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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Sep-25-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Lay Catholics seek coadjutor bishop to work alongside Cleveland bishop
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of lay Catholics concerned about the closing or merging of 50 parishes in the Cleveland Diocese is seeking the appointment of a coadjutor bishop to work alongside Bishop Richard G. Lennon. Patricia Schulte-Singleton, president of Endangered Catholics, formed in response to a plan to close 27 parishes and merge 41 others into 18 parishes, said at a Sept. 24 press conference outside the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland that Bishop Lennon "is not fit to exercise the God-given authority of a diocesan bishop." The step of seeking a coadjutor bishop is being taken, Schulte-Singleton said, because some Catholics have lost confidence in Bishop Lennon in working to find an alternative to the closings and mergers. The group, encompassing about 15 parishes affected by Bishop Lennon's March 2009 decision, maintains that many of the parishes targeted for closing or merging are spiritually vibrant and financially viable and should remain open.
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Philadelphia Catholic high school's service project has hip-hop flair
PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Through their school's Operation Katrina Team, students at Mercy Vocational High School in Philadelphia have spent their last four Easter vacations on the Gulf coast of Mississippi, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. But the funding for next spring's service trip has already gotten a big boost, thanks to a rap and hip-hop video of the 2009 trip produced by the school's music instructor, Michael Cain. True Hero, a Cleveland-based nonprofit that rewards community service by young people, gave the school a $5,000 check for being the best high school service project in the nation and the most viewed service video posted on YouTube.com during June. The video is a study in energy. Still photographs are interspersed with video of students working on homes -- painting, drywalling, cooking. The rap lyrics -- poignant and amusing at times -- are performed with confidence and joy.Music instructor Cain composed the rap beat and the students wrote the lyrics, said Marcella Strittmatter, a spokeswoman for the school. Cain recorded the song's music separately, added the students' lyrics and used his laptop computer for editing.
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Catholic Latino leaders group hosts D.C. launch
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With several hundred guests for a reception at the Vatican Embassy Sept. 23, the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders, or CALL, launched its first national outreach effort at an observance of Hispanic Heritage Month. "To be a leader is to have a clear sense of identity," said Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, in welcoming CALL members and hundreds of others to the embassy. "What I wish for all Latino leaders is that you have a sense of identity and of very clearly belonging." CALL was founded in 2007 under the guidance of then Denver Auxiliary Bishop Jose H. Gomez. Now the head of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Archbishop Gomez was among about a dozen bishops and archbishops at the Sept. 23 event. Cardinal William H. Keeler, retired archbishop of Baltimore, also attended. Manny Garcia-Tunon, secretary of the organization, told Catholic News Service that the reception was intended to mark CALL's national presence. Though the group numbers fewer than 50 official members, Garcia-Tunon said local chapters are being developed in Miami, San Antonio, Denver, Houston and Phoenix, all of which will have events in October.
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WORLD
Honduran official hints Vatican help might mediate political crisis
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNS) -- Days after deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya returned secretly to the country, there were signs that the leaders who ousted him were considering negotiations, and the foreign minister said the Vatican might help mediate a solution to the crisis. On Sept. 24, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Pineda Fasquelle of Tegucigalpa spoke with both of the main players in the political standoff. The bishop visited both Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who heads the de facto government that ousted Zelaya in a coup June 28. As he left the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya took refuge after returning to Honduras Sept. 21, Bishop Pineda told reporters he hoped the visit would be a "first step" toward dialogue. Jesuit Father Ismael Moreno, director of Radio Progreso, called the events "hopeful signs that we could be nearing a way out" of the three-month-old political impasse. The overtures came after several days of protests in which at least one person was killed and various others injured or arrested.
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Pope to visit Fatima shrine in Portugal next May
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI plans to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal next May, Portuguese bishops announced. The pope will preside over ceremonies May 13, the date of the first apparition of Mary to three shepherd children in 1917. No other details of the papal program were immediately available, according to Vatican Radio. The trip is the second papal foreign visit announced for 2010. Pope Benedict will travel to Malta in April, and was also expected to visit Great Britain, perhaps in the fall. "We are certain that the Portuguese people, regardless of their ideology or religion, will welcome this person who has been and remains a prophet of such fundamental and urgent causes as peace and freedom, dialogue, justice and fraternity," said a statement signed by Archbishop Jorge da Costa Ortiga of Braga, president of the Portuguese bishops' conference. As a cardinal, Pope Benedict led an international pilgrimage to Fatima in 1996. Pope John Paul II visited Portugal three times.
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Archbishop urges Canadian MPs to back palliative care, not euthanasia
OTTAWA (CNS) -- The president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has sent an open letter to members of Parliament, urging them to support good palliative care instead of assisted suicide or euthanasia. As debate approaches for Bill C-384, an act to amend the Criminal Code (Right to Die With Dignity), Winnipeg Archbishop V. James Weisgerber took aim at the "misleading and unclear" terms framing the debate. The bill is sponsored by Francine Lalonde, a Bloc Quebecois member of Parliament. Archbishop Weisgerber asked politicians to use "clear definitions" and to consider the "profound impact" such a bill would have on society. "Those wishing to reopen this debate are no doubt motivated by concern for the sufferings of others," he said in an open letter sent Sept. 23. "An unfortunate understanding of compassion has led them to suggest euthanizing the most vulnerable instead of providing them with proper care, effective pain control, and social, emotional and spiritual support until their natural death." Without clear terms, the discussion can be "confusing and unhelpful," Archbishop Weisgerber said.
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Divorce, cohabitation ruin the lives of many children, pope says
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Many children raised by cohabitating, separated, divorced or remarried parents are deprived of fixed points of reference and can suffer from inner conflict and confusion, Pope Benedict XVI told Brazilian bishops. The traditional family based on a man and woman united in an indissoluble marriage is under attack in today's world, he said. "There are forces and voices in present society that seem committed to demolishing the natural homestead of human life," the pope said during a meeting Sept. 25 with bishops from the northeastern area of Brazil. Families in secularized cultures, especially where divorce is legal, seem deeply immersed in uncertainty, he said. More and more couples build their unions on the fragility and impermanence of cohabitation, which is merely based on an "individual's feeling or subjectivity," he said. He said as divorces increase and cohabitation is on the rise, the children in these situations are "deprived of their parents' support and become victims of malaise and abandonment, thus spreading social disorder."
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PEOPLE
Chicago woman runs in order to raise funds to enter religious life
CHICAGO (CNS) -- When Alicia Torres laced up her running shoes and tackled the 13.1 miles of the Chicago Half Marathon Sept. 13, her goal was to become a nun. Torres is not a runner and had never run a distance race. But she ran the race as part of an appeal to friends and strangers to help pay off more than $90,000 in student loans so she can enter religious life. When Torres felt God calling her to this vocation, she realized there was one major obstacle in her path -- $94,000 in student loans that must be paid off to enter the Franciscan community she's chosen. Most of her loans are held by private lenders so they can't be consolidated or the interest rates negotiated. The 24-year-old graduated in 2007 from Loyola University Chicago with a degree in theology and bioethics and works in the Respect Life Office for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Facing this large debt and feeling God's call to her becoming clearer every day, Torres chose to do something public to seek help. She took the "nun run" vocation idea literally and decided to run a half marathon to call attention to her situation and to encourage donations. - -
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Kennedy Senate replacement is grandnephew of Boston's first cardinal
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Paul Kirk, a longtime confidant of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and grandnephew of Boston's first cardinal, Cardinal William O'Connell, will fill Kennedy's seat in the Senate until after a January special election. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Sept. 24 signed fast-tracked legislation that allowed him to fill the post on an interim basis and announced his appointment of Kirk. He was sworn into the Senate the next day by Vice President Joe Biden. Patrick and Democratic Party leaders wanted to fill the seat before pending health care reform legislation comes up for a vote, expected this fall. Kirk said he does not intend to run in the January race. Kirk had been close to Kennedy since he began working in his Senate staff in 1969. He later headed the Democratic National Committee in the late 1980s and is currently the chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
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Copyright (c) 2009 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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