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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS May-20-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Economic toll of health care crisis threatens all, CHA president says
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Adding up the economic toll on the nation caused by the health care crisis, the head of the Catholic Health Association urged the United States to "act in its own best interest and in the interest of its people" to solve the problem. Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity who is CHA president and CEO, spoke on "Health Care Reform That Is Worthy of the American People" May 16 at the City Club of Cleveland. The club's prestigious Friday Forum has hosted many prominent speakers and airs on a radio network in more than 40 states from Maine to Alaska. Sister Carol presented what she called "a very ugly picture of what many people in our country are having to cope with." With the U.S. spending 16 percent of its gross domestic product on health care and other developed countries spending a median of 8.5 percent, U.S. businesses face "a serious competitive disadvantage," she said. U.S. firms also pay twice as much for health insurance as their foreign competitors, she added, citing a study by the New America Foundation Program. But that does not result in better health care or reduced mortality in the U.S., Sister Carol said.
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Indigenous Indonesians suffer injustices, say Catholic reps
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Indigenous residents of Indonesia's Irian Jaya region suffer a multitude of injustices, from rape and murder to the pilfering of riches extracted from their island, said representatives of an Indonesian Catholic diocese. Unsettled disputes and violent conflicts between the Indonesian government and the indigenous residents have resulted in the killing of at least 100,000 people by Indonesian security forces, said Father Cayetanus Johanes Tarong, superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Irian Jaya, also known as West Papua. "There is murder, intimidation, terror and rapes," Father Tarong said. "Welfare meant for the people mostly goes to build the infrastructure of the corrupt governmental bureaucracy. They still don't feel safe in their own land." The Catholic delegation met May 19 with officials of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. The delegation included members of the justice and peace office of the Diocese of Jayapura and Franciscans International, a Catholic international lobby group.
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'Transform society,' make 'world more humane,' college graduates told
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In graduation ceremonies at Catholic colleges and universities across the country, many of them held the weekend of May 17-18, commencement speakers urged graduates to make a difference in the world. "We are called to build a better society here in the United States. But we cannot stop within our own borders," said Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson of the Knights of Columbus during the May 17 graduation ceremony at The Catholic University of America in Washington. "We are called to transform society in such a way that it will lead to a greater effort to overcome poverty, disease, hatred and violence throughout our world," he added. Anderson and his wife, Dorian, addressed the 1,200 graduates and the couple received honorary theology degrees from the university. Dorian Anderson spoke of the critical role of the family, which she described as "nature's school of life and love" and the place where the "transforming power of love is first experienced and is passed on to the future." Carl Anderson reminded graduates of the world's poor, noting that "1 billion people in the world today live on less than $2 a day," but he added that it "need not be this way."
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35 activists face May 27 trial for illegal protest at Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The plan was simple. Father William Pickard would walk into the U.S. Supreme Court building, wait for the appropriate moment and begin to pray with 45 others who had filtered in as well. They would pray for the closing of the American-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and for the end of what they say is the torture of detainees in clandestine prisons around the world. The priest from the Diocese of Scranton, Pa., also brought with him a writ of habeas corpus for Faruq Ali Ahmed, a Yemeni man he had never met who was being held at Guantanamo, accused of working with al-Qaida. Father Pickard wanted to urge the court's justices to allow Ahmed and the other 274 detainees to answer the charges against them. Events never got that far Jan. 11. Wearing clerical attire, Father Pickard was arrested within minutes after the group gathered in the court's Upper Great Hall and started to sing and pray. Several in the group tried to unfurl a large banner that read "Close Guantanamo Bay." The 61-year-old priest will learn his fate starting May 27 when he and 34 others face trial in a unified case in the District of Columbia Superior Court for their role in the nonviolent protest.
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Vatican diplomat urges support of small farmers as food crisis grows
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Greater support of the world's small farmers would enable them to produce more food in a sustainable manner and help address chronic hunger and malnutrition around the globe, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations said during a meeting of the world body's Commission on Sustainable Development. Speaking to the commission May 16, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the apostolic nuncio at the world body, urged investment that addresses food prices and the global production and distribution of food, especially in Africa. He also called for agricultural polices that "rediscover the path of reason and reality" so that the needs of food production and the need to be good stewards of the earth are balanced. In addition to investing in small farmers, the archbishop urged the commission to undertake greater efforts to ease the impact of environmental change and financial realities that impact food production.
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Suit seeks minimum of $250,000 in damages from Catholic Online
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A prosecutor in an upcoming civil trial is seeking a minimum of $250,000 in punitive damages from Catholic Online, a California media organization, and its president, who are accused of diverting funds intended for charitable causes. The state of California is also seeking unspecified restitution from the Bakersfield-based organization, which includes Catholic Financial Services, Your Catholic Voice Inc., Your Catholic Voice Foundation and the president of those organizations -- Michael Galloway -- in the civil case filed by the district attorney's office in Kern County and set for trial Sept. 15. Galloway sees the case as an anti-Catholic campaign to spread agenda-driven bigotry using the legal system. "We believe that we have done no wrong," he told Catholic News Service May 14. "When the truth comes out, the truth will be quite clear. We really want our day in court." (CNS has had a long-running business relationship with Galloway and Catholic Online, one that CNS executives say is in the process of being re-evaluated.)
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California prosecutor claims Catholic company duped charitable groups
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After Hurricane Katrina devastated portions of Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, the Archdiocese of New Orleans decided to solicit online donations for the first time to help fund disaster relief efforts. Once the archdiocese contracted with the Bakersfield, Calif.-based Catholic Online and Catholic Financial Services to facilitate its Internet fundraising, about $100,000 in donations eventually filtered in. A short time later archdiocesan officials tried to access funds from the account and had trouble withdrawing the money, said Sarah Comiskey, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. "Any time you go to access an account and can't access it, it's a shock," Comiskey told Catholic News Service May 9. As of May 2008, the archdiocese had received the bulk of its funds from that online account, $1,000 at a time, but is still due approximately $3,500, she said. In the meantime, the archdiocese has discontinued its online donation efforts for the relief endeavors and has terminated its business relationship with Catholic Online and Catholic Financial Services, but is cooperating with the district attorney's office in Kern County, Calif., which has a pending civil case against the organizations, as well as their president -- Michael Galloway -- set for trial Sept. 15.
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CBS to broadcast interfaith special on forgiveness
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- CBS will be broadcasting an interfaith special on forgiveness June 8. The program is titled "Choosing to Forgive" and was produced by the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission. The group is comprised of representatives from the National Council of Churches, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, multiple Jewish organizations and the Islamic Society of North America. Viewers should check their local listings to determine when the program will be aired in their area. The program will focus on both the religious aspects and psychological aspects of the concept of forgiveness. It will include Robert Enright, author and professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is a leader in the field of forgiveness therapy. There also will be numerous interviews with individuals who used forgiveness to help them get past tragedies; they include relatives of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, relatives of drug and alcohol addicts, parents of murdered children and a rape victim.
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WORLD
Vatican says 2005 document on gays applies to all seminaries
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In a clarification approved by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican said its 2005 document prohibiting the admission of homosexuals to the priesthood applies to all types of seminaries. That includes houses of formation run by religious orders and those under the authority of the agencies dealing with missionary territories and Eastern churches, said a statement signed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. The two-sentence clarification was published May 17 by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. It came in response to "numerous requests for clarification," the Vatican said. In 2005, after more than eight years of study, the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education issued "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations With Regard to Persons With Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders."
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Chaldeans criticize death penalty for man who killed Mosul archbishop
ROME (CNS) -- Chaldean Catholic leaders in Iraq have criticized a death sentence for the man convicted of killing Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq. "Violence must not call for more violence. We are in favor of justice but not of capital punishment," Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, Iraq, told the Rome-based missionary news agency AsiaNews. The Iraqi government announced May 18 that an Iraqi criminal court had sentenced Ahmed Ali Ahmed to death for killing Archbishop Rahho. The date of the execution had not yet been made public. An Iraqi government spokesman said Ahmed was an al-Qaida leader who was involved in a number of "terror crimes against the people of Iraq." Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad told the Italian Catholic agency SIR May 19 that Archbishop Rahho "would not have accepted such a sentence. Christian principles uphold that a death sentence is not permissible against anyone."
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U.K., Irish cardinals donate to support adult stem-cell research
LONDON (CNS) -- British and Irish cardinals have donated funding to support adult stem-cell research and urged scientists to pursue ethical forms of such research. Cardinals Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales; Keith O'Brien of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, president of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland; and Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Northern Ireland, president of the Irish bishops' conference, awarded a grant of 25,000 pounds (US$49,200) to support the research. The cardinals said in a statement May 18 they were disappointed that the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill, which is passing through the British Parliament, focused on embryonic stem-cell research. "In fact, much greater progress has already been made toward clinical therapies using adult stem cells," they said. "Other emerging techniques hold potential for good, without creating and destroying human embryos. "We are making this donation as a sign of the church's commitment to science and human good," they added.
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Bishop concerned parliamentary moves will worsen Haiti's situation
JACMEL, Haiti (CNS) -- A Haitian bishop expressed concern that parliamentary decisions amid the global food crisis will worsen the country's socioeconomic problems. Bishop Guire Poulard of Jacmel said the Haitian parliament's May 12 veto of the proposed new prime minister, agronomist Ericq Pierre, is likely only to worsen the situation. "It's disappointing for those who were hoping for the formation of a new government in order to tackle the problems of the nation," he told local radio stations in mid-May. Following food riots throughout the country, the Haitian Senate forced the resignation of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis. President Rene Preval nominated Pierre, whose candidacy for prime minister had to be ratified by the Senate and the lower house. The choice was approved by the Senate, but the majority of the lower house rejected Pierre, a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank.
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Northern Irish church leaders urge local control for abortion laws
DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- The leaders of Northern Ireland's four main churches told British legislators that Northern Ireland's abortion laws should be a matter for the Northern Ireland Assembly. The letter sent May 16 was written by Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, Anglican Archbishop Alan Harper of Armagh, the Rev. Roy Cooper, president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Rev. John Finlay, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. "We feel it is important for the government to respect the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland and allow locally elected MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) to take the lead on this issue," they said, noting a debate last year in which "all of the main parties in Northern Ireland signaled their opposition to an extension of the 1967 Abortion Act." The church leaders asked that British legislators would "take account of the Northern Ireland political parties, and indeed of the people of Northern Ireland, by voting against any amendments concerning abortion legislation in Northern Ireland."
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PEOPLE
Pope to visit shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop during visit to Sydney
PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI will visit the shrine of Blessed Mary MacKillop during his July visit to Sydney, Australia, for World Youth Day. "Mary MacKillop's story of serving the poor and the uneducated is inspiring to all Australians, and we hope she will also inspire the youth of the world," said Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, World Youth Day coordinator, in a May 20 statement. He noted that Blessed MacKillop, who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995, is one of 10 patrons of World Youth Day. Alberto Gasbarri, the chief papal trip organizer, and Paolo Corvini, a Vatican protocol officer, arrived in Australia May 19 to approve the final stages of the preparations and details of Pope Benedict's itinerary. A May 20 statement from the World Youth Day office in Sydney said Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, apostolic nuncio to Australia, confirmed that the pope will pray at Blessed MacKillop's tomb in North Sydney during his stay.
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With new diocese, new Puerto Rican bishop hits the ground running
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The new bishop of a newly erected diocese in Puerto Rico has had, among other tasks, to figure out another place for his 97-year-old mother to live. Bishop-designate Eusebio Ramos Morales, 55, told Catholic News Service in an interview May 19 in Washington that he was caught off-guard in early March by the word that he had been chosen to head the new Diocese of Fajardo-Humacao. A nephew has stepped in to care for his mother, but Bishop-designate Ramos has plenty of other things to sort out as he prepares for his May 31 episcopal ordination. There is no helpful manual about how to set up the necessary departments and staff for a new diocese, he said. But a $40,000 gift from the Catholic Home Missions collection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which he was given during his May 19 visit to the USCCB headquarters, will help offset some of the costs of establishing offices and bringing together the parts of the Archdiocese of San Juan and the Diocese of Caguas that form his new diocese.
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U.S. born Passionist priest named bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has named Father Neil Tiedemann, a Brooklyn-born member of the provincial council for the Passionist order, as bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica. He succeeds Bishop Gordon D. Bennett, a former auxiliary bishop in the Baltimore Archdiocese who resigned in August 2006 for health reasons. The announcement was made at the Vatican May 20. Bishop-designate Tiedemann, 60, has worked in parishes in Honduras, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. He was elected in 2006 as second provincial consultor in the Passionists' St. Paul of the Cross Province, based in Union City, N.J. Born March 5, 1948, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bishop-designate Tiedemann entered the Passionists in 1970 and made perpetual vows Aug. 22, 1974. He was ordained a priest May 16, 1975.
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96-year-old Chinese bishop dies peacefully, suddenly in Jinan
JINAN, China (CNS) -- Bishop James Zhao Ziping of Jinan, 96, died suddenly but peacefully May 18 in Jinan. The bishop died around 5 a.m., hours after complaining he felt unwell, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. His funeral was to be at Sacred Heart Cathedral, or Hongjialou, in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, May 22. Bishop Zhao resided at the cathedral, and Father Joachim Zhao Mingzhong, the pastor, told UCA News May 19 that early the previous morning the bishop was rushed to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed coronary disease. "Bishop Zhao died peacefully and quickly, without much pain," he reported. "Just like he often said, he didn't want to bring trouble to the church and his faithful when he died." The bishop had asthma and diabetes, but these conditions were under control, Father Zhao said, adding that the prelate had recovered well after a slight cerebral apoplexy in April.
END
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