|
|
|
|
News Briefs
|
NEWS BRIEFS Nov-5-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
California bishops laud work, ministry of women religious in state
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- California's bishops have issued a statement of appreciation for the work and ministry of women religious in the nation's most populous state. Adopted Oct. 29 during the semiannual meeting of the California Catholic Conference, the statement acknowledged "with profound gratitude the contributions of these women of the Gospel who have lived and served in the Catholic dioceses and archdioceses of California." The statement was accompanied by a letter from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles and was sent to communities of women religious across the state. "We are all aware of the special anxieties which surround our women religious these days and I am writing to offer you my prayers of gratitude and my support for all of your members," the cardinal wrote. "The bishops of California met last week and passed a statement of support for all of you, and I am pleased to send a copy of that statement to you," he continued. Cardinal Mahony cited the two centuries of ministry the sisters have offered to the people of California. He credited the sisters for establishing schools, hospitals and other facilities and said they likely would not have existed without the sisters' presence.
- - -
Virginia bishop urges mercy for convicted sniper set to be executed
ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- As Virginia prepared to execute convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, Bishop Paul S. Loverde of Arlington called for mercy and urged that Muhammad's sentence be commuted to life in prison without possibility of parole. "In the needles of lethal injection, we see the manifestation of despair," the bishop wrote in his column for the Nov. 5 issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald, his diocesan newspaper. "And in this despair, in advocating the use of the death penalty, our society has moved beyond the legitimate judgment of crimes. Brothers and sisters, we are better than this," he added. "We are called to be more than slaves to despair; we are called to be heralds of hope." Muhammad, 48, was scheduled to die by lethal injection in a Virginia prison Nov. 10 for the Oct. 9, 2002, murder of Dean Harold Meyers, 53, one of 10 victims killed during a three-week spree police said was carried out by Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo in the Washington area. Three other people were wounded. Malvo, 17 at the time of the shootings, is serving a life sentence in a Virginia prison.
- - -
Nun reprimanded for escorting women to abortion clinics
SINSINAWA, Wis. (CNS) -- Dominican Sister Donna Quinn received a reprimand from her order for serving as a volunteer escort at an abortion clinic in suburban Chicago. Her order, the Sinsinawa Dominicans of Wisconsin, said in a Nov. 2 statement it regrets that "her actions have created controversy and resulted in public scandal." Sister Donna said in a Nov. 3 statement that she would suspend her clinic activities. "I want to be clear that this is my decision," she said. "Congregation leaders have informed Sister Donna that her actions are in violation of her profession as a Dominican religious," the Dominicans' statement said. "We as Sinsinawa Dominican women are called to proclaim the Gospel through the ministry of preaching and teaching to participate in the building of a holy and just society. As Dominican religious, we fully support the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the dignity and value of every human life from conception to natural death," it said. "We believe that abortion is an act of violence that destroys the life of the unborn. We do not engage in activity that witnesses to support of abortion." The Dominicans' statement added that the order's leaders would be "working with Sister Donna to resolve the matter appropriately." Sister Donna, in her statement, alluded to a meeting with Dominican leadership that was scheduled for mid-November.
- - -
WORLD
Caritas says climate change will drastically increase world hunger
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Caritas Internationalis and other humanitarian organizations want world leaders to know that without bold action, global warming will have a disastrous effect on the world's poor and hungry. Climate change is already undermining efforts to help the more than 1 billion people now suffering from lack of food, and without drastic measures to limit its effects, "the risk of hunger and malnutrition could increase by an unprecedented scale within the next decades," according to a Nov. 4 press release from Caritas Internationalis. Caritas, the umbrella organization for 164 Catholic charities, said it has signed a joint statement addressed to environmental ministers and other officials who will participate in the U.N. Summit for Climate Change Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The message includes both dire warnings and practical suggestions for action. The U.N. World Food Program and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Oxfam, World Vision and Save the Children are the other co-signers of the statement. In their message, the organizations stressed that it is the world's most vulnerable people, especially children, who will suffer the most from the effects of catastrophic climate change.
- - -
Catholic officials in Kosovo urge Catholics to vote in elections
OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Catholic officials in Kosovo have reiterated support for the country's independence despite calls by Serbian Orthodox leaders for a boycott of the country's first municipal elections. "We are for independence as the optimal solution for creating a state of coexistence and dialogue," said Msgr. Lush Gjergji, editor of the church's Drita review. "The Serbian (Orthodox) Church has officially taken an option for the defense of Serb interests alone, but I don't think its boycott appeals will be widely heard here." The Serbian Orthodox synod, based in Belgrade, Serbia, urged voters to boycott the Nov. 15 elections in Kosovo, which is still claimed by Serbia despite becoming independent in February 2008. In a telephone interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 4, Msgr. Gjergji said Catholic officials had advised Catholics to "respect human and Christian values" in their choice of parties. However, he added that the church had a "natural alliance" with the Democratic League of Kosovo, which includes several prominent Catholics.
- - -
Mexican drug cartels depend heavily on ransoms from migrant families
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Mexico's narcotics-trafficking cartels now depend heavily on earnings obtained by kidnapping undocumented migrants and demanding ransoms from their relatives, said a prominent Mexican senator. "The extortion of migrants, after narcotics trafficking, is the largest source of income for these groups," Sen. Felipe Gonzalez Gonzalez, president of the Senate's Public Security Committee, told a Nov. 4 forum on the kidnapping of migrants in Mexico. Those sentiments were echoed by Catholic officials that work with migrants. They report having to address the needs of a growing number of kidnapping victims that have been tortured, traumatized and sexually assaulted by gangs that have close links with drug cartels. "The mafias ... have now discovered how to get rich off of migrants," Father Jose Alejandro Solalinde, director of the Mexican bishops' migrant ministry in southwestern Mexico, told a Nov. 3 forum at Jesuit-run Iberoamerican University. The comments highlight the most recent hardships for the undocumented migrants that transit the country on their way to the United States. The migrants lack many basic legal protections in Mexico and have been preyed upon by gangs and unscrupulous public officials.
- - -
Australian prisoners among those joining webcast on Luke's Gospel
PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- Prisoners in Sydney's Long Bay and Silverwater prisons joined thousands of people from across Australia and as far away as Rome, the United States, Britain and Ireland to learn more about the Gospel of Luke via a webcast. The webcast, "Luke: Come to the Table," was the second of its kind, following another on the writings of St. Paul in June at the close of the Year of St. Paul. It was a joint initiative of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and the adult faith center The Broken Bay Institute. The webcast was set at Australian Catholic University's Ballarat campus and was seen at about 200 sites across Australia as well as sites in eight other countries. Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn, chairman of the bishops' Commission for Liturgy, was the main speaker. Participants at the various sites took part interactively by e-mailing in questions for the speakers, which were then answered throughout the day. Feedback from the previous webcast on St. Paul showed that people in remote areas around Australia were appreciative because they did not have access to high-quality religious speakers.
- - -
PEOPLE
Vatican says 262 artists accept invitation for meeting with pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- More than 260 painters, sculptors, dancers, actors, playwrights, musicians, architects and other artists have accepted a Vatican invitation to meet Nov. 21 with Pope Benedict XVI. The gathering under Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel will bring the artists together to mark the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's letter to artists and the 45th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's meeting with artists. With the help of an international committee, the Vatican chose 500 artists from around the world to invite to the gathering. The invitations were based on leadership in their fields and not on their religious backgrounds, said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Because of scheduling conflicts, travel and the fact that the Vatican is not offering any type of compensation for their time, the vast majority of those who accepted the invitation are Italian, the archbishop said. At a press conference Nov. 5, the council said it had received confirmation of participation by 262 artists.
- - -
Pope John Paul's legacy continues to touch people, cardinal says
ROME (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II lives on "because he has remained in people's hearts," said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. "The light of his teaching and example was not extinguished with his death," the cardinal said during a conference to present a new book on the late pope's legacy. Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator of Pope John Paul's sainthood cause, also spoke at the conference Nov. 4 at the parish of Rome's Polish community. Asked about a date for the beatification of the pope, who died in 2005, Msgr. Oder said the Congregation for Saints' Causes is studying the case and he could not guess when they will finish. "I can tell you that we are following all of the procedures foreseen for these cases. Everything is moving at a natural rhythm. I understand many people want this to happen sooner, but as Pope Benedict told us: 'Do it quickly, but do it well.' And this is what we are doing," Msgr. Oder said. Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, told reporters in late October that he expects the beatification to take place in Rome in 2010, and he said the city government would work with the Vatican to facilitate the visit of a massive group of people expected to come for the ceremony.
- - -
Pope says hope of eternal life helps people face life, death
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Hope and faith in eternal life give Christians strength to overcome the difficulties of daily life and the pain of death, Pope Benedict XVI said during a Mass honoring cardinals and bishops who died during the past year. In the face of death, believers possess "the hope of immortality," the pope said during the memorial Mass Nov. 5 in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Benedict told the cardinals, bishops, ambassadors and faithful gathered at the basilica's Altar of the Chair that death is "a disturbing enigma" that brings with it the "painful separation from loved ones." But faith "sustains us in these moments that are full of sorrow and dismay," he said. Faith also helps people get through all obstacles that are part of life, he said. "There is no lack of difficulties and problems on our paths, with situations of suffering and pain, moments that are difficult to understand and accept," he said.
- - -
Catholic journalist documents 40-year career at daily newspaper
MILWAUKEE (CNS) -- Frank Aukofer retired after 40 years with the Milwaukee Journal in 2000, but said he had so much fun as a newspaper reporter in the last half of the 20th century that he wanted to share the experiences. "Never a Slow Day" -- documenting his life as a reporter and his years as Washington bureau chief of the Milwaukee Journal and its successor, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- was published by Marquette University Press in Milwaukee, www.marquette.edu/mupress. A Marquette graduate and a parishioner of St. Anthony of Padua in Falls Church, Va., Aukofer, 74, covered events such as the civil rights movement and the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., always striving for accuracy and fairness. "I think that if I made a contribution, it was that I always tried to be as down the middle and fair and accurate as possible," he said. "I always thought that the real ideal for me as a reporter was to get the story right and to represent accurately the viewpoints or what the people that I was covering tried to do."
- - -
Hungarian bishop who froze in communist prison beatified as martyr
ESZTERGOM, Hungary (CNS) -- Hungarian Bishop Zoltan Meszlenyi, who froze to death in a Hungarian prison in 1951, has been beatified as a martyr for the faith. "His readiness to apply the church's love was shown clearly when he was dragged away and kept in inhuman conditions, barefoot through the winter, in solitary confinement without medical help," said Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom-Budapest, who preached the homily at the Oct. 31 beatification Mass in Esztergom. "For many years, a deep, sepulchral silence descended over this bishop's fate, but God's wisdom and steadfastness ultimately proved greater than man's," the cardinal said. Born in Hatvan, Hungary, in 1892, Bishop Meszlenyi studied at Rome's German-Hungarian College after being ordained a priest in 1915. He was made auxiliary bishop of Esztergom in 1937. He was arrested at his cathedral office by agents from Hungary's secret police in June 1950 because of his sermons criticizing communist abuses of power. He died in Kistarcsa internment camp near Godollo March 4, 1951, after being locked for months in a cell with open windows.
- - -
Redemptorists elect Canadian superior general
ROME (CNS) -- The Redemptorists have elected Father John M. Brehl, a 54-year-old Canadian, to be superior general of the 5,300-member order. The 107 members of the general chapter of the order, formally known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, elected Father Brehl on the ninth ballot, the order said in a statement Nov. 4. A native of Toronto, Father Brehl is the first Canadian to serve as superior general of the order founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori in 1730. Its members now minister in more than 70 countries. Father Brehl, who was born in 1955, professed his first vows as a Redemptorist in 1976 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1980 after earning a degree from the Toronto School of Theology. He succeeds U.S. Redemptorist Father Joseph W. Tobin who, after 12 years of service, was ineligible for re-election.
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
|
|
|
|
