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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Jul-30-2010
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Church process on closed Boston parishes ends, but protests continue
BRAINTREE, Mass. (CNS) -- Although the Archdiocese of Boston has received official word from the Vatican denying the appeals of nine churches shuttered by the archdiocese in 2004, round-the-clock protests continue at several of the churches. In a July 15 statement, archdiocesan spokesman Terry Donilon said the archdiocese has received Vatican decrees regarding the appeals of the parishes -- St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Scituate, St. Jeremiah in Framingham, St. Anselm in Sudbury, Our Lady of Lourdes in Revere, Infant Jesus-St. Lawrence in Brookline, Star of the Sea in Squantum, St. Michael in Lynn, Ste. Jeanne d'Arc in Lowell, and St. James the Greater in Wellesley. A 10th parish did not appeal. "While our initial review of the decrees appears to confirm that the Apostolic Signatura has affirmed the earlier decision of the Congregation of the Clergy regarding these closed parishes we look forward to a formal review of the translated text (from Latin to English)," Donilon's statement said in part. Peter Borre, co-chairman of the Council of Parishes, a group formed to appeal the closures, said in May that he had learned of the content of the Vatican decrees. However, Donilon said at that time that the archdiocese had not received the official decrees, and deferred comment until it possessed the decrees from Rome. The Vatican's decision means the process the archdiocese used to close the parishes complied with canon law, leaving the parishes with no other recourse within the church. After the closings, the Council of Parishes appealed unsuccessfully to the archdiocese and then took the case to the Vatican.
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Financial reform provides benchmarks for a just and stable economy
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Now that financial reform legislation has been signed into law, the focus is shifting to ensure that the legislation works as intended. In the minds of financial reform proponents, that means adopting strong rules that allow government agencies to carry out their now-mandated watchdog role, protect average people in their financial transactions and end the casino mentality they say dominated markets before the worldwide economic free fall started in late 2007. Michael Masters, portfolio manager for Master Capital Management, and Oblate Father Seamus Finn, director of social justice for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and a leader within the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, are planning to take a simple message to the rule-makers in government and to leaders in the financial sector: Markets must work for everyone. "You don't need some crafty Wall Street lawyer ... to eviscerate what Congress intended to do," Masters told Catholic News Service. Both Masters and Father Finn were part of a coalition of 450 organizations that included consumer groups, social justice advocates and various industry trade organizations that pushed for the reform measures. In the end, they were pleased by the law's final language. One of the major reforms in the 2,330-page Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires greater transparency in the trading of derivatives, a financial instrument whose value is linked to the expected future price movements of the asset to which it is linked. The opaqueness of the derivatives market before reform is widely blamed for the near collapse of the banking industry in 2008.
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Salesian ministries in Haiti recovering, but much remains to be done
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Describing the devastation in Haiti after last January's earthquake, Salesian Father Mark Hyde compared the scene to what he had witnessed a year earlier. Visiting Salesian schools in February 2009 as director of Salesian Missions, based in New Rochelle, Father Hyde saw "thousands of children all over the place, having fun, going to classes." Older students were enrolled in teacher training and other professional programs. Having seen campuses bursting with life last year, he said that when he returned shortly after the quake, it was all the more difficult to look upon "all that rubble, no children around, the desolation." Salesian Missions has been given responsibility for coordinating all Salesian mission efforts for Haiti worldwide. Father Hyde went back to Haiti in April and again in July, and he's about to return for another visit. There is still an enormous amount of work to do, but the scene is more hopeful. Several Salesians are living in a temporary residence that was under construction in April but is now finished. Temporary classrooms have been completed and painted, and "they're looking very spiffy," Father Hyde said in an interview with Catholic New York, archdiocesan newspaper. They have been equipped with chalkboards, desks, stools and wooden benches, and 3,000 children are attending classes, he said.
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Trustees back pastor's decision not to sell convent to Muslim group
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The board of trustees of St. Margaret Mary Parish on Staten Island backed the pastor in his decision to withdraw support for the planned sale of the parish convent to the Muslim American Society, which wanted to use it as a mosque. Father Keith Fennessy had announced in June that after careful consideration, he was withdrawing his support. The parish trustees voted July 21 to ratify the pastor's decision. News of the proposed sale to the Muslim group had sparked protests in the community of Midland Beach, where the parish is located. Residents said the mosque would cause traffic and parking problems and was not suitable for the neighborhood. Many also expressed fear that the Muslim American Society was linked to a terrorist group. A July 22 statement from the archdiocese said that "the Muslim American Society has been informed that the sale of the convent will not take place." The statement said that the archdiocese "has enjoyed a good relationship with the Islamic community in the past, and looks forward to continued dialogue, friendship and understanding in the future. It is also our prayer that unity will now return to the parish and to the Midland Beach community," said the statement. The Muslim American Society, in a statement, said it was "disappointed" by the decision, which "reinforced an unfortunate notion that the pressures of bigotry and Islamophobia triumphed over a good, long-standing relationship between the archdiocese and the Muslim community."
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WORLD
Pope says faith creates joy, even in midst of suffering
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Even when the Catholic Church suffers, "faith creates joy," Pope Benedict XVI said after previewing a German television film about his first five years in office. The film, "Five Years of Pope Benedict XVI," was produced by the Bavarian network Bayerischer Rundfunk and is scheduled for a Christmas season broadcast in Germany and Austria. After watching the film July 29 at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict said it allowed him to experience again some of the most important events of his pontificate, which began in April 2005. "Personally, it was very moving to see certain moments, especially the moment when the Lord placed the Petrine service on my shoulders, a weight that no one could ever carry alone with just his own strength; it can be carried only because the Lord carries us, carries me," he said. The music-loving pontiff said he also appreciated the filmmakers' decision to use Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" -- the "Ode to Joy" -- as the soundtrack because it expresses the joy of redemption. "Even today, although the church may suffer much ... it is a joyful church," he said.
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Conversion: Ancient prison went from pagan to sacred Christian site
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Tradition holds that St. Peter was jailed in Rome's maximum security Mamertine Prison before he was crucified upside down and buried on the hill where St. Peter's Basilica was later built. And now after recent excavations in Rome's oldest prison, archaeologists say they have uncovered evidence that, while not providing direct proof, does support that belief. The prison, which lies beneath the Church of St. Joseph of the Carpenters facing the Roman Forum, was closed for the past year as experts dug up old floors and picked away plaster. They found and restored a 14th-century fresco of Jesus with his arm around a smiling St. Peter and an 11th-century fresco of Jesus with the oldest known image of the Campidoglio, Rome's city hall, behind him. Patrizia Fortini from the city of Rome's department of archaeological heritage led the excavation and restoration project. She told journalists July 27 they found proof that the site had been a place for venerating St. Peter by the seventh century, lending support to historical accounts that he had been incarcerated there. The prison has two levels: the upper chamber called the "Carcer" and the lower chamber called the "Tullianum," which was built in the sixth century B.C. In the Tullianum, Fortini said, they found "traces of a basin that must have been where water was collected -- water which, according to tradition, sprang forth after St. Peter pounded on the stone floor."
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Priest overseeing Miles Jesu says founder was erratic, authoritarian
ROME (CNS) -- The ousted founder of the Miles Jesu Catholic community, begun in Arizona in 1964, "presented erratic behavior totally beyond the scope of the powers given to him," said the priest appointed to guide the community as it writes a new constitution. U.S. Father Barry Fischer, a former superior of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, was appointed "commissary" of Miles Jesu in March 2009 and given full authority over the community, which includes consecrated laymen and laywomen. In a statement posted July 28 on the Miles Jesu website, Father Fischer said the community's founder, Spanish-born Father Alfonso Duran, was removed as superior general in 2007 "due to serious mental and physical health problems. Almost at the same time, 13 members of Miles Jesus presented a request for an investigation into the institute, indicating in their request alleged irregularities in the practices of Miles Jesu," he said. The investigation was authorized by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, then-papal vicar of Rome, and by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Father Fischer's statement was released just five days after the public release of Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Italian Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, appointing him papal delegate over the Legionaries of Christ with far-reaching authority as members. The Legionaries are rewriting their constitution after revelations that their founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado abused seminarians and fathered children.
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Brazil's bishops say prison torture still exists, goes unpunished
TORONTO (CNS) -- Twenty-five years after Brazil's military dictatorship, there is still torture in Brazilian jails, and it still goes unpunished. A report to be released Aug. 2 by the Brazilian bishops' prison ministry commission will bring to light 211 cases of torture, said the commission coordinator, Father Valdir Joao Silveira. However, the real number of torture cases is much bigger. "We don't have the exact numbers, but you can multiply that by five," Father Silveira told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview. The 211 cases featured in the prison ministry report to the government were uncovered in pastoral visits to prisons, complaints by families and letters from victims. In some cases, prison workers reported the torture. "It's impossible to know the exact number of torture cases because this practice happens where there's only the torturer and the tortured (present). This is why the constant presence of an external organism is fundamental," Brother Jose de Jesus Filho, legal assistant to the prison ministry commission, said in a statement. The 211 cases were all verified and turned over to authorities for legal action between 1997 and 2009. However, most of the perpetrators were acquitted in the judicial process. The bishops want the government to implement the U.N. Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Even though the federal government has signed the U.N. conventions, they have yet to be ratified by Brazil's state governments. Under Brazil's Constitution, the international law is not binding in Brazil until state governments vote to ratify the protocol.
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Easy access to drugs trivializes abortion, says Vatican official
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Promoting easy access to RU-486 and other drugs that induce abortion risks trivializing the termination of a pregnancy, said the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Commercializing abortion medication can turn "an unwanted pregnancy into being almost like an annoying cold to be gotten ridden of with a pill," Msgr. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula told the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in an interview published July 30. The Spanish monsignor, who is also a medical doctor, recalled working in Armenia after the 1998 earthquake. He said many of the women patients he worked with had already had more than 20 abortions and that "for them abortion had become like having a coffee." Such a blase attitude "is a serious phenomenon" that could easily spread to other parts of Europe, he said. However, indiscriminate use of the abortion pill may increase the number of women who experience post-abortion syndrome, he said. Msgr. Carrasco, who was named head of the life academy in June, said scholars are working on a document focusing on the psychological and emotional aftereffects of abortion because "it is certain that abortion, beside killing an innocent person, weighs heavily on the conscience of the woman who resorts to one." The academy will study the impact and nature of the syndrome more in-depth and release its findings and recommendations in a document by October 2011, he said. "When abortion is being talked about, unfortunately, it triggers many issues that always spark a heated debate, sometimes even within the Catholic world," he added.
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Bishops, others push Kenyans to vote against proposed constitution
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Kenyan Christian leaders -- including the nation's Catholic bishops -- urged citizens to vote against the proposed constitution, saying it "takes away your sovereignty, now and forever. The proposed constitution in its current form is not good for the country," they said. After an ecumenical prayer service at Nairobi's Holy Family Minor Basilica July 30, more than 20 Christian leaders issued a statement calling upon "each and every Kenyan to turn up in large numbers, to exercise their democratic right to vote, and to display their patriotism for our country and convincingly vote no to this flawed proposed constitution." About 12 million Kenyans are expected to vote in the Aug. 4 constitutional referendum. The bishops repeatedly have opposed the draft on the grounds that it could legalize abortion and allow for the entrenchment of Islamic courts. "The proposed constitution does not safeguard the sacredness of human life, the sound and moral education of our children and religious equality," said the Christian leaders' statement. The document would keep abortion illegal but includes exceptions if, "in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law." The document also limits the powers of the Kenyan presidency and includes sections on judicial reform, land reform and an end to impunity.
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Belfast bishop calls for international inquiry into 1971 killings
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNS) -- The Catholic bishop in Belfast has called for an international inquiry into the 1971 killing of 11 Catholic civilians by British soldiers. Belfast Catholics have long described the incident as a massacre. Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor, the diocese based in Belfast, made the call as the church released previously unpublished eyewitness accounts of the events that left a mother of eight children among the dead. Father Hugh Mullan, who was tending to a dying man when he was shot, was among those killed. The accounts were compiled by a local priest in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy but were forgotten and remained hidden in church archives for almost 40 years. Bishop Treanor highlighted the fact that many of the soldiers involved in the Belfast shootings were involved in the killing of 13 unarmed civil rights marchers in the Bloody Sunday massacre just six months later in Londonderry. An independent report published June 16 found those killings had been unlawful, and British Prime Minister David Cameron issued an apology. In the Aug. 9-11, 1971, Belfast incident, the troops claimed they opened fire after being shot at. Survivors have always disputed this contention, and none of these who died was armed. Bishop Treanor insisted the inquiry should lead to "the British government offering a comprehensive apology and recognition of the innocence of those who were killed."
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PEOPLE
Philippine bishop says he won't investigate priest who served in Kansas
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- A Philippine bishop said he would not launch an investigation into allegations of sex abuse of a diocesan priest "based on hazy and unverified reports from the Internet." In May, the Diocese of Dodge City, Kan., gave an update on abuse allegations as required under diocesan policy and the U.S. bishops' "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." In its update, it listed "credible allegations" against Father Orestes Huerta and two other priests and said announcements were made in parishes in which the priests used to serve. "Any allegations involving priests who have served in another diocese have been communicated to that diocese as well," said a statement on the diocesan website. But the Asian church news agency UCA News reported July 30 that Bishop Reynaldo Evangelista of Boac defended Father Huerta, who is now in his 60s and lives in the pastoral center, which has quarters for the bishop and other priests. The allegations are from about 20 years ago, when Father Huerta served temporarily in the Dodge City Diocese. "I have received nothing from Kansas," UCA News quoted Bishop Evangelista as saying. "No communication about this addressed to me or the chancellor has reached us. I only learned about the charges from an Internet news alert."
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Catholic professor reinstated by University of Illinois for fall term
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Catholic professor barred from teaching courses on Catholicism after he defended in class the church's teaching on homosexual behavior has been reinstated by the University of Illinois. Kenneth Howell, an adjunct professor in the university's religious studies department, learned of the decision July 29. He did not return phone calls from Catholic News Service seeking comment. The reinstatement came days after a deadline for suing the university set by the Alliance Defense Fund, which had taken on Howell's case. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., the alliance is a nonprofit Christian legal defense organization specializing in religious liberty, sanctity of life and protection of family issues. Attorney Jordan Lorance, part of the alliance's legal team working on Howell's case, told CNS the university's decision came as a surprise. He charged that the university had violated Howell's First Amendment right of free speech by firing him. "The matter is resolved for the moment and we'll be watching to make sure this is a long-term resolution to the matter," Lorance said, noting that Howell's teaching status for the spring semester is unknown. Howell was dismissed in May following the spring term after a student described as "hate speech" his explanation of the church's teaching that homosexual acts are morally wrong. The reinstatement was announced in a press release from Robin Neal Kaler, the university's associate chancellor for public affairs. The release said Howell will be on the university's payroll when he teaches "Introduction to Catholicism" this fall.
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