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September 19, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 16Oakland,
CA
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Chief Justice
buried |
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Prayers in Havana |
Roberts:
abortion ruling ‘settled as a precedent’
WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee John Roberts said Sept.
13 that the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion was “settled
as a precedent.” He declined to answer specific questions about
abortion and voting rights, citing cases he could face on the high court.
The heart of the abortion ruling is “settled as a precedent of the
court, entitled to respect under principles of ‘stare decisis’,”
the concept that long-established rulings should be given extra weight,
Roberts told the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of his confirmation
hearings.
Roberts, who is President Bush’s choice to succeed the late William
H. Rehnquist as chief justice, focused on a 1992 Supreme Court ruling
in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, referring to that as a precedent-setting
case in addition to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
In the Pennsylvania case, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the core
holdings of Roe v. Wade and ban states from outlawing most abortions.
The court said states could impose restrictions on the procedure that
do not impose an “undue burden” on women.
“It reaffirmed the central holding in Roe v. Wade,” Roberts
said.
Trial
set in murder of Kenyan bishop
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Kenya’s High Court has set the trial
of six suspects in the murder of an Italian-born Roman Catholic bishop
for Dec. 5.
The six suspects, including a Catholic priest, are accused of killing
76-year-old Bishop Luigi Locati in a plot to gain control of church funds.
The men have pleaded innocent. Bishop Locati was gunned down July 14 in
Isiolo, an impoverished area in central Kenya where he had worked for
decades.
Pope
says unity with Orthodox is urgent
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Unifying all Christians and healing the 1,000-year
rift between Catholics and the Orthodox is particularly urgent nowadays,
Pope Benedict XVI said in a message released Sept. 5.
The pope called for intensified prayers and dialogue to help heal the
rift. The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054 over several questions,
including the issue of the primacy of the pope. Relations between the
two sides have been made tense recently by Orthodox charges of aggressive
Catholic missionary work in Eastern Europe and by property disputes.
Theological dialogue was interrupted four years ago, but in June both
sides announced that talks would resume.
Rwanda
arrests Belgian missionary
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) – The Belgian government has called on Rwanda
to explain the arrest of a Belgian missionary on charges of crimes against
humanity.
Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht expressed “astonishment” over
the arrest of Guy Theunis, who worked in Rwanda from 1970 until 1994,
when over half a million people were killed in a genocide led by extremists
of the Hutu ethnic group against the Tutsi minority. Since then, Theunis
has been based in South Africa. The Belgian government statement said
he was detained while in transit through Rwanda.
In 2001, a Brussels court convicted four Rwandans, including two Catholic
nuns, for their roles in the atrocities of 1994. They received prison
sentences of 12 to 20 years. Two more Rwandans were convicted and sentenced
to at least 10 years in June.
Jordan-born
archbishop named to Jerusalem
VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI has appointed an archbishop
in Tunisia as the eventual successor to the Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem,
Archbishop Michel Sabbah, a key supporter of Palestinian and Christian
rights in the Holy Land.
Jordanian-born Archbishop Fouad Twal, 64, the new coadjutor of the Latin
Patriarchate of Jerusalem, would take over if Patriarch Sabbah, 72, retires
or is transferred elsewhere. Archbishop Twal, who was ordained a priest
in 1966, served in the Vatican diplomatic corps before his nomination
in Tunisia in 1992. He had served in Vatican missions in Honduras, Germany
and Peru.
Patriarch Sabbah, the first Arab to hold the post, has been patriarch
for Latin rite Catholics since 1988. The Latin rite patriarchate was established
by the Crusaders in 1099 but fell into disuse in the 13th century after
Islamic forces recaptured Jerusalem. Pope Pius IX restored the patriarchate
in 1847 to minister to Latin-rite Catholics in the Holy Land, most of
whom were then of foreign background.
Two
groups of nuns call for end of Iraq war
ANAHEIM, CA (RNS) – Two groups of Catholic nuns have condemned the
war in Iraq, with one group calling for a withdrawal of U.S. troops and
the other urging Catholic military personnel and chaplains to refuse to
fight.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), meeting here, and
the National Coalition of American Nuns, meeting in Elm Grove, Wis., each
denounced the war in separate statements.
The LCWR, an umbrella group for the leaders of some 75,000 U.S. Catholic
Sisters, said the war has resulted in the “alienation and diminishment
of the moral and political leadership of the United States” and
called for troops to be withdrawn.
The smaller National Coalition of American Nuns, which represents some
1,200 nuns in the United States, said in their statement, that bishops
need to tell Catholics that “killing in an unjust war is murder.”
Christian
schools accuse UC of discrimination
LOS ANGELES (RNS) – Christian schools have filed a discrimination
lawsuit against the University of California, accusing the public institution
of refusing to accept courses from private schools with a conservative
Christian perspective.
Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta and the Association of Christian
Schools International charged UC officials with refusing to certify courses
that teach creationism and other beliefs. The University of California
system requires private school students to meet certain high-school course
requirements before they are eligible to apply to one of the nine undergraduate
UC campuses.
Lavalas
names jailed priest for presidency
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – The party of ousted President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide has named a jailed Catholic priest as its candidate for Haiti’s
president in elections this fall.
Aristide’s Lavalas Family party said it would register Father Gerard
Jean-Juste as its standard bearer, apparently ending a heated internal
feud over whether to participate in elections – the first since
the bloody February 2004 uprising that helped topple Aristide.
Father Jean-Juste was arrested in July on suspicion of involvement in
the kidnapping and slaying of prominent Haitian journalist Jacques Roche.
Father Jean-Juste, who was in Miami when Roche was killed, has denied
involvement.
Parishes
to become independent corporations
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – The Diocese of Tucson plans a series of meetings
this month for parishioners and parish leaders that will pave the way
for separately incorporating parishes. The move to form 74 independent
nonprofit corporations by April would be nearly certain to protect them
from being sold off to pay diocesan debt.
At least seven other U.S. dioceses have already made their parishes separate,
corporate entities: the archdioceses of New York and Milwaukee, and the
dioceses of Rhode Island; Davenport, Iowa; Stockton, Calif.; Lincoln,
Neb.; and Baker, Ore.
The Tucson diocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization last year in the
face of potentially expensive lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children
by priests.
The diocese’s bankruptcy plan considers parishes separate financial
entities from the diocese, even though the diocese is listed as the property
owner of parishes on county records.
Papal
apartment to be refurbished for Benedict
VATICAN CITY (RNS) – For the first time in 30 years, the Vatican’s
papal apartment is getting a major facelift.
It includes an expansion of the study and the addition of a jet-black
grand piano to replace the worn instrument then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
is said to have used for late-night renditions of the works of Mozart
and Beethoven. The apartment was last refurbished in 1975. Pope John Paul
II is said to have been unparticular about the state of his living quarters.
