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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Oct-17-2011
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Bishop Finn, diocese plead not guilty to failure to report child abuse
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CNS) -- Bishop Robert W. Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which he heads, entered pleas of not guilty to misdemeanor charges of failure to report child abuse. The charges, brought by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker in relation to the diocese's handling of the case of Father Shawn Ratigan, were acknowledged in an Oct. 14 statement on the diocesan website. "Bishop Finn denies any criminal wrongdoing and has cooperated at all stages with law enforcement, the grand jury, the prosecutor's office" and the independent commission appointed by the diocese to study the matter, said Gerald Handley, the bishop's attorney. "We will continue our efforts to resolve this matter." Bishop Finn said in a statement after diocesan attorneys entered the pleas in court that he "will meet these announcements with a steady resolve and a vigorous defense." The charge against Bishop Finn carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and one year in jail. The diocese faces a fine of up to $5,000. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, had no comment on the indictment. Diocesan spokeswoman Rebecca Summers told Catholic News Service Oct. 17 that Bishop Finn carried out a full schedule of activities over the weekend, including participating in a fundraising event attended by 500 people, Mass and confession at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and a meeting with senior staff. Father Ratigan was arrested in May on state charges of possessing child pornography. In August, federal prosecutors charged him with producing child pornography. The priest, a former pastor, also is facing accusations made against him in two separate lawsuits filed this summer. The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and Bishop Finn also have been named in the civil suits, which accuse both of failing to keep Father Ratigan away from children apparently after learning disturbing images were found on the priest's computer and being warned of the priest's inappropriate behavior around children.
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US House passes Protect Life Act in bipartisan vote
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. House Oct. 13 passed the Protect Life Act, which applies long-standing federal policies on abortion funding and conscience rights to the health reform law. The measure passed with a bipartisan vote of 251 to 172. Its chief sponsors were Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., chairman of the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., who co-chairs the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. The bill also had 144 co-sponsors. "The health care law made it clear that the current way we prevent taxpayer funding of abortion through annual riders is dangerously fragile," Lipinski said in January when the measure was introduced. "We must take action to prevent federal funding for abortion under the health care law and throughout the government, without exception." In a statement released Oct. 14, Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the U.S. bishop's pro-life secretariat, said that by passing H.R. 358, "the House has taken an important step toward authentic health care reform that respects the dignity of all, from conception onward." McQuade urged the Senate to likewise "help make health care reform life-affirming." The Protect Life Act applies the Hyde amendment to health care reform "so federal funds will not be used to subsidize elective abortions," McQuade said, which brings the law "into line with other federal health programs such as Medicaid and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program." It also "helps ensure that the government will not pressure health professionals to participate in abortion against their medical judgment, moral convictions or religious beliefs," she added.
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WORLD
For processions, pope adopts wheeled platform used by predecessor
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has begun using a wheeled platform to move through crowds at major events, a change the Vatican said was designed to reduce the physical toll on the 84-year-old pontiff. The pope entered St. Peter's Basilica on the mobile podium Oct. 16, holding onto the bar of the device with one hand as ushers rolled it slowly down the main aisle. The change did not signal any concern about Pope Benedict's health, but was made "solely to lighten the burden" of processions, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. During the Mass that followed, the pope moved around the altar as he normally does and navigated steps without a problem. The platform was used by Pope John Paul II during his last years, when declining mobility made it impossible for him to walk in processions. Use of the platform by Pope Benedict meant the pope was unable to stop and greet people on the sides of the basilica aisle. On the other hand, standing on the raised platform made him more visible to the thousands of pilgrims who packed the church.
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Freedom from hunger is essential part of right to life, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI appealed for immediate and long-term relief for the world's hungry, saying the right to adequate nourishment is a fundamental part of the right to life. The hunger crisis that affects millions of people today is a sign of the deep gulf between the haves and the have-nots of the world and calls for changes in lifestyle and in global economic mechanisms, the pope said in a message marking World Food Day Oct. 16. The text was addressed to Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Citing the famine and refugee crisis in the Horn of Africa, the pope said the "painful images" of starving people underline the need for both emergency aid and long-term intervention to support agricultural production and distribution. "Freedom from the yoke of hunger is the first concrete manifestation of that right to life which, although solemnly proclaimed, often remains far from being effectively implemented," he said. The theme of this year's World Food Day focused on food prices, and the pope said current pricing volatility reflected the tendency toward speculation on food commodities. He said a new global attitude is needed. "There are clear signs of the profound division between those who lack daily sustenance and those who have huge resources at their disposal," he said. Given the dramatic nature of the problem, reflection and analysis are not enough -- action must be taken, he said.
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Pope announces 'Year of Faith' to help renew missionary energy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI announced a special "Year of Faith" to help Catholics appreciate the gift of faith, deepen their relationship with God and strengthen their commitment to sharing faith with others. Celebrating Mass Oct. 16 with participants in a Vatican conference on new evangelization, the pope said the Year of Faith would give "renewed energy to the mission of the whole church to lead men and women out of the desert they often are in and toward the place of life: friendship with Christ who gives us fullness of life." The pope said the observance would begin Oct. 11, 2012 -- the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council -- and conclude Nov. 24, 2013 -- the feast of Christ the King. "It will be a moment of grace and commitment to an ever fuller conversion to God, to reinforce our faith in him and to proclaim him with joy to the people of our time," the pope said in his homily. Pope Benedict explained his intention more fully in "Porta Fidei" ("The Door of Faith"), an apostolic letter released Oct. 17 to formally announce the special year. "Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy," the pope wrote.
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Pro-women's ordination movement attempts to bring petition to Vatican
ROME (CNS) -- After marching up the wide boulevard to St. Peter's Square, Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois and two other demonstrators supporting women's ordination were briefly detained by Italian police. A group of 18 people, most of them from the United States, were trying to deliver to Vatican officials a petition supporting the ordination of women as Catholic priests. The petition, signed by 15,000 people, praised the work of Father Bourgeois, who faces possible dismissal from his order and the priesthood for his refusal to recant his continued support for the ordination of women. The Maryknoll order has issued two canonical warnings to the 73-year-old priest this year. He was excommunicated "latae sententiae" -- automatically -- in November 2008 after participating in the attempted ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska, who was also at the Oct. 17 demonstration in Rome. Father Bourgeois was still with the Maryknoll Society as the matter was being reviewed, the order said in a written statement to Catholic News Service Oct. 11. The Maryknoll Society said it was aware that Father Bourgeois was traveling to Rome and added, "From the beginning, it has been Maryknoll that has repeatedly attempted to foster communication between Father Bourgeois and the church." Father Bourgeois told journalists, "I don't want to be kicked out," but that he was fighting for "what is just" and would accept whatever decision his order made "without anger." He said the church's ban on the ordination of women "defies reason and defies faith" and had at its roots "the sin of sexism." The demonstrators, including two women who claimed to be priests and one a deacon, walked from Castel Sant'Angelo to St. Peter's Square carrying banners that said "God is calling women to be priests" and "Ordain Catholic women" while singing and beating a small tambourine. The Vatican does not allow protests, demonstrations or signs on Vatican property and Italian police did not allow the group to enter St. Peter's Square. In 2008, the doctrinal congregation formally decreed that a woman who attempts to be ordained a Catholic priest and the person attempting to ordain her are automatically excommunicated. In 1994, Blessed Pope John Paul II said the church's ban on women priests is definitive and not open to debate among Catholics.
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PEOPLE
Italian priest on anti-crime task force shot dead in Philippines
ARAKAN, Philippines (CNS) -- An Italian priest doing mission work in a remote area of the southern Philippines was gunned down inside the compound of Mother of Perpetual Help Parish in Arakan, said a local official. Father Fausto Tentorio, 59, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, was shot dead by a lone gunman Oct. 17 as he was about to board his pickup truck at around 7:30 a.m., said town councilor Leonardo Reovoca. An autopsy report said he was shot eight times. The Asian church news agency UCA News reported that Reovoca said Father Tentorio had been an active law and order campaigner in Arakan and recently was appointed as head of a civilian anti-crime task force in the town. "I am a witness to Father Tentorio's strong stance against mining and other projects which are not sustainable and would harm and affect the indigenous peoples, in particular," he said. UCA News reported the murder was immediately condemned by the Diocese of Kidapawan, church groups and environmental organizations in the country. "This is really heinous. We're so sad and shocked that this killing happened in broad daylight," said Kidapawan Bishop Romulo de la Cruz. The suspect was wearing a crash helmet and made his escape by walking away casually from the scene to a nearby motorcycle, Reovoca said. Father Giovanni Re, PIME Philippines regional superior, said Father Tentorio had escaped attempts on his life by paramilitary groups in the past, "but this is a bit of a surprise for us because the situation here has been quiet for some time." The Moro Islamic Liberation Front also condemned the killing, calling it a sign of degeneration of morality and spirituality in the country.
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Archbishop Tutu: Africa must shun anti-women practices
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Africa should shun cultural practices that prevent women from advancement, retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu said at a memorial Mass for Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. But Archbishop Tutu, the 1984 Nobel laureate, said Africa has every reason to celebrate the "few successes" it has made in the area of empowering and promoting its women. He spoke Oct. 14, one week after two Liberian women were among three winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize. "Let us -- as we mourn the late Professor Maathai -- thank God for this, while we pray for more women's achievements on the African continent," Archbishop Tutu said. He said that even modern sayings such as, "Behind every successful man is a women," were detrimental to women. "Whoever said our women can only be behind men and not either on side or in front?" he asked. Nyeri Archbishop Peter Kairo presided over the memorial Mass for Maathai. "In all aspects, she has fought a good fight in terms of environment, peace and justice and democracy. We praise the good Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of the late Professor Maathai," he said. Maathai, a Catholic environmentalist and political leader who became the first black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to empower women to work for environmental, economic and social justice, died Sept. 25 after a bout with cancer. She was 71. She was awarded the 2004 Peace Prize for her efforts in founding the Green Belt Movement and on behalf of human rights in challenging former Kenyan dictator Daniel arap Moi.
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US Jesuit Father Dean Brackley, 65, dies of cancer in El Salvador
SAN SALVADOR (CNS) -- U.S. Jesuit Father Dean Brackley, 65, who joined the faculty at the University of Central America after six of his fellow Jesuits were killed at the height of the country's civil war, died of pancreatic and liver cancer Oct. 16. Funeral arrangements in El Salvador were pending Oct. 17. Originally a member of the Jesuits' New York province, Father Brackley joined the university's theology faculty after the 1989 murder of the Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter by Salvadoran military troops. A native of upstate New York, Father Brackley was working as an educator at Fordham University and as a community organizer in Manhattan's Lower East Side when he offered to move to the Salvadoran capital. He administered the University of Central America's School for Religious Education from 1990 to 1996 and assisted in the work of schools for pastoral formation sponsored by the university. He also hosted numerous delegations of students from Jesuit universities, church leaders and journalists from the United States and elsewhere. Father Brackley entered the Society of Jesus in 1964 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1976. He earned his doctorate in religious social ethics from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1980. Early in his ministry he worked as a community organizer in the South Bronx, where he experienced the difficulties faced by people living in poor communities. Father Brackley often traveled to the U.S. and Europe to lecture about the situation in El Salvador and to keep alive the memory of the priests and other martyrs from the war who worked on behalf of justice for the country's poor and marginalized people.
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New president of Hispanic priests' group says office part of ministry
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CNS) -- A Colorado Springs priest who is the new president of the National Association of Hispanic Priests said he considers serving in the office as part of his ministry. "I see this as a ministry to the association, a ministry to my brother priests who work so diligently in the humble vineyard of the Lord and with a growing face of the church, our Hispanic brothers and sisters," Father Francisco Quezada said. The priest, who is pastor of St. Mary Cathedral in downtown Colorado Springs and vicar for Hispanic ministry in the Colorado Springs Diocese, was elected to a two-year term as president of the association Oct. 5 at the group's annual convention in Los Angeles. As president, Father Quezada will sit on the subcommittee for Hispanic affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Cultural Diversity, headed by Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino, Calif. Father Quezada also has been invited by St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson to be a consultant for the USCCB's Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, which the archbishop chairs. According to the organization's website, the National Association of Hispanic Priests was founded in 1988 to "promote unity, brotherhood and support for Hispanic priests in the U.S." and to "be the official voice of Hispanic priests" for the USCCB. The Houston-based organization is better known as ANSH, the initials of its name in Spanish. In an interview with The Colorado Catholic Herald, the Colorado Springs diocesan newspaper, Father Quezada said that one of his top priorities as president will be to "find, locate and engage" many of the roughly 5,000 Hispanic priests currently serving in the U.S., with the goal of having at least 200 attend the 2012 convention in Louisville, Ky.
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Copyright (c) 2011 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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