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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Feb-22-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
At White House Bush, pope to discuss Middle East, human rights
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When President George W. Bush and Pope Benedict XVI meet in April in Washington, they will continue discussions begun during Bush's 2007 visit to the Vatican on the two leaders' "common commitment to the importance of faith and reason in reaching shared goals," according to the White House. A Feb. 15 statement from the press secretary's office said that "these goals include advancing peace throughout the Middle East and other troubled regions, promoting interfaith understanding and strengthening human rights and freedom, especially religious liberty, around the world." The pope is expected to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington April 15 in the late afternoon. He will be greeted by Bush and the first lady, as well as by local church dignitaries, and both the pope and the president are expected to make brief remarks. On April 16 Bush will welcome the pope on the south lawn of the White House at 10:30 a.m., then the two leaders will go inside for private talks.
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Catholic lay foundation tops $100 million in annual giving
DUBUQUE, Iowa (CNS) -- The Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, a charity based in Kansas City, Kan., has exceeded $100 million in annual revenue for the first time. "The remarkable thing," said CEO Paco Wertin, "is that 90 percent of the donations are from small monthly gifts, averaging $25, from our 273,991 sponsors." The foundation is a lay Catholic, international sponsorship organization, connecting sponsors primarily in the United States with more than 317,000 children, youths and the aged in 25 developing countries worldwide. Through sponsors' monthly contributions, the sponsored members receive life-changing benefits and have more choices in their lives. In 2007, program support accounted for 94 percent of the organization's total expenses. The Christian Foundation for Children and Aging is the only major sponsorship organization to receive an A-plus rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy, and is one of only 45 charities nationwide to receive six consecutive four-star ratings from Charity Navigator.
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Time for prayer, discussion draws 400 men to Memphis cathedral
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CNS) -- Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib urged more than 400 men attending the "Men's Morning of Spirituality" at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Feb. 16 to "walk together shoulder to shoulder with God" to do his work. Men arrived at the cathedral in carpools and church vans from parishes throughout the Memphis Diocese. The morning's schedule included talks, an hour of eucharistic adoration, time for the sacrament of reconciliation and Mass. The event was the third in a series coordinated by Fishers of Men prayer groups in the diocese with the support of Bishop Steib. Dave Sloan, who writes and speaks across the country on dating, vocation formation and singles ministry, spoke to the men about his addictions to drugs, alcohol and pornography before he entered a 12-step program. He told them he had been "locked inside a cage inside a cage inside a cage" and only found the help he needed when he recognized that Jesus "came to seek and save the lost."
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Media's watching evangelical voters, but Catholic votes still key
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- All the punditry about religion in this year's presidential election seems to be about evangelical Republicans. In this year's lively primary election season, there has been little attention to Catholics as a voting bloc -- at least not in the mainstream news media. There are, however, some trends apparent in how Catholics are voting. According to exit polling, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has been getting a majority of the votes of Catholics in nearly every Democratic primary, no matter who won. Only in Louisiana and Georgia did Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois get more votes from Catholics than Clinton did. In his home state of Illinois, which he won with 65 percent of the vote, Obama took only 48 percent of the votes of Catholics, to Clinton's 50 percent. Even in states such as Maryland, where Obama took 60 percent of the vote, Clinton was supported by a majority of Catholic Democrats. In Wisconsin, according to a CNN Democratic exit poll, Clinton and Obama just about split the overall Catholic vote, 50 percent and 48 percent, respectively.
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Pope Benedict will find a Big Apple that remains city of immigrants
NEW YORK (CNS) -- On Super Bowl Sunday, most of Transfiguration Church in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn had an answer for Father Tony Hernandez when he asked them where they'd be for the kickoff. The New York Giants were playing the New England Patriots in a matter of hours, and Transfiguration's congregants, many of them from Latin America, were not missing their adopted country's big game. When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in New York in April, he will find the Big Apple unchanged from papal visits past in at least one regard: It remains a city of immigrants. The same is true for other parts of the metropolitan area. The New York Archdiocese, whose jurisdiction includes the three boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, as well as seven counties outside the city, numbers 2.5 million Catholics, an estimated 23 percent of whom are foreign-born. Certain vicariates run higher: 50 percent of Catholics in north Manhattan, for example, are immigrants. In the Brooklyn Diocese, which encompasses Brooklyn and Queens, 54 percent of the area's 1.3 million Catholics are foreign-born. Overall, 37 percent of New Yorkers were born outside the United States.
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WORLD
Cardinal tells Cubans of pope's hope for renewed evangelization
HAVANA (CNS) -- At a meeting with Cuban bishops and an open-air Mass, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state and the highest-ranking Catholic Church representative to visit Cuba in the past 10 years, said he hoped his visit would help advance church-state relations. Cardinal Bertone conveyed to the bishops and Cuban Catholics a message from Pope Benedict XVI, expressing the pontiff's "ardent goal of renewing the true evangelizing impulse" that Pope John Paul II left "deeply ingrained in the hearts of all" in January 1998. He also expressed the pope's "esteem ... for your tireless pastoral efforts, as well as my closeness to the aspirations and concerns of all Cubans." Cardinal Bertone arrive in Cuba Feb. 20, a day after President Fidel Castro announced his resignation. On Feb. 21, he celebrated the outdoor Mass and met with the bishops, the first items on an itinerary that was to keep him in Cuba until Feb. 26.
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Vocations thrive in parishes with 'spiritual soil,' pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Parish communities with a real sense of obligation to spread the Gospel are places where vocations to be missionary priests and religious thrive, said Pope Benedict XVI. "Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life can only flourish in a spiritual soil that is well cultivated," he said in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The papal message for the day of prayer, which will be observed April 13 in most countries, was released Feb. 22 at the Vatican. The 2008 theme is "Vocations at the Service of the Church on Mission." In his message, Pope Benedict insisted that the task of explicitly proclaiming the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ is still at the heart of the vocation of every Christian.
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Reversing a crisis: Pope offers encouragement to religious orders
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI met with the superiors of religious orders recently, most media coverage focused on the pope's description of the "difficult crisis" religious life is facing. But like many papal talks and encounters, his realistic assessment of problems was matched by appreciation, encouragement and some advice for the future. At the end of the 90-minute session, participants left feeling encouraged and even "thrilled" at the pope's interest and support, according to one participant in the closed-door meeting. The encounter had been requested for several years by the international federations of male and female religious orders, so just the fact that it happened was considered a positive development. Present at the Feb. 18 meeting were the pope, three Vatican officials and 21 superiors general who represented, in a sense, the approximately 950,000 men and women religious around the world.
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Pakistani bishops' leader praises results of assembly elections
TRICHUR, India (CNS) -- The head of the Pakistani bishops' conference praised election results in which the opposition won a majority of seats, in effect ousting allies of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the current president. "This is victory for democracy," Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore told Catholic News Service Feb. 22 in a telephone interview. "The result is pleasant and very surprising indeed." Expressing happiness over the "free and fair polls in difficult circumstances," the archbishop said the credit should go "to the people who came out and voted fearlessly." More than 200 people were killed in violence during the extended campaign for the Feb. 18 election for the National Assembly and four provincial legislatures. The election, originally scheduled for Jan. 8, was postponed following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People's Party. The party won the largest number of assembly seats.
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PEOPLE
Papal preacher: Listening to readings best way to hear Jesus speak
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The best way to hear Jesus speak to humanity is by listening to the Liturgy of the Word, said the preacher of the papal household. Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, offering a Lenten meditation to Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials Feb. 22, said, "During Mass, the Liturgy of the Word is nothing other than liturgically making present Jesus who preaches." The Liturgy of the Word represents the place and time in which "Jesus speaks most solemnly and surely today," he said. Father Cantalamessa said in light of the October world Synod of Bishops on the Bible, he was dedicating his four weekly Lenten reflections for the pope and Vatican officials to the word of God. "Christ is present in his word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the church," he said, quoting the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
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Home makeover an 'extreme' blessing for Alabama Catholic family
MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- Sometimes good things happen to good people. Months ago, when the Gaudet family's application for ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was first sent in, any oddsmaker would have made it a long shot to be one of five finalists nationwide, let alone the one chosen. But oddsmakers rarely consider the power of years of consistent personal and communal prayer and almsgiving as active elements of good fortune. For the Gaudets, a long-held dream, revitalized by a popular television program and perhaps divinely energized by many prayers, finally came true. A broad community of friends, neighbors, parishioners and other partners in prayer were moved to tears as Steve Gaudet, his wife, Lydia, and their six youngest children emerged from a pearl-gray limo to be greeted on a brilliant Feb. 8 afternoon by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" host Ty Pennington and get their first glimpse of the family's new home. The installment of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" featuring the Gaudets is tentatively set to air Sunday, March 23, 8-9 p.m. EDT.
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At age 90, Precious Blood sister who is an artist still going strong
DAYTON, Ohio (CNS) -- Most people looking at a block of wood or stone see ... a block of wood or stone. But Precious Blood Sister Eileen Tomlinson apparently thinks like the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo. According to legend, Michelangelo said that when he looked at a block of marble he saw the figure within, waiting to be released. Last winter, Sister Eileen looked at a large log of walnut wood and saw more than what met the eye. She saw Mother Maria Anna Brunner, the Swiss-born foundress of the Sisters of the Precious Blood. And she soon went to work to free her. In their 174-year history, the Dayton-based Sisters of the Precious Blood have had no shortage of talented women, artists who work in almost every medium. But Sister Eileen's talents range across an incredibly wide artistic spectrum: oil, acrylic and watercolor painting, pen-and-ink illustration, calligraphy, sculpture and woodcarving. Trained as an artist, Sister Eileen was an art teacher for many years in Ohio and California before she "retired" to the motherhouse, called Salem Heights, in 1997. Since then she has been the unofficial artist-in-residence, in constant demand for her artistic work.
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Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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