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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-8-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Cafardi resigns as Catholic university trustee after backing Obama
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Following his public endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, a Catholic legal scholar has resigned from the board of trustees at Ohio's Franciscan University of Steubenville. Nicholas P. Cafardi submitted his letter of resignation Oct. 6, which was accepted by the school's president, Franciscan Father Terrance Henry, on behalf of the board, according to a statement issued by the Catholic university Oct. 7. The resignation came a week after a column on Obama written by Cafardi, dean emeritus and a professor of law at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, appeared in the National Catholic Reporter. In the column he endorsed Obama in spite of his support for legal abortion and stated, "We have lost the abortion battle -- permanently." A statement issued by Franciscan University said Cafardi's exit was voluntary. He had served on the board of trustees since 2002.
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NCEA collects funds to help school, parish programs after hurricanes
WASHINGTON (CNS) --The National Catholic Educational Association in Washington has pledged to help Catholic schools and parishes as they recover from the effects of Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Gustav through a fundraising program called "Child to Child Two: A Catholic Campaign to Aid Education." The fundraising echoes a similar program conducted after Hurricane Katrina when Catholic school students collected $1 million for hurricane victims. The current campaign, like the previous one, asks students in Catholic schools and parish religious education programs to donate $1 to the recovery efforts. Information about the "Child to Child Two" campaign is available online at www.ncea.org. In the Diocese of Lake Charles, La., several Catholic churches finally rebuilt from Hurricane Katrina were severely damaged. In the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, Catholic schools opened Sept. 25 after weeks of cleaning up and drying out classrooms and common areas. In the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Galveston Catholic School, projected to be without power for another three to four months, is currently closed. Donations will be used to purchase supplies or support other educational needs.
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WORLD
People need to learn about Jesus with their hearts, says pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People need to learn about Jesus not as a historical figure but as "our brother, the Lord who is among us today," Pope Benedict XVI said. Biographical details and a chronology of events give people a superficial idea of who someone is; "only with the heart does one finally truly know a person," the pope said Oct. 8 at his weekly general audience. Jesus' life, teachings, his death and resurrection are important things to discover not as things of a distant past but as "a reality of the living Jesus," the pope told around 25,000 people gathered for his audience in St. Peter's Square. The pope focused on St. Paul's knowledge of "the so-called historical Jesus" given that the saint never met Jesus during his earthly ministry. He said St. Paul's understanding of Christ and his teachings came from the apostles and the early Christian community. St. Paul took this information to a new level by transposing Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God to what the kingdom meant after Jesus' death and resurrection.
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Here's the word: Catholics must know Bible to know Jesus, say bishops
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church wants people to know and love the word of God -- the Bible -- so that they will come to know and love the Word of God -- Jesus Christ. While the world Synod of Bishops is focusing on ways to educate Catholics in the importance of reading, understanding and praying with the Bible, several participants addressing the synod Oct. 6-7 insisted that people understand that for Christians the Word of God is Jesus. "When asked what 'the word of God' is, many believers respond, 'the Bible.' The response is not wrong, but it is incomplete," said Italian Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, rector of Rome's Pontifical Lateran University and president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Because the word of God is more than the Bible, he told the synod Oct. 7, Christianity is not so much a "religion of the book" as a "religion of the Word," who is Jesus.
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Pope says Christians should give priority attention to migrants
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Appealing on behalf of the world's migrants, Pope Benedict XVI said Christians should put their faith into action and give priority attention to refugees and immigrants. The pope said St. Paul -- a "missionary to migrants" -- should inspire Christians to show solidarity with the diverse world of today's migrants, including the "victims of modern forms of slavery" and human trafficking. The pope made the comments in his annual message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, which will be celebrated Jan. 18. The papal text was released at the Vatican Oct. 8. The pope's theme, "St. Paul: Migrant, Apostle of the Peoples," echoed the current jubilee year dedicated to the 2,000th anniversary of the saint's birth. Traveling far and wide, St. Paul made himself an ambassador-at-large for Christ and a "migrant by vocation," the pope said. In doing so, the saint understood the hardships of migrants and the importance of taking the Gospel to the most diverse populations, the pope said.
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Prayer, homilies, understanding emerge as early themes at Bible synod
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Learning to pray with the Scriptures, improving homilies and ensuring an accurate interpretation of Bible passages were the major themes of formal presentations, open discussion and small-group work Oct. 7-8 at the world Synod of Bishops on the Bible. Canadian Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, the synod's English-language briefing officer, said the three concerns came up repeatedly during the Oct. 7 open-mike discussion in the synod hall and in small groups Oct. 8. Pope Benedict XVI was not present for the Oct. 7 evening session, and he does not participate in the small-group discussions. Father Rosica said many synod participants asked not just for an explanation of "lectio divina" (divine reading -- a form of prayerful meditation on Scripture), but also asked someone to lead the synod in the exercise so members could experience it for themselves.
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Greed helped cause global financial crisis, say two Vatican officials
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The global financial crisis has been caused in part by greed and is likely to have grave repercussions on the world's poor, said two Vatican officials. The Vatican's representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, told refugee experts Oct. 7 that the crashing markets could result in greater displacement of people and a greater uncertainty about richer countries' ability to protect and assist them. "The spotlight of public opinion currently is placed on the crisis of financial markets ... and on the irresponsibility and greed of some managers that led to it," Archbishop Tomasi told the executive committee of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva. At a Vatican news conference Oct. 8, Cardinal Renato Martino, the president of two Vatican departments that deal with migration and social justice issues, said this crisis -- like every economic crisis -- hits the poor the hardest because they have little or no margin to absorb its effects.
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African delegates urge church to put more resources in communications
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (CNS) -- The Catholic Church needs to put more resources into communications in Africa to help it build peace on the continent, said delegates at a conference for communications professionals. While commending African bishops' conferences "for being the voice of the voiceless in the condemnation of injustice and inhumanity," the 50 African delegates urged the bishops to increase their efforts "and give concrete support to effective communication" to assist evangelization on the continent. The Sept. 29-Oct. 6 conference, held at the offices of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference, was organized by the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar and the communications organization Signis-Africa. In a statement released at the end of the conference, the delegates urged more collaboration between bishops' communications departments and other church sectors, especially justice and peace commissions.
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Vatican's U.N. nuncio argues for greater protection of human rights
UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -- Human rights are best protected through disarmament and weapons nonproliferation, argued Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's apostolic nuncio to the United Nations. "As the human person is the ultimate aim of all public policies, arms regulation, disarmament and nonproliferation must have an interdisciplinary or, more importantly, a human approach," Archbishop Migliore said in an Oct. 7 address to the U.N.'s General Assembly. Archbishop Migliore put his remarks in the context of the 60th anniversary in December of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "This event invites us to a renewed commitment to disarmament, development and peace," he said. "All states are called upon to promote disarmament and nonproliferation as key elements for an international order in which the fundamental rights and freedoms of every person can be fully realized."
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PEOPLE
Iraqi prelate optimistic Christians will be represented in elections
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNS) -- An Iraqi archbishop expressed optimism that the Iraqi parliament will vote to ensure Christians and other minorities are represented in provincial councils. "Everybody is saying it should be an issue to guarantee the rights of the minorities. The nuncio in Baghdad (Archbishop Francis Chullikatt) played a very strong role, contacting several of those responsible. I think it will work," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako of Kirkuk, in an Oct. 7 e-mail to Catholic News Service. "I think the (minorities) quota will be reinstated because the clergy and politicians have worked hard for that," Archbishop Sako said Oct. 4 in an earlier e-mail to CNS. On Sept. 24, the parliament removed Article 50, the minorities provision, from the old elections law when it created the new provincial elections law. Following protests by Iraqi Christians, the Iraqi parliament agreed Oct. 3 to consider the minority provisions in a separate bill. The new elections law -- without Article 50 -- was approved by the Iraqi Presidency Council Oct. 7. Iraqi elections must be held by Jan. 31.
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Bishop approves group seeking sainthood for Massachusetts woman
WORCESTER, Mass. (CNS) -- The bishop of Worcester has given official recognition to an association seeking the canonization of a young Massachusetts woman, Audrey Santo, who before she died in 2007 spent most of her life unable to speak or move but inspired thousands who flocked to her bedside. Unexplained phenomena that seemed to happen in her presence drew thousands of visitors over the years to her family's home, where she was cared for. Many felt she could heal others. The association's recognition by Bishop Robert J. McManus will now enable it to present its findings to the Vatican. Bishop McManus told The Catholic Free Press, Worcester's diocesan newspaper, that he had no comment about the possibility of "Little Audrey," as she is called, being named a saint. But he said he was pleased that those promoting her cause can go forward with the process. Audrey gained worldwide attention after falling into her family's pool in 1987, at age 3, and ending up in a nonmoving, nonspeaking state, surrounded by consecrated hosts, statues and pictures said to ooze blood or oil. She died April 14, 2007, at age 23.
END
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