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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Dec-1-2011
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
CUA president pleased ruling confirms legality of single-sex dorms
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- John Garvey, president of The Catholic University of America, said he was "gratified" by the dismissal of a complaint filed against the university saying its single-sex dorms discriminated against women. "We were confident from the beginning that our actions were entirely legal," Garvey said in a statement. The Nov. 29 order by the District of Columbia's Office of Human Rights said offering only single-sex dormitories is not unlawful discrimination under the city's Human Rights Act. It noted that if colleges were to comply with the complaint's reasoning, it would cause "a prohibition on same-sex bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams, which would lead to absurd results." The complaint was filed by John Banzhaf, a public-interest law professor at George Washington University, also in Washington. Banzhaf filed another complaint in October against Catholic University, saying the school discriminated against Muslim students by failing to provide prayer rooms free of Catholic symbols. The complaint is still pending before the Human Rights Office. In an Oct. 28 statement to parents, students and faculty members, Garvey called that complaint a "manufactured controversy." The order dismissing the complaint against single-sex dorms pointed out that Banzhaf only provided "conjecture and speculation" instead of facts about how single-sex dorms might negatively affect women. It also said Banzhaf "has not demonstrated that women would not have equivalent access to educational opportunities or be subject to any material harm."
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Obama said to seek balance on contraceptive coverage, religious beliefs
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A White House spokesman said the Obama administration is working to "strike the right balance between expanding coverage of preventive services and respecting religious beliefs" as it decides on a religious exemption to the mandate that all health plans cover contraceptives and sterilizations by Jan. 1, 2013. "This decision has not yet been made," said Jay Carney, press secretary, in response to a question at the Nov. 29 White House press briefing. Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced an interim final rule Aug. 1 that would require all health plans to cover contraceptives -- including some that can cause abortions -- and sterilizations free of charge. Only religious employers meeting four criteria would be exempt from the mandate. Those requirements are that the organization "(1) has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and (4) is a nonprofit organization" under specific sections of the Internal Revenue Code. Leaders of various Catholic and other faith-based organizations have protested the exemption as too narrow and have said such a mandate could force them to stop offering some social services, education or health care to the general public. A 60-day comment period on the proposed religious exemption ended Sept. 30 and a final decision was expected from HHS by the end of the year. In the meantime, the contraceptive mandate as an "interim final rule," as the federal government terms it, has "the full force and effect of law." After any such comment period, a federal agency could issue a revised final rule "or confirm the interim rule as final."
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Detroit considers possible parish closures, mergers, other changes
DETROIT (CNS) -- A pastoral plan for the Detroit Archdiocese that includes recommendations such as closing nine parishes, merging 60 parishes into 21 and establishing multi-parish teams or initiatives is a "plan to move the life of the church forward" over the next five years, said Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron. In a media briefing Dec. 1, he told reporters the recommendations are likely to be implemented but not "set in stone." He received the recommendations from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council the previous day and will now seek comment on them from the archdiocese's other consultative bodies. He will then accept, reject or modify them, and is expected to release an archdiocesan-wide pastoral plan in February. Reasons archdiocesan officials have given for the changes include a shortage of priests and the fiscal difficulties facing some of the archdiocese's 270 parishes. The proposed changes have been posted on the archdiocesan website, www.aodonline.org. In a letter distributed to parishes the last weekend of November, Edward "Chip" Miller, chairman of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, said: "The recommended plans will focus on how we will, as one church, manage our resources to fulfill our seven mission priorities: evangelization and catechesis, Christian service outreach, youth and young Adults; lay leadership, stewardship and administration; Catholic school education and vocations."
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HHS defends decision on funding trafficking victims program to Congress
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops program aiding victims of human trafficking was denied funding after its administrators declined to propose alternatives to a government requirement that female victims receive "the full range of legally permissible gynecological and obstetric care," a Department of Health and Human Services official told a congressional committee. Facing at times grueling questioning from Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Dec. 1, George Sheldon, acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families, said he made the final decision to award grants worth $4.7 million to three other agencies that agreed to provide access to services such as abortion, contraception and sterilization under the National Human Trafficking Victim Assistance Program. The committee hearing was called as House members investigated why the bishop's Migration and Refugee Services department was denied funding for its program despite receiving high scores during a review of its application for $2.5 million for another year of work and its positive track record of assisting nearly 2,800 trafficking victims and family members since 2006. Johnny Young, executive director of the bishops' Migration and Refugee Services, which contracted with the government to assist trafficking victims, told Catholic News Service that his agency told Sheldon they could work with alternatives "but we didn't offer any alternatives." "We just said we wouldn't do anything that would violate church teaching," Young said. Several Republican committee members charged during the three-hour hearing that the final decision to deny funding to MRS demonstrated an anti-Catholic bias within the administration of President Barack Obama. They also accused HHS of drafting program guidelines so that religious organizations and individuals with a moral objection to abortion, contraception and sterilization would be disqualified in the end. "I look at this and, you know what, we got gamed on this," Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said. "We structured this so tightly, we put language in there that would remove Catholic bishops participating even though they have a great track record, even though they scored so high, even though they outscored other people." Sheldon denied the charge, saying that the funding announcement was finalized before he joined HHS in the spring and that HHS attorneys were involved in ensuring that all requirements of the program were legal under federal law.
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WORLD
Vatican exhibit displays inspirational elements of Gaudi church
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Without leaving the Vatican, visitors exiting St. Peter's Basilica can gain firsthand exposure to another impressive church, Antoni Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia. The Vatican exhibit "Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia of Barcelona. Art, Science and Spirituality," explores how Gaudi, a Catholic whose beatification cause is under way, incorporated art, science and spirituality in the design of the Barcelona church. The exhibit, which runs Nov. 24 to Jan 15, provides a glimpse into Gaudi's masterpiece though images, models and virtual tours of the church. Construction of the church began in 1882 and is expected to be finished in 2025. During a news conference Nov. 24, curator Daniel Giralt-Miracle thanked the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Holy See for hosting the exhibit and explained its purpose. "We wanted to explain what is most essential about Gaudi in a single exhibition, to do this through his most outstanding work, La Sagrada Familia de Barcelona, and through the three main vertices that in my view shape his personality: art, science and spirituality," he said. Giralt-Miracle, who has studied the Catalan architect since the 1970s, said he hoped the exhibit will help visitors "understand Gaudi's personality and his approach to his work." He said Gaudi took his inspiration from the Scriptures, the liturgy and main characters in the Bible. "Apart from the functionality of his architectural project, Gaudi also uses it to tell us the story of Jesus and to transmit the essential elements of the Christian message to us," Giralt-Miracle said.
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On World AIDS Day, Vatican renews call for greater access to therapy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The deaths each year of more than a million people from AIDS, the suffering of their families and the new infections of hundreds of thousands of infants are unacceptable when the medicines needed to prevent them exist, a Vatican official said. Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said World AIDS Day must be a time "to promote universal access to therapies for those who are infected, the prevention of transmission from mother to child, and education" in responsible sexuality. In a statement Dec. 1, he said that despite the development of antiretroviral drugs 20 years ago, an estimated 1.8 million people still die of AIDS each year. "These are people who could lead normal lives if they only had access to suitable pharmacological therapies," he said. The deaths "are no longer justifiable," the archbishop said, nor is the pain experienced by their families and fact that hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned each year.
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Christian families are key part of new evangelization, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christian families are called to welcome, demonstrate and spread the love and presence of Christ in the world, Pope Benedict XVI said. A family, founded on the marriage of a man and woman and open to having children, is "the human space for an encounter with Christ," he said Dec. 1 in a speech to members of the Pontifical Council for the Family. The council, founded by Pope John Paul II, was marking the 30th anniversary of its establishment by focusing on the role of the family in the "new evangelization." The pope said: "The eclipse of God, the spread of ideologies contrary to the family and the degradation of sexual ethics appear to be connected." In the same way, he said, "the new evangelization is inseparable from the Christian family." Like the church as a whole, the Christian family "is called to welcome, radiate and demonstrate the love and presence of Christ in the world," he said. The family does so by being a community of lifelong, self-giving love, he said. It is open to welcoming new life, it educates its members in the faith and in charity, and its civic involvement and charitable activity is motivated by faith.
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Archbishop: Clinton's Myanmar visit a start, but reform must be lasting
YANGON, Myanmar (CNS) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to Myanmar signaled significant change, but President Thein Sein must do more to convince the world that democratic reform is real and lasting, said Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon. The comments came on the eve of a historic meeting between the president and Clinton, who arrived in the administrative capital Naypyidaw, about 200 miles north of Yangon, Nov. 30. Archbishop Bo, who also serves as the secretary general of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, said true democratic reform required substantially more effort. "The government needs to release the remaining political prisoners to show that they are serious about democratic reform," he told the Asian church news agency UCA News, adding that cease-fire agreements between the military and ethnic minority opposition forces also were needed. Years of armed conflict have had a devastating impact on the country's infrastructure and educational system, Archbishop Bo said. "Through peace alone can the government bring development to the country and improve education," he said. "Without proper education to an international standard, we will remain in the dark."
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Christchurch Diocese to reduce number of parishes by more than half
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (CNS) -- Christchurch Diocese will reduce the number of parishes by more than half, Bishop Barry Jones announced. The bishop said that because of a diminishing number of clergy, the number of parishes will be reduced from 50 to 24. He said larger parishes formed from two or more consolidated parishes will have two resident priests, and a parish may have more than one church. "Sunday Mass is at the heart of the life of the church. Its weekly celebration comes to us from the apostles themselves," said Bishop Jones in a document, "The Provision of Sunday Mass in the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch." He made it clear that Sunday Mass and parish life require a priest: "No priest, no Mass." A diocesanwide consultation leading to the changes began before the magnitude 6.3 earthquakes in February. Bishop Jones visited all pastoral areas and invited submissions. Well-attended meetings were followed by large numbers of responses. With people from more than 6,000 Christchurch homes moving west and north and out of the city because of earthquakes, Bishop Jones said future needs for churches are not yet clear and figuring out the demographics will take time. Some quake-damaged churches may be rebuilt, depending on insurance demands, earthquake proneness and requirements of the diocesan earthquake strategy, he said. In February, a staggered implementation plan will begin to set up 10 new parishes over the following two years.
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PEOPLE
Pope Benedict appoints Bishop Ochoa of El Paso to head Fresno Diocese
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Armando X. Ochoa of El Paso, Texas, to head the Diocese of Fresno, Calif. He succeeds Bishop John T. Steinbock, who died Dec. 5, 2010, after battling lung cancer. A native of California, Bishop Ochoa, 68, has headed the Texas diocese since July 1996. Before that, he was an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles for 10 years. His appointment to Fresno was announced in Washington Dec. 1 by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Bishop Ochoa is one of 26 active Hispanic Catholic bishops in the United States. At the national level, he has served on bishops' committees on vocations, laity, permanent diaconate, Hispanic affairs and migration. The date for his installation in Fresno has not been set. "I am humbled and deeply honored that the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI would offer me this new challenge at my age," Bishop Ochoa said in a statement addressed to "my former and new collaborators in the vineyard of the Lord." Bishop Ochoa said Archbishop Vigano "broke the news" about the appointment to him when the two men were in Baltimore to attend the U.S. bishops' annual fall general assembly Nov. 14-16. "I am still in the state of shock!" the bishop said. "I have been privileged to have worked with and gotten to know you my brothers, here in the border region of El Paso," he continued." I am still in awe that you so readily accepted me as your new shepherd. Please know that you all will be in my prayers as we await the commemoration of the birth of the Lord."
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University of Arkansas football player recalled as 'an amazing soul'
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CNS) -- The Catholic community in Little Rock and Fayetteville joined the rest of the state in mourning the death of University of Arkansas football player Garrett Uekman. As a testament to what classmates, friends and family members thought of Uekman, a string of candlelight vigils, rosaries and prayer services were held in both areas before his Nov. 28 funeral Mass at Christ the King Church in Little Rock. More than 1,100 people attended his funeral, including coach Bobby Petrino, a member of St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville, as well as university officials and football players. Uekman, 19, played in a televised game against Mississippi State Nov. 19 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, the same venue where he played for Catholic High School. He returned to Fayetteville that night, but the next morning he died from an untreated heart condition. On Nov. 25, Uekman was remembered during one of the Razorbacks' biggest games in decades, a loss to No. 1 Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Stickers, posters and arm bands with "88," Uekman's jersey number, were often seen as memorials to the player. Ukeman's funeral Mass was celebrated by Msgr. Lawrence Frederick, rector of Catholic High. He was assisted by six Little Rock diocesan priests. At the conclusion of the Mass, Steve Straessle, principal of the high school who also taught Uekman, said the former student's legacy will be that he lived the school's motto: "Never be a bystander."
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