Seeking answers
A woman carries an image of the late Salvadoran
Archbishop Oscar Romero during a march in San Salvador Oct. 29. Catholic
organizations are demanding that the Salvadoran government begin a
judicial inquiry into his 1980 assassination.
CNS PHOTO/LUIS GALDMEZ/REUTERS
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Berlin Wall at Fatima
Pilgrims rest in front of a section of the former
Berlin Wall on exhibit at the Catholic shrine of Fatima in Portugal
Oct. 28. The wall that separated communist-ruled East Berlin from
West Berlin was torn down Nov. 9, 1989.
CNS PHOTO/JOSE MANUEL RIBEIRO/REUTERS |
Court won’t hear appeal
on abuse texts
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (CNS) — The Bridgeport Diocese said it was disappointed
that the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear its petition asking the court
to overturn a ruling by the Connecticut Supreme Court requiring the diocese
to release documents from long-settled abuse cases.
“We continue to believe that the constitutional issues presented,
including the First Amendment rights of religious organizations and the
privacy rights of all citizens, are significant and important for the
court to consider,” said a Nov. 2 diocesan statement.
The statement also said the diocese is now working with the Connecticut
courts to assure the materials are “appropriately unsealed.”
Legionaries barred in Miami Archdiocese
MIAMI (CNS) — Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora has barred the Legionaries
of Christ from exercising any ministry in the archdiocese, effective immediately.
Msgr. Michael Souckar, archdiocesan chancellor, said the decision was
made because the order had not adhered to the condition set by the archdiocese
that they minister only to their own members.
Msgr. Souckar also said that Regnum Christi, the Legionaries’ lay
association, was recently discovered “to be involved in several
schools without archdiocesan approval.” “Regnum Christi is
not nor has it ever been approved to work in any parish, school or other
archdiocesan entity,” he said.
Security burdens Catholic schools in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CNS) — Catholic education administrators in
Pakistan’s Punjab province say their schools face huge additional
security costs as the security situation in the country deteriorates.
Under provincial government guidelines in the wake of recent terror attacks,
schools must provide eight-foot boundary walls, surveillance cameras,
metal detectors and scanners, a barbed wire perimeter, and at least two
armed guards.
“The government is providing security arrangements for its own schools.
The private and church-run schools have to bear these additional expenses,”
said Dominican Sister Parveen Rahmat, principal of Sacred Heart Cathedral
High School in Lahore. Police are reviewing security measures in educational
institutions in Punjab province and shutting down any school or college
that does not meet the guidelines.
Kennedy and bishop to meet on health care
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) — Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., has accepted
an invitation from Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence to engage in a
discussion about the issue of health care reform. The invitation followed
the legislator’s sharp criticism about the U.S. Catholic bishops’
role in the debate.
Bishop Tobin told Kennedy in an Oct. 27 letter that, as Congress “nears
agreement on a final bill, I believe it is important that you are provided
with specific facts about the Catholic Church’s position on this
critical issue.” The bishop sent his letter in response to Kennedy’s
Oct. 22 interview with Cybercast News Service in which the congressman
said the bishops were fanning “the flames of dissent and discord”
by insisting that health reform not include abortion funding.
Catholic teachers OK contract and end strike
CAMDEN, N.J. (CNS) — Catholic high school teachers from four schools
voted to ratify their contract with the Camden Diocese, ending a strike
at three of the schools in late October. The four-year contract provides
salary increases averaging about 3 percent per year and a comprehensive
benefits package for the teachers. The 167 teachers involved in the contract
negotiations were represented by the Catholic Teachers Union and serve
more than 3,000 students.
The teachers’ union initially sought a 9 percent salary increase
over the next two years, which would have brought the average teacher
salary from $43,500 to $47,415. Diocesan officials argued that such an
increase would have required a significant tuition increase for parents.
Explosion at cathedral; cemetery Mass cancelled
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — The bishop of Jolo has canceled the
All Saints’ Day Mass at a cemetery following an explosion at the
diocesan cathedral in the southern Philippines. Bishop Angelito Lampon
said it was a “precautionary measure.” A grenade exploded
midmorning at the rear of the cathedral near the bishops’ cemetery
in Jolo, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Sulu province. There
were no reported casualties and no group has claimed responsibility for
the incident.
Bishop seeks initiation ritual for girls in Africa
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In condemning the practice of female genital
mutilation, the Catholic Church must offer alternative rituals for helping
girls mark the passage to womanhood, Bishop Michael Mabuga Msonganzila
of Musoma,Tanzania told the Synod of Bishops for Africa. A condemnation
of female genital mutilation was included in the 57 propositions the synod
presented to Pope Benedict XVI Oct. 24.
Bishop Msonganzila had told the synod that the practice of female genital
mutilation is widespread in his diocese. The values of the family and
clan are explained to the girls, they are prepared to take on greater
responsibility and they are educated regarding their future roles as wives
and mothers, he said. “This is good. However, should that process
be done through the butchering of the most sensitive part of one’s
body?” he asked.
Drug dealers use Rio church as lookout
SAO PAULO, Brazil (CNS) — A church and important tourist attraction
in Rio de Janeiro, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Penha, is being used by
drug traffickers to monitor police actions in the region, said Archbishop
Orani Tempesta of Rio de Janeiro. Drug traffickers also invaded several
church towers to use them as lookouts, he said.
The church sits high up on a cliff (“penha” in Portuguese)
that overlooks the northern part of the city. The view is one reason it
becomes part of many tourists’ agendas. In the week before the archbishop’s
remarks, violence between rival drug gangs and police left more than 45
people dead and hundreds injured.
Former bishop of Santa Rosa dies at 68
TUCSON, Ariz. (CNS) — Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, who resigned as
head of the Diocese of Santa Rosa in July 1999 after admitting a homosexual
relationship with one of his priests, died Oct. 22 at age 68. He died
at Holy Trinity Benedictine Monastery in St. David, Ariz., near Tucson
where he had gone to live after his resignation. He had pancreatic cancer,
which had spread to his liver.
He may never be forgiven by people, said Benedictine Father Henri Capdeville,
the monastery’s superior, but “he made reparation by giving
nine years to our community and the Lord. . . . It deepened his spirituality.”
President of Notre Dame elected to second term
NOTRE DAME, Ind. (CNS) — Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president
of the University of Notre Dame, was elected to a second five-year term
Oct. 16 by the university’s board of trustees.
Father Jenkins said with the support of the trustees he will continue
to pursue the goals he cited at his presidential inauguration in 2005:
“offering an unsurpassed undergraduate education, becoming even
more pre-eminent as a research university, and ensuring that our Catholic
character informs all that we do.”
Earlier this year Father Jenkins came under heavy criticism for his decision
to invite President Barack Obama to deliver the commencement speech at
the May graduation and to present him with an honorary law degree.
Security barrier raises human rights concerns
WASHINGTON (CNS) — While Israel has a right to protect its citizens,
the security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian territories
and checkpoints along the barrier raise human rights concerns, said a
U.S. cardinal.
“The most tragic thing I have seen is the miles-long wall that separates
Jerusalem from Bethlehem and separates families and keeps farmers from
the land that has been in their families for generations. It is humiliating
and distressing,” said Cardinal John P. Foley, now in Rome.
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