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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS May-16-2006
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
U.S. bishops wary of posting Guard on border, urge immigration reform
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President George W. Bush's address May 15 on immigration reform got mixed reviews from advocates for immigrants, who expressed gratitude for his support of legalization for illegal immigrants but had concerns about his plan to deploy National Guard troops on the border. Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, Calif., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Policy, said he welcomed the president's speech on the need to reform the immigration system, but expressed concern about "the introduction of military personnel because there has not been an adequate public discussion about its implications, especially for the treatment of migrants." In his first such nationwide address on a domestic policy matter, Bush gave his most explicit support to date for a program that would provide a way for most of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the country to legalize their status.
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Parents allowed to remove children from sex abuse training programs
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- New regulations issued May 15 by the U.S. bishops allow parents to remove their children from diocesan-sponsored training programs in child sex abuse prevention. The programs are part of the bishops' policies to prevent child sex abuse. But parents in some dioceses have objected to such programs, saying the training constitutes sex education, which they feel is the primary responsibility of the parents. Dioceses and Eastern-rite eparchies are required to provide the training -- known as safe environment programs -- to children attending church-run schools and those who participate in church programs. Such training is also required for clergy, religious, lay employees, parents and volunteers who come in contact with children. Under the new regulations adopted by the U.S. bishops' Administrative Committee, dioceses and eparchies are still required to provide the safe environment programs. Parents, however, can choose not to have their children participate.
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250-mile move to Washington will bring many changes to new archbishop
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Moving 250 miles east and south from Pittsburgh to Washington will in many ways bring Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, the new head of the Washington Archdiocese, into a different world. He's moving from one of the country's traditional industrial centers to the nation's center of political power. Head of the Pittsburgh Diocese since 1988, he was appointed to Washington by Pope Benedict XVI May 16. At a press conference where he was warmly welcomed by retiring Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Archbishop Wuerl fielded questions about politics and politicians, homosexual seminarians, immigration legislation and the film "The DaVinci Code." With almost two decades of experience in television as host of a long-running, nationally syndicated television catechesis program, and a history as the author of numerous catechetical books, Archbishop Wuerl time and again deftly answered reporters' questions by emphasizing the importance of teaching the church's history, morality and theology in addressing a wide range of issues they raised. That included recommending that people "go back and check the real sources" before accepting as truth the fictions presented in "The DaVinci Code."
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Families say God's healing love carried them through loss after crash
MCMECHEN, W.Va. (CNS) -- In the year since a plane crash on Coney Island changed their lives forever, Jodi Block and Bob Gross say the healing love of God, their faith and support from family and friends has carried them through their overwhelming grief. Eighteen-year-olds Danielle Marie Block and JoBeth Marie Gross and Danielle's father, 39-year-old Courtney Block, died together in the crash on May 21, 2005, just days before the girls were to graduate from Bishop Donahue High School in McMechen. "God tells you to put it on him -- put your burdens on him. And I think you really have to do that," said Jodi Block, who now lives in Moundsville and is a member of St. Francis Xavier Parish. "Faith first and foremost" helped her through this, and "I have wonderful family and friends," she said. "I have a tremendous network here within the school and outside of the school." Gross, who attends St. Paul Evangelical Church in Wheeling, said his faith, his belief in God and "belief that she (JoBeth) is in a better place" is what helped him through this year.
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Sisters of Bon Secours mark 125th anniversary, launch Web site
MARRIOTTSVILLE, Md. (CNS) -- The U.S. province of the Sisters of Bon Secours has launched a new interactive Web site to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the founding of the international order. Through the Web site at www.bonsecoursvocations.org, visitors can learn about the history and mission of the first religious order to provide home health care in the United States; explore a vocation; search for information on spirituality; or keep tabs through a Web log, or blog, of the sisters' daily lives and their support of services for the poor and marginalized. "Our community members are inspired by their call to religious life and mission to others," said Sister Alice Talone, president of the Sisters of Bon Secours in the U.S. "This call is reflected in God's Scripture as noted in John 15:16, 'I have chosen you, go forth and bear much fruit.'"
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WORLD
Patriarch says pope's Turkey trip will help unite Orthodox, Catholics
FLORENCE, Italy (CNS) -- Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said Pope Benedict XVI's November visit to Turkey will bring further progress to the slow but steady effort to reunite the Orthodox and Catholic churches. "We must work and have patience," the patriarch said May 14 after a Florentine music and cultural organization awarded him its annual peace prize. Patriarch Bartholomew said prayers, patience, hard work and the grace of God are needed to overcome the remaining difficulties between Catholics and Orthodox. "With great joy we await the pope's visit to Istanbul in November," he said. "It will be a step in the progress of the ecumenical dialogue."
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Belgium bishops say they are 'in solidarity' with illegal immigrants
MECHELEN, Belgium (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in Belgium said they were "in solidarity" with illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers staying in churches, but that regularization of their situations should be resolved politically. "This problem is above all a human one which appeals to everyone's conscience. All the bishops can do is associate themselves with this appeal," the bishops said in a May 11 statement. "The regularization of people without papers is first a political question demanding a political answer -- such is the mission of our politicians. But it is equally a human drama, and this concerns us all." Late last year asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants, whose plight has been worsened by the slow processing of asylum requests, launched a campaign for the right to stay in Belgium and have been occupying churches, a mosque and other religious buildings. The bishops said church buildings were "not the most appropriate places for actions of this type." However, they said Catholics could not "take refuge in silence, or even worse in indifference" and said they were "in solidarity" with illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers.
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Bishops criticize Venezuelan president for threat to leave trade bloc
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Bishops from Peru and Colombia have criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for threatening to withdraw from a South American trade bloc because one of its members signed a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. Chavez, who frequently criticizes U.S. diplomacy and economic policy, said May 7 that his country would probably leave the Group of Three trade bloc -- Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico -- after Colombia signed a free trade agreement with the United States. Chavez also criticized Mexico for being too cozy with the United States. "We, as Colombians, are very affected by President Chavez's adoption of this kind of policy, which will do us a lot of damage because Colombia-Venezuela trade is most important," said Bishop Fabian Marulanda Lopez of Florencia, general secretary of the Colombian bishops' conference. Chavez, who has forged alliances with Cuban President Fidel Castro, has accused Washington of orchestrating a 2002 coup attempt that briefly forced him out of office. He also has accused the United States of planning to invade Venezuela.
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At Lima school, innovations prepare students for job market
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- At Jesus the Worker Experimental Technical School, the day begins with a factory whistle instead of a school bell. Within minutes, the schoolyard is empty and the air fills with the sounds of saws and hammers. Maria Elena Ramos, the school's principal, strolls through the metalworking shop where several dozen second-year students are bending metal plates that will be transformed into small stoves. Nearby, older students are soldering irons and other small appliances. Downstairs, four students huddle around the shell of an ancient and ramshackle baby-blue Toyota. Their final auto mechanics project is to put together a motor from scratch and leave the vehicle in working order. The car has been through this before -- last year, the students pooled their change, bought a gallon of gas and took it for a turn around the school's soccer field. Located in Comas, a low-income neighborhood on the north side of Peru's sprawling capital, Jesus the Worker is a rarity -- a public school that offers a regular high school curriculum plus a full technical training course and guarantees that its students will have jobs when they graduate. It has not broken that promise since 1959, when it was founded by Canadian Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
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Church officials criticize Colombian court ruling legalizing abortion
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) -- Catholic Church officials have criticized a Colombian Constitutional Court decision legalizing abortion in three circumstances. The court ruled May 11 that abortion was legal in cases of rape or serious congenital malformation or when the pregnancy threatens the woman's life or health. Until the ruling, Colombia, Chile and El Salvador were the only American nations that prohibited abortion in all circumstances. Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family at the Vatican, called the ruling "a very sad piece of news." Church officials in Colombia said all those who promote abortion, including the five high court members who voted in favor of the legalization, would be excommunicated. Two of the high court's members responded by asking the church to respect the decision and reminded church leaders that Catholicism ceased to be Colombia's official religion in 1991.
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PEOPLE
Cardinal McCarrick, Bishop Imesch resign; successors named
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick May 16 and named Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh to succeed him as archbishop of Washington. The pope also accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph L. Imesch of Joliet, Ill., and appointed Bishop J. Peter Sartain of Little Rock, Ark., as his successor. The changes were announced in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Cardinal McCarrick, 75, has headed the Archdiocese of Washington since 2001 and previously served as archbishop of Newark and bishop of Metuchen, both in New Jersey, and as an auxiliary bishop in the New York Archdiocese. Archbishop Wuerl, 65, has been bishop of Pittsburgh since 1988 and is well known for his nationally syndicated television program, "The Teaching of Christ," and his best-selling adult catechism of the same name.
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At Peruvian technical school, committed staff is influential
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Maria Elena Ramos grew up in Our Lady of Peace Parish in Comas, a low-income neighborhood on the north side of Peru's sprawling capital where Jesus the Worker Experimental Technical School is located. Her father operated the school's generator in the days before the neighborhood had electricity. She was preparing to retire from teaching when she was tapped for the principal's job. Taking over a technical school was rather daunting, she said, especially because many of the teachers were skeptical about her skills and her ability to provide the materials and equipment they would need. "They thought I wouldn't be able to do it because I was a woman," she said. "Some of them bet I'd last three months." Ramos learned about machine-shop and woodworking equipment and won over the teachers by listening to their ideas and adopting the best ones. The result, she said, is a committed staff that operates as a team.
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Family Theater Productions head wants to help young filmmakers
BENNINGTON, Vt. (CNS) -- Holy Cross Father Wilfred Raymond knows that the media is powerful in shaping culture. That's why he says he is working to help young filmmakers "know their faith, fall in love with it and take it to work with them." As national director of Family Theater Productions in Hollywood, Calif., Father Raymond acknowledged Hollywood as mission territory where there is both good news and bad news. The good news is that films such as "The Passion of The Christ," "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" have proven that films dealing with religious themes can be successful at the box office. "People want films that have religious themes," Father Raymond told The Vermont Catholic Tribune, newspaper of the Diocese of Burlington. The bad news is that the influence of video games and pornography shows "no signs of letting up," Father Raymond said. He encouraged Catholics to support good films and to avoid those with violent and oversexualized content.
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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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