Grief after earthquake
A couple embrace near the ruins of their house after an earthquake
hit the village of Onna, Italy, April 6. A powerful earthquake struck
a huge area of central Italy as residents slept April 6, killing at
least 260 people. Among the victims was Abbess Gemma Antonucci, head
of the Poor Clares’ cloister of St. Clare in Paganica.
CNS PHOTO/CHRIS HELGREN/REUTERS
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Supporting conscience protection rule
Dr. John Bruchalski, founder of the Tepeyac
Family Center in Fairfax, Va., is flanked by other medical professionals
as he speaks concerning conscience protection during a press conference
at the National Press Club in Washington April 8.
CNS photo/Paul Haring
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Protest at Notre Dame
People hold rosaries during a rally at the University
of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind., April 5. Hundreds of anti-abortion
advocates protested against the school’s invitation to U.S.
President Barack Obama to speak at the May 17 graduation ceremony.
CNS PHOTO/JON L. HENDRICKS |
Iowa bishops decry gay marriage
ruling
DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNS) — Iowa’s Catholic bishops vigorously
disagreed with the Iowa Supreme Court’s unanimous decision April
3 that strikes down state law defining marriage as a union of one man
and one woman. “This decision rejects the wisdom of thousands of
years of human history. It implements a novel understanding of marriage,
which will grievously harm families and children,” the bishops said
in a statement prepared by the Iowa Catholic Conference.
The bishops vowed to continue to protect and promote marriage as a union
between a man and a woman and asked Catholics and other citizens of Iowa
to call for a constitutional amendment on marriage. With the high court’s
ruling, Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to recognize marriages
for gay and lesbian couples, after Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Pope calls for end of land mines, cluster bombs
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called on nations to end
the production, stockpiling and use of land mines and cluster bombs. He
also expressed his support for programs and measures that “guarantee
the necessary assistance to victims of such devastating weapons.”
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which would prohibit all use, stockpiling,
production and transfer of cluster bombs and munitions, was recently adopted
and is open for signatories. “I wish to encourage countries that
still haven’t done so to sign without delay these important instruments
of international humanitarian law which the Vatican has always supported,”
the pope said.
Aid agency pays fines for non-violent inmates
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) — Food for the Poor, a Florida-based
Christian aid agency, paid the fines owed by 69 non-violent inmates to
secure their release form prisons in Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti and Honduras.
The prisoners had been incarcerated because they lacked funds to pay the
required fines for their non-violent offenses.
Knights Templar may have secretly held shroud
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Vatican researcher has found evidence that
the Knights Templar, the medieval crusading order, held secret custody
of the Shroud of Turin during the 13th and 14th centuries. The shroud,
which bears the image of a man and is believed by many to have been the
burial cloth of Jesus, was probably used in a secret Templar ritual to
underline Christ’s humanity in the face of popular heresies of the
time, the expert said.
The researcher, Barbara Frale, who works in the Vatican Secret Archives,
said documents on the 14th-century trial of the Templars contained a description
of a Templar initiation ceremony. The document recounts how a Templar
leader, after guiding a young initiate into a hidden room, “showed
him a long linen cloth that bore the impressed figure of a man, and ordered
him to worship it, kissing the feet three times,” Frale said.
Woman writes book on friendship with late pope
OXFORD, England (CNS) — A Polish psychiatrist has published a book
of letters and reflections detailing her close, lifelong friendship with
Pope John Paul II. “The Holy Father asked me to publish these notes
and meditations as a testimony that each person possesses a spirit which
has to develop,” said Wanda Poltawska, who was friends with Pope
John Paul from his first years as a priest until his death April 2, 2005.
Poltawska, 87, said Pope John Paul had approved most of the material and
asked her to write the book in the 1990s. She said she still had a “suitcase
of letters” from the late pope which would not be released until
after her own death.
Bill would lift limits on clergy abuse suits
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) — The New York State Catholic Conference has
mounted a statewide campaign to educate Catholics about a bill that would
temporarily waive the state’s civil statute of limitations on suing
individuals and private institutions over child sexual abuse.
The Child Victims Act of New York — also known as the Markey bill
— also would lengthen the period in which alleged victims may sue
individuals and private organizations for child sexual abuse in the future.
Sponsors of the proposed legislation in the state Assembly and Senate
claim it will bring justice to victims of child sex abuse, but the Catholic
conference, which represents the state’s bishops in matters of public
policy, said the proposal unfairly targets the Catholic Church and other
private institutions.
Vatican: investigation of Legionaries of Christ
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican has ordered an apostolic visitation
of the institutions of the Legionaries of Christ following disclosures
of sexual impropriety by the order’s late founder, Father Marcial
Maciel Degollado. Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
said the pope wanted to help the Legionaries of Christ deal with its present
problems with “truth and transparency.” It said the visitation
would be carried out by “a team of prelates,” who were not
identified.
Apostolic visitation is a form of internal church investigation ordered
by a pope and undertaken by his delegate or delegates. The pope sets the
jurisdiction and powers of the visitation, which usually ends with the
submission of a report to the Holy See.
Priest gets 50 years in prison for sex abuse
EASTLAND, Texas (CNS) — A Texas jury March 26 found a suspended
Catholic priest guilty of raping and molesting an 11-year-old boy in the
early 1990s and sentenced him to 50 years in prison. In 2007 Father Thomas
Teczar was sentenced to 25 years after being convicted on three counts
of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. But
his conviction was overturned on appeal based on a witness’s testimony
and a new trial was ordered.
According to news reports, the jury in the priest’s second trial
on the same charges took less than an hour to find him guilty. On March
27, his 68th birthday, jurors gave the priest a 50-year sentence. According
to a story by The Associated Press, Father Teczar testified that he was
innocent and claimed he did not know his accuser, who is now 30. But he
also “admitted to being sexually attracted to teenage boys,”
AP said.
Arrest of Chinese bishop seen as dialogue obstacle
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The recent arrest of a Chinese bishop and other
instances of religious persecution in China are obstacles to dialogue,
said the Vatican, April 2. The Vatican expressed its “deep sorrow
upon hearing the news of the recent arrest” of 74-year-old Bishop
Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding, who has not registered with the government.
He was taken by five police officers from his residence in Hebei province
March 30, the same day the Vatican commission on China began its meeting.
Pope Benedict established the commission in 2007 to study issues related
to the Catholic Church in China.
Bishops oppose Reiki in Catholic centers
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Reiki therapy, an alternative medicine originating
in Japan, is unscientific and inappropriate for use by Catholic hospitals,
clinics and retreat centers and people representing the Church, the U.S.
bishops’ Committee on Doctrine said March 26.
“In terms of caring for one’s physical health or the physical
health of others, to employ a technique that has no scientific support
(or even plausibility) is generally not prudent,” the bishops said,
adding that the technique — which involves a Reiki practitioner
laying hands on a client — also is encouraged as a “spiritual”
kind of healing. For Christians “access to divine healing”
comes through prayer to God, they said. A Catholic who puts his or her
trust in Reiki “would be operating in the realm of superstition,”
they said.
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