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Cardinal
buried in Hanoi
Priests carry the coffin of Cardinal Pau Pham Dinh Tung during his
funeral at St. Joseph Cathedral in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 26. Thousands
of Vietnamese Catholics wearing white headbands filled the streets
and plaza in front of Hanoi’s main cathedral for the funeral
of Cardinal Tung who died Feb. 22 at age 89.
CNS PHOTO/KHAM/REUTERS |
Praying in Los Angeles
Young people pray during the Religious Education
Congress in Anaheim, Feb. 27, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles. The four-day event, one of the nation’s largest annual
Catholic gatherings, drew some 40,000 teenagers and young adults from
across the country and as far away as the United Kingdom and Australia.
CNS PHOTO/VICTOR ALEMAN/VIDA
NUEVA
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Traditionalist society won’t
accept Vatican II
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The head of the traditionalist Society of St.
Pius X said his order is not ready to accept the Second Vatican Council,
which the Vatican has set as a condition for full reintegration in the
Church.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Swiss-based society, said
Vatican II has brought “only losses” among Catholic priests
and the faithful.
Pope Benedict XVI recently lifted the excommunications of Bishop Fellay
and three other bishops, who were ordained against papal orders in 1988,
as a step toward dialogue and reconciliation. The Vatican later said the
society would have to recognize the teachings of Vatican II and of post-conciliar
popes to be in full communion.
In an interview, Bishop Fellay was asked if the society was ready to meet
the condition of accepting the council.
“No. The Vatican has recognized the need for preliminary discussions
in order to take up fundamental questions that arise precisely from the
Second Vatican Council. To make recognition of the council a preliminary
condition is to put the cart before the horse,” he said, adding
that he expected the Church to critically review Vatican II, because “its
results are pure losses.”
Vatican says bishop’s apologies aren’t enough
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican said Bishop Richard Williamson’s
statement of regret for denying the extent of the Holocaust does not meet
the Vatican’s demand that he publicly recant his position. The Vatican
had said the bishop would not be allowed to function as a bishop in the
Church unless he disavowed his remarks about the Holocaust and publicly
apologized. He is one of four traditionalist bishops whose excommunication
was lifted in January by Pope Benedict XVI.
Statistics show increase in number of priests
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The latest Church statistics show that the
number of priests and seminarians around the world has been showing a
modest, yet steady increase.
The statistics from the end of 2007 also showed that the number of Catholics
remains stable at 1.147 billion people across the globe.
The number of priests in the world rose by 0.18 percent. At the end of
2007 there were 408,024 priests in the world, 762 more than at the beginning
of the year. That growth has been confined to Africa and Asia, which showed
substantial increases in ordinations with 27.6 percent growth and 21.1
percent growth, respectively.
The number of seminarians increased by 0.4 percent in 2007 to 115,919.
However, only Africa and Asia saw significant growth in priestly vocations,
while numbers fell by 2.1 percent in Europe and by 1 percent in the Americas,
the Vatican said.
Archbishop has concerns on Legionaries of Christ
BALTIMORE (CNS) — Concerned that the Legionaries of Christ order
stifles the free will of its members and lacks transparency, Archbishop
Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore told its director general in Rome
that he cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone join the Legionaries
or Regnum Christi, its affiliated lay movement.
The archbishop’s action came in the wake of revelations that the
late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ,
fathered a daughter while serving as leader of the international religious
order. Pope Benedict XVI had previously removed the Mexican priest from
public ministry in 2006, asking him to lead a life of prayer and penance
after Father Maciel faced allegations of sexual abuse of seminarians and
financial irregularities
Middle East leaders warn of ‘desert of Christianity’
ZOUK MOSBEH, Lebanon (CNS) — Chaldean Catholic leaders warned that
Iraq’s diminishing Christian population should be an “alarm
bell” for the rest of the world and could foreshadow the transformation
of the Middle East. Chaldean Bishop Michel Kassarji of Beirut said the
Iraqi model of depleting Christians could be introduced into the rest
of the Middle East. He said it was important “to avoid the transformation
of the East into a desert of Christianity.”
Milwaukee archbishop to lead NY Archdiocese
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Timothy M.
Dolan of Milwaukee as archbishop of New York, succeeding Cardinal Edward
M. Egan, who has headed the archdiocese since 2000. He will be installed
April 15 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Archbishop Dolan, a St. Louis
native who turned 59 Feb. 6, has been head of the Milwaukee Archdiocese
since 2002 and was an auxiliary bishop of the St. Louis Archdiocese for
a year before that.
Jesuits’ Oregon province files for bankruptcy
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) — The Oregon province of the Society of Jesus
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 17, citing 200 pending
lawsuits over clergy sexual abuse claims. The abuse claims are primarily
from Alaskans who said they had been abused as children by priests. The
Jesuits’ Oregon province, based in Portland, serves Alaska, Idaho,
Montana, Oregon and Washington.
“Our decision to file Chapter 11 was not an easy one, but with approximately
200 additional claims pending or threatened, it is the only way we believe
that all claimants can be offered a fair financial settlement within the
limited resources of the province,” said Jesuit Father Patrick Lee,
provincial. The statement noted the province has worked “diligently”
to resolve claims of priests’ misconduct, saying it has settled
more than 200 claims and paid more than $25 million to victims since 2001.
That amount does not include payments made by insurers.
Atheist ad campaign on Montreal buses
QUEBEC CITY (CNS) — An international atheist ad campaign, modeled
on similar campaigns in England and Spain, will be featured on buses in
Quebec in March. The slogan — “God probably doesn’t
exist. So stop worrying and get on with your life” — piqued
the interest of the Quebec Humanist Association, which translated it into
French and arranged for it to be displayed on 10 central Montreal buses
for three weeks.
The same ad also will be displayed later this spring on Toronto buses,
although transportation authorities in British Columbia, Nova Scotia and
other parts of Ontario have refused the campaign, said Michel Virard,
president of the Quebec Humanist Association.
Vatican joins protest over Israeli TV show
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican protested what it called a “blasphemous”
satire of Christianity on an Israeli TV network. The late-night program
broadcast in mid-February included joking suggestions that Mary was impregnated
by a school friend at the age of 15 and that Jesus died at a young age
because he was fat.
A Vatican statement Feb. 20 said the program had “ridiculed —
with blasphemous words and images — the Lord Jesus and the Blessed
Virgin Mary.” It expressed support for Christians and Catholic leaders
in the Holy Land who had denounced the broadcast. The Vatican said its
nuncio in Jerusalem, Archbishop Antonio Franco, had received assurances
from the Israeli government that it would take steps to prevent such programs
in the future and would try to obtain a public apology from the television
network.
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