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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Nov-2-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Evolution issue 'stirs emotions all over country,' says biologist
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) -- Prominent Catholic cell biologist Kenneth Miller called for insistence on rigorous science and a clear distinction between science and a scientist's personal opinions as he helped open a Darwin conference Nov. 1 at the University of Notre Dame. Miller, a leading advocate for the compatibility of evolutionary science and religious faith and a leading opponent of nonscientific attacks on evolution in American education, said the battle for science continues despite a long string of court, legislative and election victories. "Evolution is an issue that divides Americans," he said, showing a map that indicated local anti-evolution activity in almost every state. "We have to come out of the classroom, out of the laboratory. If we do, the American people will choose science every time," he said. His talk, "Darwin, God and Design: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul," was the first public lecture at the three-day conference on "Darwin in the 21st Century: Nature, Humanity and God."
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Nurses, Catholic hospital system avert strike with new flu protocol
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The union representing more than 10,000 nurses at California's largest not-for-profit hospital system has reached a settlement with hospital officials that both sides say sets a national standard to guard against the spread of the H1N1 flu and future pandemics. Announced Nov. 2, the agreement between the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee and Catholic Healthcare West calls for creating a systemwide emergency task force that includes both nurses and hospital representatives to respond to a declaration of a pandemic emergency. "What it means to me is that nurses can play an active role within the hospital so that we can get the safety equipment we need," said Richard Sandness, a registered nurse at Mercy Hospital of Folsom and a member of the union's bargaining committee. "Our goal was to have a single standard and go for the highest standard," he told Catholic News Service. A Catholic Healthcare West official said the 32 hospitals in the system in California and Nevada have been following federal and state standards for the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu.
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Heart's Home in Brooklyn cares for poor, sick and fosters vocations
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) -- It might seem unusual for the residents of the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn to see French missionaries walking their streets each afternoon reciting the rosary together. And Catholics might be surprised to learn that the organization which sends out the missionaries encompasses nearly the full spectrum of church vocations -- an order for priests, an order for nuns, a fraternity of consecrated laypeople and lay volunteers. Heart's Home, started in 1990 as strictly a volunteer organization by Father Thierry de Roucy, serves the poor and suffering in the world by letting these people know someone cares about them. Volunteers visit the poor, the sick, the terminally ill and the incarcerated. The French priest found that after a few years, some of the volunteers wanted to continue in Heart's Home through a lifelong commitment. So Father de Roucy founded the Servants of God's Presence, an order of religious sisters within the organization; there are 30 nuns in the order around the world. The Sacerdotal Fraternity of Molokai for the priesthood was founded in 1995 and currently has 28 priests and seminarians. Organizations for consecrated laypeople and for lay volunteers followed later. More information about Heart's Home is available at the community's Web site, http://usa.heartshome.org.
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Community marks centennial of reception into Catholic Church
GARRISON, N.Y. (CNS) -- One hundred years before Pope Benedict XVI captured headlines by establishing a special structure for Anglicans who want to be in full communion with the Catholic Church, the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement became the first religious group to be received into the church in its entirety. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Vatican ambassador to the United States, said the pope's recent overture to the Anglicans could be seen as a fruit of 100 years of prayers offered for the unity of the church by members of the Society of the Atonement. Archbishop Sambi spoke at Mass Oct. 30 celebrating the centennial of the society's reception into the church. The Mass was concelebrated by New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan at Graymoor, the society's headquarters. In remarks to some 400 people after the centennial Mass, Archbishop Sambi said, "Your charism is a charism of the future." From its founding in 1900, the Society of the Atonement has dedicated itself to Christian unity. "The spirit of Jesus creates unity," said Archbishop Sambi. "Where there is love and unity, there is God. Where there is unity, there is a spirit of family."
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Bishops hope to conclude work on Roman Missal at Baltimore meeting
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Nearly six years after beginning the task, the U.S. bishops hope to conclude their work on the English translation and U.S. adaptations of the Roman Missal first introduced in Latin in 2002. The final five action items related to the missal will come before the bishops at their fall general meeting Nov. 16-19 in Baltimore. Each must be approved by two-thirds of the Latin-rite members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, then must go to the Vatican for confirmation. The first drafts of the missal translation, prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, arrived at the bishops' conferences of English-speaking countries in 2004. The current English version of the Roman Missal was adopted shortly after the Second Vatican Council. The items to be debated and voted on in Baltimore are: the proper of saints, a collection of specific prayers to each saint included in the universal liturgical calendar; the commons, a collection of general prayers for celebrating other saints; the Roman Missal supplement; the U.S. propers; and U.S. adaptations to the Roman Missal.
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WORLD
Pope says November feasts highlight tie between living, dead
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Underlining people's connection with those who have gone before them, the annual commemorations of All Saints and All Souls remind Christians that "we are never alone," Pope Benedict XVI said. "We are part of a spiritual fellowship in which a deep solidarity reigns" through the prayers of the living for the eternal repose of the dead and through the intercession of the holy deceased on behalf of those still living, the pope said during his Sunday Angelus address Nov. 1, the feast of All Saints. On the Nov. 2 feast of All Souls, the pope paid an evening visit to the grotto of St. Peter's Basilica where he knelt in silent prayer before the tombs of some of his deceased predecessors. "How beautiful and consoling is the communion of saints," the pope told people gathered in St. Peter's Square Nov. 1. The connection between the living and their deceased loved ones is a mysterious reality of sharing where the good one person does benefits all, the pope said. "It is a mystery that we can already experience to some extent in this world -- in the family, through friendship and, especially in the spiritual community of the church," he said.
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Vatican says Anglican document delay not due to married priests issue
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican has denied that the delay in publishing the apostolic constitution on Anglicans seeking admission to the Catholic Church has been caused by an internal Vatican debate over admitting married priests. The Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Oct. 31 that Pope Benedict XVI's document detailing the new plan was expected to be released during the first week in November. On Oct. 20, the Vatican announced that "personal ordinariates" -- similar to dioceses -- would be established to oversee the pastoral care of those who want to bring elements of their Anglican identity into the Catholic Church with them. At that time, the Vatican said the apostolic constitution establishing the new arrangement was being briefly delayed by translation and technical reasons. Subsequent Italian press reports, however, blamed the delay on problems regarding the celibacy issue, in particular whether married Anglicans could be trained as seminarians. In announcing the plan, Vatican officials made it clear that Anglican priests who are married may be ordained Catholic priests, but that married Anglican bishops would not be allowed to function as Catholic bishops. They also indicated that married Anglican seminarians would be allowed to be ordained. The Vatican clarification confirmed that married former Anglican ministers would be admitted to priestly ministry, as an exception from canon law on a case-by-case basis.
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Coup-weary Honduran capital ready for break in political impasse
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (CNS) -- If it weren't for the fact that everyone is talking about it, it would be hard to notice that this country has had a major political upset to deal with for the last four months. Around the city, everyone --- taxi drivers, shopkeepers, wealthy business owners, street vendors -- has an opinion about the political situation. But after months of stalemate and economic hits like the near-disappearance of tourists, business travelers and many aid workers, the overwhelming sentiment among residents of Tegus, as it is called here, seems to be weariness with the situation. An agreement announced Oct. 30 to allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to office could spell the end of the standoff between him and acting President Roberto Micheletti, but the sense in the capital a week earlier was that the public was just plain tired of the dispute and ready to move on to the Nov. 29 presidential election that will take both men out of the presidency. The June 28 coup booted Zelaya not just from the office he had held since 2006, but from the country where his family is among the wealthy elites who have held political and economic power for generations. Zelaya managed to sneak back into Honduras in September and remained holed up in the Brazilian Embassy, along with more than 100 other people, including reporters and photojournalists, all intent on being on the scene when the situation changes.
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PEOPLE
Bishop says heading border diocese 'a powerful learning experience'
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Being the bishop of a border diocese has proven "a powerful learning experience," said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz. Although, during his time in Chicago as a priest and auxiliary bishop, he had awareness of and contact with immigrant populations, being on the border has given Bishop Kicanas the opportunity to see "the struggle of migrants to realize their dreams, to be aware of their fears, their aspirations," he said. Bishop Kicanas, vice president of the U.S. bishops, made his remarks in an interview with Catholic News Service prior to his address at a Jesuit Refugee Service-sponsored conference, "Crisis at Our Borders: The Human Reality Behind the Immigration Debate," held Oct. 29 at Georgetown University in Washington. "A migrant is a person possessed by a dream -- just like us," Bishop Kicanas said at the conference, co-hosted by the Institute for the Study of International Migration, Woodstock Theological Center and the university's Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service. "Migration is a problem that calls for international solutions," Bishop Kicanas added, noting that migration is an issue with "every country in the world," because of war, torture, weather, refugees and the economy.
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Cardinal: New Vatican move not a reflection on Anglican Communion
LONDON (CNS) -- An English cardinal said Pope Benedict XVI's decision to receive entire groups of Anglicans into the Catholic Church did not represent a comment on the state of the Anglican Communion. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, said a forthcoming apostolic constitution to establish "personal ordinariates" should not be seen as an attempt by the Vatican to poach Anglicans disaffected by such issues as the ordination of women and sexually active homosexuals as priests and bishops. The former Catholic co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission made his remarks in the Richard Stewart Memorial Lecture at Worth Abbey, near London, Oct. 29. He said the canonical structures announced in Rome and London Oct. 20 were simply a generous response to requests over a number of years by Anglican communities that wanted to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of distinctive spiritual patrimony. "There is much that has been written and spoken about this matter over the past week but I would just want to emphasize that this response of Pope Benedict is no reflection or comment on the Anglican Communion as a whole or of our ongoing ecumenical relationship with them," said the cardinal, 77, the former president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
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