|
|
|
|
News Briefs
|
NEWS BRIEFS Mar-27-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Community reaches out in full force in response to flood, priest says
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Father Gary Benz received a phone call late in the afternoon March 22 that he will likely never forget. An elderly parishioner called the priest, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Linton, N.D., pleading with him to save her home from the rising floodwaters of nearby Beaver Creek. Father Benz, along with several members of the community, spent the next several hours in the pouring rain frantically sandbagging around her house and pumping out water that was coming in. Late that night police officials told the woman she would have to abandon the flooded house as it was no longer safe. "We tried and tried" to save it, the priest from the Diocese of Bismarck, told Catholic News Service March 26. Once they left, they saw dozens of other groups of people, young and old, involved in similar efforts throughout the rural farm community. The priest's crew joined them as they worked throughout the night desperately trying to save people's homes. They ended up pumping water and setting up sandbag dikes for the next two days, taking only occasional rest breaks, until the waters finally subsided March 24. In the course of the flooding in Linton, a central North Dakota town of about 1,000 residents, 70 homes were submerged in the floodwaters of Beaver and Spring creeks.
- - -
In the immigration spotlight: Detention, immigrants' citizen children
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A pair of reports released in March lay out some of the data behind efforts seeking changes in immigration policies, long before Congress gets around to considering another comprehensive immigration bill. Their timing comes as religious leaders and advocates for immigrants in Congress and elsewhere are lobbying the Obama administration to end workplace raids and make changes in policies for deciding who is locked up and who is allowed to wait at home while their immigration cases are adjudicated. In one report on aspects of the country's immigration muddle, the Urban Institute and a Minnesota-based law firm related dozens of stories of what are known as "mixed status" families, with one or more members subject to deportation, while others have legal residency or U.S. citizenship. "Severing a Lifeline: The Neglect of Citizen Children in America's Immigration Enforcement" described the chaos that some families encountered after a wage earner was arrested during large immigration raids in the last few years in Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, a report by Amnesty International USA, "Jailed Without Justice: Immigration Detention in the USA," looks at immigration detention practices. Amnesty's recommendations included legislative remedies as well as policy changes, such as ensuring that affordable alternatives to detention are always considered, particularly for families with children.
- - -
Bishop won't attend pro-life banquet with GOP's Steele as speaker
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (CNS) -- Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger of Evansville said he will not attend an April right-to-life dinner where Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is scheduled to speak because he objects to comments the GOP leader made about abortion. The bishop's decision followed a widely circulated March GQ magazine interview in which Steele, a Catholic, was asked if he thinks women have the right to choose abortion. He answered, "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that's an individual choice." Following publication of the interview, Steele issued a statement, saying "I am pro-life, always have been, always will be." He went on to say that "the Republican Party is and will continue to be the party of life." He said he supports the Republican platform that calls for a Human Life Amendment. After speaking with Steele on the phone March 20, and after examining the statement issued by Steele after the GQ interview, Bishop Gettelfinger wrote in a letter to the head of the organization sponsoring the dinner that his "early decision not to attend still stands." He said Steele's answer seemed to emanate "from a political stance, not a principled one."
- - -
When the V-chip isn't enough: Content-control tech takes spotlight
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Congress passes its fair share of laws, but after a bill becomes law measuring the effect of that bill often becomes a forgotten task to the citizens who elected their members of Congress. But federal agencies, in most cases, take their charge seriously. One case in point is the Federal Communications Commission. In early March, the FCC opened an inquiry into media content-control technologies. The FCC was required to open the inquiry by the Child Safe Viewing Act, which passed in the last Congress and became law in December 2008. What will fall under the scope of this inquiry? One area is whether any fixes should be made to the V-chip and the TV Parental Guidelines -- the industry-policed television ratings system. There has long been dissatisfaction expressed over the ratings given by a show's producers to its programming. There also has been a distinct lack of reporting on the use of the V-chip. The device is part of every new TV sold over the past decade. Another area for the inquiry is whether commercials should be rated. Again, there are some self-policed industry standards that seem to be weakening in a declining advertising market, as ads for hard liquor and condoms make their way onto more channels earlier in the evening.
- - -
WORLD
Lancet criticizes pope's remarks that condoms increase spread of HIV
ROME (CNS) -- While a top medical journal criticized Pope Benedict XVI's remarks that condoms increase the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, a Harvard-based researcher said the pope's comments are supported by scientific evidence. An editorial prepared for the March 28 edition of the British medical journal The Lancet said the pope made "an outrageous and wildly inaccurate statement about HIV/AIDS" during an interview with journalists on a flight to Cameroon March 17. "The pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue," said The Lancet editorial posted online before the publication date. Pope Benedict had said, "One cannot overcome the problem with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, they increase the problem." Meanwhile, the head of a Harvard University research center said the center had found "no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working." Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, told National Review Online March 25 that "the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments."
- - -
Indian Catholic refugees turn to prayer amid continued threats
TIANGIA, India (CNS) -- As the sun went down, dozens of Catholics gathered in the refugee camp's vacant tent in the troubled Kandhamal district of India's Orissa state. While those who came early found space in the tent -- large enough for 100 people -- others stood outside as a local catechist led the Way of the Cross. With the Orissa government banning religious practice outside the tent and allowing only private worship, the refugees were forced to pray the stations and rosary inside the tent. They switched between kneeling and standing for each station. "Continuous prayer is helping us cope with our trials," catechist Ranjit Nayak told Catholic News Service. Besides an early morning Way of the Cross and an extra one on Friday afternoons, during Lent Catholics also recite the rosary together every evening inside the camp. Extremist Hindu-led rioting and violence that began in Orissa state in August and lasted about seven weeks displaced 50,000 people, mostly Christians. The violence claimed more than 60 lives. Seven Christians were killed in Tiangia alone, and most of the houses owned by Christians in the area were looted and destroyed.
- - -
Papal preacher says Spirit speaks to individuals as well as to church
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When people forget that the Holy Spirit speaks directly to individual consciences and not only through the church, there is a risk that laypeople would be pushed to the margins of the church's life, the papal preacher told Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials. "The ideal is a healthy harmony between listening to that which the Spirit tells me, individually, and that which the Spirit tells the church as a whole and, through the church, what it tells individuals," said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household. In his weekly Lenten meditation March 27 for the pope and his closest collaborators, Father Cantalamessa focused on a passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." The Holy Spirit, he said, speaks through individual consciences and through the church. "It is a theme that has had a broad development in the tradition of the church: If Jesus Christ is 'the way' that leads to the Father, the Holy Spirit, according to the Fathers (of the Church), is 'the guide along the way,'" the Capuchin said.
- - -
Peace tools: Caritas provides nuts and bolts of conflict resolution
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The object of this arm-wrestling game is to get as many points as possible by pushing your partner's fist down on the table -- but it doesn't matter how many points your partner gets. Will players figure out they can amass more points by cooperating and simply make quick, alternating wins rather than by competing and duking it out through brute force? The game, called Popeye, is one of scores of activities that make up a new Web tool kit created by Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based umbrella organization for 162 national Catholic charities around the world. The tool kit is an online resource for peace-building workshops aimed at helping individuals and local communities overcome prejudice, trauma, fear and hatred bred by episodes of violence or years of conflict. The "Peacebuilding: Web Toolkit for Trainers" is located online at http://peacebuilding.caritas.org and is dedicated to slain Archbishop Oscar A. Romero of San Salvador. Caritas Internationalis launched the site on the anniversary of his assassination March 24.
- - -
Kenyan bishops urge Christian leaders to stop calling for elections
ELDORET, Kenya (CNS) -- Bishop Cornelius Arap Korir of Eldoret has urged his country's Christian leaders to stop calling for new general elections. Bishop Korir said the 2007 elections are no longer an issue for the country, and he called on the National Council of Churches of Kenya to work for peace. The Catholic Church is not a member of the council. "We are still reconciling after the postelection violence and now the issue of elections is not a priority in the country," Bishop Korir said, adding that President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are in a position to lead the country until 2012 when their terms expire. More than 1,200 people were killed and 350,000 were displaced after chaos erupted following disputed elections in December 2007. The electoral commission of Kenya was disbanded for failure to manage the last general elections, and currently there is no such body in the country. The National Council of Churches recently called Kenya a failure and recommended new elections.
- - -
Catholic official says church-state relationship fine in Russia
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Although a Russian Catholic editor has questioned the lack of Catholics on a key state council of the country's major religions, the secretary-general of the Russian Catholic bishops' conference said it is nothing to worry about. "Both our archdiocese and the state administration have recently undergone personnel changes, and that's why we didn't take part," said Father Igor Kovalevsky, secretary-general. "But the Russian state is conducting dialogue with the Catholic Church at both international and local levels, so this isn't a serious problem." He told Catholic News Service March 26 that the church in Russia hoped to take part in future meetings. Viktor Khroul, editor of Russia's Catholic Svet Evangelia online news agency, criticized the church's absence on the Presidential Council for Cooperation With Religious Associations. He said the council offered an important opportunity to raise Catholic issues at a time when half the church's parishes were not legally registered and some parish priests would be unable to celebrate Easter Masses because they were unable to renew their visas.
- - -
PEOPLE
Jingle writers say their 'Rosary Tapes' encourage hope, prayer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jingle writers John Giaier and Bill Gildenstern have put a new spin on the rosary by combining the traditional mysteries and meditations with contemporary music. Their product is called the "Rosary Tapes," made up of four compact discs, one for each of the rosary's four sets of mysteries. "When Bill came up with the idea, at the time I thought he was kind of nutty," Giaier said, joking. To change Giaier's mind, Gildenstern and his wife, Kelly, put together a sample to the tune of "Silent Night" for Giaier's wife, Debbie. Her tearful reaction was all it took for Giaier to agree to the rosary project. Longtime friends and co-owners of GT Technotracks, a Michigan-based advertising agency, Giaier and Gildenstern are best known for producing the Ford Motor Co.'s famous jingle "Have you driven a Ford lately?" The duo has produced more than 6,000 jingles in the past 40 years. The four-CD "Rosary Tapes" set is available for $39.95 online at www.rosarytapes.com. Each order includes a fifth CD that contains only the songs from the other four albums.
- - -
North Dakota bishop praises schools, parishes for flood preparations
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Days before the predicted rise of North Dakota's Red River, Bishop Samuel J. Aquila of Fargo said he was already impressed by how Catholics in the diocese were helping people prepare for expected flooding. When Fargo's Veteran Affairs Medical Center evacuated March 24, the Cathedral of St. Mary of Fargo provided vans to take patients to their temporary quarters in St. Paul, Minn. Students from Fargo's diocesan Catholic schools were among teams of volunteers who spent days sandbagging around the city to prevent flood damage, and Fargo's Catholic Charities employees were preparing for potential food and shelter needs, the bishop told Catholic News Service in a March 26 phone interview. "There is a tremendous spirit among the people here," he said, adding the "people are watching out for one another" even while waiting to see how extensive the damage could be. "The unknown is always unsettling, but at same time there is a very real preparedness among the people and the city has done a great job in reaching out to people," he said. The bishop noted that the "most important thing of course is prayers and asking for God's protection at this time."
END
Copyright (c) 2009 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
|
|
|
|
