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Prayers
against crime in Tijuana
Lidia Duarte and Patricia Gallegos pray during a Nov. 26 service held
in response to rising crime and violence in Tijuana, Mexico. About
2,500 people attended the service in a sports stadium.
CNSPHOTO/DAVID MAUNG |
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Remembering the victims in Mumbai ABOVE
A girl prays during a candlelight vigil in Jammu,
India, Dec. 4, held for the victims of Mumbai’s Nov. 26 terrorist
attacks that killed nearly 200 people and injured hundreds. Among
the victims were a Jewish rabbi and his wife and a Catholic waiter
working in one of the two hotels targeted in the attacks.
CNS PHOTO/AMIT GUPTA/REUTERS
Funeral for Patriarch LEFT
People pray near a portrait of Russian Orthodox
Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow during a public viewing in Moscow’s
Cathedral of Christ the Savior Dec. 7. Pope Benedict XVI asked the
world’s Catholics to join prayers with “our Orthodox brothers
and sister “for the peaceful repose of the head of the Russian
Orthodox Church. Patriarch Alexy died Dec. 5 at age 79.
CNS PHOTO/SERGEY KARUPKHIN/REUTERS
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No disregard seen for gay Catholics
in Prop. 8 vote
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — In a message to homosexual Catholics in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the six auxiliary
bishops of the archdiocese said the recent vote in California defining
marriage as the union of a man and a woman “does not diminish in
any way (your) importance” nor “lessen your personal dignity
and value as full members of the body of Christ.”
The message said Catholic support for Proposition 8, the state constitutional
amendment approved by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin Nov. 4, “was
in defense of the long-standing institution of marriage understood as
the lifelong relationship of a man and a woman ordered to the good of
the spouses and to the procreation and education of their children.”
The Church’s support was not an effort to harm the homosexual community
or to ban same-sex marriage, even though ballot information about Proposition
8 stated that was the initiative’s purpose, the cardinal and bishops
said.
“If we had ever thought that the intent of this proposition was
to harm you or anyone in the state of California, we would not have supported
it,” they said.
Detroit church leaders support auto industry aid
DETROIT (CNS) — Detroit-area religious leaders convened by Detroit
Cardinal Adam J. Maida called Dec. 4 for federal assistance to stabilize
the American automobile industry. Cardinal Maida said both business and
labor leaders had expressed fear of what could happen if there is no government
action. “The alternative is not only unwise; it is unthinkable.
If nothing is done, one can only imagine what would happen to all of us
who call this corner of Michigan home,” he added. The 11 religious
leaders represented local Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, Jews and
Muslims.
Carbon monoxide kills 11 Chinese Catholic girls
YAN’AN, China (CNS) — Carbon monoxide poisoning, apparently
from burning coal in a school dormitory in Shaanxi province, killed 11
Catholic girls ages 8-10 and left a 12th girl in a coma. The 12 pupils
from various Catholic villages were burning charcoal with the windows
closed Dec. 1, trying to keep warm in freezing weather. The incident at
the state-run Duiziliang School in Dingbian county came to light when
the girls failed to appear at the morning assembly in the school playground.
Leaders urge Obama to seek Middle East peace
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, Washington’s
retired archbishop, has joined Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious
leaders in calling upon President-elect Barack Obama to take an immediate
leadership role in securing peace between Palestinians and Israelis in
the violence-torn Middle East.
“We believe it is essential that the leaders and people of Israel,
the Palestinian territories and Arab states be assured that you intend
to implement this priority with a sense of urgency following your inauguration,”
said members of the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for
Peace in the Middle East.
The leaders also are seeking meetings with the new president and Hillary
Clinton, Obama’s nominee as secretary of state, to offer their ideas
and support for U.S. efforts in the region.
Murdered nun honored with human rights prize
UNITED NATIONS (CNS) — A U.S. nun who was murdered in 2005 while
she worked to defend the rights of poor farmers in the Brazilian Amazon
region has been named a recipient of a prestigious U.N. human rights prize.
Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, is one of seven
recipients of the U.N. Prize in the Field of Human Rights, awarded by
the General Assembly every five years.
The others are slain Pakistani leader and former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto; Louise Arbour, former U.N. high commissioner for human rights;
Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general; Carolyn Gomes, executive director
and co-founder of Jamaicans for Justice; Denis Mukwege, co-founder of
the General Referral Hospital of Panzi in Congo; and Human Rights Watch.
The awards were to be presented at a ceremony in New York on International
Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, to mark the 60th anniversary of the adoption
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
U.S. suspension of aid program decried
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (CNS) — Archbishop Leopoldo Brenes Solorzano
of Managua criticized the decision by the Millennium Challenge Corp. to
suspend a U.S. aid program over concerns about the results of nationwide
municipal elections. Archbishop Brenes, president of the Nicaraguan bishops’
conference, warned that suspending the poverty reduction program would
affect the poorest people of the nation.
John Danilovich, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corp., a
U.S. government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest
countries in the world, ordered the agency to re-evaluate its $175 million
aid package to Nicaragua. “I am not satisfied that the electoral
process in Nicaragua has been conducted in accordance with the principles
upon which MCC awards and delivers grants to reduce poverty,” said
a statement from the organization Nov. 24.
Vatican ratifies treaty banning cluster bombs
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican has signed and ratified a new treaty
to end the production and use of cluster bombs, and appealed to the international
community to ban “this inhumane type of weapon.” Archbishop
Dominique Mamberti, Vatican secretary for relations with states, was one
of more than 100 diplomats who signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions
in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 3.
The United States and other major countries that produce cluster weapons
— including Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan — have
not signed it. The United States has expressed concern that a ban would
restrict what it sees as the legitimate use of such weapons and has said
that cluster bombs were essential to U.S. military operations.
S.F. Archbishop: tolerance sought in same-sex debate
SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) — San Francisco’s archbishop has appealed
to people on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue to be tolerant
of each other, to “disagree without being disagreeable” and
not presume to know “the real motives” behind people’s
viewpoint. “We need to stop hurling names like ‘bigot’
and ‘pervert’ at each other. And we need to stop it now,”
Archbishop George H. Niederauer said Dec. 1 in an open letter.
Voters in the state Nov. 4 passed a ballot initiative called Proposition
8, which is a constitutional amendment to define marriage as only “valid
and recognized” if between a man and a woman. There have been vigorous
protests against the outcome in California and around the country by gay
rights supporters.
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