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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Dec-3-2008
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Archbishop asks for tolerance of differing views in same-sex debate
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- San Francisco's archbishop has appealed to people on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue to be tolerant of each other, to "disagree without being disagreeable" and not presume to know "the real motives" behind people's viewpoint. "We need to stop hurling names like 'bigot' and 'pervert' at each other. And we need to stop it now," Archbishop George H. Niederauer said Dec. 1 in an open letter. Voters in the state Nov. 4 passed a ballot initiative called Proposition 8, which is a constitutional amendment to define marriage as only "valid and recognized" if between a man and a woman. Since Election Day there have been vigorous protests against the outcome in California and around the country by gay rights supporters. Some of the demonstrations have targeted churches and in particular Mormon temples, because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a major funder of a campaign supporting the measure. The Catholic Church and other denominations also supported it.
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Austrian monks' CD of Gregorian chant is topping pop charts worldwide
NEW YORK (CNS) -- They're Austrian. They're Catholic. They sing. That description might make readers think of "The Sound of Music" and the von Trapp family, but the singers in question are Cistercian monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz Abbey, a 12th-century monastery near Vienna. Their CD of Gregorian chants has become a phenomenal crossover hit topping pop charts around the world. The monastery was founded in 1133 and its community has continued uninterrupted since then. After the European release of "Chant: Music for the Soul" in May, it quickly became the top classical album in Great Britain before crossing over and becoming No. 7 in the British pop charts. Similarly, it's made the top-10 charts in Austria, France, Australia and Sweden. When the CD was released July 1 in the U.S. on the Decca label, it became the most popular classical recording. The album sold 55,000 copies in its first two weeks, and sales are still going strong. In an interview with Catholic News Service while he was in New York, Father Karl Wallner, 45, the monastery's communications director and webmaster, spoke about the growing interest in Gregorian chants, their spiritual significance, and how he and his brother monks are handling their newfound notoriety.
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Bishop responds to priest advising confession for Obama voters
STOCKTON, Calif. (CNS) -- A Modesto pastor urged his parishioners to receive the sacrament of penance if they voted for President-elect Barack Obama, who supports legalized abortion, but Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton said the sacrament was not obligatory for Catholics who supported Obama. "Requiring all Catholics who voted for a candidate with a pro-abortion record to go to confession is not in accord with the moral guidelines set out in 'Faithful Citizenship,'" said the bishop, referring to the U.S. bishops' 2007 document on political responsibility. Bishop Blaire, in a statement released Dec. 1, said that "determining the moral culpability of an individual Catholic who votes for a candidate with a pro-abortion record is a very complicated matter." He said that if a Catholic voted for a candidate "with a pro-abortion record with the motivation of supporting that abortion stance, then that is a grave moral matter." The bishop's statement came in response to a Nov. 21 letter sent to parishioners by Father Joseph Illo, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Modesto, that urged parishioners to "go to confession before receiving Communion" if they were among "the 54 percent of Catholics who voted for a pro-abortion candidate" and had a clear understanding of the candidate's abortion stance.
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WORLD
Polish archbishop calls anti-Semitism 'irrational behavior'
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- A Polish archbishop said the Catholic Church must not accept anti-Semitism within its ranks, calling it "irrational behavior." Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin spoke to Catholic News Service during a Nov. 30-Dec 1 conference in Jerusalem focusing on the relationships among the Polish Catholic Church, Jews and Israel. "In the case of Lublin ... we emphasize that (the Jews) were present in our life, in cultural solidarity. It is part of our cultural heritage," he said. Some anti-Semitic incidents show a "generational problem" and a problem of "social frustration" more than a cultural phenomenon, he said. He cited as an example the issue of Radio Maryja's Redemptorist Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, who has been accused of anti-Semitic remarks and insulting the Polish president. Even the younger generation of Redemptorist priests are skeptical of Radio Maryja's message, said Archbishop Zycinski, noting that the ideas predate the Second Vatican Council and the followers are a minute percentage of the population.
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Christ's redemptive power is stronger than evil, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Evil and sin are not irremediable facts of human nature; they can be overcome with the redemptive power of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI said. The evil in human hearts has developed into "a filthy river that poisons the landscape of human history," the pope said Dec. 3 at his weekly general audience. But through Christ's presence, God has given the world the power to heal because Christ's "river of light" is stronger than this stream of evil, he said. With an estimated 7,000 people gathered inside the Paul VI hall, Pope Benedict continued his audience talks about the life and teaching of St. Paul, focusing on the meaning of original sin and how the church explains the presence of evil in the world. Original sin is real and felt by every human being, every day, he said.
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Pope urges banks to help families facing financial crises
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged the banking industry to help families who are facing financial difficulties. He reminded banks that one of their major objectives is to support the weakest members of the community along with aiding business activity. The pope made his comments after he greeted representatives from an Italian cooperative bank during his weekly general audience Dec. 3. He said their presence gave him "the opportunity to highlight, especially now that many families are in difficulty, one of the primary objectives of the banking and credit industries." He said a major part of their focus should be "solidarity toward the weakest sectors and the support of productive activity."
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Congolese Catholics ask Canada to help stop war in their country
OTTAWA (CNS) -- A delegation of Congolese Catholic leaders appealed to Canada to help stop the war in their central African country. "The situation is dire," Bishop Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Bokungu, Congo, told a luncheon information session on Parliament Hill. Members of Parliament from all parties attended the luncheon, organized by delegations from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and from Development and Peace, the bishops' international aid and development agency. Since the 1990s, warring militias have killed nearly 6 million people and displaced more than 2 million, devastating the civilian population through a campaign of organized rape. The United Nations estimates more than 250,000 people were displaced from July through November. "We are suffering and need your support," Bishop Ambongo said.
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Thousands attend funeral of Catholic waiter killed in Mumbai attacks
MUMBAI, India (CNS) -- Some 10,000 people attended the funeral of Jordon Fernandes, a 21-year-old Catholic who worked as a waiter at the Oberoi Hotel, one of two luxury hotels terrorists targeted in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Fernandes was among the more than 170 people who died as terrorists sprayed bullets from assault rifles and exploded grenades at 11 locations in the city, India's commercial capital, in late November, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. Fernandes had a degree in hotel management, and Nov. 30 was to be his last day working at the hotel before taking up a new job as an assistant steward in a hotel in Australia. About 30 priests and 60 nuns joined mourners at his funeral Nov. 29 at the Vasai Diocese's Church of the Mother of God, about 30 miles north of Mumbai. "God gave me a son and God has taken him away," Fernandes' mother, Collette, 50, told UCA News Dec. 1. "We have forgiven the terrorists. But my son was too young to die like this."
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Nicaraguan archbishop decries US decision to suspend aid program
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) -- Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes Solorzano of Managua criticized the decision by the Millennium Challenge Corp. to suspend a U.S. aid program over concerns about the results of nationwide municipal elections. Archbishop Brenes, president of the Nicaraguan bishops' conference, warned that suspending the poverty reduction program would affect the poorest people of the nation. "It's pathetic (the suspension of the program), because we are a poor country, and we always need every bit of this aid," he said after a Nov. 30 Mass in Managua. John Danilovich, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corp., a U.S. government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world, ordered the agency to re-evaluate its $175 million aid package to Nicaragua. "I am not satisfied that the electoral process in Nicaragua has been conducted in accordance with the principles upon which MCC awards and delivers grants to reduce poverty," said a statement from the organization Nov. 24. It said projects already under contract would continue, but that any new disbursements would be suspended until further notice.
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PEOPLE
US nun murdered in Brazil in 2005 honored with human rights prize
UNITED NATIONS (CNS) -- A U.S. nun who was murdered in 2005 while she worked to defend the rights of poor farmers in the Brazilian Amazon region has been named a recipient of a prestigious U.N. human rights prize. Sister Dorothy Stang, who was a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, is one of seven recipients of the U.N. Prize in the Field of Human Rights, awarded by the General Assembly every five years. The others are slain Pakistani leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto; Louise Arbour, former U.N. high commissioner for human rights; Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general; Carolyn Gomes, executive director and co-founder of Jamaicans for Justice; Denis Mukwege, co-founder of the General Referral Hospital of Panzi in Congo; and Human Rights Watch. The awards were to be presented at a ceremony in New York on International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, to mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sister Dorothy's brother, David Stang of Colorado, was to represent her family at the ceremony.
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Jesuit priest says his life is a journey toward the 'God of peace'
ATLANTA (CNS) -- As a young Jesuit, Father John Dear chose to add his own vow of nonviolence to his order's required vows of obedience, poverty and chastity. The vows still guide his life more than 25 years later, but after the initial thrill of making his public commitment to them he learned the hard work had only just begun. "The vows are the beginning of the journey," he said. "I didn't know that. I thought it was the end. I have to keep experimenting." A life of "peace, love and nonviolence is a journey. There is no reaching perfection," he said during a Nov. 19 lecture at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta. His appearance was part of a nationwide book tour for his autobiography, "A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World," which has sold 14,000 copies since it was published in August. Father Dear, recently nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, said people need "to see life as a journey, every day mindfully, one step at a time, living and breathing in the Holy Spirit of peace and walking the road to a new future of peace and the God of peace."
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Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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