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October
22, 2007 • VOL. 45, NO. 18 • Oakland,
CA
New bishop in SacramentoBishop Jaime Soto stands outside the cathedral in Sacramento after being named coadjutor bishop of that diocese, Oct. 11. Bishop Soto, 51, has been auxiliary bishop of Orange for the past eight years. As coadjutor, he will automatically succeed Sacramento Bishop William K. Weigand upon his retirement or death. Bishop Soto is one of 25 active Hispanic bishops in the U.S. CNS PHOTO/LUIS GRIS/CATHOLIC HERALD |
 New church in Fatima Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, walks in front of a statue of Our Lady of Fatima during the opening of the new Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Fatima, Portugal, Oct. 12. An estimated 300,000 pilgrims converged in Fatima to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition and to dedicate the new church. CNS PHOTO/NACHO DOCE/REUTERS |
 Awaiting release in Iraq A group of Iraqi detainees wait in a crowded tent for an Iraqi judge to sign their release papers from a U.S. military base in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 10. The U.S. military released about 1,400 Iraqi detainees to mark the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. CNS PHOTO/CEERWAN AZIZ/REUTERS |
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| A visit
to Bethlehem Standing outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity (above left), Palestinians hold pictures of their relatives in Israeli jails while U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the church, Oct. 17. She lit a candle at the church and voiced hope that religion could be a force for reconciliation in the Middle East. Above right, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stands with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theofilos III of Jerusalem during her visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Prior to the visit, her first to the West Bank city, she said she anticipated a prayerful experience. CNS PHOTO/DAVID FURST/REUTERS (left) and KEVIN FRAYER/REUTERS (right) |
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S.F. archbishop apologizes for
Communion mistake
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — When he gave Communion to “two strangely
dressed persons” Oct. 7 at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco,
Archbishop George H. Niederauer said he did not realize they were members
of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that has “long made
a practice of mocking the Catholic Church.” In a column for the
Oct. 19 issue of Catholic San Francisco, the archbishop said he had never
met members of the group and “did not recognize who these people
were when they approached me.”
“After the event, I realized that they were members of this particular
organization and that giving them holy Communion had been a mistake,”
said the archbishop. “I apologize to the Catholics of the Archdiocese
of San Francisco and to Catholics at large for doing so.” The archbishop
said there had been “no protest, no demonstration, no disruption”
during the Mass. “The congregation was devout and the liturgy was
celebrated with reverence.”
Church in Mexico to review excommunicated
heroes
MEXICO CITY (CNS) — The Archdiocese of Mexico City has formed a
special commission to review the cases of two independence heroes and
former priests who were excommunicated for taking up arms against the
Spanish empire in the 19th century.
The re-evaluation of Fathers Miguel Hidalgo Costilla, considered the father
of the Mexican nation, and Jose Maria Morelos, who waged a guerrilla war
against the Spanish, could help mend old rifts between the Catholic Church
and Mexican nationalists, said Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the
archdiocese.
“These are icons for the Mexican people, and it is important that
we clarify the Church’s position toward them,” Father Valdemar
said. The commission will look at evidence that could prove the excommunication
of both priests by the Spanish Inquisition was invalidated before their
deaths, Father Valdemar said.
Priests asked to give a salary for lawsuit payoff
SAN DIEGO (CNS) — San Diego Bishop Robert H. Brom has asked his
priests to give up a month’s salary to help pay the diocese’s
multimillion dollar settlement with victims of clergy sexual abuse. Bishop
Brom also asked parish priests to request donations from their parishioners.
Fundraising letters are to be sent out by the end of October.
On Sept. 7 the San Diego Diocese and the San Bernardino Diocese, which
was split off from its southern neighbor in 1978, announced an agreement
to pay $198.1 million to settle lawsuits with 144 people for abuse suffered
between 1938 and 1993.
Priest suspended after hidden camera shows sexual advances
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican suspended an official from his
job and opened an investigation after the priest was secretly filmed making
advances to a young man. The official, Msgr. Tommaso Stenico, insisted
that he was not gay, but was pretending to be homosexual in order to research
a suspected gay campaign against priests. Msgr. Stenico, 60, is one of
three section chiefs at the Congregation for Clergy. He is the host of
a catechetical TV program, has written many religious books and has his
own Web site.
The scandal erupted in early October when the Italian network La7 broadcast
a program on gay priests. One segment, filmed through a hidden camera,
showed an appointment between a Vatican monsignor and a young man, in
which the priest leads the young man to his Vatican office and implies
that he doesn’t think homosexual acts are sinful.
Pope appeals for two priests
kidnapped in Iraq
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI appealed for the release
of two Catholic priests kidnapped in Iraq. The priests, both members of
the Syrian rite, were abducted in Mosul by unidentified gunmen Oct. 13.
Reports from Iraq said a ransom was being demanded for their release.
The pope, speaking to pilgrims at a noon blessing Oct. 14, said the latest
kidnappings were part of a daily stream of bad news from Iraq, where attacks
and violence “are shaking the conscience of those who care for the
good of this country and peace in the region.” The priests, Father
Pius Affas, 60, and Father Mazen Ishoa, 35, are being threatened with
death, he said.
Prominent Christian killed, Gaza Christians uneasy
JERUSALEM (CNS) — Christians in the Gaza Strip expressed unease
after a prominent Christian businessman who headed the Palestinian Holy
Bible Society was killed by what many believe to be an extremist Islamic
group. Costa Dabbagh, executive director of the Middle East Council of
Churches, said the killing had “a bit of a psychological effect”
on the Christian community, but details of the murder have yet to be determined.
“It could have been a normal crime, but because he is Christian
it has taken on a different meaning,” Dabbagh said.
South most charitable; Northeast is the least
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Americans in the South contributed a far greater
portion of their incomes to charity than those in the Northeast in 2005,
according to a new book on church giving. And when the calculations of
charitable giving are limited to those made to churches and religious
organizations, the average annual expenditures by Southern households
in 2005 was nearly twice that of households in the Northeast. Looking
at charitable contributions as a percentage of after-tax income, the researchers
found that Southerners gave 2.1 percent of their available income to charity,
those in the Midwest 2 percent, those in the West 1.5 percent and those
in the Northeast 1.2 percent.
Priest gets life sentence for crimes in ‘dirty
war’
LA PLATA, Argentina (CNS) — The first Catholic priest in Argentina
to face charges of human rights violations committed during the country’s
military dictatorship was given a life sentence. The historic ruling is
expected to set a legal precedent and push the Church into the spotlight
for its alleged role in the country’s 1976-1983 “dirty war.”
Father Christian von Wernich, 67, was found guilty of collaborating in
seven murders, 31 cases of torture and 42 kidnappings during his time
as police chaplain in clandestine detention centers in Buenos Aires during
the dictatorship. He also was found guilty of genocide and crimes against
humanity.
French bishops denounce immigration
reforms
PARIS (CNS) — France’s Catholic bishops have denounced proposed
immigration amendments that would allow the collection of ethnic data
and introduce DNA testing for migrants seeking to join family members
in the country. “Christians should refuse in principle to choose”
between those migrants living illegally, or in secret, and those in the
open, “or between citizens who carry papers and those without,”
the bishops said in a statement. “Whoever they are, they are our
brothers and sisters in humanity.”
Two Nobel laureates join Pontifical Academy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI named as members of the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences two Nobel laureates. They areYuan Tseh Lee, 70, a
native of Taiwan who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1986 while he
was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Klaus von
Klitzing, 64, a professor of physics at the Max Planck Institute for Solid
State Research in Germany.
Bishops sever ties with Amnesty International
PERTH, Australia (CNS) — The Australian Catholic Bishops’
Conference has severed all ties between Amnesty International and the
Catholic Church in Australia because the human rights organization changed
its neutral stance on abortion. A statement from the bishops’ conference
said that by imposing a new policy in favor of abortion, Amnesty effectively
had created a human rights organization that excluded Catholic members.
More men in seminaries
The number of Catholic seminarians in undergraduate college programs rose
for the 2006-2007 school year to 1,365, according to Mary L. Gautier,
a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the
Apostolate, based at Georgetown University in Washington. But it is barely
10 percent of the number reported by CARA’s first survey in 1967-68:
13,401.
