country a chance to legalize their status and would provide 1.5 million temporary visas to agricultural workers in a new guest worker program. Another 400,000 "green cards" or permanent resident visas would be available to people in various industries. The bill would double the size of the Border Patrol and provide more funds for high-tech equipment to monitor the border. The Senate began debate on the bill the next day. Floor discussion was expected to take two weeks before the Senate votes.
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Palestinian diplomat, a Catholic, criticizes Israeli checkpoints
CLEVELAND (CNS) -- Some 2 million Palestinians living in the West Bank of the Jordan River are losing millions of hours of work and family time daily because of the existence of hundreds of Israeli-run checkpoints across the territory, said the Palestinian representative to the United States. Afif Safieh, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization mission to the United States in Washington, said the lost time comes at the 450 checkpoints the Israeli government has established to control the movement of all Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike. "It's an arbitrary system, where the indigenous population of the country is made to feel unwelcome every moment of every day," Safieh said in an interview with the Catholic Universe Bulletin, Cleveland diocesan newspaper. "And our mistake is simply to have existed." A Catholic, Safieh, 55, was in Cleveland in mid-March to urge the local Palestinian community to see their homeland as a "nation in progress" and to support the nation-building effort by sending money home and speaking out about the situation in their homeland.
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Vatican representative says interreligious dialogue brings respect
BOSTON (CNS) -- By bringing mutual respect and understanding, interreligious dialogue can contribute to peace, the former president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue said at a two-day symposium in Boston. Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, newly named Vatican ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, delivered keynote talks at Brandeis University and Boston College. The two schools were co-hosts of the March 16-17 event that commemorated the 40th anniversary of "Nostra Aetate," the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. In an opening talk at Brandeis March 16 on what the church has learned from interreligious dialogue, Archbishop Fitzgerald said that at the time of the council the church had some experience in ecumenical dialogue but almost none in developing relations with people of non-Christian religions. "In the field of interreligious dialogue the church as a whole had almost everything to learn," he said.
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New Orleans-based congregation faces changes in post-Katrina world
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Planning for her 138-member congregation in a post-Katrina world has presented challenges and changes that Sister Sylvia Thibodeaux, superior of the Sisters of the Holy Family, never envisioned when she was elected leader. More than 6 feet of water flooded the congregation's campus in the Gentilly section of New Orleans, which was home to the motherhouse as well as the eight buildings of St. Mary's Academy, a high school for African-American girls. Six months after Katrina, Sister Sylvia said the planning process has already shown them that "we have to live in a different way." She said, "We have to begin to look at how to do things in a more collaborative way," knowing that the local church is going to be different. The active sisters are already back in the city, back in ministry. "We continue to have a presence where we were founded," Sister Sylvia said.
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Bishop links relic of Mexican martyr to immigration issues today
EL PASO, Texas (CNS) -- A relic of Mexican martyr St. Pedro de Jesus Maldonado was welcomed by the Diocese of El Paso March 25, much as the young Pedro Maldonado was welcomed by the diocese for his ordination to the priesthood in 1918. Ordained in El Paso's St. Patrick Cathedral that year, Father Maldonado and 24 other Mexicans martyred during the persecution of the church in Mexico in the 1920s and '30s were canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. The relics of Father Maldonado, also called San Pedro, and five other priests among the Mexican martyrs began a tour of the United States in March under the sponsorship of the Knights of Columbus. All six had been members of the Knights of Columbus. El Paso Bishop Armando X. Ochoa said at a press conference held at the offices of the diocese's Migrant and Refugee Services, "Just as the sacrifices made by the Mexican martyrs and San Pedro must never be forgotten, neither must our community's and our country's rich heritage of welcoming those seeking shelter and protection, regardless of their origin."
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NCAA basketball success transforms George Mason, campus minister says
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- The Cinderella story of underdog George Mason University's arrival in the Final Four in the NCAA men's basketball championship has transformed the school's Fairfax campus, according to student campus minister Brian Dunleavy. "Everyone is happy. Everyone is wearing green," he said. On March 27, there was a two-hour wait to get Final Four T-shirts. "It really has changed everybody." George Mason's 86-84 win in overtime over top-ranked University of Connecticut March 26 propelled it into the Final Four in the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship for the first time in school history. The Patriots were to play the University of Florida April 1 in Indianapolis to determine who would go on to the championship game. According to Dunleavy, the students have become more open and kind toward each other. "They have pride and share the same thing," he said. "Now everyone is so close to each other. It's like a big family."
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Parish in steel town tries to stay neutral in labor dispute
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (CNS) -- The scene is an unfamiliar one in this southwestern Ohio steel town: Members of the Armco Employees Independent Federation stand around fire barrels with picket signs, protesting a lockout by AK Steel, the largest employer in Middletown. Since early March, when AK Steel management locked out 2,700 workers following the expiration of its labor contract, all eyes in Middletown ultimately come to rest at the site of the plant, formerly known as Armco International, acquired by AK Steel in 1999. While one other strike -- and lockout -- did take place in this city just north of Cincinnati about 20 years ago, that action lasted only five days. That lockout and the action this year mark the only time the steel plant has been involved in such labor disputes since its founding in 1901. Concern now is that the dispute between management and labor at AK Steel will last for a long time, according to Father John Civille, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Middletown.
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Archbishop closes historic New Orleans black church, citing sacrilege
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Citing "sacrilege" by demonstrators who disrupted a Mass, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans has ordered the removal of the Blessed Sacrament from historic St. Augustine Church and said it will be closed "for the foreseeable future." The order came March 27, the day after sign-waving protesters repeatedly interrupted a priest trying to celebrate Mass in the church, causing the liturgy to be terminated. St. Augustine Parish, in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans next to the French Quarter, was founded in 1841 as a multicultural parish attended by free African-Americans, slaves and whites. It calls itself the nation's oldest predominantly African-American parish and was the birthplace of the Sisters of the Holy Family, the second-oldest congregation of African-American women religious. Following the recommendations of an archdiocesan pastoral plan after Hurricane Katrina, Archbishop Hughes had decided to close the small parish, merging it with neighboring St. Peter Claver Parish, but to keep the church building open for one Mass each Sunday.
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WORLD
British production of Passion set to rock songs
LONDON (CNS) -- Move over Bach, Mozart and Stravinsky: A modern new musical version of Christ's Passion will be performed in England on Good Friday to the sound of rock music. The Manchester Passion will dramatize the final hours of the life of Jesus with songs from local rock groups, including Oasis, Joy Division, New Order, James, the Smiths and M-People. However, in this production, the songs will be accompanied by a 16-piece string orchestra, arranged by Philip Sheppard, cello professor at London's Royal Academy of Music. The play will be produced and televised by the British Broadcasting Corp. The production has been criticized by some Christian groups because of the sex and drugs often associated with the Manchester rock-and-roll scene. The event, however, has the broad support of the mainstream churches, including the Catholic Diocese of Salford. Bishop Terence Brain of Salford said he plans to meet the producers of the play.
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Vatican exhibit documents 500-year history of Swiss Guard
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A special exhibit has opened at the Vatican documenting the 500-year history of the Swiss Guard, the smallest and oldest military corps in the world. From March 29 to July 30, visitors to the Braccio di Carlomagno near St. Peter's Basilica can get a glimpse of artwork, objects and armor spanning the past half-millennium of what is also the most photographed army in history. The commander of the Guard, Col. Elmar Mader, said at a March 28 press conference that the exhibit, "The Papal Swiss Guard: 500 Years of History, Art and Life," aims to give visitors a taste of what has motivated generations of Swiss men to guard the life and safety of the pope -- even at the risk of their own lives. The special exhibit was also a chance for the Guard to "be in contact with the public, so we will have about ten former Swiss Guards manning the halls," providing security and public relations, he added.
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Pope encourages unity of Armenian Christians
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Armenian Orthodox and Catholics, who trace their origins back to St. Gregory the Illuminator, to work to restore their unity in one community united with the pope. Meeting March 20 with members of the synod of the Armenian Catholic Church and nearly 200 Armenian Catholic pilgrims, the pope praised the ecumenical initiatives undertaken by the Armenian Catholic patriarchate, based in Beirut, Lebanon, and the Armenian Apostolic Church, an ancient and independent Oriental Orthodox Church that in recent years has improved its relations with the Vatican. The Armenian Apostolic Church is the dominant religious denomination in Armenia; its total membership inside and outside Armenia is estimated at 6 million people. "I encourage this new-found fraternity and collaboration, hoping that from it there would arise new initiatives for a common path toward full unity," the pope told the group led by Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni of Beirut, the Armenian Catholic patriarch.
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Croatian bishop says no evidence found of sex abuse in orphanage
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- A Croatian bishop said an archdiocesan commission found no evidence to support claims of sex abuse at a Catholic orphanage but said he was awaiting police and court proceedings. "It still isn't clear what's behind this so-called scandal," Auxiliary Bishop Valentin Pozaic of Zagreb told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview March 24. "There've been so many unfounded accusations -- we're waiting to discover how much is genuine, and how much is political." Police are investigating allegations of neglect and abuse at a Caritas-run home for mentally handicapped orphans in Brezovica, near the Croatian capital, Zagreb. Caritas is Croatia's national Catholic charity and social service agency. Police arrested a cook and caretaker at the Alojzije Stepinac orphanage in July on suspicion of abuse and charged a former director with failing to report criminal activity. In August Cardinal Josip Bozanic of Zagreb, responding to claims the scandal had been covered up after it was first investigated in 2002, launched the archdiocesan investigation.
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Economic decline means rise in Dominican church problems
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) -- As economic conditions decline, church problems mount in the Dominican Republic. Challenges range from fighting the temptation of easy money from drug trafficking to trying to promote vocations in a country where many children do not get a high school education. In a nation where 95 percent of the 9 million inhabitants profess Catholicism, the church is in a double bind: It must figure out how to survive institutionally as the economy shrinks while providing moral guidance to Catholics facing increasing social problems. Remittances from Dominicans abroad are the country's second-largest source of foreign income, said Archbishop Ramon de La Rosa Carpio of Santiago, president of the Dominican bishops' conference. Remittances are only topped by the tourist trade, he told a visiting group of U.S. bishops and officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on a fact-finding trip in March.
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Irish bishops express concern with proposal to centralize education
DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- A proposal that would centralize the education system in Northern Ireland is causing "great disquiet among school governors, teachers and parents," said Ireland's bishops. The bishops said they were concerned with the proposed single Education Authority, which would change who controls admissions criteria and school staff appointments, currently under local control. "This is something that is of concern to a lot of people, Catholic and Protestant. Unless you have some say over teachers, once they come into a school, you are losing control over ethos, losing the ability to challenge poor performance and losing the ability to harness the good work being done by school principals," said Auxiliary Bishop Donal McKeown of Down and Connor, the diocese based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In a March 28 interview with Catholic News Service, the bishop said there needs to be local control and not a "a civil service-type situation, where individual teachers might be moved around the system, from appointment to appointment, individual schools having no say about who is teaching in the school and how long they are to remain in a particular post."
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PEOPLE
Former America editor to go to Woodstock center
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, former editor of America magazine, is to return to Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington this July as a senior fellow. Father Reese was a senior fellow at Woodstock from 1985 until 1998, when he left to become editor of America, a New York-based national Catholic magazine run by the Jesuits. Following his resignation as editor last year he has been on sabbatical as a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University in California. At Woodstock, a Jesuit-sponsored theological think tank on religious and social issues, he will specialize in contemporary church issues, religion and politics, and ethics and public policy. "Woodstock is an ideal setting for scholarly reflection on contemporary theological and ethical issues," he said. "I look forward to returning to Woodstock."
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Afghan Christian jailed for conversion released from prison
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNS) -- An Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity dropped out of sight March 28 after his release from prison the previous day. The court dismissed the case March 26 after the prosecution dropped charges against Abdul Rahman, 41, who was jailed after declaring his conversion to police officers, The Associated Press reported March 28. Rahman disappeared after his release, apparently out of fear for his life, because Muslim clerics still demanded his death, AP reported. Deputy Attorney General Mohammed Eshak Aloko told AP that prosecutors issued a letter for Rahman's release because "he was mentally unfit to stand trial." Rahman reportedly became a Christian several years ago, after working for a Christian aid agency in Pakistan. The Afghan Supreme Court had said Rahman could face the death penalty unless he reverted to Islam, prompting a worldwide outcry.
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Vatican Observatory head calls intelligent design 'absurd' concept
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The director of the Vatican Observatory called the concept of intelligent design "absurd" and part of a religious fundamentalist movement in the United States, which wants science to show that God exists. "They are using the Bible as science, as a source of scientific knowledge. This is wrong," Jesuit Father George Coyne told Catholic News Service after a March 27 lecture in Washington. The earliest date given for the start of modern science is the 13th century, more than 1,000 years after all of the books of the Bible were written, he said. "How could biblical writers draw on science when modern science didn't exist yet?" said Father Coyne. He also discussed intelligent design in his speech on the evolution of the universe and in a subsequent question-and-answer period. His talk was sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Intelligent design is a religious movement based on fear that if you don't teach an alternative to evolution, we will have a lot of little atheists running around," he said.
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Catholic Library Association honors Notre Dame professor emeritus
ATLANTA (CNS) -- Jay P. Dolan, professor emeritus of history at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, will receive the Catholic Library Association's Jerome Award for outstanding contributions to Catholic scholarship April 20 during the association's annual convention in Atlanta. Dolan, who joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1971, founded the university's Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism in 1975 and served as its director until 1993. He has written or edited numerous books on the history of Catholicism in America, including "The American Catholic Experience: A History From Colonial Times to the Present." A former visiting professor at the University of Chicago, Boston College and University College in Cork, Ireland, he also has served as president of the American Society of Church History and the American Catholic Historical Association.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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