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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jun-17-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Iowa parishes struggle to recover from devastating floods
DUBUQUE, Iowa (CNS) -- Iowa officials were calling the state's catastrophic flooding "the tsunami of the plains," as it wreaked havoc on citizens, business owners and Catholic parish property statewide. Record flooding from nine of Iowa's rivers has covered millions of acres of farmland and crippled numerous towns and cities in its path. While the water had begun to recede, it was only the beginning of a long recovery process, federal and state authorities confirmed. The destructive flooding also has caused devastation to many Catholic parish properties and the homes and businesses of parishioners, said Dubuque Archbishop Jerome G. Hanus. In the Archdiocese of Dubuque -- which covers 30 counties in the northeast quadrant of Iowa -- Cedar Rapids experienced the worst flooding. In Iowa's second largest city, with a population of more than 120,000, a 9.2-square-mile area was under several feet of water. St. Patrick Church and parish buildings in the heart of downtown Cedar Rapids were swamped and water came within a foot of the roof of the four-year-old parish center.
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Society of St. Vincent de Paul plans nationwide walk for the poor
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, one of the oldest lay service organizations in the U.S., will mark its 175th anniversary with what it has been doing for all those years: serving the poor. The organization has planned a special event to highlight its work and raise money for the poor. A nationwide event called "Friends of the Poor Walk" will take place Sept. 27, the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul. Diocesan councils, district councils and parish-based conferences of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul have all been invited to participate; walks will be organized locally. As of June 17, 61 walks had been scheduled across the country. Among the walk sites are big cities such as New Orleans, Philadelphia, Washington, St. Louis and New York. Individuals and groups can register for the event on the walk's Web site, www.svdpfriendsofthepoorwalk.org. "The number is growing every day. There has been a massive outpouring of support," walk administrator Chris Desloge told Catholic News Service.
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Rosary for warriors aims to comfort families of deployed soldiers
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- As she was driving back from a memorial service for a young family friend and four other soldiers killed in the war in Iraq, Lynda MacFarland felt compelled "to do something" to bring comfort to the grieving. Inspired and humbled by the strength of the family members the soldiers left behind, MacFarland's first thought was to immerse herself in prayer for troops and their families -- with a rosary for warriors. MacFarland conceded she never had a devotion to the rosary, nor did she know all the prayers. It was "divine inspiration," she said in an interview with the Arlington Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Arlington Diocese. After learning the prayers she didn't know, MacFarland decided the rosary for warriors should be prayed with the sorrowful mysteries in mind, and each decade would be prayed for a specific intention, including prayers for deployed soldiers, those wounded and deceased, and for the families of soldiers. MacFarland said she then passed the idea along to "every Catholic in my address book."
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Common sense needed to resolve immigration crisis, says cardinal
HOUSTON (CNS) -- Common sense and the inherent right of all humans to work should be key to finding a workable solution to the current immigration crisis the United States is facing, according to Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. Cardinal DiNardo was a guest speaker June 5 at a luncheon for the Greater Houston Partnership's "Dialogue on Immigration: The Economic and Social Impact." He addressed the social aspects of immigration. According to Cardinal DiNardo, the basis for "welcoming the stranger" can be found in the Bible. "The Old Testament or the Jewish Scriptures frankly present what the obstacles are of welcoming the stranger. They also frankly present why we must do so. We in the United States are a land blessed and have a strong heritage steeped in the immigrant experience," he said. The cardinal explained that his own father, an immigrant to the United States, stressed the importance of respecting the immigrant.
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Media has role to play in improving human rights, activists say
MINNEAPOLIS (CNS) -- Using the media to change society's mind -- and even to change society -- takes a lot of work and patience but it can be done, according to activists from many corners of the globe. A Kenyan Catholic woman is using media to change how women are regarded in her country. A Brazilian Catholic woman is using media to raise the cause of the poor. And a Hong Kong woman is using media to serve as a watchdog on the Chinese government. All spoke during a June 7 panel presentation in Minneapolis on "Promoting Global Human Rights Through Progressive Communications Policies" during the National Conference on Media Reform. "We invented the drums and the 'bush telegraph,'" said Rosemary Okello Orlale of African Women and Child Feature Services in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. "So why is it so expensive for Africans to communicate with each other?" Her answer: "Our resources don't go to women." Orlale, a member of the Kenyan Catholic Association of Journalists, said her organization is working to expand journalists' minds to "add women as sources for their information."
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WORLD
Brazilian bishops join national movement against slave labor
BRASILIA, Brazil (CNS) -- Brazil's Catholic bishops have joined a 21st-century abolitionist movement called the National Front Against Slave Labor. The front, which includes congressional leaders and representatives of unions and social movements, was launched June 4. Its immediate goal is to push a constitutional amendment through Brazil's National Congress before the July recess. "Slavery is an abominable practice that the church in Brazil, through the voice of some bishops and the Pastoral Land Commission, has denounced since the 1970s in a systematic and documented way," said a bishops' conference statement read by Father Jose Ernanne Pinheiro, political adviser to the bishops, during the campaign launch. Slavery was abolished in Brazil 120 years ago, but special teams in Brazil's Ministry of Labor have rescued nearly 29,000 people from forced labor since 1995. Many of them were poor peasant workers on farms.
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Diocese won't allow 'Angels and Demons' to be filmed in Rome churches
ROME (CNS) -- Rome diocesan officials have denied Hollywood producers permission to film the prequel to "The Da Vinci Code" inside its churches in Rome. Producers of the film, "Angels and Demons," were turned down because the movie is a work of "fantasy that damages common religious sentiment," said Father Marco Fibbi, Rome diocesan press officer. "Normally we read the script, but this time that wasn't necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough" to reject the request, he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera June 16. The new movie, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, is based on the Brown best-seller "Angels and Demons." Another Brown novel, "The Da Vinci Code," sparked criticism for offending the church and its beliefs. Producers of the new movie, currently being filmed in Rome and due for release next spring, asked for permission to film scenes inside the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria about a year ago.
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As rebels launch new attacks, CRS sends foreign staff out of Chad
N'DJAMENA, Chad (CNS) -- As rebel troops raced across the desert in what some fear might be a repeat of February's assault on the Chadian capital, aid workers prepared for the worst. Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, began evacuating its non-Chadian staff to neighboring Cameroon, said Samba Fall, head of the agency's programs in Chad. "We don't want to wait until the last minute," he said June 16. CRS was planning a joint convoy of vehicles across the border with CARE, another humanitarian agency. Chadian rebels attacked N'Djamena, the oil-rich nation's capital, during a February assault that resulted in hundreds of deaths and widespread damage. The CRS office in the city was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, although Fall suggested the government soldiers who fired it probably were aiming at a nearby radio station that had been seized by rebels. The aid agency office, abandoned by CRS staff as fighting raged on the streets outside, also was looted by local residents.
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Illinois bishop: Catholics can fight secularization with Eucharist
QUEBEC CITY (CNS) -- Catholics who rely on family members and the Eucharist can better resist secularization, Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Ill., told pilgrims at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress. Bishop Braxton noted that the family in the Western Hemisphere "has changed dramatically." Citing statistics that only 25 percent of American families are made up of a mother, father and children, he said changes in the family and decreased attention on the family dinner have made the meal "merely feeding time." He said, "We are challenged not to imitate secular society," which can undermine the family and marriage. The family "relies on the Eucharist" by praying and going to Mass together as well as having a family discussion of the homily, he said. "There is nothing wrong with telling children" to turn off the computer and TV and "every distraction to pray," he said. Bishop Braxton was one of several U.S. prelates who spoke to pilgrims June 16 about what the Eucharist is and how its meaning can be applied and enriched in family and church life.
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Vatican officials visit Vietnam, report progress on church issues
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After a weeklong visit to Vietnam, a Vatican delegation reported important progress on diplomatic and ecclesial issues. A working group is expected to begin talks soon on normalizing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the Holy See, the Vatican said in a statement June 17. In addition, Vatican officials reported that the Vietnamese government had restored to church use the land surrounding the national shrine of Our Lady of La Vang. The Vatican delegation visited the shrine at La Vang and left a golden monstrance, a personal gift from Pope Benedict XVI. Delegation members prayed that the shrine would become a center of unity and reconciliation for Catholics and non-Catholics in Vietnam. The three-man delegation, headed by Msgr. Pietro Parolin, Vatican undersecretary of state, met with a variety of government and church leaders during its June 9-15 visit.
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Vatican plans photo exhibit, conference on Pope Pius XII
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican announced plans for commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII with a photographic exhibition of his life and a conference discussing his teachings and influence on the Second Vatican Council. However, the two events are not connected with furthering the late pope's sainthood cause, which Pope Benedict XVI put on hold late last year, said the head of the Vatican press office, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi. A congress dedicated to "the relationship between Pope Pius XII's magisterium and the Second Vatican Council is a whole other subject that has nothing to do with the person's holiness," he said during a June 17 press conference at the Vatican. Father Lombardi and others presented plans to commemorate Pope Pius' October 1958 death with a Nov. 6-7 conference on "The Heritage of the Magisterium of Pius XII" and an Oct. 21-Jan. 6 photographic exhibit at the Vatican.
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Sacrifice is heart of Eucharist, Christian life, says French cardinal
QUEBEC CITY (CNS) -- Sacrifice is the heart of the Eucharist and Christian life, said Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France. To "present Christianity without the cross, or mention (of) the eucharistic sacrifice ... would be a lie," he said in French during his June 17 catechesis at the June 15-22 International Eucharistic Congress. Cardinal Barbarin said that by faith the altar is the table of Holy Thursday, the cross of Good Friday and the tomb from which Jesus rose from the dead. From the Jews, Christians inherited the concept of memorial, he said. The biblical word does not mean merely a monument to the past but "God's active presence, a God who saves us today as he did in the past," said the cardinal. Even if this mystery took place 2,000 years ago, Christians believe that at every Mass they are like the apostles gathered around the Lord for the Last Supper, he said. They are like Mary at the foot of the cross, with a few women and the disciple Jesus loved; they are like witnesses to sightings of Jesus, he said.
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PEOPLE
Retired bishop of Pueblo, civil rights champion, dies at 94
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Retired Bishop Charles A. Buswell of Pueblo, Colo., who had been one of four remaining U.S. bishops to have attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, died June 14 at the age of 94. A funeral Mass was to be celebrated for Bishop Buswell June 19 at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pueblo, followed by interment in the bishops mausoleum in Pueblo's Roselawn Cemetery. An anti-war protester into his 90s, the Oklahoma native, who had been in poor health for the past couple of years, died peacefully in his Pueblo retirement home, said Deacon Jake Arellano, assistant to Bishop Arthur N. Tafoya, the current head of the Pueblo Diocese. During his 1959-79 tenure as bishop of Pueblo, Bishop Buswell was outspoken on civil rights causes and backed the rights of conscientious objectors. Remaining active after his 1979 retirement, he was arrested during his participation in anti-nuclear protests, was an outspoken opponent of anti-gay measures in Colorado and joined Pax Christi USA in many of its humanitarian efforts, which included urging President Bill Clinton to press for Palestinian human rights in 1999.
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At congress, African and Asian cardinals discuss church life
QUEBEC CITY (CNS) -- Several cardinals from around the world gave the status of church life in their countries and regions at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress. "The Eucharist finds in Africa very favorable soil," with people who believe in God and are open to God, Cardinal Theodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar, Senegal, told thousands of pilgrims in a Quebec stadium. Noting that he could not do justice in explaining the entire continent because of its diversity, he focused on the West African nation of Senegal during his talk at a June 16 workshop called "The Vitality of the Eucharist Around the World," one of dozens of seminars, workshops and conferences held the second day of the June 15-22 congress. Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu, Philippines, said the celebration of the Eucharist is "at times routine" and "Mass is used for political purposes" in his Asian island nation, where Catholics are a majority. Indian Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, discussed the local cultures and several rites of the church in his country, where Christians are in the minority. Despite small numbers, "the church is rich because of its so many different rites," he said.
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Pope names Lateran rector to be head of Pontifical Academy for Life
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI appointed the rector of Rome's Pontifical Lateran University to be the new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Bishop Salvatore Fisichella was named president of the academy June 17 and was elevated to archbishop. The pope accepted the resignation of 80-year-old Bishop Elio Sgreccia as academy president for reasons of age. Archbishop Fisichella, 56, had been one of Rome's auxiliary bishops and was a leading theological adviser to the Vatican. He has been rector of Lateran University since 2002 and is a member of the Vatican's Congregation for Saints' Causes and a consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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Lebanon prepares for beatification of Capuchin Franciscan priest
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- Martyrs' Square, in recent years known for political protests, will be the scene of the June 22 beatification ceremony of Lebanon's Father Jacques Haddad, a Capuchin Franciscan who worked tirelessly to help the poor and the sick, regardless of nationality or religion. Up to 100,000 people -- including many non-Christians -- are expected for the 10 a.m. ceremony. Bells across the Lebanese capital will herald the event at noon. Sister Marie Makhlouf, superior of the Franciscan Sisters of the Cross, the order founded by Father Haddad in 1933, said the ceremony should "be a unifying event." In addition to starting the religious order, Father Haddad, or Abouna Yaacoub, his name in Arabic, founded numerous hospitals, hospices and schools. Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes, will celebrate the beatification Mass. Cardinal Nasrallah P. Sfeir, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, will concelebrate. Lebanon's new president, Michel Sleiman, is scheduled to attend, along with other Christian and Muslim politicians.
END
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