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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Sep-2-2010
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Speakers of various faiths offer perspective on N.Y. mosque controversy
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jewish, evangelical and Catholic speakers, some with backgrounds in national security and interfaith relations, called the controversy over plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque a few blocks from ground zero in New York "contrived" and likely to help those who would recruit potential terrorists. "The individuals and organizations who are contriving this controversy seem to will that (a war with Islam) will come into existence," said Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army officer and professor of international relations at Boston University, in a Sept. 1 teleconference organized by the group Faith in Public Life. "It is absolutely imperative that we act together to deny them this." Meanwhile, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal the same day, New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said he was working with Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to identify clerics and laypeople to invite to interreligious discussions to work out conflicts as they occur. "I'm afraid we have maybe not been as energetic with fostering relations with our Islamic brothers and sisters," the Journal quoted the archbishop as saying in an interview. "Our coming together is not to say we can settle the mosque site issue," but "the wider issue of church, Jewish, Islamic tensions." At an impromptu news conference Aug. 18, Archbishop Dolan offered to mediate the dispute over the location of the planned Islamic center. He noted that "as Catholics, we ourselves are somewhat touchy about this issue because in the past we have been discriminated against."
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Bishops offer parents guidelines to opt out of public school programs
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- The California Catholic bishops' conference is alerting parents and guardians of public school children that they have the right to "opt out" of many influences and classes that contradict their family's values -- from instruction in how to perform sexual acts to the ins and outs of witchcraft and the conjuring of spirits. The California Catholic Conference says most parents don't realize they need to specifically fill out a form every year for every child and for every activity they find objectionable. "This is a way to empower parents to get involved," said Ned Dolejsi, Catholic conference executive director. "From Catholic teaching, we understand that parents are the primary teachers of their children." At least nine of every 10 Catholic children in California attend public schools, with the figures even higher for Latino families, which send about 3 percent of their children to parochial schools, according to national statistics. The Catholic Conference guidelines, available at http://cacatholic.org/index.php/topics/education.html, are written in Spanish and in English. Under California law, school districts are permitted to dismiss students in seventh grade and up for "confidential medical services," without parental notification and without logging any absence. Those services can include AIDS testing or treatment, birth control, or abortion.
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More than $600,000 stolen from Des Moines Diocese in bank-related fraud
DES MOINES, Iowa (CNS) -- Thieves electronically stole more than $600,000 from a Diocese of Des Moines bank account on two days in August, the diocese and the bank involved said. As of Sept. 2, $202,000 had been recovered by the bank, according to Anne Marie Cox, director of communications for the diocese. The theft occurred Aug. 13 and 16 after thieves illegally obtained information on the diocesan accounts at Bankers Trust and electronically transferred funds to "numerous recipients" across the United States, the diocese said in a statement Aug. 26. Bankers Trust reported the transfers to the diocese Aug. 17 and diocesan financial officials immediately asked the bank to close the targeted accounts, Cox told Catholic News Service. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the thefts. As part of its probe, FBI agents took several diocesan computers. The diocese is cooperating with federal agents, Cox said. She declined further comment Sept. 2, citing the ongoing investigation.
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WORLD
Israeli president, pope meet, express hopes for Middle East peace deal
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- As the first direct peace talks in two years between Israeli and Palestinian leaders were launched in the United States, Pope Benedict XVI and Israeli President Shimon Peres met in a private audience. The two leaders expressed hopes that the renewal of direct talks in Washington would contribute to the "reaching of an agreement that is respectful of the legitimate aspirations of the two peoples and capable of bringing lasting peace to the Holy Land and the entire region," the Vatican said. The closed-door, 40-minute papal audience at the papal summer residence Sept. 2 was "cordial," the Vatican said in a written statement. Peres also met privately for 30 minutes with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states. "The condemnation of all forms of violence and the necessity of guaranteeing better conditions of life to all the peoples of the area were reaffirmed" during the meetings, the Vatican statement said. Discussions also included the role of interreligious dialogue and "an overview of the international situation," it said. Church-related issues such as an "examination of the relations between the state of Israel and the Holy See and those of the state authorities with the local Catholic communities" were also discussed, the Vatican statement said.
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Pakistani Catholic leaders condemn attacks on Shiites
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNS) -- Church leaders in Pakistan have condemned the triple bombings that killed more than 30 people and injured more than 200 at a Shiite religious ceremony in Lahore. The Asian church news agency UCA News reported that Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore said the bombings, committed as "thousands of flood victims await international support, (were) cowardly." A banned Taliban movement claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings and one grenade attack on Shiites marking the martyrdom of Prophet Ali, one of Shiite Islam's most respected holy men, Sept. 1. "Our purpose was to avenge the murder of one of our leaders murdered a year ago," said Qari Hussain, the movement's leader. In a separate incident the same day in Karachi, seven people were injured when unidentified militants opened fire on Shiite Muslims.
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Plan to burn Quran in Florida draws international condemnation
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A small Florida Protestant church's plan to burn copies of the Quran has drawn international condemnation. The head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, Indonesian religious leaders -- including two Catholic bishops -- and the bishop of St. Augustine, Fla., are among a growing group of faith leaders who have condemned the planned action by the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. The announcement of the planned burning by the 50-member church on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks has captured worldwide attention. The center's leaders said they intend to go ahead with the Quran burning despite being denied a burn permit by the city of Gainesville. The comments from religious leaders came amid a debate about the construction of Islamic centers and mosques throughout the United States. Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, said in a Sept. 1 statement that the plan by the Florida congregation is a "totally insensitive and disrespectful act toward the holy Quran," reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. "This was all the more shocking because such a campaign goes totally contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ," he said.
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Bishops ask South Africa to withdraw bill on state secrets
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- South Africa's bishops have called on the government to withdraw a bill on state secrets, which they say violates the spirit of openness and accountability essential for a healthy democracy. The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference "has serious concerns about the wisdom and the constitutionality of the Protection of Information Bill," which is before South Africa's Parliament in Cape Town, as well as a separate proposed media tribunal, it said in an Aug. 31 statement signed by its spokesman, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban. The bishops share the views of many civil society groups and constitutional experts that the bill threatens fundamental freedoms such as the right "to receive and impart information," to a free press, administrative justice and "access to information held by the state," the statement said. "We believe that the bill violates the spirit of openness and accountability that is so necessary to underpin the constitution's provisions on good governance," it said. Among the bishops' concerns are that the bill allows almost any information to be classified as secret "by officials who are themselves not accountable to the public," that its definition of secrets is so broad that it could be used to keep secret matters that should be accessible to the public, and that "any appeal would be processed" by those who made the original ruling.
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PEOPLE
Comic winner's life turned around after encounter with Jesuit priest
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- On Aug. 9, as television viewers tuned in to find out who would be the 2010 "Last Comic Standing," finalist Felipe Esparza was walking back and forth on an NBC stage, microphone in his right hand. The young man with an Amish-style beard was talking about his Mexican father who liked to patrol the neighborhood for discarded furniture. One day he returned with what young Felipe and his five brothers and one sister thought was the most humongous television set they'd ever seen with a dial that had 500 -- yes, 500 -- channels. "When I got older, it didn't have 500 channels," the stand-up comic deadpanned. "It was a knob from the oven. My favorite channel was 300 degrees. It was a hot show." The TV and online audiences voted Esparza the "Last Comic Standing," awarding him the $250,000 grand prize along with a one-year development deal with NBC. But Esparza's life has not been a laughing matter. He became involved with a gang "just for the drugs," started drinking at 15 and by 19, he said, he was an alcoholic. His mother went to the priest at Dolores Mission, their parish. Jesuit Father Greg Boyle came to the family's house and talked to Esparza, persuading him to turn in a weapon and telling him about a drug treatment center that had helped other youths. Esparza wound up staying at the center for more than a year and returned for another six months as a volunteer. While he was going through the 12-step program, the priest offered encouragement. Now, Esparza said he has been sober for more than 12 years, and he believes his time in the center helped him to realize what his dreams were.
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