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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Dec-6-2007
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Bishop Pataki retires; two other Eastern Catholics named to new posts
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Ruthenian Bishop Andrew Pataki of Passaic, N.J., and named Ruthenian Bishop William C. Skurla of Van Nuys, Calif., to succeed him. Msgr. Gerald N. Dino, an official of the Passaic Diocese and pastor of St. George Parish in Linden, N.J., was appointed bishop of Van Nuys. The changes were announced Dec. 6 in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Bishop Skurla is to be installed as head of the Passaic Diocese Jan. 29 at the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Passaic. Bishop-designate Dino's episcopal ordination will take place March 27 at St. Helen Catholic Church in Phoenix. The Ruthenian church is one of 22 Eastern Catholic churches. They have their origins in Eastern Europe, Asia or Africa and have their own distinctive liturgical and legal systems; they are identified by the national or ethnic character of their region of origin.
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Catholic Iraqi refugees arrive, are welcomed by Maronite parish
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- Following years of persecution and not being able to attend Mass because of the threat of terrorism, Huzni Hermez and his family left their war-torn homeland of Iraq and found a place where they could freely practice their Catholic faith. With the cooperation of St. Anthony Maronite Catholic Church in Springfield, Springfield-based Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts and the Diocese of Springfield, Hermez and his family -- including wife Muntha Sooloka; children Yusif Yusuf, 6, Raymon Yusuf, 4, and Eleana Yusuf, 3; and Hermez's mother, Sarra Khoshaba -- arrived in Springfield Nov. 15. They are Chaldean Catholics, members of an Eastern Catholic church in union with the pope. Speaking of being forced to leave his homeland, Hermez told The Catholic Observer, Springfield diocesan newspaper, through an interpreter: "That is real terrorism, when you are not welcome in your own country. Even if Iraq would be paradise one day," he added, the family would not go back. The horrible memories will never go away, he said.
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Mexican family says they gave up American dream because of state law
TULSA, Okla. (CNS) -- Sergio Garcia is a man who has taken a tremendous risk -- and lost. Garcia and his wife, Lola, are illegal immigrants from Mexico. Because of a new Oklahoma state law, they made the difficult decision to give up the dream they have worked toward for the past eight years and planned to return to their hometown Dec. 7. The Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007, which took effect Nov. 1, makes it a felony to knowingly harbor or transport an illegal alien and creates specific barriers to hiring illegal immigrants. It requires proof of citizenship to obtain certain government benefits and requires all state agencies and contractors to check the immigration status of all workers after July 1, 2008. The Garcias were leaving behind a house they bought and renovated; Sergio's job as a bricklayer; close family ties in Tulsa; and the beginnings of a better life in America. Their two children, Hector, 2, and Sergio, 5, both U.S. citizens by birth, were going with them to Tlachichila, Zacatecas, a town of about 3,000 people in central Mexico.
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WORLD
Promoting unity requires knowledge of Eastern Christianity, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The universal breadth of the Catholic Church and efforts to promote Christian unity require knowledge of Eastern Christianity and concrete support for the Eastern Christian churches, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Drawing from the patrimony of wisdom of the Christian East enriches us all," the pope said Dec. 6 as he welcomed 280 staff and students, Catholic and Orthodox, from Rome's Pontifical Oriental Institute. The institute was founded in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV, "to whom I feel particularly tied," the pope told the students. As World War I raged and Pope Benedict XV insistently appealed for peace among the world powers, he also acted to ensure "peace within the church" by establishing the Congregation for Eastern Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute and by publishing the Code of Canon Law, all in 1917. Later, the Vatican collected and published specific codes of canon law governing the particular aspects of the life of the 22 Eastern Catholic churches.
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Zambia needs strategy to protect it from debt, says church official
LUSAKA, Zambia (CNS) -- Zambia needs a comprehensive strategy to protect it from high debts and mismanagement that threaten to erode the gains of debt cancellation, said an official from the Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection in Lusaka. The Jesuit center has drawn up a comprehensive debt management bill and a stakeholder's manual for monitoring debt resources, said Muyatwa Sitali, debt and trade project coordinator for the center. If enacted, the legislation would "provide oversight authority to parliament to discuss loans, terms and conditionalities attached to all debts the government can contract," he said in a statement Nov. 29. Legislators would also "have the authority to consistently determine the annual limits for which both external and domestic loans will be borrowed," he said. The bill proposes the creation of a debt advisory committee that "will assist in determining the debt management strategy and provide guidance," Sitali said.
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Pope says he hopes talks with Baptists bear fruit for dialogue
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI told Baptist and Catholic representatives he hoped conversations between the two denominations "will bear abundant fruit for the progress of dialogue and the increase of understanding and cooperation." The pope met privately at the Vatican Dec. 6 with more than 20 delegates who were in Rome for a meeting of the joint international commission sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Pope Benedict said if reconciliation and greater fellowship between Baptists and Catholics were to be realized certain issues "need to be faced together, in a spirit of openness, mutual respect and fidelity" to the Gospel. He said some of the "historically controverted issues" that needed further discussion include "the relationship between Scripture and tradition, the understanding of baptism and the sacraments, the place of Mary in the communion of the church, and the nature of oversight and primacy in the church's ministerial structure."
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Liechtenstein bill would remove Catholic Church's official status
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Liechtenstein's government has introduced legislation that would remove the Catholic Church as the country's official church. "This should be seen as a natural development," the spokeswoman for Liechtenstein's government, Gerlinde Manz-Christ, said in a Dec. 4 telephone interview with Catholic News Service. "We need to clear things up in areas from tax covenants to church ownership. That's why we've consulted all relevant stakeholders and think we've found a satisfactory solution," she said. The Catholic Church's status as "national church" would be ended under the Religion Act, introduced in early November in Liechtenstein's 25-member Landtag, or parliament, by Prime Minister Otmar Hasler. However, Msgr. Markus Walser, vicar general of the Vaduz Archdiocese, said Archbishop Wolfgang Haas had not been notified of the planned reform.
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PEOPLE
Professor's new book looks at Jesuits' contributions to education
OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- If the Jesuits are looking for a spokeswoman in Omaha, they need not look any further than Eileen Wirth. She has worked professionally with the Jesuits for 16 years as a professor at Creighton University and entrusted her son's high school education to them at Creighton Prep. And she just completed a 211-page book on Jesuit high schools titled "They Made All the Difference: Life-Changing Stories from Jesuit High Schools," published by Loyola Press. "I have fallen in love with Jesuit education," said Wirth, who is chair of Creighton's journalism and mass communication department. "I thought there are bound to be lots of stories of people whose lives were changed by these high schools and wouldn't it be fun to search them out," she said in an interview with the Catholic Voice, newspaper of the Omaha Archdiocese. And search them out she did, visiting nine Jesuit high schools and conducting countless interviews. "They Made All the Difference: Life-Changing Stories from Jesuit High Schools" can be ordered online through loyolapress.org and amazon.com.
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Myanmar's bishops: Cut down on parties, focus on promoting peace
YANGON, Myanmar (CNS) -- Bishops in Myanmar have called on Catholics to cut down on external celebrations of Advent and Christmas this year and focus on promoting peace and development. Archbishops Paul Zinghtung Grawng of Mandalay and Charles Bo of Yangon, president and general secretary, respectively, of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, issued the message on behalf of Myanmar's bishops. The message was dated Dec. 3, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. In September, the government cracked down on protests -- led by Buddhist monks -- against rising prices and corruption. Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country. In the message sent to all parishes, the bishops proposed that the church "observe the season of Advent and celebrate the feast of Christmas more in accordance with the spirit of prayer and penance." The bishops' conference issued the message after a meeting in Yangon Nov. 30.
END
Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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