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Vandalism
in S.F.
Graffiti stenciled onto the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Pastoral
Center walls was discovered on Jan. 5. The message was apparently
related to Proposition 8, the California voter initiative that overturned
the state Supreme Court ruling declaring that all couples should have
the right to marry regardless of sexual orientation. Additional graffiti
were found at Holy Redeemer Church, also in San Francisco.
CNS PHOTO/DAN MORRIS-YOUNG/CATHOLIC
SAN FRANCISCO |
Landslide victims
A priest offers prayers inside a cemetery in
San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala, Jan. 5 for victims of a landslide.
At least 34 coffee workers were killed by the landslide as they walked
along a road near the small indigenous town in northern Guatemala.
CNS PHOTO/DANIEL LeCLAIR/REUTERS
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Children displaced in Congo
Congolese children wait for treatment at an
International Medical Corps clinic inside a displacement camp near
Goma, Congo, Jan. 11. An estimated one million civilians have been
displaced by fighting between government and rebel troops in the region.
CNS PHOTO/MARGARET AGUIRRE/INTERNATIONAL
MEDICAL CORPS via REUTERS |
Father Richard Neuhaus mourned
by many
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Political, Catholic and pro-life leaders expressed
their grief over the Jan. 8 death of Father Richard John Neuhaus, an outspoken
opponent of abortion and an adviser to President George W. Bush on bioethical
issues.
“Father Neuhaus was an inspirational leader, admired theologian
and accomplished author who devoted his life to the service of the Almighty
and to the betterment of our world,” Bush said in a Jan. 8 statement.
“He was also a dear friend, and I have treasured his wise counsel
and guidance.”
Father Neuhaus, 72, was hospitalized in New York the day after Christmas
with a systemic infection, according to information posted on the Web
site of First Things, an ecumenical journal he founded in 1990 which was
published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life. A former Lutheran
minister who became a Catholic priest in 1991, the prolific author was
diagnosed with cancer in late November.
Pakistan diocese demands end to military actions
FAISALABAD, Pakistan (CNS) — Catholic leaders in eastern Pakistan
have demanded an end to American military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq
and to the Israeli attack on Gaza. “The Church strongly condemns
the unjust and merciless attacks by the imperialist Americans in Iraq
and Afghanistan as well as Israel’s increasingly cruel and tyrannical
aggression on Palestine,” Father Aftab James Paul said at a press
conference Jan. 5.
Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad and two other priests accompanied him
as he read a statement. Father Paul is director of the Faisalabad Diocese’s
Commission for Interfaith Dialogue.
Catholics targeted in $17 million Ponzi scheme
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Catholics were targeted by an 82-year-old Buffalo,
N.Y., businessman accused of running a Ponzi scheme involving at least
$17 million generated from investors who responded to ads in diocesan
newspapers, federal prosecutors allege.
Richard S. Piccoli of suburban Williamsville, N.Y., was charged with mail
fraud in connection with an investment plan offered through his company,
Gen-See Capital Corp. An arraignment was scheduled in federal court Jan.
13.
Piccoli faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
Charity buys bleach to help fight cholera
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) — A South African Catholic charity
is raising money to buy household bleach to sterilize drinking water in
neighboring Zimbabwe, where a cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,600
people.
Zimbabwe’s Catholic Development Commission and other local nongovernmental
organizations will distribute the bleach, with instructions on how to
use it, to more than 1,000 towns and villages affected by the highly infectious
bacterial disease contracted by ingesting contaminated food or water.
Cholera, which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration, has spread to all
of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces. The World Health Organization said Dec.
31 that Zimbabwe had more than 30,000 reported cases of cholera and the
infection rate shows no signs of slowing.
Archdiocese denies favors for Vicente Fox
MEXICO CITY (CNS) — The Archdiocese of Leon has denied that former
Mexican President Vicente Fox was given preferential treatment over the
annulment of his first marriage. The archdiocese reported in early January
that it was told Dec. 22 that Fox was free to remarry in a Catholic ceremony
because the Tribunal of the Roman Rota at the Vatican had granted his
petition that his first marriage be annulled.
“The process was followed normally,” Archbishop Jose Martin
Rabago of Leon told reporters Jan. 4. “Talk that dispensations are
only granted to the rich and only in exceptional forms . . . that’s
a lack of knowledge of what happens in ecclesiastical tribunals.”
The archbishop, whose archdiocese includes the Fox family ranch, added
that the entire process took roughly nine years and the process cost the
former president less than $350.
Fox married his former campaign spokeswoman, Marta Sahagun de Fox, in
a civil ceremony in 2001 and the couple have stated that they wish to
be married in a religious ceremony.
Police help to end parish occupations
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) — The Archdiocese of New Orleans, with help from
the New Orleans police, ended a 10-week occupation of two closed churches
with the arrest of two people. Police gained entry into Our Lady of Good
Counsel Church to ask parishioners to leave or face arrest Jan. 6. Two
people were arrested and another, a cancer patient, was escorted home.
About 12 blocks away at St. Henry Church, police charged one parishioner
with criminal trespassing.
New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes made the decision Jan. 5 to request
police intervention when it became apparent that the people occupying
the closed churches would not leave after being asked to do so by archdiocesan
officials.
Amendment to protect gay couples opposed
HONG KONG (CNS) — Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong and some
Christian legislators have objected to a proposed amendment that would
extend a law on domestic violence to cover same-sex cohabitants. A Jan.
5 statement from the cardinal said extending the law to same-sex couples
would “definitely lead to a misunderstanding or misinterpretation
of the concepts of marriage and family, thereby undermining the foundation
of our society.”
Even though the Church fully agrees that everyone, irrespective of background,
must be protected from any form of violence, “distorted concepts
of marriage and family will bring about other serious consequences,”
he said. He added that he is obliged to appeal to the government to make
“the common good of our society the basis of its legislation on
marriage and family.”
Later this year, Hong Kong’s Legislative Council is scheduled to
convene a public hearing on the bill, which would amend the 1986 Domestic
Violence Ordinance.
Reminder to Obama of Guantanamo pledge
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Closure of the military prison at the U.S. Army
base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be getting renewed attention during
a 100-day campaign designed to hold President-elect Barack Obama to his
campaign pledge to close the compound.
On Jan. 11, the seventh anniversary of its opening, organizers of the
100 Days Campaign began a series of events including public witness, street
theater, processions, lectures, prayer and fasting to call attention to
Obama’s promise that he would close the controversial prison. A
Department of Defense spokesman said 250 detainees remain behind bars
there.
Campaign organizer Frida Berrigan said she is concerned that closing the
prison may be overlooked as the new administration addresses pressing
issues such as the economy, home foreclosures, rising unemployment and
the war in Iraq.
Survey: Most support abortion restrictions
WASHINGTON (CNS) — A new online survey conducted for the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops finds a majority of participants support at least
some restrictions on abortion. The survey, conducted online Dec. 10-12,
asked 2,341 people about the circumstances under which they would favor
or oppose legal abortion and about what kind of regulations of abortion
they would support or oppose.
Among its findings were that 78 percent favor requiring abortions be performed
only by licensed physicians and that 72 percent favor requiring women
seeking abortions be told of the potential physical and psychological
risks and about alternatives such as adoption.
It found 11 percent think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances
and 38 percent said it should be legal only under limited circumstances,
such as in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother.
Forty-two percent said abortion should be legal for any reason.
The USCCB said that Harris Interactive, which fielded the study, weighted
the data using a propensity scoring system to be representative of the
total U.S. population on the basis of region, age within gender, education,
household income, race/ethnicity and propensity to be on the Internet.
Harris said no estimates of sampling error could be calculated.
Birth-control pill linked to male infertility
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The birth-control pill is causing “devastating”
environmental damage and plays a role in rising male infertility rates,
said the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.
“We have sufficient evidence to argue that one of the considerable
factors contributing to male infertility in the West — with its
ever decreasing numbers of spermatozoa in men — is environmental
pollution caused by the byproducts of the pill” released in human
waste, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the Vatican-based
World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.
Some European studies have blamed increased male infertility and poor
reproductive health on environmental causes, especially estrogen-like
chemicals found in pesticides, plastic food containers, shampoos, cosmetics
and other products.
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