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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jul-29-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Indiana Catholic university receives historic $6 million donation
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Indianapolis' Marian University, the only Catholic liberal arts university in central Indiana, received its largest gift ever from an individual donor -- $6 million. "It is a day I won't soon forget," university president Daniel Elsener told Catholic News Service in a phone interview. "When you get a gift like this, you think of the donor and are instantly edified by their stewardship. They don't talk about it, they simply do it. It is so edifying," he said. The June gift was given as a $1 million check and a 10-year annual pledge of $500,000. The donor, who wished to remain anonymous, also sent a letter expressing support for the recent progress made by the university and its recent name change from Marian College to Marian University. In previous years, the school has received endowments of up to $3.5 million, but usually from businesses. The university has never received such a generous gift from an individual. Elsener told CNS that when he received the letter and check he immediately "headed to the chapel and prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament to say, 'My goodness, this person responded in faith to our need.'" The donor was a former trustee and advised the college during its most difficult years, he said.
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Ukrainian bishop retires from St. Josaphat Eparchy in Parma, Ohio
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert M. Moskal of the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma, Ohio, and named Auxiliary Bishop John Bura of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia to serve as the apostolic administrator. The appointment was announced July 29 in Washington by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Bishop Moskal is 71. Under church law a bishop is expected to submit his resignation to the pope at the age of 75, but Bishop Moskal's resignation was accepted in accord with Canon 210 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches which allows a bishop to resign before the age of 75 "due to ill health or to another serious reason." The bishop could not be reached July 29 by Catholic News Service but a spokeswoman for the diocese confirmed that he was retiring for medical reasons. Bishop Bura, 65, was born in Wegeleben, Germany, and moved to Jersey City, N.J., when he was 6. He was ordained a priest in 1971 for the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, and after several parish assignments he was named an auxiliary bishop of the archeparchy in 2006.
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WORLD
Anglican leader's concern for unity reflects Vatican concerns
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican concerns about how some recent decisions of the U.S. Episcopal Church will impact the search for full Anglican-Roman Catholic unity are echoed in a reflection by Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Communion. Writing July 27 about the Episcopal Church's recent general convention, Archbishop Williams repeatedly referred to the need to keep in mind the ecumenical implications of local church decisions in addition to their impact on the unity of the Anglican Communion as a whole. Archbishop Williams' reflection, titled "Communion, Covenant and Our Anglican Future," was published on the archbishop's Web site at http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2502. In a statement July 29, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity noted Archbishop Williams' concern for maintaining the unity of the Anglican Communion through common faith and practice based on Scripture and tradition. The Vatican office "supports the archbishop in his desire to strengthen these bonds of communion, and to articulate more fully the relationship between the local and the universal within the church," the statement said. "It is our prayer that the Anglican Communion, even in this difficult situation, may find a way to maintain its unity and its witness to Christ as a worldwide communion," it added.
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Pope's message for 2010 World Peace Day will focus on environment
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI will focus on the connection between protecting the environment and working for peace in the message he will publish for World Peace Day in 2010, the Vatican said. The theme the pope has chosen for the Jan. 1 celebration is "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Safeguard Creation," the Vatican announced July 29. The Vatican said the pope intends to discuss the fact that in a globalized world there is a strict connection between protecting the environment and promoting peace. "The use of resources, climate change, the application and use of biotechnologies (and) demographic growth" are all issues that can have repercussions across national borders for generations to come, the statement said. The papal message will underline the fact that protecting the natural environment is a challenge all people must face together, recognizing they have an obligation to respect a gift God created for all, it said. Pope Benedict also wants to emphasize how the "current ecological crisis" is impacting the entire world and, therefore, requires international action to resolve, it said.
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Indian Catholics welcome prison sentences in anti-Christian violence
NEW DELHI, India (CNS) -- Catholic leaders welcomed the prison sentences a court has given to five people convicted of taking part in the August 2008 anti-Christian violence in India's Orissa state. "It is a good development. It will go a long way in meting out justice to our people," Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar told the Asian church news agency UCA News July 28, a day after the court announced its decision. The prelate heads the Catholic Church in the eastern state. The court sentenced Disara Kanhar, Durbasa Kanhar, Gupteswar Kanhar, Rabindra Kanhar and Naresh Kanhar to six years of "rigorous imprisonment" and also fined each person the equivalent of $105, special prosecutor Bijoy Krishna Pattnaik told reporters. Christians in the riot-torn villages in the Kandhamal district of Orissa continue to live in fear because many of the people who led the violence remain free, Archbishop Cheenath said. Divine Word Father Dominic Emmanuel, spokesman for the Delhi Archdiocese, said the court decision is "of course welcome, but the cases should be considered more seriously." Instigators of violence "should be punished severely so that it would be a lesson to themselves and others who spread sectarian hatred," the priest said.
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Vietnamese Catholics protest clergy beatings, arrests of marchers
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Thousands of Catholics marched on Vietnamese streets July 26 to protest the beating of two Catholic priests and the detainment of seven Catholics after a violent police raid at a disputed church site. In a series of coordinated marches throughout the Vinh Diocese, about 500,000 people gathered to demand the release of the seven marchers who were arrested July 20 at the site of Tam Toa, a parish destroyed by U.S. bombers during the Vietnam War, and to call for an end of police attacks on Catholics, according to news reports. The seven Catholics were taken into custody after trying to erect a cross and other religious symbols at the ruins of the church, reports said. The government maintains that the Tam Toa church is national property and was dedicated as a war memorial in the late 1990s. Two priests were beaten July 26 in the central city of Dong Hoi, about 310 miles south of Hanoi, in the Vinh Diocese. Both were hospitalized in critical condition. Reports said one priest, Father Paul Nguyen Dinh Phu, was traveling to a march at Tam Toa when he was attacked by police. The second, Father Peter Nguyen The Binh, pastor of a parish near Dong Hoi, was attacked hours later when he tried to visit his fellow cleric in the hospital.
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PEOPLE
Pope lightheartedly wonders what his guardian angel was doing
LES COMBES, Italy (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said the Vatican and Italian police who watched over him while he was on vacation in the Italian Alps were like "guardian angels, discreet and efficient." But he was not quite so sure what his own guardian angel was up to. "Unfortunately, my guardian angel -- certainly following orders from above -- did not prevent my accident," he said, referring to the fact that he tripped in the dark July 17 and broke his wrist. Before leaving Les Combes to fly to the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome July 29, the pope met with the police, firefighters and other officials who were involved in maintaining public order and security while he vacationed in northern Italy. Still referring to his broken right wrist, the right-handed pope told them, "Perhaps the Lord wanted to teach me greater patience and humility, and give me more time for prayer and meditation." The pope said he had spent the past 16 days immersed in a "heavenly peace," with the silence interrupted only by the songs of birds, rain falling on the grass and the wind blowing through the trees.
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Tony Alamo found guilty of sex abuse, faces 175 years in prison
TEXARKANA, Ark. (CNS) -- Evangelist Tony Alamo faces up to 175 years in prison following his July 24 conviction on 10 counts of taking young girls across state lines for sexual purposes, rape, sexual assault and contributing to the delinquency of minors. On the Web site of his Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide, Alamo described the charges against him as "government-Vatican persecution" and said his trial was "government vs. the Bible." Alamo, 74, has made a career of attacking the Catholic Church, once accusing Pope John Paul II of a satanic conspiracy to control the world. In 1984 he published a pamphlet titled "The Pope's Secrets" that accused the Vatican of controlling mass media outlets, international terrorism and worldwide narcotics and prostitution operations, as well as promoting communism and socialism. He was being held at the Bowie County Correctional Center in Texarkana pending sentencing, which was expected to take place in September.
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Mexico jails alleged cartel gunman implicated in cardinal's murder
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- An alleged drug-cartel gunman implicated in the 1993 murder of Cardinal Juan Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara, Mexico, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison after being found guilty of weapons-related offenses. The office of Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said in a July 26 statement that Alfredo Araujo Avila -- known as "El Popeye" -- was convicted of possessing a cache of illegal weapons. The weapons used in the cardinal's slaying were among those found in Araujo's possession, the statement said. Araujo was arrested Jan. 25, 2008, in Tijuana, where he allegedly worked as a gunman for one of the city's numerous drug cartels. He also has been charged with the murder of a local newspaper editor. The conviction marks one of the few developments in the case, which Catholic officials said has been characterized by inept investigations and a lack of political will to uncover the truth. The murder ushered in immense social and political change in western Mexico, but still provokes outrage nationwide 16 years later. The case long has been the domain of conspiracy theories. Araujo is currently the only person implicated in the murder to be sentenced to prison.
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