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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Aug-16-2010
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Benedictines sue in federal court for right to sell caskets they make
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Standing behind a simple, cypress casket handcrafted by the monks of St. Joseph Abbey, Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown asked a federal court in New Orleans Aug. 12 to bury a Louisiana law allowing only licensed funeral homes to sell caskets to the public. At stake, Abbot Brown said, is the monks' ability to engage in free enterprise through the sale of the caskets, which range in price from $1,500 to $2,000, but which are considerably less expensive than many of the caskets sold to bereaved families by funeral home operators. The simplicity of the caskets reflects the sacred Christian theology that at the end of life, the body is returned to the earth but the soul lives on, Abbot Brown said. The Benedictines of St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, La., have made the caskets for decades to bury their brother monks, but public interest in the caskets began in the early 1990s and has grown over the years. In 2007 the Benedictines launched St. Joseph Woodworks, headed by Deacon Mark Coudrain, a master woodworker, to begin making caskets to sell to the public. "We are men not only of prayer, but we also are men who have been known to be entrepreneurs, making an honest living by the labor of our own hands," Abbot Brown said. "We are here today because we feel that our right to economic freedom is being denied us.
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Educators, fundraisers help archdiocese carry out new school initiative
ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis said Catholic schools are his first priority in an archdiocese with a long, strong tradition of Catholic education. Few dioceses have as many Catholic schools: By population, St. Louis is the 38th largest diocese in the country, but the seventh largest in Catholic school enrollment. To help that tradition continue and grow, Archbishop Carlson has established a new Mission Advancement Initiative for Catholic education. The multiyear initiative, which is being planned with the help of a team of educators and fundraising professionals, will focus on helping parishes and schools implement the archbishop's vision for Catholic schools. "I believe in Catholic education," Archbishop Carlson told the members of the initiative earlier this summer. "I also believe as archbishop of St. Louis I have a God-given responsibility to do everything I can to help our schools be 'Alive in Christ,'" which was the theme of this year's leadership conference for educators. He said the schools need to be "vibrant centers of faith and learning committed to excellence and to holiness." They must be "available, and affordable, for every Catholic family that desires a Catholic school education for their children," he said, and wherever possible, the archdiocese must offer "this ministry to other (non-Catholic) families who share our values and who want a Catholic school education for their children."
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LCWR members urged to maintain 'hope in the midst of darkness'
DALLAS (CNS) -- Contrasting events of the last year that have both spotlighted the accomplishments of women religious and focused broad attention on challenges facing the Catholic Church, the outgoing president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious urged the organization to maintain hope that the Gospel will guide members to articulate their mission with "inclusive love." Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, called upon the gathering of 750 women religious at the organization's annual assembly in Dallas Aug. 13 to let the world know that "Jesus Christ is the center of our lives." She cited several events since the organization's 2009 gathering in New Orleans that she considered positive: the traveling "Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America" exhibit that highlights the accomplishments of women religious in the United States; the passage of health care reform legislation by Congress in March after women religious supported the bill; and the "courage" of Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, for his recent questioning of the growing centralization of the church's power structure. Sister Marlene contrasted those events with the public disagreement that arose between the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and women religious over the health care legislation, the clergy sexual abuse scandal that expanded around the world and the continuing apostolic visitation of U.S. women religious and the doctrinal assessment of the LCWR. "Amidst all the systemic unrest that these explosive events engender, we have called ourselves to hope in the midst of darkness," Sister Marlene said.
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WORLD
Heaven is found within God's love, pope says
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- Heaven is not a location in the cosmos, but a place within God where those who believe in him will enjoy his love forever, Pope Benedict XVI said. Celebrating an early morning Mass Aug. 15, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the pope said that when the Catholic Church affirms that Mary was taken, body and soul, into heaven, it is not referring "to some place in the universe, a star or something like that." "With the term 'heaven,' we want to affirm that God -- the God who made himself close to us -- does not abandon us even in and beyond death, but he has a place for us and gives us eternity; we want to affirm that within God there is a place for us," the pope said. Pope Benedict celebrated the Mass in the parish Church of St. Thomas, just across the main square from the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo. A few hours after the Mass, he led the recitation of the Angelus prayer with visitors gathered in the courtyard of the villa.
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Lourdes shrine briefly evacuated in response to bomb threat
LOURDES, France (CNS) -- The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, including its chapels and grottos, was evacuated for several hours Aug. 15 following a bomb threat that turned out to be false. Vatican Radio reported that French police received a phone call at 11:39 a.m. saying that four bombs would go off at 3 p.m. at the shrine complex. A police official told the news agency Agence France Presse, "The call came from a phone booth" and the caller, a male, "seemed determined enough" that police decided to evacuate the shrine on the feast of the Assumption of Mary. A police search of the area did not result in any explosives being found and a 4:30 p.m. eucharistic procession was held as planned, the news agency reported. Some 30,000 pilgrims were participating in feast day services at the shrine, but by the time the bomb threat was made, many of the pilgrims already were away from the sanctuary having lunch.
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Archbishop asks Australians to pray legislators safeguard marriage
PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- The vice president of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference asked Catholics to pray that those who will make up the new federal Parliament after the Aug. 21 election will safeguard traditional marriage and not give in to pressure to redefine it. Archbishop Barry J. Hickey of Perth said that while his request and celebration of a special Mass were not political acts, it was important that the church speak out on key matters such as the status of marriage in Australia. He celebrated Mass in Perth's St. Mary's Cathedral Aug. 12, the eve of National Marriage Day, which has been celebrated each year to mark the successful passage of the federal Marriage Amendment Act 2004, which defined marriage as "a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life." His emphasis that his comments and the Mass were not political acts came after he was criticized for meddling in politics by radio callers and in letters to the editor in The West Australian newspaper, which on July 29 said he "questioned the impact" of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's atheism.
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Chinese Catholics use feast of Assumption to pray for mudslide victims
LANZHOU, China (CNS) -- Catholics across China paid tribute during the feast of the Assumption to those who died in a mudslide the previous week. The Aug. 8 mudslide in Zhouqu County, in Gansu province, claimed more than 1,200 lives; nearly 500 people remained missing in mid-August. The Asian church news agency UCA News said the country observed a day of mourning, with national flags flying at half staff and public entertainment suspended Aug. 15. Churches canceled festivities such as fireworks, concerts and children's song and dance performances normally featured during celebrations for the feast of the Assumption. About 1,000 Catholics in Lanzhou Diocese observed a three-minute silence before the inaugural Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church in Jiayuguan. Father John Baptist Yang Zongxue also spoke to churchgoers about conservation; many experts believe the mudslide was caused by deforestation and overdevelopment. He called on the gathering to protect God's creation and refrain from "damaging ecological harmony."
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PEOPLE
Dominicans recall how music man Mitch Miller helped them make a record
NEW YORK (CNS) -- Mitch Miller probably will be remembered best as the man who made America sing along. His 1960s television show, with old favorites performed by a men's chorus as the lyrics appeared on the screen, brought out the crooner in everyone. He produced numerous best-selling albums that came complete with song sheets. But Miller, who died in New York July 31 at age 99, also produced a record that won him a special place in the hearts of a congregation of sisters as benefactor and friend. The story involves an almost chance liaison -- or a providential one -- between the Catholic sisters and Miller, a jovial, successful record executive who was the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his wife. When the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh decided in the early 1960s to cut a record to raise money for the construction of a novitiate and a college building, Miller agreed to help. The record eventually raised $200,000 for the building campaign.
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