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February
19, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 4Oakland,
CA
 |
Seeking
Guantanamo release |
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Abortion
vote in Portugal |
Pope
is consoled by stories of apostles arguing
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI said he finds consolation in the
New Testament stories of the apostles and first disciples arguing with
each other. Continuing his series of audience talks about the leaders
of the early Church, Pope Benedict spoke Jan. 31 about St. Paul and St.
Barnabas arguing over whether they should take another person with them
on a mission. “So, even among saints there are contrasts, disagreements,
controversies,” the pope said.
“This appears very consoling to me, because we see that the saints
did not drop as saints from heaven. They were men like us with problems
and even with sins,” the pope said before he was interrupted by
applause. “Holiness consists not in never having made a mistake
or sinned,” he said, but rather it grows with “conversion,
repentance, with a willingness to start over and, especially, with the
ability to reconcile and forgive.”
Rape
victim urge end to Marianas trafficking
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Filipina forced into the sex trade and raped hours
after her arrival in the Northern Mariana Islands appealed to U.S. senators
to change immigration and labor laws in the commonwealth. Kayleen Entena
was joined by Good Shepherd Sisters and a laywoman working with the nuns,
who run shelters for victims of human trafficking on the islands and around
the world.
While living with her family in the Philippines, Entena, 23, was recruited
to work in a restaurant on Saipan, one of the Mariana Islands. However,
Entena said, she was tricked into the sex trade and was forced to have
sex with male customers.
Sisters
of the Poor due $1.4 million from FEMA
MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- Almost 18 months after Hurricane Katrina devastated
New Orleans, the Little Sisters of the Poor still have not received a
$1.4 million reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
for first responders’ emergency use of Mary Joseph Residence for
the Elderly in New Orleans after the hurricane.
FEMA announced Jan. 17 that it had allocated the money to reimburse the
nuns, but clearance to release the funds had to go through local government
channels, a time-consuming bureaucratic process.
Group
condemns stunting growth of disabled child
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The governance board of directors of the National
Catholic Partnership on Disability has condemned “growth attenuation,”
the process by which doctors in Seattle deliberately stunted the growth
of a severely disabled 9-year-old child to keep her from growing too large
for her family members to carry her. The child was given high doses of
estrogen over several years to inhibit her growth and underwent a hysterectomy
and the removal of her breast buds to avoid menstrual cramps and the possibility
of pregnancy and to decrease the likelihood of sexual abuse.
‘Complete
reversal’ of U.S. Iraq policy urged
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pax Christi U.S.A. has been gathering signatures for
an advertisement that will call for “a complete reversal of U.S.
policy” in Iraq, including a withdrawal of U.S. troops. “The
U.S. is not the honest broker who can craft peace among the Sunnis, Shiites
and Kurds. Our continued military presence is counterproductive,”
says the ad, which Pax Christi plans to run in the March 16 issue of the
National Catholic Reporter. “For all who would believe that violence
can serve any productive purpose, the tragic experience in Iraq should
be ample evidence to the contrary,” the ad says.
Polish
nuns withstood secret police pressure
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish nuns withstood pressure from communist
secret police better than male clergy, according to research by the country’s
women religious orders. Nuns who researched Interior Ministry files found
that no more than 30 people associated with women religious had been recruited
by secret police during the 1980s, when collaborators were most active.
Two Catholics in election or Hong Kong executive
HONG KONG (CNS) -- A Catholic legislator is running for the post of Hong
Kong’s chief executive against the incumbent, also a Catholic, making
it the first contested election for the office since Hong Kong reverted
from British to Chinese control in 1997. Civic Party legislator Alan Leong
Kah-kit, 48, will run against the current chief executive, Donald Tsang
Yam-kuen, 62, in the March 25 election. Both candidates are alumni of
Jesuit-run high schools in Hong Kong.
Church
leads march against violence in Mexico
MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Catholic Church teamed up with six other religions
to lead thousands in a silent march to protest a recent wave of killings
and kidnappings in northern Mexico. Wearing white and bearing banners
saying “In Favor of Peace,” an estimated 4,000 residents of
Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city, were led by local heads
of the Catholic, evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Anglican, Latter-day Saints
and Buddhist religions Feb. 4.
The state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located, has seen a spike
in organized crime-related activities over the last year. Local press
reported that in 2006 55 people were killed. As of early February this
year, at least 10 people -- including six police officers -- had been
killed. An increase in kidnappings also has been reported. Authorities
have said the murders likely were the result of drug smugglers settling
scores and fighting over turf.
Alumni
value Catholic college experience
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Alumni of Catholic colleges and universities rank
their education and the values they learned in those institutions far
more highly than alumni of major public universities do, education researcher
Jim Day told a national gathering of Catholic college and university presidents
Feb. 4.
The alumni of Catholic schools were considerably more likely than their
public university counterparts to say they benefited from opportunities
for spiritual development in their college years, experienced an integration
of values and ethics in classroom discussions and were helped to develop
moral principles that can guide actions, he reported.
Bishop
denied laicization to run for president
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican turned down a laicization request from
a Paraguayan bishop who wants to run for president and suspended the bishop
from exercising his priestly ministry.
Bishop Fernando Lugo Mendez of San Pedro, Paraguay, 57, had announced
Dec. 25 that he would ask the Vatican to return him to the status of a
layman so he could run for president.
Vatican Radio reported Feb. 1 that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect
of the Congregation for Bishops, had informed Bishop Lugo in a Jan. 20
letter that his request to return to the lay state had been denied because
“the episcopacy is a service accepted freely forever.”
However, the radio said, because of Bishop Lugo’s decision to continue
his political activity, Cardinal Re also informed him that he had been
suspended from exercising his ministry as a bishop and priest.
Cardinal
burned in effigy during protest in India
RANCHI, India (CNS) -- Activists affiliated with radical Hindu groups
burned effigies of a Catholic cardinal and political leaders during a
rally protesting an Indian state’s removal of a religious identification
requirement on caste certificates. Caste certificates are required for
benefits such as free education and government jobs.
The Indian Constitution guarantees the benefits to tribal people and members
of the former untouchable caste. Critics of the decision argue that Cardinal
Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi, the first tribal or indigenous cardinal from
India, forced the state government to remove the religion identification,
inserted in 2003 by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
