|
|
|
|
News Briefs
|
NEWS BRIEFS Aug-20-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Catholic law-school students get experience with death penalty cases
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Summer is usually a chance to get a break from the books, but for some students at the University of San Francisco's law school, this summer was an opportunity to put their book learning into practice. The students participated in the Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project run by the law school at the Jesuit-run university. The project, founded in 2001, places students with death penalty projects in Louisiana and Mississippi. Professor Steven Shatz started the program after hearing about projects being set up to handle death penalty cases in Louisiana and Mississippi. Shatz described a desire "to do more than write about (the death penalty). I was too academic. I wanted to try to make a contribution, involve students to reform or abolish the death penalty." During the first two years of the program, Shatz would accompany the students and work alongside them for part of the program. Now that the program has developed, Shatz spends the first week in the region with the students. For many of the students participating in the program, not only was this their first extended stay in the Deep South, but also their first chance to work with inmates on death row.
- - -
Diocese reaches tentative $10 million settlement in 47 abuse cases
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CNS) -- The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has reached a tentative settlement agreement that would pay $10 million to 47 victims of sexual abuse by 12 clergy and former clergy, including retired Bishop Joseph H. Hart of Cheyenne, Wyo. In a letter e-mailed to priests of the diocese late Aug. 19, Bishop Robert W. Finn said he still had to consult with the diocesan board of consultors and finance council before giving final approval to the plan, which would divide the settlement funds among the 47 through a binding arbitration process. "These incidents have been painful for the victims and their families, for priests not involved in these incidents who have served faithfully, and for the whole church," Bishop Finn said in the letter. "Based on advice from legal counsel and on prayerful reflection over this most difficult matter, I believe that this settlement, while costly, is a responsible resolution for these individuals and their families and in the best interest of the diocese," he added.
- - -
Historian collects stories of life in immediate aftermath of Katrina
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- So what really happened in New Orleans in the twilight-zone days immediately following Hurricane Katrina? That's one of the questions to which Mark Cave, an oral historian with the Historic New Orleans Collection, has been seeking answers in his personal interviews over the last three years with 500 police officers, firefighters, National Guard troops and emergency medical personnel who were on the ground after the storm. Since any trial lawyer knows that two people viewing the same event can come up with wildly differing accounts of what they saw and experienced, Cave said the value of conducting hundreds of interviews with people on the scene is that the "truth" rests in the preponderance of evidence. In an interview with the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese, Cave said conducting hundreds of interviews allows common stories and facts to emerge from the jumble of eyewitness accounts, and the commonly shared memories can be relied on as the best version of the truth. Cave, his Historic New Orleans Collection colleague Alfred Lemmon and New Orleans archdiocesan archivist Emilie (Lee) Leumas presented their findings in July in Malaysia to the 16th Congress of the International Council on Archives.
- - -
Catholics encouraged to pray novena in weeks leading up to election
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops are encouraging Catholics to pray a novena for life, justice and peace before the November election. An Aug. 19 news release said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has made available for download from the Internet a podcast of a "Novena for Faithful Citizenship" at www.faithfulcitizenship.org/resources/podcasts. It will be available until the Nov. 4 election. The special novena is part of "the bishops' campaign to help Catholics develop well-formed consciences for addressing political and social questions," said Joan Rosenhauer, associate director of the USCCB's Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development. The bishops adopted the document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility" in November 2007. The "Novena for Faithful Citizenship" runs for nine days and can be used consecutively, one day each week, for nine days prior to the election, or "in any way that works best for a community or individual," said Rosenhauer.
- - -
WORLD
Catholic officials pray for peaceful transition in Pakistan
KARACHI, Pakistan (CNS) -- Catholic leaders have praised Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's recently resigned president, for supporting religious minorities and expressed hope for positive change. Father Pascal Robert, spokesman for the Karachi Archdiocese, told the Asian church news agency UCA News that the Catholic Church is praying for a peaceful transition to full democracy. "We express solidarity with political leaders and hope they will continue their struggle for democracy and protection of human rights," he said. Only "secular and humanistic attitudes" can help develop Pakistan, he said. More than 95 percent of Pakistan's 160 million people are Muslims, while Christians account for less than 1 percent of the population. Before resigning Aug. 18, Musharraf was Pakistan's uncontested ruler since he dismissed the democratically elected government in a bloodless military coup in 1999. He stepped down after the ruling coalition government threatened to impeach him for subverting Pakistan's Constitution.
- - -
English bishop criticizes structure of bishops' conference
LONDON (CNS) -- An English bishop has criticized the structure of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales for hampering the effective proclamation of the Gospel. Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster said his fellow bishops wrongly delegate their responsibilities to committees of laypeople. He said the agencies and departments of the bishops' conference were acting independently of the bishops and did not always fully uphold church teaching in their dealings with secular authorities. The structure of the conference was preventing bishops from speaking individually on matters of importance to the church and society, Bishop O'Donoghue said in a document called "Fit for Mission? Church," which was to be released Aug. 27. He added that the failure of bishops to reach agreement on certain issues often had resulted in inadequate statements or interventions instead of the witness that was "so urgently needed."
- - -
God calls all people to holiness, to be saints, says pope
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- All people are called to holiness, and having extraordinary gifts does not make someone a greater saint than someone else, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Precisely the 'normal' saints are the kind of saints God wants," the pope said Aug. 20, briefly setting aside the prepared text at his weekly general audience. "Holiness is not a luxury. It is not the privilege of a few, something impossible for a normal person," the pope told an estimated 4,000 people gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, and in the square outside. Holiness, he said, "is the common destiny of all people called to be children of God; it is the universal vocation of all the baptized." Pope Benedict told the crowd that the summer holidays are a perfect time to pick up a biography or the writings of a saint, but that the church's calendar also gives Catholics a daily opportunity to contemplate a saint.
- - -
Philippine bishops call for calm, study of stalled agreement
ILIGAN, Philippines (CNS) -- In an effort to battle fear and rumors, Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines called for calm and the study of a stalled agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In reflections sent to the Asian church news agency UCA News Aug. 19, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato expressed sadness that "violence is breaking out again in southern Philippines, when it could be prevented." He urged people to study the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, the stalled agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and said the "great tragedy for the country" is that it "is being rejected for reasons that can be resolved or may not even be" in the agreement. Rejecting it totally on the basis of what it fails to say could generate "a tragedy of incalculable proportion" and sound a possible "death knell to lasting peace," he said.
- - -
PEOPLE
Bishop expects 200,000 pilgrims to attend papal Mass at Lourdes
LOURDES, France (CNS) -- At least 200,000 pilgrims are expected to attend the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI during his September visit to the Sanctuaries of Our Lady of Lourdes, said the local bishop. Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and Lourdes said: "We will be outside the holiday period, so there'll probably be fewer pilgrims from the central Paris area. We are expecting 200,000 people for the main Mass, but one is always in for surprises when popes come to France." He added that each day of the papal visit Sept. 13-15 will be different -- "at first international, then for young people, and then for the sick." The bishop told France's Le Monde daily Aug. 17 that the visit would be "totally different" from the 2004 pilgrimage to Lourdes by Pope John Paul II, who was "already very sick." Public access to Lourdes would be less restricted for those wishing to see the pontiff, he said. "This visit will help rediscover the original intuition of Lourdes: closeness to the excluded and solidarity within the Christian family," he said.
- - -
Cleveland nun to close one night of Democratic convention with prayer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- St. Joseph Sister Catherine Pinkerton of Cleveland is not usually one to seek the spotlight, but she will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention Aug. 27 when she gives the benediction to close the party's third day of business. Sister Catherine, 86, a lobbyist for Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby, will close the convention on the night that Sen. Barack Obama is expected to formally become the party's nominee for president. The invitation to lead the prayer came as a surprise to the veteran lobbyist, who has become a well-known figure on Capitol Hill during her 24 years with Network. She said she accepted only after informing her congregation's leadership of the invitation. "I didn't know if I wanted to do that or not," she told Catholic News Service Aug. 20. "I thought, 'What have I got to lose?' It's my right to do that as an American citizen." Regina Sullivan, the director of communications for the Congregation of St. Joseph, said the congregation has told callers that Sister Catherine is taking the stage as an individual, not as a representative of the order.
- - -
'Green priest' makes stewardship of earth part of ministry
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (CNS) -- He has been dubbed the "green priest" by some who have seen Father Tom Lisowski tooling around the city streets on his electric bike. "Another person shouted out, 'Hey, Father Easy Rider!' when I was out on the street," said Father Lisowski, coordinator for the Office of Lay Ministry for the Diocese of Springfield and a parochial vicar at St. Michael's Cathedral Parish in Springfield. Father Lisowski purchased his electric XB-500 bicycle in May to transport him from his home to work at the Bishop Maguire Center, which houses most of the diocesan offices. It now costs him about 5 to 8 cents a day to get to and from work instead of about $5 for gas. His journey to work is about "five miles as the crow flies," he told The Catholic Observer, the diocesan newspaper. "However, with stops and idling and traffic, the gas usage was greater." He said his e-bike can go up to about 25 miles per hour. "I can travel about 20 miles between charges," he explained. "And it has zero emissions," he said with a proud smile.
END
Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
|
|
|
|
