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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-11-2006
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Diocese of Davenport files for bankruptcy
DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNS) -- The Diocese of Davenport is now the fourth Catholic diocese in the United States to file for bankruptcy protection because of sex abuse lawsuits it faces. On Oct. 10, the diocese filed a petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in the Iowa District of U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The action came 22 days after a jury awarded $1.5 million to a Davenport man who claimed he was sexually abused by a diocesan priest nearly five decades ago. Demands for settlement of that lawsuit and 25 claims that exceeded $7 million prompted the diocese's decision to go to trial for the first time rather than settle out of court. The possibility of bankruptcy had been looming large in the diocese since October 2004, when it announced an agreement to settle 37 sexual abuse claims and lawsuits for $9 million. In the past two years the diocese has reached settlements totaling more than $10.5 million. The jury's award Sept. 18 left diocesan leaders with no other option, they said.
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Cardinal Keeler out of hospital after car crash in Italy
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore was released from a hospital in Terni, Italy, Oct. 10, three days after he suffered a broken ankle in a car crash that killed one friend and injured another. Father Bernard Quinn, 78, was killed and Msgr. Thomas H. Smith, 75, broke several ribs in the Oct. 7 accident. Another vehicle struck the passenger side of the car in which the three vacationing American clerics were riding. Father Quinn was a retired priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pa., and Msgr. Smith, also a priest of that diocese, is pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Lancaster. Cardinal Keeler was a priest and bishop in Harrisburg before he became archbishop of Baltimore, and he has often spent vacations traveling with the two priests. Sean Caine, Baltimore archdiocesan spokesman, said Oct. 10 that following his release from the hospital Cardinal Keeler was recuperating at the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome. He told The Catholic Review, archdiocesan newspaper, that the cardinal is expected to wear a cast on his ankle for 30 days.
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Cardinal praises Pittsburgh foundation that funds Catholic education
PITTSBURGH (CNS) -- Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said that in all his travels he has never seen an organization like the Extra Mile Education Foundation in Pittsburgh, which helps provide a Catholic education for children from low-income families, many of whom are not Catholic. He praised the foundation for not only helping "children who are disadvantaged from the financial point of view," but also for having the support of "not just Catholics, but Episcopalians, other Christians, Jews, who are convinced of this good effort, and who give and who serve" on the organization's committees. "This is good news," he said during a visit to the Pittsburgh Diocese in late September. Making sacrifices "to educate young people is one of the best investments. You invest in human beings, build up human beings and many things will become better -- state, society, church," he said. Cardinal Arinze was the principal celebrant and homilist at a Mass Sept. 28 at Holy Rosary Church of St. Charles Lwanga Parish.
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Catholic filmmaker finds suspicion about her faith among evangelicals
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Heidi Ewing, the Catholic co-director of the new theatrical documentary "Jesus Camp," said she found some hostility about her religious faith during the making of the film from an unexpected source: a high-profile evangelical minister. "Jesus Camp" follows the lives of three children -- Levi, Rachael and Tory -- before and during a North Dakota summer camp led by youth minister Becky Fischer and aimed at deepening the youngsters' faith. "My one disturbing encounter was at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs (Colo.) with Pastor Ted Haggard," head of the National Association of Evangelicals, who is "the senior minister of the church," Ewing said. "I was in the service, and we had three cameras rolling, and there were 3,000 people in the church, and my cameraman was on the stage shooting him, and Pastor Ted started teasing the cameraman: 'Where are you from? England? Do you go to church?'" she recounted. When the cameraman told Rev. Haggard that he goes to church when he's in England, the minister said, "So you're in the Church of England." The cameraman replied, "No, I'm Catholic," according to Ewing. "Pastor Ted turned to the congregation -- and I have this on tape -- in a very mocking tone, he said, 'Oh, we l-o-o-o-ve the Catholics, don't we?' and people started laughing." In a statement on the group's Web site, Rev. Haggard said the movie "manipulates facts" and is "one more 'documentary' that seems to miss the point intentionally."
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WORLD
Vatican source says pope to expand use of Tridentine Mass
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to expand permission to use the Tridentine Mass, the pre-Vatican II rite favored by traditionalist groups, said an informed Vatican source. The pope is expected to issue a document "motu proprio," or on his own initiative, which will address the concerns of "various traditionalists," said the source, who asked not to be named. The source said the new permission, or indult, was a papal decision, but was being done in cooperation with agencies of the Roman Curia. He would not elaborate on the extent of the indult, when it would be established or how it would work. The Tridentine rite is currently available to groups of Catholics who ask and receive permission for its use from their local bishops. The old rite is celebrated in Latin and follows the Roman Missal of 1962, which was replaced in 1969 with the new Roman Missal.
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Pope says Christians must not let politics, social status divide them
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians are called to form a united community of faith where social status and politics do not divide them and where dialogue with the world does not mean hiding the truths of the Christian faith, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Certainly the path of understanding and dialogue, which the Second Vatican Council happily undertook, must continue with firm constancy," he said Oct. 11 at his weekly general audience. "But this path of dialogue, which is so necessary, must not lead us to forget our obligation to recall and demonstrate with the same energy the principal elements of our Christian identity, which cannot be renounced," he said. During the audience, the pope focused on the figures of Sts. Simon and Jude, continuing his series of talks about the Twelve Apostles.
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Bishops from Western Canada inspired by pope's 'fatherly concern'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Bishops visiting the Vatican from Western Canada said they found inspiration in Pope Benedict XVI's "fatherly concern" for the challenges they face, such as ministering to native peoples and the lack of priestly vocations. Bishops from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were in Rome Oct. 2-14 for their "ad limina" visits, which bishops make to the Vatican every five years to report on the situation in their dioceses. The bishops met with members of the Roman Curia and with the pope individually and as a group. Bishop Gerald Wiesner of Prince George, British Columbia, told Catholic News Service Oct. 10 that "the kind of fatherly concern (the pope) has shown, I think that has been a real inspiration, I would say, for all of us." Archbishop James Weisgerber of Winnipeg, Manitoba, said the huge responsibility the pope must face "does not crush him or isolate him or make him preoccupied at all and that was, for me, the most important witness he gave me."
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Belarusian bishop urges prayers for Polish priests, nuns denied visas
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A Belarusian bishop has called for prayers for seven Polish priests and five nuns who were denied visas for 2007 by Belarusian officials. A Polish priest also was arrested for celebrating Mass without permission in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Bishop Aleksander Kaszkiewicz of Grodno asked the diocese's 170 parishes to pray for the clergy and to sign a petition of support. A spokeswoman for the Grodno Diocese said it had appealed the visa decision to the government's committee for religious and minority affairs and was still awaiting an answer. The spokeswoman, who declined to be named, told Catholic News Service Oct. 10 that "the situation remains unclear." She said the diocese does not know "why this problem has suddenly arisen" and would not know until late December who would have to leave.
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Italian cardinal tells Russians some missionaries acted improperly
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- An Italian cardinal told the head of the Russian Orthodox Church that religious and missionary activity had expanded in the 1990s, often at the initiative of well-intentioned individuals, and had "not appeared proper from an ecumenical viewpoint." Milan Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi told Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, "Christianization must be renewed from generation to generation, but there must be no room for confessional competition in the Gospel's name. In a speech Oct. 2 at Moscow's Danilovsky Orthodox monastery, Cardinal Tettamanzi told Patriarch Alexy that proselytism was "condemned not only by Orthodox, but also by Catholics," adding that he regretted some Catholics had shown a "carelessness toward the life of the Spirit." The cardinal was part of an Italian church delegation that visited Moscow Sept. 29-Oct. 3 at the invitation of the patriarch. His speech was published in Italian and Russian on the Milan archdiocesan Web site.
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PEOPLE
Pitcher tells students to know why they believe what they believe
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan wowed his fans one day in September, and he wasn't even on the mound. He received a standing ovation from more than 400 youths and adults following his talk on how he lives out his Catholic faith as a professional baseball player and in his daily life. Suppan spoke at St. Joseph's Academy in Frontenac. The event was sponsored by the Parent Network of Catholic High Schools. The Cardinals hurler -- whose team made it into the National League Championship Series to face the New York Mets Oct. 11 -- encouraged the middle school and high school students "to keep Jesus No. 1" in their lives. Said Suppan, "I try to put Jesus in front of everything I do." He lets Jesus "really lead me and not try to do it on my own." As Catholics, they will be regularly questioned about their faith, Suppan told the youths. Now, he said, is the time for them to gain a good foundation.
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Mexican becomes first bishop born in Americas to be named saint
VERACRUZ, Mexico (CNS) -- In an Oct. 15 papal ceremony at the Vatican, Blessed Rafael Guizar Valencia is scheduled to become the first bishop born in the Americas to be declared a saint. As a priest during the anti-clerical era that marked the start of the 20th century in his native Mexico, he often disguised himself as a junk dealer to bring the sacraments to both sides fighting the Mexican Revolution which started in 1910. After the revolution when anti-clerical measures were adopted by the new government, he lived in exile in Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala and the southern United States to escape persecution. He was ordained bishop of Veracruz in absentia in 1919 while living in Havana. Blessed Rafael was a member of the Knights of Columbus. He will be the seventh Knight and the first bishop-member of the organization to be declared a saint. The Knights started forming councils in Mexico in 1905.
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Tigers manager and his brother, a priest, both serve as shepherds
DETROIT (CNS) -- There are many ways in which managing a baseball team is similar to managing a parish, said Father Thomas J. Leyland, brother of Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland. In a sense, they are both shepherds to their "team," with Father Leyland's team being an active parish with 8,000 parishioners and a school and Jim Leyland's team being the Tigers, who beat the New York Yankees and were battling the Oakland (Calif.) Athletics in the American League Championship Series. In either role, the leader must affirm people, encourage them to do their best, encourage them to work as a team toward a common goal -- all while keeping the teammates' different personalities in mind. Also, Father Leyland said, it's important to keep in mind where your team is going, and what its vision is. Father Leyland has been pastor at St. Rose Parish in Perrysburg, Ohio, just south of Toledo, for more than seven years. It is the parish in which he and his family, including his six siblings, grew up.
END
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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