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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Aug-18-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Tough economy calls for renewed solidarity, bishop says for Labor Day
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Invoking the spirit of the late labor priest Msgr. George Higgins, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development said Americans must "move beyond hand-wringing and negative assessments" of tough economic times to a renewed commitment to Catholic principles of subsidiarity and global solidarity. In a statement released Aug. 18 for Labor Day, observed Sept. 1 this year, Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., praised Msgr. Higgins for his "extraordinary ability to measure the large economic issues by their impact on the average working man and woman." Msgr. Higgins, who died in 2002, wrote the annual Labor Day statement on behalf of the U.S. bishops for many decades. "Monsignor would have been harsh in his judgment about the greed and irresponsibility that led to the mortgage foreclosure crisis," Bishop Murphy wrote. "He would have had some caustic comments on the price of gas for the working person and its impact on family life." But ultimately Msgr. Higgins would have reasserted "his faith in a nation and a people whose creative energies and productive capacities should and would move us to a healthier economic situation," the bishop said.
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Presidential candidates talk about their faith at Saddleback Church
LAKE FOREST, Calif. (CNS) -- The presumptive presidential nominees of the nation's two major political parties Aug. 16 tried to define themselves in religious terms on topics ranging from their personal moral failings to how to deal with climate change during a televised forum from Saddleback Church in Lake Forest. The Rev. Rick Warren, author of the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," questioned Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., separately for an hour each in a nationally broadcast session held in the sanctuary of the 20,000-member evangelical church Warren founded. He posed nearly identical questions to each senator, starting with queries about whose advice they value, what their personal moral failings have been and how the nation has failed morally. With McCain offstage in a room where he couldn't hear the interview, Obama spoke first, saying he thought "America's greatest moral failure in my lifetime" has been not following Jesus' call in Matthew of "whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me." McCain's answer to the same question was similar, though not framed in Scripture. "Perhaps we have not devoted ourselves to causes greater than our self-interest, although we've been the best at it (self-interest) of anybody in the world," he said.
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Good Shepherd Sisters' uniform project aids women in developing world
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- As Good Shepherd Sister Patricia Marie Thomas sees it, Catholic school uniforms should serve a dual purpose: outfitting students and providing a trade for poor women in different parts of the world. Sister Patricia Marie would love to see schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis buy fair-trade uniforms made by women in Mexico and Thailand. The uniforms can be purchased through the Fair Trade School Uniform Project, an offshoot of the Good Shepherd Sisters' Handcrafting Justice, a fair-trade partnership with women in developing countries. "If (the women) can get with a project like (school uniforms) or something similar, and it can be ongoing, that is what gives them new life and helps them in many ways," Sister Patricia Marie told The Catholic Spirit, archdiocesan newspaper of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Several schools on the East Coast, one in Oregon and one school-uniform vendor in New Jersey currently buy the handmade uniforms from the Good Shepherd Sisters' New York office, which coordinates all the fair-trade items for sale on the sisters' Web site, www.handcraftingjustice.org, and from Good Shepherd communities nationwide.
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Judge calls school's English-only policy problematic, but not illegal
WICHITA, Kan. (CNS) -- A Kansas judge ruled Aug. 15 in favor of a Wichita Catholic school over its English-only policy, but from the bench scolded the school and the parents who sued, saying both could have handled the situation better. U.S. District Court Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled that St. Anne Catholic School did not create a hostile educational environment for the three Hispanic students who sued the parish school and the Diocese of Wichita, asking that the policy be banned. Marten said the school's policy had not created a hostile learning environment because it was not implemented for a long enough period or stringently enforced, The Associated Press reported. But he said it was a sad day for all involved and scolded the school and the parents for bringing into federal court a problem that could have been solved locally. The school adopted a policy in September 2007 requiring that only English be spoken during school hours, including lunch breaks and recess. A diocesan press release said the policy was adopted after problems arose at the school "when the students, whose first or primary language is English, began speaking in Spanish to make derogatory comments about teachers, school administrators and fellow students, and to separate themselves from other students."
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WORLD
Pope urges church to help overcome racism in modern society
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI warned that racism is alive in modern society, and he urged the church to help overcome all forms of racial intolerance. He said racism today is often tied to economic and social problems. Although such problems may be real, they can never justify racial discrimination, he said Aug. 17. While the pontiff did not mention specific countries, his words had an immediate echo in Italy, where a series of government actions against illegal immigrants have prompted strong debate inside and outside the church. The pope, addressing pilgrims at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome, began his remarks by quoting the prophet Isaiah about the "foreigners" who will be included in the Lord's universal house of prayer. Likewise, the pope said, the church today is made up of people of every race and culture, and part of its mission is to help forge bonds of communion between races.
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Victims in Georgian violence need humanitarian corridors, says pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged the international community to establish humanitarian corridors in Georgia so that the dead can be buried, the wounded can receive medical help and refugees can return home. The pope, speaking at a noon blessing Aug. 17, said he was continuing to follow "with attention and worry" the events in Georgia, where a cease-fire agreement was reached the day before. A Georgian attack on the breakaway province of South Ossetia Aug. 7 followed by a Russian invasion of Georgia left an unknown number of dead, including civilians, and prompted an estimated 60,000 people to flee their homes. The pope said the situation of the refugees, in particular women and children who lack basic necessities, requires a generous response by the international community. The pope said it was important that ethnic minorities in the region be protected and their fundamental rights respected.
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Catholic leaders say missionary activity must change, expand
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- Catholic leaders at an international mission conference for the Americas said the church must become a missionary community with a new mentality. The message for conference participants was that "we have to get involved if we're going to be true to the Gospel of Christ and make a difference in the world in which we're living," Bishop Patrick J. Zurek of Amarillo, Texas, told Catholic News Service. The Third American Missionary Congress drew more than 2,000 laypeople, bishops, priests and religious to Quito, Ecuador, Aug. 12-17 to discuss challenges for mission, from family life and fundamentalism to ecology and science. Several participants talked to CNS by telephone during and after the conference. The closing Mass marked the official launch of the "great continental mission" that bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean announced in May 2007 during their fifth general conference in Aparecida, Brazil.
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Zimbabwe's bishops urge negotiators not to rush into unity government
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- Zimbabwe's bishops have urged those negotiating for an end to the country's political crisis not to rush into setting up a national unity government. A transitional arrangement for about 18 months should be agreed on while a new constitution is put into place that will "be the basis for fresh elections that are free and fair," the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference said in a statement released Aug. 15. "The deep divisions and wounds that people have suffered over the years make it imperative that the process of transforming the system of political governance should not be rushed" and made superficial, they said. The meetings between President Robert Mugabe's government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to discuss possibilities for a power-sharing government are "the best thing that has happened to this country for years," the bishops said. They expressed "hope that the leaders are genuine" when they say they will put an end to polarization and violence.
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PEOPLE
Catholic WWII veteran who helped liberate Buchenwald dies at age 83
OXFORD, Iowa (CNS) -- As a 19-year-old, James Hoyt was among the first four U.S. soldiers to help liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in 1945. The experience seared haunting memories in his mind and for decades it left him unable to speak about what he saw. On Aug. 14, the 83-year-old member of St. Mary Parish in Oxford was laid to rest, described as an American hero and the subject of national headlines. He died Aug. 11. The Associated Press reported that he died in his sleep and that the cause of his death was not immediately known. "Just before the family of Jim Hoyt bid their last goodbyes and the casket was closed, the choir sang a patriotic song, as is fitting for Jim, but also a song of peace," Father Ed Dunn, pastor, said in his homily at the funeral Mass. The priest said, "The suffering of the soldiers and civilians in Iraq during these past five years pained him deeply. Somewhere I ran across one of Jim's sayings to the effect that the only ones who love war are those who have not been in it. He was a man of peace."
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Pope urges Christian drivers to examine consciences
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI, lamenting the high number of traffic accidents over the summer holiday period, called on Christians to make "a personal examination of conscience" about the way they drive. Driving is both a moral and civil responsibility, the pope said Aug. 17. Most accidents that cause fatalities or serious injuries can be avoided, he said. "There needs to be a greater sense of responsibility, above all on the part of drivers, because the accidents are often caused by excessive speed and imprudent behavior," he said. The pope's comments came as Europeans took to the roads in record numbers for the August holidays, prompting an annual spike in traffic-related deaths. "We shouldn't grow accustomed to this sad reality," the pope said. "As church, we feel directly called upon to respond on an ethical level: Christians should first of all make a personal examination of conscience about their own driving," he said.
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Priest has spent his career building bridges among cultures, groups
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Growing up in a family where "difference was normative" proved to be excellent preparation for Msgr. Robert Stern's priestly career of building bridges between and among different cultural groups. Msgr. Stern, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, is the secretary-general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association and the president of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine. He celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination in May. Msgr. Stern's Irish Catholic mother and his German Jewish father were married in a rectory in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. He was raised Catholic and attended public and private schools in and near New York. He got his first whiff of anti-Catholic bias when he went to Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., to major in nuclear physics. He said, "There was a condescension about the church and Catholicism, and a class thing, too." Msgr. Stern responded by "digging in more. It made me look more and more at my faith and my religion." And while he had never considered a vocation to the priesthood, several college experiences pointed him in that direction. "I wasn't particularly attracted to being a priest, but there was the idea of being available for the work of God," he said in an interview with Catholic News Service at his office in New York.
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Pope surprised by death of bishop who hosted his mountain vacation
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said he was surprised by the Aug. 16 death of Bishop Wilhelm Egger of Bolzano-Bressanone, who hosted the pope's mountain vacation July 28-Aug. 11. "I left him, apparently in good health, just a few days ago," the pope said Aug. 17. "Nothing would have made one think of such a rapid passing." After reciting the Angelus with visitors gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, the pope offered his condolences to the bishop's family and to the diocese the 68-year-old headed. Bishop Egger, who died of a heart attack, was "appreciated and loved for his commitment and dedication," the pope said. Born in Innsbruck, Austria, he entered the Capuchin order and was ordained to the priesthood in 1965. He was named bishop of Bolzano-Bressanone in 1986.
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Nuns find priest's mutilated body on deserted road in southern India
HYDERABAD, India (CNS) -- The mutilated body of a Catholic priest was found on a deserted road in southern India's Andhra Pradesh state. The body of Father Thomas Pandipally, 37, a Carmelite of Mary Immaculate priest, was found Aug. 17 near Yellareddy, a town about 200 miles northwest of the state capital Hyderabad, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. Father Pandipally was the local pastor and vice principal of a church-run high school in Yellareddy. His provincial superior, Father Alex Thannippara, told UCA News Aug. 18 that Father Pandipally was returning home Aug. 16 after celebrating Mass in Burgiga, a mission station about 15 miles from Yellareddy. He stopped at a Franciscan Clarist Congregation convent in Lingampet for dinner and left around 9:45 p.m. His body was found the next morning less than 10 miles from Lingampet. Father Thannippara said 18 stab wounds on the priest's body showed that he tried to block his attackers.
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