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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Aug-27-2010
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Gulf Coast slowly rebuilds five years after Hurricane Katrina
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Five years after the devastating effects of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, rebuilding efforts are still very much a work in progress. Many, but not all, Gulf Coast residents have returned and although many homes and buildings have been rebuilt, more still needs to be done. Amid the ongoing recovery, many exasperated locals say they just want to move on, especially as the nation remembers the five-year anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast Aug. 29, and Hurricane Rita, which made landfall in Texas and Louisiana Sept. 24. Moving past the collective grief and frustration of Katrina is the impetus behind a scheduled ecumenical service at Our Lady of Prompt Succor Parish in Chalmette, La., Aug. 28 dubbed "a funeral for Katrina." The church is located in the largest city in St. Bernard's Parish, a civil entity just east of New Orleans that was almost entirely flooded from the breached levees and has yet to completely recover. According to U.S. Census Bureau reports, the region is only half as populated as it was before the storm. New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond and other religious and community leaders were to direct the service where participants will be invited to write their feelings on strips of paper and toss them into a casket. After the service, the casket will be loaded into a horse-drawn vehicle and a high school jazz band will lead the funeral procession to the local cemetery to place the coffin in a newly built Katrina memorial vault. A parish bulletin announcement of the event said: "It is time to move on with our lives and put Katrina to final rest. Many of us have already moved on, and the community is experiencing renewal and much growth."
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Virginia couple works to bring people's vocations dreams to fruition
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- People who choose to enter the religious life often say God called them to their vocation. But student debt sometimes stops them from answering the call. Religious orders are reluctant to accept candidates who have substantial debt. That means many people are faced with the possibility that their dreams might be put on hold. Corey Huber and his wife, Katherine, operate the Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations, a public charity based in northern Virginia that helps aspiring religious faced with deferring their dreams in the face of debt. Originally established as a private foundation after Corey Huber retired from America Online, where he had worked as a programmer, the fund issued more than 30 grants between 2004 and 2006. In August 2006, the Hubers morphed the fund into a public charity to increase its granting capacity. Currently, the fund has 62 active grants at an annual cost of about $120,500. But the Hubers said more donations are needed to make more vocation dreams come true. "People really need to back off from all the 'gee, what a stupid thing to do' and 'maybe you shouldn't have done that,'" Huber said about some people's views about grant applicants who have accumulated huge debt. "We shouldn't view it as something to complain about; we should view it as, 'This is a way we can help God get this person into religious life.'"
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Group assesses Agent Orange's impact 35 years after Vietnam War's end
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A group of 10 interreligious figures who visited Vietnam in late spring said the toxic, corrosive effects of Agent Orange still jeopardize the Vietnamese people 35 years after the war's end. Traveling as the Agent Orange in Vietnam Information Initiative, the group said money is still needed to clean up "hot spots" in Vietnam where dioxin, the key ingredient in Agent Orange, persists in concentrations hundreds of times what is thought to be the safe maximum. In Da Nang, site of a U.S. airbase during the war, "the stench (from Agent Orange) was burning to our nostrils," said the Rev. Carroll Baltimore, president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention. "We had to purchase throwaway shoes to protect us from being contaminated," he added, calling the situation "overwhelming." Loretto Sister Maureen Fiedler, during an Aug. 26 conference call with reporters, recalled having seen dozens of children whose disabilities were thought to be caused by Agent Orange, as dioxin is believed to affect the genes of those who have ingested it. "Dozens and dozens of them (children with disabilities). They were severely disabled. While no one can specifically connect Agent Orange with a specific disability, there is a correlation," said Sister Fiedler, host of the syndicated "Interfaith Voices" radio show. Agent Orange was used by U.S. forces in Vietnam between 1965 and 1970. A chemical defoliant, it was sprayed from planes to eliminate ground cover for North Vietnamese soldiers and to reduce reliance on subsistence crops.
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New Yorkers protest refusal to light building to honor Mother Teresa
NEW YORK (CNS) -- More than 1,000 people dressed in blue and white filled a cordoned traffic lane across from the Empire State Building Aug. 26 to protest the decision of the building's owner to deny a request to illuminate the upper floors in honor of the 100th birthday of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. The event, organized by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, featured a melange of local political, religious and entertainment personalities who addressed the crowd from a podium set on the back of a flatbed truck. Since 1976, the top 30 floors of the Empire State Building have been lit regularly with colored lights to mark national holidays and recognize events as diverse as home team World Series victories, the death of Pope John Paul II, the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and the DVD release of "The Simpson's Movie." Catholic League president Bill Donohue said his application to bathe the tower in blue and white lights, the colors associated with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, was turned down in May without explanation after he was given verbal assurances that it would be accepted. He said he then launched a worldwide campaign to protest the "indefensible decision."
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WORLD
Planning, protocol and pluralism: British ambassador prepares for pope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The life of an ambassador to the Vatican is filled with meetings, liturgies, conferences, reports and social events. About a dozen members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican seem to be everywhere -- at every papal event, every big conference and even at the lectures of guest speakers at pontifical universities. Francis Campbell, the British ambassador to the Vatican, is one member of the group of diplomats who seem to spend every afternoon and evening running from a meeting to a conference and then on to a reception or dinner party. Somehow, despite the busyness, he and at least one other member of the diplomatic corps find time to plan fairly elaborate practical jokes to play on their colleagues and on journalists. But for the past year, he has had what he described as being almost another full-time job: preparing for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Great Britain Sept. 16-19. At its most basic level, the job of an ambassador is to explain his home government to his host government and explain his host government to his own bosses. Obviously, the people who read his regular reports to London know what the Vatican is, who the pope is and what the main issues of mutual concern are. But a lot more people from various sectors of government and civil society are involved in a papal visit -- in setting the schedule, inviting the guests and organizing security -- and it's the ambassador's job to make sure all of them are up to speed on the relationship between the British government and the Vatican.
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Cardinal encourages Catholics, Muslims to overcome violence
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As Muslims around the world prepare to celebrate the end of their monthlong Ramadan fast, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran encouraged Catholics and Muslims to work together in overcoming violence among followers of different religions. Cardinal Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said it was important that teachers and religious leaders work together to promote peace and harmony in their communities. The message, released Aug. 27 at the Vatican, was issued in 31 different languages. It was addressed to Muslims around the world to mark the end of Ramadan on or around Sept. 10. Cardinal Tauran noted that many believers of other religions, especially Christians, have been "spiritually close" to their Muslim neighbors during Ramadan and have engaged in "friendly meetings which often lead to exchanges of a religious nature." Unfortunately, violence among people belonging to different religious communities is an urgent concern in some parts of the world, the cardinal wrote. Civil and religious authorities, he said, need to help remedy the root causes of this violence "for the sake of the common good of all society."
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Catholic newspaper becomes Poland's top-selling weekly
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A national Catholic newspaper has become Poland's top-selling weekly, outstripping its secular competitors. Gosc Niedzielny (Sunday Guest), a 92-page tabloid owned by the Archdiocese of Katowice, was confirmed Aug. 23 as the country's highest-circulation weekly with more than 144,000 copies. Father Tomasz Jaklewicz, deputy editor, told Catholic News Service Aug. 26 that the paper had benefited from a vigorous chief editor, Father Marek Gancarczyk, and youthful editorial team, as well as from support by Catholic parishes nationwide. He said the staff had made sure the paper is "contemporary and up-to-date in form and content and addresses the issues most preoccupying people here in an open, approachable way." ZKDP, the association that controls Poland's press distribution, said Gosc Niedzielny, which runs local editions in half of the country's 34 Catholic dioceses, had boosted sales by 5.5 percent in the past year, overtaking its nearest secular rival, Polityka, whose circulation fell by 2 percent to 142,000. Father Jaklewicz said Gosc Niedzielny offered a positive sign to counter media claims that the Polish Catholic Church faced decline with falling priestly vocations and Mass attendance. "Although the church has its problems and weaknesses, there are many good, hopeful things happening as well," he said.
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Pope calls for greater tolerance as Gypsies are deported from France
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- As France continues its campaign to repatriate foreign-born Gypsies, Pope Benedict XVI called for greater acceptance of cultural differences and urged parents to teach their children tolerance. Speaking in French to pilgrims gathered in the courtyard of the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo Aug. 22, the pope said the day's Scriptures were "an invitation to learn how to accept legitimate differences among human beings, just like Jesus came to unite men and women from every nation and every language." After praying the Angelus, he urged families to teach tolerance. "Dear parents, may you be able to educate your children about universal fraternity," he said in French. The pope's invitation came amid a government-led campaign to expel foreign-born Roma, or Gypsies, from France and dismantle illegal camps. French Immigration Minister Eric Besson said that by Aug. 31, approximately 950 Roma from 88 camps would have been sent back to Romania and Bulgaria. The expulsions were part of a voluntary repatriation program in which the government paid each adult about $380 and each child about $130 to return to his or her country of origin, even though the Gypsies are members of the European Union. The French government, however, demands that the Gypsies have work permits and prove they are able to support themselves.
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PEOPLE
Catholic, Protestant bishops lead aid convoy to Pakistani flood victims
MULTAN, Pakistan (CNS) -- A Pakistani Catholic bishop and his Protestant counterpart led a convoy of food and bottled water to southern Punjab province, where five districts are submerged under floodwaters. The Asian church news agency UCA News reported that Bishop Andrew Francis of Multan and Anglican Bishop Alexander Malik of Lahore began their trip Aug. 26 with a prayer at the Cathedral of the Holy Redeemer, Multan, before traveling more than 100 miles south to a camp for survivors in Khan Bela. Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti also joined the convoy with an additional six trucks of relief items. "This is our diocese. We have seen death with our own eyes in visits to flood-hit areas," Bishop Francis told flood victims on their arrival. "We came through these deadly waters to bring you food and show you that we care." Bishop Malik said: "We are all Pakistanis and stand together amid this crisis." The two bishops then went among the many tents to give out relief packages to survivors.
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Nun killed, US ambassador to Malta, priest injured in L.A. accident
CALABASAS, Calif. (CNS) -- A Sister of St. Louis was killed and the retired pastor of a Malibu parish was severely injured when a car driven by Douglas Kmiec, U.S. ambassador to Malta, crashed into a drainage ditch in Southern California Aug. 25. Sister Mary Campbell, 74, who was well known at Our Lady of Malibu Parish and taught at the parish school, was dead at the scene, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said. Msgr. John Sheridan, 94, pastor emeritus of the parish, underwent emergency surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles soon after the accident. He was in critical but stable condition Aug. 27. Kmiec, 58, on leave as a law professor at Pepperdine University, remained hospitalized, but information about his condition was not available. The highway patrol said the vehicle was westbound on Mulholland Highway at about 1:30 p.m. when it drifted onto a dirt shoulder and then hit a drainage ditch. Both Kmiec and Msgr. Sheridan, who was seated in the front of the 2009 Hyundai Accent, were wearing seatbelts, but Sister Mary in the back seat was not, the highway patrol said.
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