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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jul-1-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Speakers say parishes thrive with strong leadership, management
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- When Father Joseph Donnelly became pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Southbury, Conn., in 2003, there was "no 'parish staff' to speak of" except a secretary and a religious education director, he said. Since his arrival he has hired "a full-time pastoral associate, full-time director of religious education, associate religious education director, administrative assistant in faith formation, custodian, secretary/business manager and director of music ministry," along with "a part-time youth minister." Father Donnelly reviewed his 2,200-household, suburban Catholic parish's recent history during the June 26-27 annual meeting of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management in Philadelphia. Through team-building, he and parish staffers have made themselves accountable to one another, he said. The Philadelphia meeting drew business leaders and bishops, philanthropists and pastors, educators, lay pastoral ministers and others to discuss managerial excellence and leadership in Catholic dioceses and parishes.
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Speaker says church, like companies, needs good leadership, management
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Effective organizations need good leadership and good management, but because "individuals frequently are much better at one than the other," successful organizations make sure both skills are well represented on their leadership team, said business leader Frederick Gluck. He spoke during the annual meeting of the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management June 26-27 in Philadelphia. Gluck, a member of the round-table's board of directors who is a former managing partner of the international consulting firm McKinsey & Co., told the meeting's 90 participants that while leaders and managers in the church might sometimes wish they could escape their responsibilities "there is no escaping them." One can, however, take steps to define "leadership" and "management" to create a balance between them that works for a given individual. Participating in the Philadelphia meeting were 10 U.S. bishops, along with business and financial leaders, pastors and lay pastoral ministers, philanthropists, educators and others. They discussed ways to promote excellence in the leadership and management of Catholic dioceses and parishes.
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Unhappy hour: More underage viewers exposed to more alcohol ads
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- To paraphrase Roseanne Roseannadanna, Gilda Radner's news-commentator character from the early years of "Saturday Night Live," it's always something. Especially when it comes to TV. Programs may be well-produced but of questionable taste. Program content may be worthy of viewing but a limited budget means that the acting or production values don't compete well in the 500-channel universe. Then there's the deadly combination of bad acting, bad production and bad values. And let's not forget commercials. The latest evidence that something is rotten in the U.S. is a June 24 report issued by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, at Georgetown University in Washington. The number of alcohol ads seen by youths ages 12-20 -- people too young to drink alcohol legally -- rose 38 percent since the center started tracking the numbers in 2001. Back in 2001, the typical underage viewer saw 216 alcohol ads a year. In 2007, that number was 301 -- nearly one a day on average. Of all the alcohol ads that aired, one in five of them was shown on a program which young people were more likely to be watching than adults of legal drinking age.
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Masses on Opus Dei founder's feast show 'universality of devotion'
NEW YORK (CNS) -- "We're seeing the universality of devotion to St. Josemaria Escriva all around the world," said Msgr. Thomas Bohlin, U.S. vicar of Opus Dei, who concelebrated a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral on the June 26 feast of the founder of Opus Dei. "Masses are being celebrated in hundreds of parishes around the world in places as far away as Botswana and Ethiopia," he said. St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer founded Opus Dei in 1928 in Madrid, Spain. The principal celebrant of the Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral was Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the apostolic nuncio to the United Nations. Besides Msgr. Bohlin, the concelebrants were Msgr. Jim Cassidy, who is in residence at the cathedral, and eight other priests, including three from Brooklyn and three from Bridgeport, Conn. Similarly, in 150 churches in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Oceania and Asia, including 30 American parishes, the faithful of Opus Dei gathered to celebrate the feast day.
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WORLD
Venezuelan Catholic leaders criticize founding of reformist church
CARACAS, Venezuela (CNS) -- A reformist church which has adopted many Roman Catholic symbols and rituals while departing from several traditional church teachings has come under fire from Venezuelan Catholic leaders. Archbishop Roberto Luckert Leon of Coro, vice president of the Venezuelan bishops' conference, told the Caracas-based Union Radio June 26 that the Reform Catholic Venezuelan Church is attempting to show that the Catholic Church is divided. He accused the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of bankrolling the new church in an attempt to divide the Catholic Church and warned that liturgies celebrated by the church had no religious validity. The new church's bishops "are going to dress like priests and carry out baptisms and confirmations, all paid for by the government which has tried to finish off the Catholic Church but failed," Archbishop Luckert said. The church was founded by a group that includes several Venezuelan Catholic priests and members of the Anglican and Lutheran churches from several nations.
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As human rights cases go to court, Latin Americans come under attack
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Unprecedented human rights cases are moving through the courts in countries such as Peru, Argentina and Chile, raising hopes that perpetrators will be brought to justice. But human rights workers continue to come under attack. The apparently contradictory combination is not a coincidence. "There's a connection between progress in cases against high-level officials and attacks against human rights workers involved in those cases," Coletta Youngers, a senior fellow with the nonprofit Washington Office on Latin America, told Catholic News Service. In Peru, where former President Alberto Fujimori is on trial in connection with two high-profile cases of killings by a death squad that occurred while he was in office, the Pro Human Rights Association, known by its Spanish acronym APRODEH, has suffered harassment and the theft of computers and documents.
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Pope's message for World Peace Day 2009 to focus on combating poverty
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's message for World Peace Day 2009 will focus on the connection between poverty and a lack of peace in the world, the Vatican said. Poverty and malnutrition are signs that too many people have ignored the obligation to promote the common good, a commitment that is essential for promoting peace, said the Vatican's July 1 statement. World Peace Day is celebrated Jan. 1 each year. The theme for the celebration is announced in July to allow time for local preparations. A papal message on the theme usually is released in early December. The 2009 theme, "Combating Poverty, Building Peace," is meant "to underline the need for an urgent response by the human family to the serious question of poverty, understood as a material problem, but even more as a moral and spiritual problem," the Vatican statement said. "The scandal of poverty demonstrates the inadequacy of current systems of human coexistence for promoting the realization of the common good," the statement said.
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European bishops discuss secularization, church's role in Europe
COVADONGA, Spain (CNS) -- Disappointed with the emptiness of secular values and materialism, European youths are expressing openness to religion while rediscovering the goodness of God, said the secretary-general of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences. Even as the trend evolves, however, the "spread of aggressive humanist atheism" remains highly visible in the media and other public venues, Msgr. Aldo Giordano said in a July 1 statement released after the close of the council's annual five-day meeting in Covadonga. Msgr. Giordano also acknowledged the waning influence of Christian values in Europe. "It is clear that we are no longer a Christian society, but there is a great opportunity to proclaim the Christian vision of reality," he said. The June 26-30 meeting, which included representatives from 35 bishops' conferences, focused on the secularization of Europe, the evangelical and pastoral role of the church and the activity of the participating conferences, according to a statement from the Spanish bishops' conference.
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Argentine bishop denounces 'scandalous' inequality in Argentina
SALTA, Argentina (CNS) -- Argentine Bishop Fernando Bargallo of Moreno has denounced what he called the "scandalous" inequality that exists in Argentina. Bishop Bargallo, head of the local Catholic aid agency Caritas Argentina, told Catholic News Service that although he recognizes the benefits economic growth has brought to Argentina he questioned whether it is fair that "5 percent of the country controls 25 percent of the wealth" while 25 percent "of the population lives below the poverty line." Bishop Bargallo said in late June that the result of increasing inequality is the existence of two Argentinas: "one an affluent nation that wields economic power" and the other "a marginalized people who live on the outskirts of cities and in rural towns." Jorge Colina, chief researcher at the Buenos Aires-based think tank IDESA, said the liberalization of the economy by lowering import taxes, cutting government spending and denationalizing industries in the 1980s and 1990s "left almost half the workforce behind."
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Catholics denounce move to curb doctors' objections to abortions
LONDON (CNS) -- Catholic officials have denounced proposals made by the British Medical Association that would strip them of their right to refuse to arrange abortions. "The right of conscience is a fundamental human right. ... The doctor's right to act according to his conscience remains firmly embedded both in medical practice and in the law," said Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, in a July 1 statement to Catholic News Service. Archbishop Smith is head of the Department of Christian Responsibility and Citizenship of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Under the proposals, doctors would no longer be able to conscientiously object to authorizing abortions but will be compelled to send any woman requesting the procedure directly to an agency or a physician offering the procedure. It is expected that the move will be discussed by the association's policymaking body July 10 at its annual general meeting.
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PEOPLE
Pope's summer schedule includes rest at villa, travel to Australia
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catching a glimpse of Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican this summer will be more difficult than ever. After his July 2 weekly general audience, the pope was scheduled to move out to the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, and remain there until he leaves for his July 12-21 trip to Australia for World Youth Day. Publishing the pope's summer schedule July 1, the Vatican said the pope would not hold his Wednesday general audiences July 9-Aug. 6. However, on July 6 and July 27 he will recite the Angelus at midday with guests gathered in the courtyard of the Castel Gandolfo villa. On Aug. 3 and Aug. 10, the pope will recite the Angelus with the public in front of the cathedral in Bressanone in the northern Italian Alps. The pope will spend his customary mountain vacation at the Bressanone seminary July 28-Aug. 11. Although it will be his first visit to Bressanone as pope, he passed the summers there 10 times as a cardinal between 1977 and 2004.
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Chicago's Polish community welcomes Polish cardinal with 'great joy'
CHICAGO (CNS) -- Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow found his way into the hearts of Polish Chicagoans during a June 27-29 weekend visit. "Chicago welcomed me with great joy as one of its own," Cardinal Dziwisz said at a banquet for Bishop Abramowicz Seminary just before his departure for Poland June 29. "I was welcomed with words, with music and, most importantly, with open hearts." Cardinal Dziwisz, 69, is perhaps best known as the personal secretary to Pope John Paul II. He served the late pontiff for 12 years when then-Archbishop Karol Wojtyla was head of the Krakow Archdiocese, and then for all 27 years of his papacy. Pope Benedict XVI appointed then-Archbishop Dziwisz to Krakow two months after Pope John Paul died in 2005; he became a cardinal in March 2006. Cardinal Dziwisz's visit, following a pilgrimage to the June 15-22 International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City, underscored the close ties that exist between the Polish people in Chicago and Poland.
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Salesian priest murdered in his residence in Nepal
ROME (CNS) -- A Catholic priest was shot dead by armed men who broke into the priest's residence in Nepal. Salesian Father Johnson Moyalan, from Kerala, India, had been living in Nepal for more than 10 years before he was killed July 1. The 60-year-old priest was the principal of a Don Bosco school in Sirsiya, in eastern Nepal. A group of four or five armed men forced their way into the mission and locked up one of the two priests residing there while they assaulted and shot Father Moyalan, said Salesian Father George Kalangara in an interview with the Asian church news agency UCA News. Father Kalangara told UCA News by telephone from a Salesian center in Dharan, Nepal, that it was not clear what happened next but that there was an explosion that caused extensive damage to the building. According to an Indian police report sent to the Salesian Generalate in Rome, the armed men detonated small bombs at the residence.
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Pastor, labor advocate, seafarer, biker: Texas priest does it all
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father Sinclair Oubre, like many priests, has multiple responsibilities. They include being pastor of a parish and administrator of a mission in the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas; running the Apostleship of the Sea office for the diocese and serving on the apostleship's national board; being Web site administrator of the Catholic Labor Network and sponsoring meetings in Washington in conjunction with the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering; and being on the board of directors of Interfaith Worker Justice. Now, what could a man like that do that would combine all of those interests and avocations? Would you believe working one month every year as a seafarer -- using his accumulated vacation time from priestly ministry to do so? Father Oubre, 50, first started working on boats as a seminary student during the summer to help pay for tuition. Now he does it to keep active his membership in the International Seafarers' Union, and as a change of pace from parish life. "When my watch (on the ship) is over with, I'm finished," said the priest, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Port Arthur, Texas. "There's nobody coming to the door asking for the key to the hall."
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Retired Grand Forks pastor offers message of hope to flood victims
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Eleven years ago, Grand Forks, N.D., faced a disastrous flood that submerged the town and surrounding area. Today, the retired pastor of St. Michael's Catholic Church in Grand Forks still remembers the devastation and offers words of support and hope to the victims recovering from this year's flooding in the Midwest, the worst in 15 years. In a June 26 phone interview with Catholic News Service, Father William Sherman offered his best advice to those living through the aftermath of flooding along the Cedar, Iowa and Mississippi rivers. "Be patient," he said. "There's no quick fix in a deal like this." When the dykes broke in 1997, the entire town of Grand Forks was evacuated, he said. Most of the displaced were living nearby at Grand Forks Air Force Base, but he and some other priests stayed at St. Stephen's Catholic Parish in Larimore, N.D., he said. Although he was living at St. Stephen's, he would go over to the base every day to help "take care of people," said Father Sherman.
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Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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