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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Feb-11-2010
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Survey finds signs of hope, challenges among younger Catholics
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- American Catholic adults under 30 share the commitment of older generations to philanthropy and volunteerism, but are more likely to believe that morals "are relative," according to a new survey commissioned by the Knights of Columbus. The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., conducted the survey Dec. 23-Jan. 4 among 2,243 Americans, including an oversample of 1,006 "millennials" -- those 18 to 29. The survey asked a wide range of questions about ideology, religious practices and beliefs, life goals and feelings about the nation's future, comparing the answers across generations and among Catholics in general, practicing Catholics who attend services at least once a month and Americans in general. The survey also asked respondents to judge whether certain choices were morally acceptable, morally wrong or not a moral issue. The majority of Americans (57 percent), millennials (58 percent), American Catholics (61 percent) and Catholic millennials (66 percent) said abortion was morally wrong, while more than half or nearly half of each group said gambling was not a moral issue. The highest degree of unanimity was on claiming someone else's work as your own -- with more than 90 percent of each group saying it was morally wrong -- and on marital infidelity, judged morally wrong by percentages ranging from 87 percent (Catholic millennials) to 90 percent (Americans in general).
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New gauges being developed to measure domestic poverty
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- While there is considerable agreement that the long-standing federal government definition of domestic poverty is outdated, little has been done to develop new measures to gauge it. Candy Hill, senior vice president of Catholic Charities USA, said the original poverty measure depended in large part on the cost of food. Today, though, one also must take into account the cost of housing and health care, as well as the impact of other societal factors on American adults' earning power and wealth accumulation. For instance, when Catholic Charities began an anti-poverty campaign in 2007, it issued a paper outlining the breadth of poverty. Soon after, though, it issued a second document on race, Hill said, "because we can't talk about poverty in the United States unless we talk about race." She made her remarks during a Feb. 9 panel presentation, "New Ways to Measure Poverty in America," as part of the Feb. 7-10 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering, co-sponsored by 20 Catholic organizations, including five offices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Hill said Catholic Charities was adopting a series of poverty-tracking measures established by the American Human Development Institute that are based on U.S. Census Bureau data. Under the current model, Hill said, people measure poverty by asking, "How is the economy doing?" By that yardstick, America is second only to Luxembourg among the world's 12 most industrialized nations in terms of gross domestic product. But a new model that asks, "How are people doing?" would show, Hill added, the United States "dead last" among the same 12 industrialized nations.
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Adviser says health, immigration reform remain priority for Obama
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A White House adviser told people at the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering Feb. 8 that the Obama administration remains committed to passing health care and immigration legislation, despite political setbacks in Congress. Cecilia Munoz, director of intergovernmental affairs at the White House, told more than 200 social ministry workers who made it to Washington despite weather-related travel problems that it will take continued hard work by the faith community to pass health care reform and new immigration policies. Munoz, who started her career working for Catholic Charities in Chicago on immigrant legalization, said the lessons learned in that job continue to shape her approach in the administration. Working to improve the world "one person, one family, one community at a time" as she learned from the church is still a solid way to approach public policy, she said. In a teleconference two days later, a panel of religious leaders and members of Congress described just such an approach toward rallying the religious community to push for immigration reform. Father Jon Pedigo, pastor at St. Julie Billiart Parish in San Jose, Calif., said in the Feb. 10 teleconference that volunteers organized by the church in his city are visiting different parishes, high schools and colleges to talk about the need for immigration reform.
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WORLD
Agencies confront major challenges in mapping aid response in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CNS) -- Aid agencies mapping their responses to best meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of Haitians hurt and left homeless by the powerful Jan. 12 earthquake are facing challenges unlike any encountered in previous natural disasters. Agencies such as Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Internationalis are widely credited for their expertise and rapid response to a variety of emergency situations. But the large-scale destruction in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area and the tremendous number of people in need pose a daunting scenario even for veteran humanitarian workers. Gaye Burpee, deputy regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at CRS, said the challenges are the result of the instability still surrounding the lives of the earthquake victims. Almost a month after the earthquake, aid workers continue to focus on meeting basic emergency needs such as food, water, health care, sanitation and security, leaving little time to consider what next steps to take, Burpee explained. "No one wants to duplicate efforts because there is way more to do than any one agency or government is capable of doing," Burpee told Catholic News Service Feb. 5 at the CRS compound in the capital's Delmas borough. Working in conjunction with Caritas Haiti, Philippe Mougin, senior emergency officer at the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, the development and relief agency of the English and Welsh bishops, said meeting immediate needs has stressed Caritas workers. "This is challenging indeed. It can compare only with the response to the tsunami (in 2004)," Mougin said. "At the minute we're focused on implementing the plan for the emergency response."
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Mexican church officials call for change of strategy in Ciudad Juarez
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Archdiocese of Mexico City has called on the federal government to change its strategy in the ongoing crackdown on organized crime as the death toll nationwide accelerates and increasing numbers of innocent bystanders fall victim to the violence. The admonishment, published Feb. 7 in the archdiocese's publication, Desde la Fe, came in response to the massacre of at least 15 individuals -- mostly teenagers -- at a party Jan. 31 in Ciudad Juarez, where a turf war between rival cartels has turned the city that neighbors El Paso, Texas, into one of the world's most dangerous urban areas. "Violence in Mexico has reached ... dramatic and disturbing limits, particularly in Ciudad Juarez," the editorial read. "The decomposition of the social fabric doesn't just respond to government decisions, nor does its solution simply lie in anti-crime strategies. Global crime prevention programs are urgently needed that range from morals to religion to civics." Father Hesiquio Trevizo, spokesman for the Diocese of Ciudad Juarez, echoed those remarks, telling Catholic News Service a change of strategy is necessary due to the increasing allegations of human rights abuses against the soldiers and police officers patrolling the streets. "The number of deaths hasn't decreased, but instead has increased," Father Trevizo told CNS in a telephone interview.
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Church's care for sick is an invaluable gift to the world, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The pastoral care of the sick and infirm is a priceless gift the church offers to those who suffer, to their families and to the world, Pope Benedict XVI said. Accepting and offering up one's suffering along with sincerely and selflessly participating in the suffering of others are all "miracles of love" --- signs of God's love operating within the church, "performing great things through humble and simple people," the pope said Feb. 11 as he marked World Day of the Sick on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Meeting and blessing sick people and their caregivers during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, the pope said another miracle at work was the presence of God's grace in the many people who care for those who suffer, offering them the courage to face pain and illness "with just the strength of faith and of hope in the Lord." "We live a joy that does not forget suffering, but understands it," he said in his homily. "In this way the ill and those who suffer are, within the church, not just the recipients of care and concern, but first and foremost protagonists in the pilgrimage of faith and hope" embarked upon by all Christians, he added. Before the Mass, a few hundred people -- including many using wheelchairs -- processed down the broad boulevard leading to St. Peter's Basilica. Led by flag twirlers in medieval costume, the procession followed a truck carrying the relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous -- the 19th-century saint who witnessed a number of apparitions of Mary at a grotto outside Lourdes, France. The relics were carried by ushers up the main aisle of St. Peter's Basilica and placed in front of the altar. The Mass was broadcast live to pilgrims gathered at several Marian shrines around the world, including Lourdes, Fatima in Portugal, and Czestochowa in Poland.
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Australian archbishop: Missal will help address theological problems
PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- The newly translated Roman Missal to be issued in Australian parishes in 2011 will help address the serious theological problems of the 1973 missal currently in use, said one of Australia's most senior liturgists. In the process, it will more faithfully implement the liturgical vision of the Second Vatican Council and also fulfill the reforms of the much-maligned 1570 Council of Trent, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn told approximately 200 liturgists gathered in Perth in early February. Archbishop Coleridge is chairman of the Roman Missal Editorial Committee of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy; he is also chair of the Australian bishops' Liturgy Commission. While Archbishop Coleridge acknowledged that the missal used since 1973 has made gains in accessibility, participation, Scripture, adaptation and inculturation, he said it also has "serious problems theologically" and "consistently bleaches out metaphor, which does scant justice to the highly metaphoric discourse" of Scripture and early Christian writers. This is the result of a misunderstanding of Vatican II's reforms, he said. Occasional claims of the Roman Missal revisions being a "merely political right-wing plot of the church" to turn the clock back miss the point of reform and of the purpose of the Mass, which is "a gift from God, not something to be manipulated," he said.
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Vatican officials address difficult conditions of seafarers
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Vatican officials have called for greater church attention to the more than 30 million seafarers around the world, who often live and work in hazardous conditions. Of the 30 million, half are working full time on board fishing vessels under challenging marine conditions that cause high rates of accidents and fatalities, the church experts said. In many countries, fishing is the most hazardous occupation, they said. "Even though seafarers serve daily needs of the planet and habitants, they are almost invisible workers who are often isolated in the port area because of new restrictive rules," said Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers. The restrictions include extremely tight security measures placed on sea workers when they arrive in ports and want to go to shore, Vatican officials said at a meeting Feb. 10 of the Apostleship of the Sea, which operates under the migration council. Archbishop Marchetto said an overriding problem for sea workers today is global fish depletion. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, out of the world's 15 main fishing regions, four are depleted and nine are in decline. "Hundreds of millions of people traditionally dependent on fishing for food and livelihoods face resource depletion, competition from industrial and distant water fleets, and loss of access to traditional marine food supplies," the archbishop said.
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For lunar new year, Hong Kong religious leaders focus on young people
HONG KONG (CNS) -- In a message welcoming the lunar new year, leaders of Hong Kong's major religions called for a focus on the moral education of young people to counter the increasing problems they face. The Colloquium of Six Religious Leaders of Hong Kong issued its message to extend blessings to local people for the Year of the Tiger, which begins Feb. 14, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. In their message, the religious leaders expressed concern for young people "who live in self-indulgence, showing ever-decreasing respect to parents and teachers and lacking in personal virtue." They cited three prevailing social phenomena among teens in Hong Kong: drug addiction, prostitution by teenage girls, and the promotion of mass suicide via the Internet. The message was signed by Catholic Bishop John Tong Hon of Hong Kong; Lutheran Bishop Nicholas Tai Ho-fai, chairman of the Hong Kong Christian Council; and religious leaders of Buddhist, Confucian, Muslim and Taoist associations. The religious leaders attributed the rise in vice and crimes to people distancing themselves from traditional Chinese culture and morality. They called for more educational emphasis on virtues such as piety, fraternal love, fidelity, trustworthiness, courtesy, justice, integrity and modesty.
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Religions see human suffering as mystery, faith as part of answer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The fact that human beings must endure illness, grow old and experience pain in body and spirit is a mystery that all the major religious seek to understand, said speakers at a Vatican conference. Representatives of various faiths who gathered at the Vatican Feb. 9 to discuss the nature of illness and the care of the sick also agreed that faith and spirituality help people find meaning in human suffering and that faith offers a comfort that physical or medical solutions cannot provide. The approach to suffering and pain in the Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic traditions was explored at a conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. The meeting Feb. 9-11 celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of the council by Pope John Paul II in 1985 and his 1984 apostolic letter, "Salvifici Doloris," which addressed the complexities of human suffering. Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the council, said, "It is clear that suffering and pain is always a mystery, and every religion seeks to understand why we must suffer." For Christians, the answer lies in trying to understand the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, said Archbishop Zimowski and other Vatican leaders. Rabbi Gianfranco Di Segni, a biologist and a professor at Rome's rabbinical college, said that in Jewish teaching the reason for suffering is never clear. "There are those who believe that it is the consequence of our actions and those who say our actions are not the cause. In any case, suffering brings on an examination of our conscience, and should be a stimulus to correct our life path by giving, by caring for the sick and doing good works. The point is, we don't understand the why of suffering, or the mystery of pain," he said.
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PEOPLE
Church leaders look at involving new generation in ecumenism
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Getting a new generation involved in ecumenism will require the churches to show them how efforts to build church unity fit in with young people's concerns for a broken world, a young Presbyterian minister told a Vatican symposium. "It is clear ecumenism will be different. It has to be because of globalization," said the Rev. Neal D. Presa, a 33-year-old minister from New Jersey. Rev. Presa was one of the representatives of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches participating in a Vatican symposium Feb. 8-10 to discuss achievements made in ecumenical dialogue and to trace out possibilities for the future of work for Christian unity. Sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the meeting focused on and took its name from "Harvesting the Fruits," a book compiled by Cardinal Walter Kasper, council president. The book summarized the results of 40 years of official Catholic dialogues with the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Methodist Council and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. In an interview Feb. 10 at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, where participants closed their symposium with a prayer service, Rev. Presa said most young people today "are asking why the church even matters." They may be Christians, but denominational membership is not as important to them as involvement in efforts to promote peace, justice, solidarity and care for the environment, he said. "After 9/11 and with all the human suffering that has been magnified after so many events around the world -- economic, environmental, political -- my generation, young people," willingly cross denominational and religious boundaries "in order to work toward a better world," he said.
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