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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Mar-21-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Giving peace a chance: Catholic activists still going strong
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the pouring rain March 19, Franciscan Sister Marie Lucey addressed several dozen protesters at a rally near the White House, pleading for an end to U.S. involvement in the Iraq War. "Enough with the violence. Enough with the hatred in Iraq," she said, quoting an appeal Pope Benedict XVI made March 16 to end the war. The Washington rally was just one of several events held across the country that day to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq. About 1,000 protesters spread throughout Washington for a day of marches, rallies, sit-ins and blockades. Although the turnout was smaller than usual for Iraq War protests in Washington, similar events in Chicago, New York and San Francisco drew bigger crowds. But no matter how many people attended various peace rallies, Catholic activists who are involved said they are in it for the long haul.
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WORLD
Papal preacher: Christians' divisions will heal with love for Christ
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians' divisions will be healed when there is a fresh outpouring of love for Christ among all Christians, said the preacher of the papal household. In his March 21 homily during the Good Friday of the Lord's Passion, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said "the fundamental distinction among Christians is not among Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants, but between those who believe that Christ is the son of God and those who do not believe this." While differences over doctrine exist and must be resolved patiently, there is nothing stopping Christian denominations from uniting immediately through their love for Christ and each other, he said. "That which will reunite divided Christianity will only be a new wave of love for Christ that spreads among Christians," he said. "The extraordinary thing about this way to unity based on love is that it is already now wide open before us," he told the pope and hundreds of people in St. Peter's Basilica.
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PEOPLE
Three women excommunicated for participating in ordination ceremony
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Two Catholic women who participated in a ceremony to be ordained as "womenpriests" last November and a third woman who officiated were served a "declaration of excommunication" March 12 by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond L. Burke. The women are Rose Marie Dunn Hudson of Festus, Mo., Elsie Hainz McGrath of St. Louis and Patricia Fresen, who now lives in Berg, Germany. Hudson and McGrath were allegedly ordained; Fresen officiated. They are part of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Begun in 2002, it claims to have had "womenpriests" ordained every year since then. The ceremony took place Nov. 11 at a synagogue, the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis' central west end. The declaration said the three incurred excommunication "by reason of the crime of schism" and it imposed a censure of interdict "for having pertinaciously rejected a definitive truth of the faith after having been admonished by the ordinary." Fresen also was disciplined for "the crime of simulation of the administration of the sacrament of holy orders."
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Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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