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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Aug-21-2012
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Victim assistance coordinators can help heal the church, bishop says
OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- Bishops need help restoring trust and healing wounds inflicted on the faithful by the clergy sexual abuse scandal, and people who work in the church to assist victims and create safe environments for children can be key partners, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People said Aug. 13. Despite efforts over the last decade by bishops and others in the church to atone for wrongs done and take swift action when abuse is reported, many Catholics "remain hurt, angry, cynical and confused," Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Ill., told more than 100 people at the National Safe Environment and Victim Assistance Coordinators Leadership Conference in Omaha. Safe environment and victim assistance coordinators carrying out duties called for by the bishops' 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" are good candidates to assist bishops as they strive to make the church safe for children and young people and overcome mistrust and anger, the bishop said. "You are the fresh faces," he said. "Most of you are lay members of the Christian faithful, with secular credentials and without so much built-in conflict of interest. As such, you are in a position to bring new credibility and energy to the critical task of healing the wounds and rebuilding trust." It is a long-term project that includes day-to-day tasks such as contacting victim survivors, arranging counseling programs, scheduling training sessions, giving talks and filling out forms, Bishop Conlon said.
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Job training seen as central to mission of Focus: Hope in Detroit
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- An organization founded by a Catholic priest and one of his parishioners in the wake of massive rioting in Detroit in 1967 is still doing good for people in the city more than four decades later. It's helped one man escape poverty twice. Maurice Respress, 33, grew up in the city but lacked the skills necessary to hold down a lasting job. In 1999, he inquired at Focus: Hope about the job training programs it offered. The organization was established in 1968 by Father William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis in an old factory across the street from Madonna Parish, where Father Cunningham had been pastor. Respress got a slot in a Focus: Hope machinist training program. And it worked for Respress. The work was good, but it was not always steady. "I went in the manufacturing side of the (job training) program. I was working in a plant that they (Focus: Hope) had," Respress told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from Detroit. "I had a lot of experience in manufacturing. But when the manufacturing industry started going down, I started working for this place out in Warren," a border suburb of Detroit. Without use of a car and only a skeletal bus system linking Detroit with its suburbs, Respress bicycled his way to work -- 11.5 miles each way. Then he got a tip about another, better job. "It was September the tenth, 2005, in the morning," Respress recalled. "Two days before my (job) interview I was in a car accident and I could not get that job." A motorist had slammed into his bicycle, dragging the bike -- but not Respress -- under her car. Thus began a slump that Respress found hard to shake. He had broken two ribs, and one disc in his lower back was "completely wiped out," requiring surgery. He was married with one daughter; a second daughter was born during his recuperation, which lasted two years. But before he was fully healed, Respress' wife left him and their children behind. "She figured I wasn't man enough" to support the family, he told CNS.
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Be sure children's school lunches pack a healthy punch, say dietitians
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If parents want their children to eat healthy, they need to put some time and creativity into packing school lunches and also get their children involved in the process, according to health experts. Registered dietitian Tracy Bryars said having time to prepare a healthy lunch could be the biggest struggle for parents who want their children to eat healthy. Although children are often picky about the foods they will eat, Bryars suggests giving them a variety of foods in their lunches, exposing them to as many foods as possible. Bryars is manager of the Healthy for Life Program at St. Joseph Health in Orange County, Calif., which is a system of health care facilities. "Expose their taste buds at a young age. Kids can be frightened of trying new foods. Sometimes it takes10-15 times for a kid to like a certain food," she said in a phone interview with Catholic News Service. As the Healthy Life Program manager, Bryars works to prevent obesity and promote healthy eating. She urged people think about "the 80-point rule. Eighty percent of the time you are eating the nutritional foods that are going to give you vitamins, minerals and protein," she said. "Twenty percent of the time you are eating foods with less nutritional value."
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Oregon judge rules no employer link between abusive priest and Holy See
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- An Oregon federal judge ruled Aug. 20 that the Vatican was not the employer of a priest accused of molestation and dismissed a 10-year-old attempt to hold the Holy See liable for sexual abuse. The lawsuit filed by a Portland-area man attempted to hold the Vatican responsible for him being molested in the 1960s by the late Father Andrew Ronan, a one-time member of the Servite religious order. But the judge said he couldn't find an employment link in the facts and therefore, under the sovereign immunity law, the U.S. court has no jurisdiction. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman said "there are no facts to create a true employment relationship between Ronan and the Holy See," according to an Associated Press report on what Mosman said from the bench. Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's Berkeley, Calif.-based attorney, told Catholic News Service that the ruling was particularly important. "As the judge stated in open court, he had studied the facts of the case with great care," Lena said. "He recognized the importance of the case." Jeff Anderson, attorney for the plaintiff, listed as John V. Doe, said in a press release that they would appeal. "Judge Mosman's thoughtful remarks from the bench clearly expressed his difficulty in deciding the case," Anderson's press release said. "He referred to the case as very troubling and a close call." Lena said Anderson's description of the judge's remarks was misleading. "He did not say it was a close call on whether Ronan was an employee. That was not a close call." On that issue, the central point of the case, "he said the plaintiffs had not really produced any solid facts to support their theory."
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Catholic medical school affiliates with hospital censured by bishop
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In response to criticism of its affiliation with a Phoenix hospital whose Catholic identity was revoked by the local bishop, Creighton University's School of Medicine remains "confident we can maintain the Catholic and Jesuit values" that have marked the school since its founding in 1892, the school's dean said Aug. 21. Dr. Rowen K. Zetterman told Catholic News Service that the opening of the Phoenix regional campus of the Catholic medical school based in Omaha, Neb., had been in the works since before he became dean three and a half years ago. He said St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, which had been taking Creighton medical students for one-month rotations since 2005, approached Creighton about the possibility of a closer affiliation that would bring "full-time, faith-based medical students" to Phoenix for two years of their training. The first class of 42 third-year medical students started in Phoenix June 28, while another 110 third-year students remain at the Omaha campus. In late 2010, Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted issued a decree revoking the Catholic affiliation of the hospital after officials there acknowledged that an abortion was performed at St. Joseph's in 2009. He prohibited the celebration of Mass on the hospital's campus and ordered the Blessed Sacrament removed from the hospital's chapel. After the Creighton students arrived, Bishop Olmsted reiterated in a July 23 statement that St. Joseph's "is not a Catholic institution" and "does not faithfully adhere to the 'Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.'" The statement added: "Catholics, and all people of good will, are advised that they cannot be guaranteed authentic Catholic health care at St. Joseph's Hospital."
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Colleges look at ways to train students for jobs in tough economy
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When one thinks of Catholic colleges and universities, one typically imagines an institution with a strong liberal arts base and bachelor's and advanced degrees in white-collar professions. While that remains the case, a few Catholic colleges are looking at the stagnant economy and how they can respond to it. These schools have adapted their course offerings to include programs for careers not commonly associated with Catholic higher education. At Trocaire College in Buffalo, N.Y., students can study massage therapy and hospitality management, among other subjects. "We're a Sisters of Mercy college. Their mission is to give them (students) education for employment," said Mike LaFever, Trocaire's dean of enrollment management. "Our programs are measured not only to graduate people on time but to give people employment opportunities in the curriculum they studied for." What's more, students shouldn't have to leave western New York to find a job in their chosen field, LaFever told Catholic News Service. "We see jobs in the Buffalo region and what they pay and what it costs to live in Buffalo," he said. In some cases, Trocaire has closed programs, he said, when school officials found that the training wasn't getting graduates jobs that paid a decent salary. One example was an early childhood program. "We discovered they were getting jobs that were paying eight or nine dollars an hour," LaFever said. "That just doesn't equate when you're paying private-school tuition," which at Trocaire is $7,500 a semester. The school also closed its business program because it "just wasn't preparing students for the marketplace," he noted.
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WORLD
Archbishop asks international help to stop terrorism in Nigeria
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The president of the Nigerian bishops' conference called for the international community to help his country improve its security operations to stop the "fundamentalist, fanatic" Boko Haram terrorist group. The day after a Catholic church, an elementary school and a police station in Damagun were attacked, presumably by Boko Haram members, Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos told Vatican Radio: "There is high religious tension in Nigeria, but we are not at war between Christians and Muslims. The Boko Haram is at war with Christians, because they have vowed they will kill Christians because they are 'infidels.' This is a fact, but it is not the whole Islamic community." In its two-year campaign to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law on the entire country, Boko Haram has been blamed for more than 1,400 deaths of Christians, Muslims and police officers. Archbishop Kaigama, who was interviewed Aug. 20 in Rimini, Italy, where he addressed a meeting of the Communion and Liberation lay movement, told Vatican Radio that in his country, where the population is about half Muslim and half Christian, "there is no neat division between political problems and religious problems. They are intertwined. It is erroneous to always reduce every crisis in Nigeria to religion. Religion does a lot of good; we shouldn't see it as always generating crisis," the archbishop said.
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Nuncio to Syria: People 'stunned ... worried for the future'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- People in Syria are "stunned and deeply saddened and worried for the future," said Archbishop Mario Zenari, the Vatican nuncio to Syria. In an interview with Vatican Radio Aug. 21, the nuncio said the previous day's withdrawal of U.N. forces was "a sad blow. Three or four months ago, there was a good bit of hope for their mission, and now their departure plunges us back into this reality. The international community must not give up, it must keep trying." U.N. military observers left Syria Aug. 20 after it was clear the cease-fire they were meant to monitor did not exist. The same day, U.S. President Barack Obama warned there would be "enormous consequences" for Syria if it began moving or using its stockpile of chemical weapons. Archbishop Zenari declined to comment on Obama's remarks, but said, "At this moment we must require all sides in the conflict to rigorously respect international humanitarian law which, as we've seen, has gone to pieces because of the actions of both sides." While the 17-month-old conflict began as part of the pro-democracy Arab Spring movement, Archbishop Zenari said, "Unfortunately, now there's the impression and the general fear that things have gotten out of hand."
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In Britain, ongoing struggles over laws regulating euthanasia
MANCHESTER, England (CNS) -- Tony Nicklinson, a man paralyzed from the neck down following a stroke seven years ago, wept before television cameras after he was told that he had lost a two-year legal battle to change the law on euthanasia. Three High Court judges rejected the claim brought by Nicklinson, 58, and another stroke victim named only as Martin, 47, that doctors should be able to end the men's lives at a time of their choosing under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees a right to private and family life. But the judges said in their Aug. 16 ruling that Nicklinson wanted "to be able to choose to end his life by voluntary euthanasia," and such a change would have consequences far beyond the two cases. "It is not for the court to decide whether the law about assisted suicide dying should be changed," the judges said. "Under our system of government these are matters for Parliament to decide, representing society as a whole, after parliamentary scrutiny, and not for the court on the facts of an individual case or cases." The case represents the latest in a string of attempts to use the courts to reverse Britain's ban on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The most successful of these came three years ago when multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy forced Keir Starmer, the country's most senior public prosecutor, to clarify the circumstances under which her husband might be breaking the law if he helped her to travel abroad to commit suicide. Pressure on Parliament -- which has also robustly resisted repeated attempts to change the law -- is also relentless, with four bills introduced between 2003 and 2006 all rejected by politicians.
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PEOPLE
Theologian, ecumenist Margaret O'Gara dies of cancer at 65
TORONTO (CNS) -- Margaret O'Gara, a past president of both the North American Academy of Ecumenists and the Catholic Theological Society of America, died Aug. 16 after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 65. Her funeral Mass was scheduled for Aug. 23 at St. Basil Church in Toronto. She was to be buried in Breckenridge, Minn. O'Gara, a theologian for 37 years, was a professor of theology at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto. Her husband, Michael Vertin, was a professor emeritus of theology at the same school. In announcing O'Gara's death, Basilian Father Mario O. DiSouza, dean of theology at the University of St. Michael's College, described her as "both my teacher and colleague" and said "her counsel and support were always invaluable. She cared for and loved her students, her colleagues and her teaching at the faculty of theology very dearly, and while we mourn her passing, we know that we have a powerful and committed intercessor for our work and continued mission," he added. An obituary prepared by her husband said the aim of O'Gara's work "was to foster dialogue among Christians for the sake of overcoming divisions between the churches." She was a member of official ecumenical dialogues in Canada, the U.S. and on the international level.
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Cardinal to plan treatment with doctors after tests show cancer cells
CHICAGO (CNS) -- For the second time in his 75 years, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago is facing the cross of cancer. On Aug. 17, the Archdiocese of Chicago released a statement announcing that two days earlier, Cardinal George underwent a procedure at Loyola Medical Center during which doctors found cancerous cells in his kidney and on the liver. "Today he met with his doctors who reviewed with him test results which showed there were cancerous cells in the kidney and in a nodule, which was removed from the liver," the statement said. "His doctors will work with the cardinal to plan a course of treatment." In an Aug. 20 statement, the archdiocese said the cardinal rested at home over the weekend and was "actively engaged" in several administrative duties. It said in the coming week he would receive additional medical tests, participate in a retreat at Mundelein Seminary with bishops from Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana and "maintain his previously scheduled public commitments. After the cardinal meets with his doctors regarding a plan for a course of treatment, further information about his upcoming public schedule will be announced," the statement said. "Until further information is available, Cardinal George has asked for continued prayers for all affected by cancer and the doctors and medical staff that work with patients and their families, as well as for himself." The archdiocese will continue to provide updates about the cardinal on its website, www.archchicago.org. People also can leave greetings for him at the site as well.
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When Paralympian faces challenges, she talks to God
SINGAPORE (CNS) -- When 16-year-old Paralympian Gemma Rose Foo faces challenges, she talks to God -- and "he sometimes talks back to me, and that calms me down." Foo, a parishioner at Singapore's Church of the Holy Spirit, said her faith has given her the "strength to go ahead and reach for her goals despite the challenges." Win or lose, I know that he will be looking out for me as he always does," said Foo, who, with two other teammates, was traveling to London to compete in equestrian events during the Aug. 29-Sept. 9 Paralympics. The student at St. Theresa's Convent School has cerebral palsy, and she will participate in the Para-Equestrian dressage grade 1a. It is believed this is the first time an Asian country is sending a Para-Equestrian team to the games, reported Catholic News, Singapore's archdiocesan newspaper. When Catholic News visited Foo at the National Equestrian Center in early August, the young sportswoman was all smiles as she demonstrated her moves. Foo said her event requires the rider "to be in harmony with the horse to execute specific movements in set patterns. Riding is not just a sport. It is a form of physiotherapy as well, which helped me with my balance and coordination. Competing in the sport has also built my confidence," she told Catholic News in an email interview.
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