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News Briefs
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NEWS BRIEFS Sep-7-2012
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Cardinal's prayer at Democratic convention alludes to sensitive issues
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CNS) -- When Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York offered the closing benediction Sept. 6 at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, he made allusions to issues that have put the U.S. church and the White House at odds with each other. "Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our founding," Cardinal Dolan prayed, an apparent reference to an ongoing dispute between the U.S. bishops and the White House over a mandate from the federal Department of Health and Human Services that would require most religious employers to offer contraceptive coverage in violation of church teaching. The other options would be to drop all health coverage for its workers or risk paying steep fines if contraceptive coverage is not included in their insurance package. Dozens of Catholic institutions have filed suit over the mandate, and the bishops' early-summer "Fortnight for Freedom" was an effort to raise awareness of the issue. "We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected," prayed Cardinal Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. While the cardinal uttered a similar phrase in his closing benediction the week before at the Republican National Convention, the GOP's platform on abortion is generally viewed as closer to the Catholic Church's teaching than the Democrats', which supports legal abortion.
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Obama says road ahead will be tough, asks voters to stick with him
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In accepting the Democratic nomination to retain his seat, President Barack Obama reminded people of progress in his agenda and cautioned that "I never said this journey would be easy, and I won't promise that now." In a Sept. 6 speech closing the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Obama touched on many of the themes of the Catholic bishops' quadrennial document offering Catholics guidance for election decisions. On a handful of points, his positions are in contradiction to those taken by the bishops. But on others, he echoed their stance. Obama wove a theme of "we're all in this together" into outlines of his agenda and a listing of goals accomplished: U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq and a plan to withdraw from Afghanistan; passage of a health care law; auto industry jobs saved; new fuel consumption standards for cars; doubled use of renewable energy and reduced dependence on foreign fuel; a program to defer deportation for qualified undocumented immigrants; changes in student loans to reduce costs; academic gains at poorly performing schools; and improved relationships abroad, while helping advance human rights and new democracies, while keeping terrorist organizations at bay. Many of those topics are addressed in "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship" a 45-page discussion of Catholic teaching, how people can be involved in public policy, how church teaching relates to policy issues and what positions the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops takes on those issues. Some of what Obama cited fits within the goals for public policy included in "Faithful Citizenship." Others are in contradiction to the document's goals.
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Democrat who brokered health law compromise calls HHS mandate illegal
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CNS) -- The Department of Health and Human Services' mandate that would force many religious institutions to provide free contraceptives against their consciences is illegal, former U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said Sept. 4 during a meeting of pro-life Democrats. During debate over the legislation that would become the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Stupak negotiated an executive order with the Obama administration that guaranteed the act would not violate the Hyde Amendment, which forbids federal funding for any abortion or abortion-related care. The HHS mandate violates that executive order, as well as the Hyde Amendment itself, Stupak believes. "Specifically, as written, it violates the law and violates the executive order," said Stupak, who decided not to seek re-election after passage of the health reform law. Last year, as her agency set forth the nuts and bolts of the Affordable Care Act, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declared that nearly all employers must include free contraception and sterilization services in their health insurance policies. HHS drafted a narrow exemption for religious employers who object to providing contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs as mandated, but to be exempted they must serve and hire people primarily of their own faith. Catholic schools, hospitals and charitable organizations would not qualify under that standard; they would either have to provide such coverage in violation of Catholic teaching, pay steep annual fines in order to keep providing health insurance to their employees and students, or stop providing health insurance entirely.
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Both major political parties seek Latino support in tight election race
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The conventions for the two major political parties in the United States have wrapped up but the fight for votes is nowhere near over. In an election that promises to be tight, what's clear is that both parties are emphasizing their respective support of Latinos in the United States. One party showed off its Latino backing with the voice of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida while the other featured the Democratic mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro, as a keynote speaker. Those were just two in a long lineup of Latino speakers prominently featured by both sides. What's foremost in the minds of some is not the immediate effect of the Latino vote in the 2012 election but its impact beyond. Line up the Republican and Democrat platform side by side, and Latinos in the United States would tend to check off more boxes favorable to the Republicans' most prominent conservative views, said Gabriel Pilonieta Blanco, editor of El Tiempo Hispano, a bilingual, Spanish-English newspaper in the Philadelphia area. Since they tend to be practicing Catholics, "many (Hispanics) are against abortion and are pro-life," Pilonieta said. They don't tend to favor same-sex marriage either, he added. However, Pilonieta said, it's rare to encounter an active Republican Latino. Start talking about immigration and that's what will get the attention of a Latino voter most of the time, said Pilonieta."It adds a lot and creates major sympathy toward (the Democrats)," he said. Tony Yapias, director of an immigration advocacy group, Proyecto Latino de Utah, in Salt Lake City, said the reason the immigration topic attracts Latinos has to do with the way the party addresses Latinos as a group. At the heart of the issue is whether each major political party makes Latinos feel welcome in their circles, he said.
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WORLD
Share the Gospel to transform lives, pope tells bishops
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must trust in the power of the Gospel to awaken people's consciences and promote reconciliation, but that can happen only if they hear the Gospel first, Pope Benedict XVI said. "Faith is the most important gift that we have been given in life; we cannot keep it just for ourselves," the pope said Sept. 7 during a meeting with 92 bishops ordained in the past year and named to dioceses in the church's mission territories. The new bishops were participating in a Sept. 2-15 seminar, often referred to as "new bishops' school," sponsored by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. A similar seminar, sponsored by the Congregation for Bishops, was scheduled for Sept. 11-20 for bishops named in other parts of the world. Introducing the 92 missionary bishops to the pope, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, said 63 of the bishops were from Africa, 17 from Asia, six from Latin America and six from Oceania. The cardinal told the pope many of them work "in extremely difficult circumstances and situations," including places where Christians are discriminated against or even face persecution.
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Pakistani court grants bail to girl accused of blasphemy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Pakistani Christian girl accused of blasphemy was granted bail Sept. 7 after three weeks in police custody. The judge, who ordered the girl's release on a bail of about $5,282, said there was insufficient evidence to justify continuing to hold Rimsha Masih in jail. However, the case against her was not dismissed. Investigations continue both into accusations that Rimsha burned pages of the Quran -- a violation of Pakistan's anti-blasphemy laws -- as well as into the actions of Khalid Jadoon Chishti, a Muslim cleric, who was taken into police custody Sept. 2 after being accused of planting the pages of the Quran and burned pieces of paper in the girl's bag.Rimsha had been in police custody since Aug. 18. Her parents said she is 11 years old and has Down syndrome; a court appointed physician reported she was about 14 and is developmentally delayed. Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Pakistani bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace, told Vatican Radio the bail was high for Pakistan and certainly beyond the means of Rimsha's family, but donations were expected to cover it. The girl was expected to be released by Sept. 8. Granting bail was "not a charitable gesture" on the part of the court, he said, and the simple fact that "for three weeks a child was kept in custody" raised questions about the Pakistani justice system.
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Misreading of Vatican II led to 'collapse' in Marian devotion, studies
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Devotion to Mary "collapsed" in some parts of the United States after the Second Vatican Council even though the council fathers had upheld her critical place within the Catholic faith, said a leading American expert in Marian studies. The council's decision to integrate a draft text on Mary into a larger dogmatic text -- "Lumen Gentium" -- rather than publish it as a separate document -- sent an unintended message to the rest of the church, Holy Cross Father James Phalan, president of the Mariological Society of America, said in a presentation at an academic conference in Rome. Even though bishops felt Mariology, like the church as a whole, needed to be renewed in light of tradition, liturgy and the Bible, later an "overly rationalist" historical approach reduced the role of the Holy Spirit and marginalized most forms of devotion, Father Phalan said. Worsening the problem, he said, was the timing: post-Vatican II coincided with the upheaval of the 1970s when religious traditions and beliefs were being intensely questioned or completely dismissed by society. Marian devotion "was caught up in this confusion" and there was a drop-off in practice and study, he said. "The apparent change in emphasis on the Blessed Virgin contributed to a full-scale collapse of Mariology that has had very notable effects on the life of the church," he said in his talk on "Mary and the Second Vatican Council."
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PEOPLE
St. Augustine bishop honors Florida's first martyrs with memorial Mass
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (CNS) -- Father Agustin Ponce de Leon, a Florida-born Franciscan priest, has received long-overdue recognition, 307 years after he died rescuing Guale Indian converts from enemy Indians in a swampy marsh north of St. Augustine. Bishop Felipe J. Estevez of St. Augustine celebrated a memorial Mass Sept. 3 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine to formally acknowledge the priest's heroic actions of Sept. 3, 1705. Father Ponce was born and baptized in St. Augustine. He died in a bloody battle with Creek Indians inside today's Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. A 1707 account of his death in the Archives of the Indies in Spain says he was defending Guale women and children from the Nombre de Dios Chiquito mission who had been captured by the Creeks, possibly in retaliation of their conversion to Catholicism. Chiquito's exact location is yet unknown. Bishop Estevez learned last year of Father Ponce from members of Martyrs of La Florida Missions, a Tallahassee group working to open the Shrine of the Martyrs of La Florida honoring martyred missionaries of the 16th to 18th centuries. "First of all, it is a question of justice in memory of his life," Bishop Estevez said of his decision to have the memorial Mass. Father Ponce's actions, he said, "show selfless courage and dedication." Reflecting on the priest's death and the lack of knowledge of him until recently, he asked, "How could he be forgotten? His life is an inspiration. His death, even more than his life, is an inspiration for all of us."
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Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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