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April 23,
2007
VOL.
45, NO. 8Oakland,
CA
 |
Birthday
concert |
Pope
Benedict laments ‘continual slaughter’
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In his Easter message, Pope Benedict XVI lamented
the countless wars, disasters and horrors ravaging the world, including
“the continual slaughter” in Iraq and the situation in the
Darfur region of Sudan. The pope highlighted his concern for all those
suffering from exploitation, hunger, disease, terrorism, kidnappings and
the “violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of
religion.”
Bush touts Catholic schools, cites closings
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President George W. Bush praised Catholic schools
and pressed for immigration reform in remarks delivered April 13 at the
fourth annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast. “America’s
Catholic schools play a vital role in our nation.... I appreciate the
tremendous sacrifices that many dioceses are making to keep their inner(-city)
schools going. I am worried that too many of these schools are closing
-- and our nation needs to do something about it,” the president
said.
On the subject of immigration, Bush said to the 1,600 gathered for the
breakfast that “we must have” a national policy “that
enforces our laws and upholds the dignity of every single person in the
United States. And now is the time for the United States Congress to get
a bill to my desk that I can sign.”
Diocese ordered to disclose parish accounts
SAN DIEGO (CNS) -- At a federal bankruptcy hearing April 11, Judge Louise
DeCarl Adler ordered the San Diego Diocese to refile its financial disclosure
statements and to include this time the balances in the 770 bank accounts
held by the 98 parishes of the diocese. She also indicated, in response
to a request from the diocese, that she will appoint an outside expert
to analyze the accounting system in the diocese and its parishes.
Lawyers for the diocese said each parish is a separate entity that needs
its own bank accounts because it functions separately in its financial
operations. When dealing with money that is dedicated to one purpose and
cannot be commingled with other funds, a parish may place that money in
a separate account. The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Feb. 27.
Bishops’
official laments stem-cell research funding
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- An official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
criticized the U.S. Senate’s “fixation on destructive research”
after the Senate passed a bill that would provide federal funding for
stem-cell research involving the destruction of human embryos. On April
11, the Senate approved S. 5, permitting destruction of human embryos
in federally funded stem-cell research, by a 63-34 margin.
Should the bill become law, “millions of taxpayers would be forced
to promote attacks on innocent human life in the name of scientific progress,”
said Richard M. Doerflinger, deputy director of the bishops’ Secretariat
for Pro-Life Activities, said. President George W. Bush has promised to
veto the legislation. On Jan. 11 the House passed a similar measure, H.R.
3, by a vote of 253-174.
McDonald’s
in accord with tomato pickers
ATLANTA (CNS) -- McDonald’s Corp. has reached an agreement with
a Florida farmworker organization to pay a penny per pound more for tomatoes
to increase wages and to improve working conditions for the workers who
pick them. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and McDonald’s April
9 announced that they also would work together to develop a new code of
conduct for tomato growers and increase farmworkers’ participation
in monitoring compliance.
Signed in Atlanta, the agreement puts an end to a two-year campaign by
the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to pressure McDonald’s to pay
more for the 15 million tomatoes it uses annually in U.S. restaurants.
McDonald’s reportedly buys fewer than 1.5 percent of Florida’s
tomatoes.
Protest
in Rome against capital punishment
ROME (CNS) -- More than 2,000 people protesting capital punishment marched
through Rome to St. Peter’s Square on Easter morning. The march
was designed to put pressure on the Italian government to propose a moratorium
on capital punishment at the U.N. General Assembly April 23.
The Sant’Egidio Community, a Catholic lay community, and Hands Off
Cain, an international nonprofit organization that works to end capital
punishment, organized the march. Various Italian political figures --
including Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni and Marco Pannella, a member of the
European Parliament – participated.
Colombian
coast threats hinder human rights work
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) -- Recent threats against Catholic institutions
and indigenous and human rights organizations along Colombia’s Pacific
coast have formed a pattern of intimidation that has increasingly interfered
with the Church’s human rights work, said the Colombian bishops’
conference. The bishops said there has been a “considerable increase
in selective killings, disappearances, massacres, displacements, threats
and generalized fear in the civilian population in many parts of the region.”
They also said that “nothing has been done” about the problems
and called on the military and government agencies to address the region’s
crisis.
South
Korean Catholics protest trade agreement
ANDONG, South Korea (CNS) -- Catholics in a rural South Korean diocese
have protested their government’s “unpardonable” free-trade
agreement with the United States and warned that an influx of U.S. imports
would destroy local farming communities. “The government is sacrificing
farmers at the cost of selling more industrial products,” said Isidore
Kwoun Oh-su, chairman of the Andong Diocese’s unit of the Korean
Catholic Farmers’ Movement. He said the free-trade agreement would
“take away any hope left for farmers and kill farming communities.”
Under the agreement, South Korea will receive wider access to the U.S.
textile and automobile markets, and South Korea will allow market access
for U.S. exports and agricultural products. For the pact to become law,
the U.S. Congress and South Korea’s legislature must approve it.
Episcopal
bishop returns to Catholic Church
ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) -- Bishop Daniel W. Herzog, recently retired Episcopal
bishop of Albany, and his wife, Carol, have left the Episcopal Church
and re-entered full communion with the Catholic Church. Both were raised
as Catholics and joined the Episcopal Church as adults.
In a letter to his successor, Bishop William H. Love, Bishop Herzog said
his decision was a result of the decision of the 2003 General Convention
of the U.S. Episcopal Church to affirm the election and ordination of
an openly gay man, Bishop Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.
In his view, he said, the power the convention claimed in taking its action
“negated any previous authority on which I had relied. It caused
me to engage in a fresh examination of apostolic teaching and authority.”
Illinois
Catholic leaders criticize HPV mandate
ROMEOVILLE, Ill. (CNS) -- Catholic leaders in Illinois are speaking out
against proposed legislation that would require all girls entering sixth
grade in the state to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus,
or HPV, saying the mandate could have an adverse moral impact on minors.
Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2006, the vaccine
protects against four HPV strains that are responsible for 70 percent
of fatal cervical cancers and 90 percent of contagious sexually transmitted
diseases.
“There is nothing wrong with the vaccine itself,” said Zach
Wichmann, associate director of the Illinois Catholic Conference. But
mandating that young girls must receive this vaccine might send the message
that teenage sexual relationships and encounters are acceptable, he said.
“Parents should be able to decide” about allowing their minor
children to undergo the vaccination process.
Virginia
legislators expand reasons for death penalty
RICHMOND, Va. (CNS) -- Despite a warning by Virginia’s Catholic
bishops that the state’s death penalty has spiraled “out of
control,” legislators voted overwhelmingly April 4 to override a
gubernatorial veto and make it a capital crime to murder a judge or a
subpoenaed witness. The legislators narrowly failed, however, to override
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s veto of legislation that would make it a
capital offense to direct a killing even if one does not personally participate
in the murder.
Vatican
likely to seek clemency for priest
ROME (CNS) -- Vatican officials said they will likely try to ask for clemency
for a Vietnamese priest who was sentenced to eight years in prison for
crimes against the state. In late February, Father Ly was placed under
house arrest and charged with acts of incitement against the state after
his home was raided. The priest also was accused of being a part of a
pro-democracy activist group. His trial lasted one day; he was sentenced
March 30.
