|
|
|
|
News Briefs
|
NEWS BRIEFS May-6-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Bishops weigh in on immigration; others call legal efforts 'theater'
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Bishops in Connecticut and Seattle marked the feast of St. Joseph the Worker May 1 with calls to welcome immigrants and encourage broad immigration law and policy reforms. In their statement, the bishops who make up the Connecticut Catholic Conference cautioned against demonizing undocumented immigrants and said that, while the government has a right and obligation to control its borders, "faith must unite us to the more important values of love, hospitality, keeping families together and respecting every person's human dignity." In Seattle, Archbishop Alex J. Brunett sent a statement to participants in an immigrants' rights march May 1, echoing Pope Benedict XVI's call at the United Nations April 18 to promote human rights as a way of eliminating inequalities and increasing security. A few days later, a U.S. House subcommittee held a hearing related to a controversial employment eligibility verification system, the subject of a bill that also would authorize hiring another 8,000 Border Patrol agents and otherwise expand enforcement of immigration laws. The National Immigration Forum, an immigrant rights organization, said election-year legislation such as the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement, or SAVE, Act, being considered by the House Ways and Means Committee, is "more like Kabuki theater than serious policy deliberation."
- - -
L.A. Archdiocese puts schools up as collateral to settle abuse cases
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Seven high schools owned and operated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles were used as collateral to secure loans to help the archdiocese pay its share of the $720 million settlements with victims of clergy sexual abuse. Archdiocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg said the properties helped secure $175 million in loans late in 2007 to pay most of the diocese's portion of the settlements. The diocese agreed to pay $292 million following negotiated settlements involving 553 claims from sexual abuse victims in 2006 and 2007, according to the archdiocese's most recent financial report covering the year ending last June 30. The school properties were chosen because they could be assessed and appraised within the time frame for paying victims set in the court-negotiated agreements, Tamberg said. The diocese made its payment in December. Negotiated settlements were announced in December 2006 and July 2007. The seven high schools were St. Bernard, Bishop Montgomery, Bishop Amat Memorial, Damien, Bishop Conaty-Our Lady of Loretto, St. Bonaventure and Daniel Murphy.
- - -
Priest calls for new strategies to keep young adults in church
SAN ANTONIO (CNS) -- Every diocese needs a comprehensive pastoral plan specifically aimed at young adults to reverse the hemorrhage of Catholics in their 20s and early 30s leaving the Catholic Church, a national pioneer in young adult ministry said. Father John Cusick, director of young adult ministry for the Archdiocese of Chicago and the father of the Theology on Tap program, said the church needs a savvy "new apologetics" and "satellite sites" away from the parish grounds where young adults can gather to form quality relationships without feeling pressure from the church. Addressing a youth ministry symposium in April at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Father Cusick cited a recent USA Today poll indicating that 10 percent of Americans are former Catholics and said the percentage is much higher among people in their 20s and early 30s. "If Catholic youth ministry is so good, where are all the young adults? They're missing in action," he said. "For the moment (in their teens), they have a good sense of church, but then they fall off the end of the table."
- - -
CCC collection to be conducted third weekend of May
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops have designated May 17-18 as the weekend for the annual national collection for the Catholic Communication Campaign. Funding provided by the donations supports an array of multimedia projects developed by the CCC, an initiative of the U.S. bishops that promotes Gospel values through the media. Half of the donations to the collection remain in the diocese to fund local communications projects, while the other half provides funds for national projects. Building on the popularity of the daily Mass readings featured on the U.S. bishops' Web site, www.usccb.org, the CCC now supports audio readings that can be downloaded through iTunes, Podcast Alley and other sources. Most recently, the CCC sponsored a Web site dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States that featured live streaming video, blog entries, the pope's itinerary and texts of his speeches, homilies and other remarks. More information about the projects of the Catholic Communication Campaign are available online at: www.usccb.org/ccc.
- - -
Catholic soccer camps to debut at Franciscan University
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (CNS) -- A summer soccer camp that is described as uniquely Catholic in structure and design will debut this summer at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Catholic Soccer Camps is said to be the first of its kind that combines high-level instruction with Catholic ministry. Camps will run the weeks of July 6-11 and July 13-18 for boys and girls 8 to 17 years old. In addition to soccer instruction the camp will include daily Mass, worship and praise, and confession. Top professional players and coaches from Italy, Brazil and the U.S. will join students from the university in teaching soccer skills, camp organizers said. The camp is being operated in a university collaboration with Catholic Soccer Camps, the World Youth Soccer Academy and the Soccer Academy television show. More information is available online at: www.CatholicSoccerCamps.com, or by calling: (818) 324-0344 or (740) 266-7050.
- - -
WORLD
Pope expresses deep sadness over cyclone's destruction in Myanmar
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI expressed deep sadness and "heartfelt sympathy" after hearing news of "the tragic aftermath" of Cyclone Nargis, which killed tens of thousands in Myanmar. News agencies reported May 6 that more than 22,000 people had been killed and 41,000 were missing after the cyclone's heavy rains and winds of up to 120 mph swept over southern Myanmar May 3. The cyclone damaged at least three major cities, including Yangon, the capital of Myanmar and its largest city. In a telegram sent on behalf of the pope by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict said he was praying for the victims and their families and called for "divine strength and comfort upon the homeless and all who are suffering." A copy of the telegram, addressed to Archbishop Paul Zinghtung Grawng of Mandalay, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, was released by the Vatican May 6. The pope said he was "confident that the international community will respond with generous and effective relief to the needs" of cyclone victims.
- - -
Experts: Church must address role of Internet in identity, community
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church and particularly its social teaching must begin to grapple with the potential and the problems posed by the Internet, particularly when dealing with questions about personal identity, community involvement and solidarity, several social scientists said. Members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, meeting at the Vatican May 1-7, explored how solidarity and subsidiarity can come together to promote the common good. As part of their discussion, they looked at the role of the market economy and the state in promoting the exchange of goods, but also at the role played by communities and groups that support people, give them identity and teach them how to contribute to society. For an increasing number of people, computers are the way they connect to the communities where they test and forge their personal identities and where they express their creativity and contribute to the production of goods, several academy members said at a May 6 Vatican press conference.
- - -
Krakow spokesman defends Polish methods of paying clergy
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A Polish church official has defended the current methods of financing Catholic clergy in his country after a former priest warned that some priests violated canon law by "selling sacraments" to stave off poverty. "Justice doesn't mean the same for everyone -- it always happens that someone tries harder and is above average, whereas not all priests make the same effort," said Father Robert Neczek, spokesman for Poland's Krakow Archdiocese. "It's hard to say if other methods would work in Poland. The faithful are accustomed to voluntary offerings and to dealing with clergy face to face. Making direct donations shows how they evaluate the clergy's work," he said. In an April 25 article in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, a former Dominican priest, Tadeusz Bartosz, said the lack of regular pay had forced parish rectors to look for income sources, making some vulnerable to the sin of simony by seeking profits from dispensing sacraments.
- - -
Bolivian bishops defend cardinal's vote in autonomy referendum
LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNS) -- The Bolivian Catholic bishops' conference defended a cardinal's decision to vote in an autonomy referendum in the eastern department of Santa Cruz. The bishops said Santa Cruz Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval "is a citizen of Bolivia and Santa Cruz, and as such has the legitimate right to vote. This civic responsibility is not incompatible with his position as president of the Bolivian bishops' conference and leader of the Catholic Church." Minister of the Presidency Juan Ramon Quintana criticized Cardinal Terrazas for casting a ballot in the referendum, which President Evo Morales had declared illegal. On May 5, the Santa Cruz Electoral Court reported that with 34 percent of the votes counted slightly more than 84 percent of the ballots favored the autonomy statutes and slightly more than 15 percent opposed them. The majority of voters opted to accept an "autonomy statute" that would give the region of Santa Cruz, which generates about one-third of the country's gross domestic product, the power to manage matters such as land ownership, the use of natural resources and health care and education, as well as establish its own judiciary.
- - -
God made pre-humans into people, Vatican newspaper says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While apes evolved naturally into pre-human creatures, it was the will and desire of God that turned them into humans, an article in the Vatican newspaper said. "The formation of human beings necessitated a particular contribution by God, though it remains that their emergence was brought about by natural causes" of evolution, it said. The article, published in the May 5-6 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, was written by Italian evolutionary biologist Fiorenzo Facchini. The article said that, "when the biological conditions necessary for supporting a being capable of reflective thought were attained, the will of God, the creator, freely desired it, and man came to be." The article posed the question: Does this mean that humans evolved from chimpanzees? "No, it might be better to say that at some point God willed a spark of intelligence to light up in the mind of a nonhuman hominid and thus came into existence the human as a being, as a subject capable of thought and the ability to decide freely," it said.
- - -
Church recognizes 17th-century Marian apparitions in France
LAUS, France (CNS) -- The Catholic Church has officially recognized 17th-century Marian apparitions to a 17-year-old peasant girl in a southern Alpine village in France. "Three centuries have passed since Benoite Rencurel testified ... about what Christ and Mary, his mother, had revealed concerning God's love for men, as well as his infinite mercy and his appeal for conversion," Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, France, said during a May 4 Mass at the Marian basilica in the town of Laus. "Here, as in Lourdes, as in La Salette, as in Fatima, we see Mary pursuing her mission to reveal her son and invite us to do all he tells us," he told more than 6,000 people at the Mass. A decree recognizing the "supernatural origin of the apparitions and of facts lived and recounted by the young shepherdess" between 1664 and 1718 was read at the Mass by Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri of Gap, France.
- - -
Columbans move from Ireland to Hong Kong to reflect vocations trend
HONG KONG (CNS) -- The Missionary Society of St. Columban, which has had headquarters in Ireland since the society's founding in 1918, has moved its offices from Dublin to Hong Kong to reflect that its vocations come primarily from Asian and Pacific Rim countries. "We have so many members coming from Korea, Fiji, the Philippines. To relocate the headquarters to the Pacific side is to reflect this emerging reality," said Father Tommy Murphy, superior general of the society, in an interview with Catholic News Service May 6. The Hong Kong offices opened May 1. Father Murphy said the decision to move the council to Hong Kong was not made lightly. "The move reflects the society's 90-year commitment to cross-cultural Catholic mission work," he said. He added that the main practical consideration for the move was to facilitate communications in the region. Australian Father Jim Mulroney, manager of the society's Hong Kong-based research and liaison office for China, told CNS May 5 that Hong Kong's communication technologies, as well as its location in Asia, made it a good choice.
- - -
Lebanese parish prepares young Iraqi refugees for first Communion
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Last September, Sondrine and Raymond Khamo lived with their parents in a two-floor house in Mosul, Iraq. Their uncle had been shot in the head when he was driving, and their mother, Haifa Khamo, was afraid to let her children go outside. Today, the family of four lives in a one-room dwelling in Beirut. The children's father, Basel, an accountant, recently found work as a stocker in a supermarket. There's not much left from his $200 monthly salary after he pays the $100 rent. Yet in Lebanon the family is able to practice their Chaldean Catholic faith. Sondrine, 12, and Raymond, 11, were to make their first Communion May 10 at St. Raphael the Archangel Chaldean Cathedral in a Beirut suburb. Of the 38 children preparing for their first Communion at St. Raphael's this year, 24 are Iraqi refugees, ranging in age from 11 to 13.
- - -
PEOPLE
Mexican cardinal backs off remarks over honest earnings of wealthy
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara, who recently came under fire from business leaders in western Mexico, retreated from comments he made in late April about the wealthy not earning their fortunes in an honest fashion. "There isn't a single honorable rich person, because working never made anyone wealthy," he said April 28 during a Mass for an organization of journalists and public relations professionals. "If that were the way to become wealthy, then donkeys would be the richest," he added. "Working doesn't make people rich. If that happens, it's because there was exploitation." In a statement released by the Archdiocese of Guadalajara in early May, the cardinal's comments were clarified. "The words were directed at those that have acquired their wealth in an illicit manner, who have created large monopolies (domestic or foreign) that are based in injustice," the statement said.
- - -
Doctor calls spirituality key to dying patient's quality of life
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Medicine shrinks from caring for the spiritual needs of dying patients, even though spirituality is what most people yearn for most at the end of life, Franciscan Brother Daniel Sulmasy, a physician and philosopher, told an audience at the University of San Francisco April 28. Doctors tend to ignore spiritual care or back away from it out of fear of inadequacy or invading patients' privacy, Brother Sulmasy said. Often they think they are helping, but underserve patients by turning spiritual questions into technical problems, he said. For dying patients, the impulse is the reverse, he said: The terminal patient whose spiritual life is outstanding despite great physical distress reports having an outstanding quality of life. The split is so large that a new model for medical education may be needed, he said. The model would integrate biological, social and spiritual issues in training doctors. Doctors should be mindful that patients' spiritual questions are fundamental -- deeper than the biological, moral and ethical issues that concern clinicians and hospital ethics advisory boards, said Brother Sulmasy, who holds the Sisters of Charity chair in ethics at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
