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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jun-12-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Sex abuse, liturgy, stem cells on bishops' agenda at spring meeting
ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) -- Opening their spring general meeting in Orlando, members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops got an interim report on the causes and context of child sexual abuse by priests and made quick work of proposals to revisit the ethical guidelines on feeding tubes and to declare a National Catholic Charities Sunday in 2010. In the first morning session of the June 12-14 assembly at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, the bishops also took a preliminary look at two documents they will vote on later in the meeting. The first was a 700-page draft translation of the proper prayers in the Roman Missal for each Sunday and feast day during the liturgical year. The other was a seven-page policy statement from the Committee on Pro-Life Activities that calls embryonic stem-cell research "a gravely immoral act" that crosses a "fundamental moral line" by treating human beings as mere objects of research. Both documents were scheduled for further debate and vote June 13.
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Providence Diocese provides some relief from high cost of gasoline
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) -- Jennifer Munoz had a job interview recently, but couldn't keep the appointment because she didn't have the money to put gas in her car. Instead, she bought a gallon of milk and food for her two young children. Many Rhode Islanders, faced with the rising cost of gasoline, cannot afford to drive to work or keep important appointments and have turned to the Diocese of Providence for help. Public transit is one viable option, using the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority's extensive network that links many communities throughout the state. Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence and Alfred J. Moscola, general manager of the transit authority, known as RIPTA, announced the launch of the Catholic Charity Fund RIPTIKS program June 11 on the steps of the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul. The new initiative is sponsored by the Providence Diocese to help needy Rhode Island residents who are struggling to cope with the constantly rising cost of gasoline. Thanks to a $17,500 grant from the diocesan Catholic Charity Fund, the diocese has purchased 1,000 RIPTIK booklets. The booklets, worth $17.50, have 10 tickets.
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Midwest parishes escape floods, but some parishioners not as lucky
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Parishes in Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana escaped serious damage after several rounds of storms June 7-8 brought record flooding and devastating tornadoes to large swaths of the Midwest. Some homeowners, however, were not as fortunate. In the southern part of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., where the Kickapoo River rose over its banks for the second time in 10 months, the towns of Gays Mills and Soldiers Grove were among those hardest hit. While residents had plenty of warning from the National Weather Service and were able to escape, dozens of homes were underwater June 12. When the flood first began to build, Father Robert Chukwu, pastor of St. Mary Parish, in Gays Mills, and St. Philip Parish, in Rolling Ground, was attending the first day of Priest Unity Days June 8 at Holy Cross Diocesan Center in La Crosse. "When I went it was pouring rain," he said. "Somehow something in the back of my head told me to go back home." Rather than take chances, he returned to the church June 9 to secure consecrated hosts and his possessions in case of flooding.
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Catholics, Muslims in south Florida team up to aid Myanmar
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The majority of citizens of Myanmar are Buddhist, but that's not stopping Catholics and Muslims in Miami from trying to help them. Catholics and Muslims in south Florida -- two faith groups who have not worked together this way before -- have joined forces to raise money to aid people in Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. Some are describing the effort as historic. "It's huge, especially in this moment where there has been interfaith tension; it's a sign to the world that people of all faiths can come together to help when it's needed and look past dogmatic differences and focus on human suffering," said Gloria Luna, director of social advocacy for the Archdiocese of Miami. At a press conference June 11, representatives of the Archdiocese of Miami and the city's Muslim community announced they had raised $21,700 to aid Myanmar, and more money was still coming in from five more Islamic centers in the area. A collection was taken up in Catholic parishes.
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Vatican rejects canonical appeal on Boston parish closings
BRIGHTON, Mass (CNS) -- The Catholic Church's highest court has rejected appeals of the closures of eight Boston-area parishes, the Archdiocese of Boston confirmed June 10. Boston-area Catholics have vowed to continue their fight to have their closed parishes reopened. The Apostolic Signature sided with the archdiocese, which closed the parishes. They are Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence in Brookline, Our Lady of Lourdes in Revere, St. Anselm in Sudbury, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, St. James the Great in Wellesley, St. Jeremiah in Framingham, St. Mary Star of the Sea in the Squantum section of Quincy and St. Michael in Lynn. A ninth appeal for St. Jeanne d'Arc Parish in Lowell was rejected by the Apostolic Signature in February. Representatives from all the former parishes will ask the court to reconsider their appeals, according to Capuchin Franciscan Brother James Peterson, assistant to the moderator of the Boston archdiocesan curia for canonical affairs. Peter Borre, co-chair of the Council of Parishes -- a lay organization formed to oppose the parish-closure process -- stressed the closed parishes' commitment to seeing the appeals process through.
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Interfaith group to be created with focus on media issues
MINNEAPOLIS (CNS) -- An interfaith media group will be formed to deal with media issues, probably before the end of the year. There is no name yet for the organization, nor is there a set structure, according to Cheryl Leanza, director of the United Church of Christ's Office of Communication. Leanza disclosed the pending creation of the organization during the June 6-8 National Conference for Media Reform, held in Minneapolis. "We're looking for ways that individuals will be able to participate, and institutions to be involved, too," she told Catholic News Service June 7. During each of the last three media-reform conferences, there have been different workshops or panel discussions of particular appeal to religious believers. "Media is everybody's second issue," Leanza said, adding that activists in the faith community are often critical of how little attention is given to issues that religious people champion and the kind of attention those issues get.
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WORLD
Synod working document seeks creative response to hunger for Bible
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The working document for this fall's Synod of Bishops on the Bible called for a creative pastoral response to a growing hunger among Catholics for the word of God. The document said the synod should help find ways for Catholics to better understand Scripture and relate it to their everyday lives, including works of justice and charity. It strongly rejected a fundamentalist approach to the Bible and said a key challenge is to clarify for the faithful the relation of Scripture to science. The text encouraged the trend among Catholics toward daily Scripture reading. But it said Sunday Mass is where most people encounter Scripture, and it called for better coordination of readings and homilies to underline scriptural content. The 86-page document, called an "instrumentum laboris," was released at the Vatican June 12. It will serve as a discussion guideline for the Oct. 5-26 synod, which treats the theme "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church."
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Pope says small Catholic community in Bangladesh has much to offer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said the small Catholic community in Bangladesh has much to offer and can help inspire moderation and tolerance among the country's diverse religions and ethnicities. "By encouraging people who share important values to cooperate for the common good, you help consolidate your country's stability and to maintain it for the future," he said in a June 12 audience with Catholic bishops from Bangladesh. The bishops were on their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican, a series of consultative meetings made approximately every five years. The pope said the Catholic Church embraces people of all races and languages and is "at the service of the entire human family, freely sharing her gifts for the well-being of all." That means the Catholic community, even though it is a minority in Bangladesh, has "much to offer the nation," he said. As "promoters of peace and harmony" and in their love for their country, Catholics "inspire tolerance, moderation and understanding," he said.
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Archaeologists claim Jordan cave was first church; scholars skeptical
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Jordanian archaeologists say they have found the world's first Christian church in the northern city of Rihab, but international scholars question the validity of the claim. A cave that Jordanians say was used as a church was discovered underneath the already existing St. Georgeous Church, which dates back to between 290 or 300. The size of the cave has not been specified. St. Georgeous is considered to be among the oldest churches in the world. The discovery of the church-cave was "amazing," Abdel-Qader al-Housan, director of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, told The Jordan Times June 9. "We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians: the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ," he said. However, other scholars have been skeptical. "I can only judge the findings once I have read the full report, but from what has been published so far I am not convinced that there is any evidence pointing to the fact that the cave was used for Christian worship in the first century or that there is any connection between the later church above and the cave below," said Israeli archaeologist Boaz Zissu of Bar-Ilan University.
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Vatican official expresses concern over impact of economy on workers
GENEVA (CNS) -- The Vatican's representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva expressed concern over the impact the world's troubled economy was having on poor, low-skilled and disadvantaged workers. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told the International Labor Conference in Geneva June 10 that more must be done to promote decent work that protects human dignity. "Today's economy is troubled by lack of jobs, the high prices of housing, food and oil, the instability of financial markets and the slowing down of global growth," he said. It is imperative that policymakers "carefully evaluate the impact of the current crisis on workers (and) on vulnerable and low-skilled workers in particular," he said. A great concern for the Vatican, the archbishop added, is the world's working poor. More than 486 million workers around the world earn at most $1 a day and 1.3 billion more earn at most $2 a day, he said, citing recent statistics from the International Labor Conference. "In other words, 40 percent of all workers are poor despite the fact that they are working," Archbishop Tomasi said.
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WYD social networking site connects youths to build faith, friendship
SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- Sydney Cardinal George Pell and Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, the World Youth Day coordinator, launched the first exclusive World Youth Day social networking Web site to connect pilgrims around the globe. The Web site -- www.Xt3.com -- was launched June 12 in Sydney with 100 young people whom Cardinal Pell and Bishop Fisher invited to be their online friends. Bishop Fisher said the Web site's name stands for "Christ in the Third Millennium," and is inspired by Pope John Paul II who spoke of young people's special task to bring the message of Christ to the world. "It is hoped that Xt3 users will continue to connect after World Youth Day in July, to build upon friendships made and continue dialogue about what it means to be a young person of faith," he said. Xt3.com is the brainchild of two brothers, John and Robert Toone, and Chris Purslow who will continue to promote the site with the Archdiocese of Sydney after World Youth Day July 15-20.
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Canadian government apologizes for residential schools policy
OTTAWA (CNS) -- On behalf of the Canadian government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology to former students of Indian residential schools June 11 in the House of Commons. "To the approximately 80,000 living former students and all family members and communities, the government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes, and we apologize for having done this," Harper said. He apologized for the assimilation policy that since 1870 aimed to "kill the Indian in the child." Leaders of Canada's First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities, and both the oldest and the youngest residential schools survivors, sat in a circle in the center of the chamber, while aboriginal peoples from across Canada packed the galleries. Many were in tears during the occasion. "What happened today signifies a new dawn in the relationship between us and the rest of Canada," said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine.
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PEOPLE
Pope names North American cardinals to posts in Roman Curia
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI appointed U.S. Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, and Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston to posts in the Roman Curia. The Vatican announced their appointments June 12 as part of appointments for those elevated to the College of Cardinals last November. Cardinal Foley was named a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments as well as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The pope appointed Cardinal DiNardo to be a member of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega of Monterrey, Mexico, was named to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
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Pope's April message still resonates for seminarians
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The impact of Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to the United States in April is still being felt by seminarians around the country. Steven Woltornist, a seminarian studying for the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J., said he was unsure what to expect from the papal visit. But as soon as he saw the pope, "it was all worth it," he told CNS. Woltornist is studying at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., the site of the pope's rally with seminarians and young people. For Woltornist, the "all" included being on a bus at 5:30 in the morning to be transported to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where the pope said Mass, and from there back to Yonkers. Timothy Combs, who is studying in St. Louis to become a Dominican priest, attended the seminary rally with five fellow students. For him, the pope talking about truth has had the most influence. The pope said truth should not be an imposition but that "ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ." Combs will be ordained a transitional deacon next year and a priest in two years. He said experiences such as seeing the pope enliven him as he nears the home stretch to ordination.
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Man of the cloth: Priest's new fashion line helps Guatemalan village
NEW YORK (CNS) -- At first blush, the scene seemed typical. In one of Manhattan's trendiest neighborhoods, models strutted down the aisle amid flashing bulbs, pulsating music and a Chardonnay-sipping crowd. The designer promoting this fashion line was clad in New York-requisite black. But his collar was square and white. Father Andrew O'Connor is a Catholic priest. His new organic clothing line, Goods of Conscience, promotes the church's social teachings by providing healthy labor opportunities for poor workers in Guatemala and the East Bronx section of New York. Hand-woven, technicolor and ruggedly formal, Father O'Connor's sartorial creations are made from naturally grown cotton. He uses raw dyes such as yellow wood and black walnut. "It's really great fabric," said model Camilla Barungi, a finalist in the third season of the hit cable TV series "Project Runway," as she showed off her full-length indigo skirt and short-sleeve beige top. Father O'Connor sells the garments from his Bronx workshop by appointment, and customers can preview them on his Web site, http://goodsofconscience.org.
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Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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