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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Nov-30-2009
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Pro-lifers vow to fight new requirements imposed on pregnancy centers
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Pro-life leaders are vowing to fight a measure passed Nov. 23 by the Baltimore City Council that imposes new requirements on four pregnancy resource centers in the city. The bill, approved in a 12-3 vote, requires pro-life pregnancy centers to post signs stating that they do not provide abortion or birth control. Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien had campaigned against the bill, arguing that it unfairly singles out pro-life centers for harassment. "To say I'm disappointed is too mild," said Nancy Paltell, associate director for the respect life department of the Maryland Catholic Conference. "I'm disgusted that lobbying organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL hold such power over a governmental body like the City Council." Paltell was holding out hope that Mayor Sheila Dixon will veto the bill, and she urged pro-life supporters to let the mayor know they oppose the measure.
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Alaska bishops urge Congress to take action on global climate change
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNS) -- Citing Pope Benedict XVI's recent calls to protect nature, Alaska's four Catholic bishops have urged Congress to take action on global climate change. "Addressing global climate change is about our responsibility to care for God's creation and to care for one another, especially the weak and the vulnerable," wrote Alaska's four bishops in a Nov. 17 letter to Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and Republican Congressman Don Young, the state's only House member. In the letter, Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz and retired Archbishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage joined Bishop Donald J. Kettler of Fairbanks and Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau in asking Alaska's congressional delegation to support legislation such as the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009. The bill, S. 1733, was introduced in October by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. On Nov. 5, it passed the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works by a vote of 11-1. It now advances to the full Senate.
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WORLD
Swiss bishops criticize country's ban on construction of minarets
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The bishops of Switzerland said the country's ban on the construction of minarets, the Muslim prayer towers, represents an obstacle to interreligious harmony. The ban aggravates interfaith tensions and could have negative repercussions on Christian minorities in Muslim countries, the bishops said in a statement Nov. 29. The prohibition was adopted by Swiss voters in a referendum that passed with a 58 percent majority. There are about 150 mosques in Switzerland serving 400,000 Muslims; only four have minarets and, unlike in Islamic countries, they are not used to call Muslims to prayer. The bishops said the referendum campaign, promoted by right-wing parties, had used exaggeration and caricature, and demonstrated that "religious peace does not operate by itself and always needs to be defended." "The decision of the people represents an obstacle and a great challenge on the path of integration in dialogue and mutual respect," the bishops said. Banning the building of minarets "increases the problems of coexistence between religions and cultures," they said. The bishops said the measure "will not help the Christians oppressed and persecuted in Islamic countries, but will weaken the credibility of their commitment in these countries." Swiss authorities said after the vote that the four existing minarets would be allowed to stand, and that there was no ban on the construction of new mosques.
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Pope appeals for rights of migrant and refugee children
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged governments and international organizations to give special attention to the rights of child immigrants, who often are victims of exploitation and abandonment. Minors forced to immigrate for reasons of poverty, violence or hunger are the most vulnerable, he said. The pope made the comments in his annual message for the World Day for Migrants and Refugees, which will be celebrated Jan. 17 in most countries. The papal text was released at the Vatican Nov. 27. The pope said host countries must create policies that protect child immigrants and help them integrate into society. These children should enjoy basic rights such as going to school and being able to work legally, he added. "I warmly hope that proper attention will be given to minor migrants who need a social environment that permits and fosters their physical, cultural, spiritual and moral development," he said. Despite increased awareness of the need to help child immigrants, the pope said, "many are left to fend for themselves and, in various ways, face the risk of exploitation."
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Report on clergy abuse in Dublin church leads to calls for more action
DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- A report detailing failures of church leaders' handling of sex abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Dublin has resulted in calls for bishops' resignations and further investigations and prosecution. "The Dublin Archdiocese's preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid-1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets," said the report by the independent Commission of Investigation, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy. "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state." The report said church officials and police colluded in covering up instances of child sexual abuse by clergy. The commission investigated the period from January 1975 to May 2004, during which time there were four Dublin archbishops: the late John Charles McQuaid, Dermot J. Ryan and Kevin McNamara and Cardinal Desmond Connell, who retired in 2004 and is now 83. The report emphasized that the commission was established not to determine where child sexual abuse took place "but rather to record the manner in which complaints were dealt with by church and state authorities."
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Vatican announces new round of Catholic-Anglican talks
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The formal theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion will continue and will focus on the relationship between the local church and the universal church, the Vatican announced. This third phase of work by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission "will deal with fundamental questions regarding the church as communion local and universal, and how in communion the local and universal church comes to discern right ethical teaching," said a Vatican announcement published Nov. 28. The announcement was made one week after Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, met at the Vatican. The question of the relationship of the local church to the universal church has been the subject of debate both within the Catholic Church and especially in the Anglican Communion, primarily as it relates to the authority of local bishops and the authority of local churches to make decisions on matters of church practice and on moral issues.
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Pope urges Catholic-Orthodox cooperation in aid, ecology
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While Catholics and Orthodox struggle to come to an understanding of the role of the pope in the life of the church and other issues still dividing them, they must reach out together to help hurting people and a hurting planet, Pope Benedict XVI said. Pope Benedict made his comments in a letter to Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople on the feast of St. Andrew, the patron saint of the patriarchate. The letter was delivered by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who led a Vatican delegation to the Orthodox celebration of the Nov. 30 feast day in Istanbul, Turkey. The joint international commission for Catholic-Orthodox dialogue has been studying issues related to papal authority, looking first at how the bishop of Rome exercised his ministry in the united Christian church of the first millennium.
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Chaldean church buildings targeted in bombings in Mosul, Iraq
LONDON (CNS) -- A Chaldean Catholic church, rectory and convent in the northern Iraq city of Mosul were bombed in two separate incidents in late November, but no one was injured. Explosives were detonated inside St. Ephrem's Church Nov. 26, and the building was reduced to a "blackened shell," said a Nov. 27 statement by the British branch of Aid to the Church in Need, a charity working to help persecuted Christians around the world. It said the church rectory also was attacked. St. Ephrem's pastor, Father Youhanna Jajeka, was not in either building at the time of the attacks, the statement said. Hours later a bomb was thrown at St Theresa's Convent in New Mosul, west of the city. At least five Dominican sisters who were in the complex at the time of the attack escaped unharmed. Most of the nuns have been transferred to another Dominican convent in a nearby village. A series of church bombings in Mosul in July left at least four dead and more than 30 injured. A flare-up in violence in October 2008 claimed the lives of 13 Christians and forced thousands to flee the city. In February 2008 Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was kidnapped, and his driver and two bodyguards were killed. Two weeks later his body was recovered after kidnappers revealed where it was buried.
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PEOPLE
Honduran bishop says election was only way out of political crisis
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The president of the Honduran bishops' communications department expressed early satisfaction with Nov. 29 elections that he said would allow the Central American country to emerge from a five-month political crisis provoked by the ouster and exile of President Manuel Zelaya. "The only exit that we had from the political crisis was the elections," Auxiliary Bishop Romulo Emiliani Sanchez of San Pedro Sula told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. The bishops' conference had called on Hondurans to support the electoral process, "but did not oblige them to do so," Bishop Emiliani said, adding that election day was peaceful in most of the country. Early tallies from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal overwhelmingly favored National Party candidate Porfirio Lobo, who narrowly lost the 2005 election to Zelaya. The rancher and father of 13 took more than 50 percent of the popular vote, and his closest opponent, Elvin Santos, conceded, after receiving around 37 percent of the vote. Neither Zelaya nor interim President Roberto Micheletti ran. The Honduran Constitution prohibits presidential re-election. In Washington, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela said the U.S. government "recognized the results" and that Lobo would be Honduras' next president. He also said the United States believed the election met international standards of fairness and transparency.
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Minnesota family says prayers to Blessed Seelos cured teen's cancer
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- Not too long ago, 14-year-old Joey Schwartz had never heard of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos. He could not have imagined making a pilgrimage with his family from Savage, Minn., to the New Orleans shrine of the Redemptorist priest, especially since he was extremely ill with a rare form of cancer that had returned after a short remission. Even less expected was the life-changing outcome of that visit to the National Seelos Shrine -- a testimony to the power of prayer and the possible intercession of Blessed Seelos. According to his doctor, Joey is now cancer-free and his family is eager to share the story of the apparent miracle. In March 2008, Joey was diagnosed with midline carcinoma after having a walnut-size tumor removed from his chest. "This kind of cancer is so rare that, by all accounts, Joey's was the 14th case worldwide," said his father, Paul Schwartz. "It has been classified as highly lethal and aggressive." Born in 1819, Francis Seelos was considered responsible for several episodes of healing during his priesthood. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000. Soon after getting the go-ahead from Joey's doctor, the family drove to New Orleans, where Blessed Seelos died. There, Joyce Bourgeois, the Seelos Center administrator, laid her hands on Joey's shoulders in prayer. Each member of the family felt "spiritually overwhelmed" by the experience, according to Paul Schwartz. Added Joey: "I don't know how to explain it, but I did feel different." After a new CT scan in September, doctors were unable to detect any cancer in Joey's lungs and said they believed the larger tumor spotted in July was likely scar tissue.
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