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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Aug-22-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Archbishop O'Brien testifies on moral costs of death penalty
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CNS) -- While others debated the financial costs of maintaining the death penalty in Maryland, Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien highlighted moral concerns during an Aug. 19 appearance before the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment in Annapolis. Testifying in the state capital for the first time since his Oct. 1, 2007, installation as head of the Baltimore Archdiocese, Archbishop O'Brien said Catholic opposition to the death penalty is consistent with the church's respect for the sanctity of human life. He quoted from Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical, "The Gospel of Life," which calls for the defense of life from conception to natural death. "Woven into the fabric of the (pope's) exhortation was an appeal to end capital punishment -- to stand against the killing of even those who have committed murder and, in so doing, have affronted God's dominion and denied their own and their victims' God-given humanity," said Archbishop O'Brien, who was accompanied by Bishop Eugene Sutton of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and Bishop John Schol of the United Methodist Church of Maryland.
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Rhode Island bishop, priests work to stop immigration raids in state
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, R.I., and 15 Catholic pastors have called on a federal immigration official to stop massive immigration raids in Rhode Island for the time being and to allow agents who disagree with such raids on moral grounds to step aside as conscientious objectors. In an Aug. 19 letter to Stephen Farquharson, interim director of the Boston office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the group urged that the moratorium stay in place until the country implements "a comprehensive and just reform of our immigration laws." "We need a timeout," Bishop Tobin told Catholic News Service Aug. 21. "We need a cooling-off phase. We need a moratorium until we can get this broken system repaired." ICE spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said agents have taken an oath to uphold the law. "We will continue to enforce the law and I would stress we do that in a very professional way with an acute awareness of the impact that enforcement has on the individuals we encounter," she told CNS in a phone interview.
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Library of Congress offers access to 800 years of biblical evolution
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As 11-year-old Phoenix resident Savannah Wix entered the Great Hall of the Library of Congress during an early August trip to Washington, her attention was immediately drawn to a featured interactive contraption that allows patrons to closely examine the Giant Bible of Mainz and the Gutenberg Bible. In her first trip to the U.S. capital, the golden-haired Methodist said she wouldn't normally have made a beeline for the famous Bible exhibit, but the computerized display intrigued her and once at the site she wanted to know more about these giant books filled with Scriptures. "You can read it and you can flip through the pages just by touching the screen," the sprightly youngster squealed, as she demonstrated how to use the interactive exhibit. "Look, this one was handwritten by monks. It's so cool." This is the kind of excitement library officials were hoping to generate in the spring of 2008 when they set up the hi-tech apparatus next to the two famous centuries-old bibles, which are glass-encased and out of the reach of human touch, said Erin Allen, a staff member in the Public Affairs Office of the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world.
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Biblical scholar traces historical events that shaped Catholic Bible
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When Catholics think of the Bible, they often imagine a leather-bound book. However, the Catholic version of the Bible is actually a library of books specifically chosen to reflect Catholic teaching, a collection that began to take shape between A.D. 50 and 400. "In 393, at the Council of Hippo, there is a list containing 46 Old Testament and 27 New Testament works that constitute the canon adopted by the Catholic tradition," said Benedictine Father Dale Launderville, a professor of theology at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. "There was never an official decree on the books in the canon until (the Council of) Trent in 1546." That point is significant because the church teaches that the Holy Spirit worked through the hierarchy and the faithful to sort out which books proved vital to the faith of the communities, Father Launderville said in an interview with Catholic News Service. The books stood the test of time and came to be regarded as fundamental tools in identifying Catholics as a faith community, he said.
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Faith and politicians: Less important to voters but more visible?
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Although millions of people tuned in Aug. 16 to watch Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama talk about how their religious faith affects their political views, a new public opinion poll found that American voters increasingly are uncomfortable when politicians talk about their religion. Could the two apparently contradictory snapshots mean that religion-based rhetoric is not going to be as polarizing a factor in this year's election as it has been in the past? At the Saddleback Forum held at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., the Rev. Rick Warren, founding pastor and author of the best-selling "The Purpose-Driven Life," questioned McCain, R-Ariz., and Obama, D-Ill., separately for an hour each in a nationally broadcast session held in the sanctuary of his 20,000-member evangelical church. Meanwhile, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said in a report released Aug. 21 that a majority of voters -- 52 percent -- now say churches should keep out of politics. That's a steady increase since 1996, when 43 percent agreed with the statement. As recently as 2004, only 44 percent expressed that opinion. The most dramatic shift in favor of churches staying out of politics came from conservatives and evangelicals.
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WORLD
Vatican newspaper: U.S. missile shield could threaten disarmament
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican newspaper said the U.S. plan to install a missile shield in Eastern Europe could seriously threaten U.S.-Russian relations and the future of global disarmament. Russia has strongly objected to the plan, saying placement of the missile shield would endanger its own security. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran a front-page story about the dispute under the headline: "Multilateralism and disarmament at risk." The article appeared Aug. 21, the day after the United States and Poland signed an agreement to place 10 interceptor missiles in Polish territory. "The signing of the missile shield agreement ... has produced a dynamic that seems able to threaten multilateralism and the process of international disarmament," the newspaper said. In July, the Czech Republic agreed to station a U.S. radar system, another part of the missile shield, on its territory. The United States has said the shield is not aimed at Russia but at potential rogue states such as Iran.
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Ecuadorean government accuses church of participating in politics
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) -- Tension between Ecuador's leftist government and Catholic officials has escalated as the government accused the country's bishops of illegally participating in politics. "What we have done in this case is express our positions," Archbishop Antonio Arregui Yarza of Guayaquil, president of the Ecuadorean Catholic bishops' conference, told Catholic News Service Aug. 20. Under the country's proposed constitution, "life is not protected from conception. (By speaking out), the clergy is doing nothing more than obeying the Fifth Commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill," said Archbishop Arregui. A private organization recently has filed a lawsuit against the archbishop for allegedly violating the 1937 modus vivendi agreement between Ecuador and the Vatican; the agreement bars the church from participating in politics. A regional prosecutor has ordered the archbishop to testify in the case. The bishops have said their comments did not violate the modus vivendi because an additional 1937 agreement guaranteed the church's right to express freely Catholic dogma and morality.
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Work remains in struggle to repair human rights violations in Peru
LIMA, Peru (CNS) -- While Peru has begun making reparations to the victims of two decades of political violence, there is still "much work to be done and a long road ahead," said Salomon Lerner Febres, who headed the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In August 2003, Lerner submitted to the government the 17-volume report on the commission's two-year investigation into murders, torture, forced disappearances and other human rights violations committed by two guerrilla groups -- the Maoist Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement -- and Peruvian security forces between 1980 and 2000. "Five years is not much time," but it is sufficient to see trends in the government's response, said Lerner, the former president of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru who now heads the school's Institute of Democracy and Human Rights. "Progress has been made in some areas, but some things are being overlooked, and there is a lack of decisive political action to address issues that lie at the root of the violence." The commission recommended reparations to individuals and communities who suffered during the years of political violence that left more than 60,000 people dead.
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Kenyan cardinal says church will resist moves to legalize abortion
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- A Kenyan cardinal has said the Catholic Church will resist any move to legalize abortion in the country. Some legislation "in the guise of health (care)" aims to push "the government to legalize abortion in the country," Cardinal John Njue of Nairobi told Catholic News Service Aug. 21. Cardinal Njue, president of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, said the church will stand firm on its pro-life position. At the Aug. 9 installation ceremony for Bishop Anthony Muheria of Kitui, the cardinal said, "And if ... the Parliament attempts to (do) this -- pass bills out there to have this country legalize abortion -- they will have the heavy protestation of the church." Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, a Catholic, said at the installation that "any effort to destroy the family rather than strengthening it, as the church is doing, should be highly opposed."
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Counselors, refugees learn from each other at Caritas camp in Lebanon
KFARDEBIAN, Lebanon (CNS) -- For Iraqi and Palestinian refugee children, attending a summer camp in the mountains seems like a world away from the misery of their daily lives in Lebanon's slums. "They are so poor. They don't have any place to play or to meet their friends. They don't have friends anyway," said Rita Abi Nader, a social worker with the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center who regularly visits Iraqi refugees in their homes. The outdoors, camaraderie and sharing sessions focusing on nonviolence give the campers a break from the conditions in which they live. "Here, they are away from the family problems. They talk easily about what they feel," Abi Nader explained. "There is no money, no work, no way for refugees to live easily in Lebanon. And no hope for the future," Abi Nader said. "So there is a lot of tension in the families." Most of the estimated 50,000 Iraqis in Lebanon are there illegally, unable to receive work permits or access to health services and schools. Approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon do not have residency status.
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PEOPLE
At ceremony honoring his brother, pope adds his own praise
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said he is living his old age with serenity thanks to the example and companionship of his older brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger. "From the beginning of my life, my brother was always not just a companion, but also a trustworthy guide," the 81-year-old pope said Aug. 21 as his 84-year-old brother was proclaimed an honorary citizen of Castel Gandolfo. "We have arrived at the last stage of our lives, old age," the pope said. "The days left to live progressively decrease, but in this stage as well my brother helps me to accept with serenity, humility and courage the weight of each day. I thank him," Pope Benedict said. At a brief evening ceremony in the courtyard of the papal summer villa in the town south of Rome, Mayor Maurizio Colacchi said Msgr. Ratzinger's presence in Castel Gandolfo "alongside your beloved brother during the summer season fills us with tenderness and, at the same time, pride." Msgr. Ratzinger lives in retirement in Regensburg, Germany, but spends summers with Pope Benedict both at Castel Gandolfo and in the northern Italian Alps.
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Catholic university rescinds appointment of feminist theologian
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The University of San Diego is standing by its decision to revoke the appointment of a nationally known Catholic feminist theologian to its faculty even though a petition blasting the Catholic university's action has been delivered to the school. University officials said there was a procedural error in offering the theologian, Rosemary Radford Ruether, the Msgr. John R. Portman chair in Roman Catholic theology for the fall 2009 semester and said her seat on the board of directors of an organization that supports legal abortion makes her an inappropriate choice for the position. The mid-July withdrawal of the invitation has set off a national debate over academic freedom versus church doctrine at Catholic institutions of higher education. Ruether told Catholic News Service Aug. 21 she fears this decision will hinder the discussion of controversial issues at Catholic universities. "It's an unfortunate situation," said Pamela Gray Payton, assistant vice president for public affairs at the university. "By no means are we demeaning Dr. Ruether's very respected career in theology, but in the case of this chair, she was not an appropriate selection. It should not have come to this."
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Author-screenwriter struck by faith of Mexican Little League champs
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If you were to buy a copy of the new book "The Perfect Game," you'd see a photograph of the 1957 Little League team from Monterrey, Mexico -- the first non-American Little League World Series champions -- standing in a church in Mexico City, in uniform, praying to Our Lady of Guadalupe. The faith of these 14 11- and 12-year-olds was that strong, said William O. Winokur, author of "The Perfect Game," a novelized treatment of the Monterrey team's odyssey in the Little League tournament through a country none had ever visited before. Winokur also wrote the screenplay for a movie of the same name scheduled for release in April 2009 -- when the new baseball season starts. "One of the things I tried to do was pay homage and respect to that faith," Winokur said in an Aug. 18 telephone interview with Catholic News Service from Fire Island, N.Y., where he was vacationing with his family. "Not to overdo it, but their faith was so important to those kids and that community."
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