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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Mar-29-2010
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Hilton fund honored for support of ministries of women religious
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters received the 2010 Charles Carroll Award from the Catholic philanthropic community for its support of the worldwide ministries of women religious. The award is conferred annually by the board of directors of the Washington-based Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities. Known as FADICA, it is an organization of private foundations and major donors that works to strengthen Catholic philanthropy. The Hilton fund, honored earlier this year at a dinner during FADICA's annual meeting in Florida, was established in 1986 by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation as an independent organization run by women religious. Sister Joyce Meyer, a member of Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has been the fund's executive director for the past 10 years. Hilton, an international business pioneer who founded Hilton Hotels, left his fortune to the foundation to help the world's most disadvantaged and vulnerable people, and in his last will and testament directed its board to support the work of women religious as he had throughout his life.
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New York's old cathedral elevated to status of minor basilica
NEW YORK (CNS) -- St. Patrick's Old Cathedral in lower Manhattan, which is both an active parish and a landmark of New York archdiocesan history, has been named a minor basilica. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan announced the designation at the Mass he celebrated on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, at the old church's successor, St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan. Dedication ceremonies will take place on a date to be announced. "It's very exciting," Msgr. Donald Sakano, the pastor, said in an interview with Catholic New York, the archdiocesan newspaper. He said the new title recognizes the old cathedral's history as well as its commitment to service now and in the future. A church designated as a minor basilica must be a center of active and pastoral liturgy with a vibrant Catholic community and may have unique historical, artistic or religious importance.
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WORLD
As rains arrive, CRS eyes new shelter strategies for homeless Haitians
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With the rainy season on the doorstep in Haiti, Isaac Boyd, an emergency shelter expert for Catholic Relief Services, and a coalition of relief agencies from around the world are trying to tackle the impossible. Their focus is on getting the hundreds of thousands of people who remain homeless after the Jan. 12 earthquake into better housing, even if it is nothing more than a sturdy tent on safe ground. The rainy season peaks in May, but sporadic drenching rains already are occurring, turning many of the temporary tent camps around Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, into muddy quagmires. Boyd and some of the world's leading emergency shelter experts fear the flimsy shelters that people now call home will be inundated by the soon-to-come daily downpours, compounding an already taxing humanitarian crisis. So the experts are scrambling to identify alternatives. The situation is worsened because the devastation was so widespread in the capital region, leaving few safe structures for people to occupy.
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Vatican intensifies defense of pope on sex abuse decisions
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican and other church officials have amplified their defense of Pope Benedict XVI and his decisions regarding priestly sex abuse, and rejected accusations of a continued cover-up of such crimes. After a series of reports in the New York Times and other media criticizing the pope for alleged "inaction" on sex abuse cases, Vatican authorities emphasized that it was the pope who, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pushed for harsher measures against abusers and made it easier for the church to defrock them. On March 27, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran the full texts of two landmark documents that in 2001 placed the sexual abuse of minors by priests among the most grave sins, and established that allegations be handled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Ratzinger. The same day, the newspaper ran a front-page commentary by British Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster that had appeared in the Times of London, expressing shame over priestly sex abuse but strongly defending the pope's efforts to curb it. "What of the role of Pope Benedict? When he was in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he led important changes made in church law: the inclusion in canon law of Internet offenses against children, the extension of child abuse offenses to include the sexual abuse of all under 18, the case by case waiving of the statute of limitations and the establishment of a fast-track dismissal from the clerical state for offenders," Archbishop Nichols wrote.
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Mexican clergy in trafficking areas won't change Holy Week activities
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- Catholic officials in some of the regions hit hardest by the violence attributed to narcotics-trafficking cartels said they have no plans to alter or cancel Holy Week events. They also called on Catholics to work toward spiritual renewal during Holy Week, instead of dedicating the popular Mexican vacation period to leisure activities. Archbishop Felipe Aguirre Franco of Acapulco -- the destination for hoards of Mexico City residents during Holy Week -- called on visitors to the coastal city to "not fall into excesses (and) not participate in pagan festivals and drunkenness that, instead of honoring the passion and death of Christ, desecrate the sacred and truly Holy Week." Palm Sunday activities kicked off Holy Week as violence attributed to the cartels escalated. The death toll has reached nearly 2,400 so far this year, the Mexico City newspaper Reforma reported, and innocent bystanders increasingly have been caught in the conflict. In Acapulco, which has a population of about 725,000, 32 deaths were recorded during the three-day weekend ending March 15. The head of one decapitated victim was left in front of a parish. Still, Father Juan Carlos Flores, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Acapulco, said Holy Week activities would proceed as planned. In the northern city of Monterrey, Catholic officials also said they would not cancel Holy Week events, even though the region has been plagued by events such as presumed cartel members hijacking vehicles to block expressways and the early morning deaths of two graduate students as soldiers chased criminals cutting through the campus of an elite university. In Ciudad Juarez, where the violence has been most intense, the diocese planned a normal schedule of Holy Week events, although some of the hours were adjusted to coincide with daylight hours, said Father Hesiquio Trevizo, diocesan spokesman.
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Christ's passion is model for Christian pilgrimage, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass for 50,000 people at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI said the passion of Christ is a model for every Christian's spiritual pilgrimage through life. Following Christ is not easy, the pope said March 28. It's an uphill path that often goes against contemporary trends. "People can choose the easy way and avoid every hardship. The can descend toward the bottom, the vulgar. They can sink in the swamp of lies and dishonesty. Jesus walks ahead of us, and goes toward the heights," he said. The papal liturgy, celebrated in St. Peter's Square on a beautiful spring day, began with a procession led by an international group of young people, who carried palm and olive branches in commemoration of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem a few days before his passion and death. The pope, who turns 83 in April, rode in a white jeep to the altar, holding a garland of braided palm fronds. It was the first of nine Holy Week events for the pontiff and it came as he and other church officials faced questions and criticism from some quarters for their handling of the priestly sex abuse crisis.
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Christians from around globe join Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Christian pilgrims from around the globe waved palm fronds, banners and flags and sang in their native languages as they joined local Christians in the traditional Palm Sunday procession in Jerusalem. The procession slowly wound its way down from the Mount of Olives and into the Old City March 28. Christians from Germany, Puerto Rico, Italy, Sweden, and India as well as local Muslim residents lined the streets taking pictures, then joined the procession. Christians from the West Bank had to apply to the Israeli Civil Administration for special travel permits to enter Jerusalem. "It is not pleasant," said Osama Saleh, 50, a Catholic who traveled for three hours from the West Bank village of Zababdeh with his wife, Fadwah, 47, and their three children. "It took us a long time because we had to go through checkpoints," he said, "but we come here every year."
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PEOPLE
Pope John Paul was model of untiring love, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II was a model of untiring love for God and for all men and women, Pope Benedict XVI said as he celebrated a memorial Mass for his predecessor. "The entire life of the venerable John Paul II unfolded under the sign of this love, this ability to give himself generously without reserve, without measure and without calculation," Pope Benedict said March 29 during his homily at the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. The Mass was celebrated in advance of the fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul's death April 2, because the date fell on Good Friday this year. Using the Mass readings for March 29, Pope Benedict said Pope John Paul had many of the same traits as the "suffering servant" described in the reading from the Book of Isaiah. "The servant acts with indestructible firmness, with an energy that does not lessen until he has realized the task he was assigned," the pope said. "He presents himself with the strength of his convictions and it will be the Holy Spirit that God places in him who gives him the ability to act with meekness and strength, assuring his success in the end."
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Pope brings African-American foundress one step closer to sainthood
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI advanced the sainthood cause of Mother Henriette Delille, a freeborn woman of African descent in 19th-century New Orleans, declaring that she had lived a life of "heroic virtues." By signing the decree March 27, the pope confirmed the recommendations of Vatican authorities who have studied the cause for several years. She can be beatified once a miracle is attributed to her intercession. If her cause advances, she could become the first African-American saint. Pope Benedict also approved the decrees of three martyrs: a Romanian bishop, a German priest and a Slovenian lay member of Catholic Action who were killed for their faith in the last century. In 1842 Mother Henriette founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, a congregation of black sisters that cared for the poor and disadvantaged and taught slaves and free blacks. This was during a time under Louisiana law when doing anything to "disturb" black people -- in other words, educate them -- could be punished by death or life imprisonment. Today, the congregation's more than 200 members operate schools for the poor and homes for the elderly in Louisiana and several other states. They also have a mission in Belize.
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Archbishop says coverage of 'horror' of abuse needed but must be fair
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York told Catholics March 28 that the "tidal wave of headlines" about the sexual abuse of minors in Europe and new stories about an old case in Wisconsin have "knocked us to our knees once again." "Anytime this horror, vicious sin and nauseating crime is reported, as it needs to be, victims and their families are wounded again, the vast majority of faithful priests bow their heads in shame anew, and sincere Catholics experience another dose of shock, sorrow and even anger," he said at the end of Palm Sunday Mass. "What deepens the sadness now is the unrelenting insinuations against the Holy Father himself, as certain sources seem frenzied to implicate the man who, perhaps more than anyone else has been the leader in purification, reform and renewal that the church so needs," he said. After a series of reports in the New York Times and other media criticizing the pope for alleged "inaction" on sex abuse cases, Vatican authorities emphasized that it was Pope Benedict XVI, who, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pushed for harsher measures against abusers and made it easier for the church to defrock them.
END
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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