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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jan-5-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Cardinal Maida, Bishop McRaith resign; Detroit successor named
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignations of Cardinal Adam J. Maida of Detroit and Bishop John J. McRaith of Owensboro, Ky., Jan. 5 and named Bishop Allen H. Vigneron of Oakland, Calif., as archbishop of Detroit. In addition, Father Cirilo B. Flores, pastor of St. Norbert Parish in Orange, Calif., was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Orange. No successor to Bishop McRaith was immediately named. The resignations and appointments were announced in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States. The appointment of Archbishop Vigneron, 60, allows a native son of the Detroit Archdiocese to return home. His return to southeast Michigan comes at a time of severe economic recession in the heavily industrialized region. Cardinal Maida addressed concerns about the economy twice in recent months, urging Catholics to support each other, especially those in need, and to seek solace in God during the current crisis. He also was quick to praise the $17.4 billion loan package to American automobile manufacturers passed by Congress in December.
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100-day campaign will remind Obama of pledge to close Guantanamo
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Closure of the military prison at the U.S. Army base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be getting renewed attention during a 100-day campaign designed to hold President-elect Barack Obama to his campaign pledge to close the compound. On Jan. 11, the seventh anniversary of its opening, organizers of the 100 Days Campaign will begin a series of events including public witness, street theater, processions, lectures, prayer and fasting to call attention to Obama's promise that he would close the controversial prison. A Department of Defense spokesman said 250 detainees remain behind bars there. "We want to support Obama in following through on his commitment," campaign organizer Frida Berrigan told Catholic News Service. "We think he wants to do the right thing. He's going to need our support and we want to keep it visible so it's not forgotten." The concern, she said, is that closing the prison may be overlooked as the new administration addresses pressing issues such as the economy, home foreclosures, rising unemployment and the war in Iraq.
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Survey finds most people support some restrictions on abortion
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new online survey conducted for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops finds a majority of participants support at least some restrictions on abortion. The survey conducted online Dec. 10-12 asked 2,341 people about the circumstances under which they would favor or oppose legal abortion and about what kind of regulations of abortion they would support or oppose. Among its findings were that 78 percent favor requiring abortions be performed only by licensed physicians and that 72 percent favor requiring women seeking abortions be told of the potential physical and psychological risks and about alternatives such as adoption. It found 11 percent think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances and 38 percent said it should be legal only under limited circumstances, such as in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. Forty-two percent said abortion should be legal for any reason. The USCCB news release noted that Harris Interactive, which fielded the study for the USCCB, said the data was weighted using a propensity scoring system to be representative of the total U.S. population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity and propensity to be on the Internet. Harris said no estimates of sampling error could be calculated, according to the USCCB release.
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National bereavement ministry moves forward with new efforts in 2009
LEMAY, Mo. (CNS) -- Training materials in Spanish and an expanded presence on the Web are just two of the developments coming in 2009 from the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved. Founded in 1990, the ministry offers pastoral and spiritual support to the bereaved, caregivers, agencies, congregations, dioceses and others who work in bereavement ministry through education efforts and a bank of resources. Its headquarters are located at the Maria Center on the campus of the School Sisters of Notre Dame motherhouse in Lemay. Ingrid Seunarine, named president of the ministry in 2008, told the St. Louis Review archdiocesan newspaper that a Spanish-language manual for its ministry of consolation training program recently was published. The effort took about three years to complete, said Seunarine, who also is the director of bereavement services for the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. "Let's face it -- the Spanish-speaking community, right now, according to census information, is the most up-and-coming segment of the population," she said. "And we need to meet them where they're at. If the language is a problem, we need to be able to cut through that barrier."
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Sisters of Providence developing 'small-house' nursing home
HOLYOKE, Mass. (CNS) -- The health care facility being developed in a Holyoke meadow is so revolutionary the state hasn't yet figured out how to regulate it. In essence, that is why there was no formal groundbreaking for the building project now rapidly progressing on the property of the Sisters of Providence. "The state gave us the approval to do site work earlier in the year. Then they came back and told us we could lay a foundation. Two weeks ago, they said we could bring in steel and close it in," explained Sister Mary Caritas Geary, a member of the Sisters of Providence planning team for a new kind of nursing home that will open in 2009. The project is called Mary's Meadow, in honor of its location on a former sloping meadow between Providence Place and Brightside for Families and Children. At least initially, most of the residents of the facility will be older Sisters of Providence, who were all given the first name Mary when they entered their religious community.
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Project brings comfort to mothers of 'heaven born' babies
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- When Maureen Day was just 11 weeks into her pregnancy, she learned the devastating news that her baby was not developing properly. Recalling that day years ago when she learned the news at the doctor's office that her daughter Katie's heart was no longer beating, Day said she was shocked at "how devastated I was. It caught me off-guard." In the days and weeks following her miscarriage, Day, the mother of five, spent much of her time reading on the Internet, including stories of other women who had experienced the same kind of loss and anything else she could get her hands on that had to do with miscarriage and infant death. By the end of that year, Day had taken that energy, and her background as a professional graphic artist, and turned it into a tangible source of comfort for women grieving the loss of their baby. Launched in 2002, Day's nonprofit organization, Heaven Born, provides small, handmade fleece pillows to mothers who have suffered an early pregnancy loss. Tucked inside a small pocket on the front of the pillow is a booklet with tips on how to cope with the emotions that follow a pregnancy loss.
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WORLD
As casualties rise in Gaza, pope makes new appeal for peace
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As Israel continued its ground and air assault on Gaza, Pope Benedict XVI renewed his appeal for an immediate end to hostilities and offered prayers for the numerous victims. "The dramatic news arriving from Gaza demonstrates how the refusal of dialogue can lead to situations of untold suffering for populations that are once again the victims of hatred and war," the pope said at his noon blessing at the Vatican Jan. 4. His comments came as Israel sent troops and tanks into Gaza while continuing air and artillery shelling against targets in the Palestinian territory. Palestinian medical officials said more than 500 Palestinians, including at least 100 women and children, had been killed in the offensive. Four Israeli civilians and one soldier were reported killed in the first 10 days of fighting. Israel began its offensive Dec. 27 in an attempt to stop Hamas rocket attacks into southern Israel. Hamas is the Palestinian paramilitary organization that runs the Gaza Strip.
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Birth-control pill is linked to male infertility, says Vatican paper
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The birth-control pill is causing "devastating" environmental damage and plays a role in rising male infertility rates, said the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. "We have sufficient evidence to argue that one of the considerable factors contributing to male infertility in the West -- with its ever decreasing numbers of spermatozoa in men -- is environmental pollution caused by the byproducts of the pill" released in human waste, the article said. Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the Vatican-based World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, wrote the article that appeared in the paper's Jan. 4 edition. The pill has created "devastating ecological effects from tons of hormones being released into the environment for years," the article said. According to news reports, scientists worldwide have found sexual abnormalities in fish and other water-dwelling creatures that have been exposed to sewage contaminated with synthetic estrogens and other hormones like those used in the pill. Some European studies have blamed increased male infertility and poor reproductive health on environmental causes, especially estrogenlike chemicals found in pesticides, plastic food containers, shampoos, cosmetics and other products.
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Charity buys bleach to sterilize water to fight cholera in Zimbabwe
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- A South African Catholic charity is raising money to buy household bleach to sterilize drinking water in neighboring Zimbabwe, where a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,600 people. About $16,000 has been raised since the Cape Town-based Catholic Welfare and Development's Jik for Zim campaign was launched in mid-December, Sally Timmel, coordinator of the campaign, told Catholic News Service Jan. 5. Jik is a brand of bleach. Zimbabwe's Catholic Development Commission and other local nongovernmental organizations will distribute the bleach, with instructions on how to use it, to more than 1,000 towns and villages affected by the highly infectious bacterial disease contracted by ingesting contaminated food or water, Timmel said. Cholera, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, has spread to all of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces. The World Health Organization said Dec. 31 that Zimbabwe had more than 30,000 reported cases of cholera and the infection rate shows no signs of slowing.
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Gaza priest's message at Mass for peace: 'We cry and nobody hears us'
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- The pastor of the Catholic parish in Gaza City described Gaza as "drowning in blood" as hospitals overflowed with patients. In a message to participants in a special Mass for peace at St. Stephen Church in Jerusalem Jan. 4, Msgr. Manuel Musallam, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, wrote: "What you see on television cannot be compared to what is happening. The word love is choking in my throat. ... We are living like animals in Gaza. We cry and nobody hears us. I am asking God for mercy and pray that the light of Christianity continues to shine in Gaza." Church leaders from the Holy Land attended the Mass at St. Stephen's while local and international Christians gathered elsewhere in Israel and the West Bank to pray for a halt to the violence in Gaza. When Israel began its military operation in Gaza in late December, the heads of Christian churches in the Holy Land called for Jan. 4 to be a day of prayer for peace. At St. Stephen's, retired Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem said the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip means death for both sides.
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PEOPLE
Cardinal's concerns range from automakers to East Europeans
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Cardinal Adam J. Maida, the son of a Polish farmer who immigrated to America, took a leading role in efforts to help the post-communist church behind the former Iron Curtain and to keep alive the legacy of the Polish pope, John Paul II. But the 78-year-old cardinal, whose resignation as archbishop of Detroit was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI Jan. 5, devoted much of his attention in recent months to the beleaguered auto industry in Detroit, convening an interfaith gathering of religious leaders to discuss its problems and calling on the federal government to extend a financial aid package to the domestic automakers. "This is a time to stand in solidarity with all who are suffering loss of jobs or homes, and all those who are anxious about what will happen in the future to the automobile industry in metro Detroit," he said Dec. 4. Cardinal Maida also spoke out strongly, along with Michigan's other Catholic bishops, against moves to legalize assisted suicide in the state and, more recently, against a ballot question to expand embryonic stem-cell research and "prohibit state and local laws that prevent, restrict or discourage stem-cell research, future therapies and cures."
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Vatican action against U.S. Jesuit is not definitive, order says
ROME (CNS) -- The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has asked U.S. Jesuit Father Roger Haight not to teach Christology at any university -- Catholic or not, said the Rome-based spokesman of the Jesuits. "He can continue to teach, but not systematic theology connected with Christology," said Father Giuseppe Bellucci, spokesman for the Jesuits. "The prohibition against teaching is not a condemnation and is not definitive; a committee of Jesuits, in fact, is studying the position of Father Roger, who is willing to collaborate to clarify his positions," Father Bellucci told Catholic News Service Jan. 5. In 2005 the doctrinal congregation published a notification that Father Haight could no longer teach as a Catholic theologian because of "serious doctrinal errors" in his 1999 book, "Jesus Symbol of God." While discussions with his Jesuit superiors and between the Jesuits and the doctrinal congregation continued, Father Haight has been teaching at Union Theological Seminary, a nondenominational graduate school in New York.
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Pope accepts resignation of two Canadian bishops for health reasons
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of two Canadian bishops for reasons of poor health. The Vatican said Jan. 5 that the pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Francois Thibodeau of Edmundston, New Brunswick, and named Auxiliary Bishop Claude Champagne of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to succeed him. Bishop Thibodeau, 69, said in a recent newsletter that his "health has suffered a number of important reverses ... to such an extent that I was advised to not only reduce my activity but to retire altogether." Bishop Thibodeau cited exhaustion and anemia, a hemoglobin deficiency, as his health problems. The Vatican said Jan. 2 that the pope accepted the resignation of Archbishop Raymond Roussin, 69, who had received treatment for clinical depression after he was named to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2004. Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver automatically succeeds him.
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US couple in Israel using tub to protect kids against Hamas missiles
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Americans Robin and Matthew Umberger, both 32, have been putting their three children to sleep each night in the bathtub of their home in Beersheba, Israel, to protect them against incoming Palestinian missiles. As the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip expanded, the militant Islamic group Hamas' resolve to hit Israeli targets continued and expanded, and for the first time Beersheba, Israel's fourth-largest city, became a target for incoming rockets, mortars and missiles. "The worst part is you never know when or where one will fall so we stay inside the house all day," Matthew Umberger, who is originally from Thayer, Kan., told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. "The kids were afraid of the sirens at first but they have gotten used to it. It has been stressful for the kids. We are all tired." The Umbergers have been living in Israel for eight years as Matthew Umberger completes his doctorate in biblical studies at Ben Gurion University. He was an ordained minister of the nondenominational Churches of Christ, but he and his wife became Catholics in Israel. They are members of the 30-family Hebrew-speaking St. Abraham Parish in Beersheba.
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Bishops pay tribute to Helen Suzman, 91, anti-apartheid leader
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- Catholic bishops in southern Africa paid tribute to the courage and faith of anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman, who died Jan. 1 in Johannesburg at the age of 91. "If ever there was a South African who epitomized the belief that you are never too small to make a difference, it was Helen Suzman," the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference said in a statement issued by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, conference spokesman. Suzman, who served in South Africa's legislature from 1953 to 1989 and was one of the country's most famous white crusaders against racial segregation, "was never afraid to proclaim the principles of justice and fairness, to stand up for them when the occasion demanded, and to live by them in her public and political life," the conference statement said. The daughter of Jewish immigrants was "a woman of outstanding courage, straight as a die in making her point and fearless in exposing the injustices and inhumanity of the apartheid system and its implementation," it said.
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Canadian author, journalist Bernard Daly dies of cancer
TORONTO (CNS) -- Bernard Daly -- author, journalist and one of the most influential lay members of the Catholic Church in Canada -- died peacefully Jan. 2 at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto after losing a battle with cancer. He was 83. Daly loved the Catholic Church and devoted most of his life to it. Through the years he maintained a particular interest in the role of the laity as "leaven in the dough" of the world. He spent 35 years working for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and then, after his retirement, returned to become editor and publisher of The Catholic Register, 1993-1996. The funeral Mass was scheduled for Jan. 8 at Blessed John XXIII Parish in Toronto. Burial will take place later in the family plot at St. Camillus Parish cemetery at Farrellton, Quebec. His writing -- in both his books and editorials -- emphasized the renewal of the Catholic Church as found in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. He stressed that the laity needed to increase its knowledge of church teachings and use them to shape their own efforts to bring justice and compassion to public policy.
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